Find out about my children's autism books next Saturday

 This time next week I will have done my first talk and workshop to a SEN group at Dulwich library. My server can't upload the poster I have so I will post the details here.

Saturday 8 June 2024 from 2pm - 3.30pm

Sensory session at Dulwich library

A relaxed session for families with neurodivergent children this includes children with autistic spectrum disorder, adhd and anyone with SEND who would particularly benefit from a tailored sensory environment 

Play with sensory toys, meet other parents and carers and find out about books and resources for supporting your child. siblings welcome. 

Join local author Julie Day who will be talking about her books including Rainbow School, a series following a group of children with autism as they navigate school life and friendships. Julie will also be selling her books for £5, please bring cash only.

Her books are also available to borrow from the library.

www.julieaday.co.uk

For more information please contact emilie - emilie.lewis@southwark.gov.uk

Places are limited to 25 for space. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please let them know.

Does Alistair's sizzling shoes help his anxiety?

 So, what am I talking about? Well, Book 5 in my Rainbow School books for 7-9 year olds called Alistair and the Sizzling Shoes is now out. As I put in the 'About the author' page at the back, I loosely based him on me when I was at primary school. I was anxious, bit my fingernails (don't now) and did dancing lessons (I think it was barn dancing). His passion is dancing, hence the sizzling shoes. Does his hobby help make his life easier and help him make friends like his dad mentioned in a postcard to him? You can find out at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alistair-Sizzling-Shoes-Rainbow-School/dp/B08HTBB3HC/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Alistair+and+the+sizzling+shoes&qid=1600257753&s=books&sr=1-1

If you do buy it, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I have loved writing these stories and getting the characters to make friends along the way. Billy comes into his own when he helps his new friends.

Happy reading.

Autism and hobbies and interests

Here is a rough guide how parents and teachers and other guardians can help children with autism use their special interests.

Subjects: Art, science, music, craft, maths

Skills: Drawing, creating, writing, making, numbers

Knowledge: Birds, pictures, tunes, plants, patterns

Encourage the child to work on related activities to do with their interest. Eg if it is music, they can draw instruments, write their own tunes, write a guide, photograph things. Go to places of interest and learn about music. Join groups of same interest. Play the music instruments.

All these can help the child to socialise and not be alone all the time. They can also learn more and get educated. It could later on become a career.

So, what about me? Well, I liked writing stories at school. English, as it was known then, was my favourite lesson despite being bullied. And look what I do know – I am an author writing for adults and children.

This is a brief guide to a full book I have planned to write about hobbies and interests for children with autism, as part of the Rainbow School guide series and 'Learn about autism'.

Writing goals for 2018

As I mentioned in my last post, my writing goals for this year have slightly changed. I shall tell you why below.

My main goal last year was to get short stories accepted by women's magazines such as Woman's Weekly or The People's Friend. Well, that never came to anything and I realise why now. The stories I wrote weren't suited for them. I liked writing the stories but I now realise that they weren't the ones I enjoyed writing the most. The one I enjoyed doing the most was the one that did get accepted and published by the overseas magazine eg it had the sense of a ghost in it. So, one of my goals this year is to try to get another story accepted by this magazine.  I also want to get a story accepted by Spirit & Destiny magazine, who publish stories about magical realism topics such as angels and crystals. Just my cup of tea.

So my main aim this year is to write the genre that I enjoy working on, and that is magical realism. I have been writing Book 3 of my Secrets of Singleton series, which has made me realise this is what I like doing. So I want to write Book 4 this year, and continue next year.

I am continuing writing and publishing my Rainbow School series this year. I want to publish Book 3 (Susie) and Book 4 (Qessa) this year.

Also, as I had a few successes again last year with fillers being published in magazines, I am going to work on more of these this year. I have already sent a few off already to magazines and papers. Because of these successes, I have begun work again on the ebook about writing fillers, to include different markets and what they award for them.

One other creative thing I have begun this year is to write poetry. Now that I am not writing stories for womags, it frees up my mind for poems. I have already sent a few to magazines that publish them, which are womags. So I might end up being published in a womag, after all. 

So, they are my main writing goals this year. I shall blog when I get any successes with these. Watch this space....

Writing retreat - Writing and thinking

Last weekend just gone I went to a writing retreat in W Sussex. It was the annual SCBWI retreat. I always find it v productive and I did this time, as well as a lot of thinking about what I want to write for children. Over the weekend I wrote the first three chapters of the third in the Rainbow School series, which is Susie's story, and a short story for a competition and the prequel to Susie. I don't know how many words I wrote as I didn't count them, but I reckon it must be at least 3-4000. That was what I wrote. So what thinking did I do? Well, it was all about my fiction for children and the books about children with Asperger's. I mentioned what I was writing to my new friend, Anna (Hi, Anna) who I met at Waterloo station to go to the retreat and she suggested putting all this fiction under a brand. It got me thinking. Then over the weekend, I talked to a few people about what I was currently writing and planning and got loads of encouragement, and someone said that it was a good idea to help children learn about Asperger's and cope with their own diagnosis. This made me realise that what I am doing can be really good, both for children and me. I started thinking about all the other books I have planned, and thought, yes I can make the children autistic by remembering my own childhood and use those memories. As well as buying books about Asperger's for children and families and biographies (have planned to buy Chris Packham's book). So, I have decided that is what I am going to do, starting with the Rainbow School series. I will have one big name called The Asperkids books, which I will put on my website, and under that have the title of each series. I am looking forward to doing this, and maybe do talks about it, too.

The other encouragement I got was from YA author Melvin Burgess. I had a one-to-one with him and he had read the first two chapters of Billy, and he said he really liked Billy, felt for him and enjoyed the story. He gave me a suggestion to put at the end of the story which I will do.

So, watch this space...