Hello from another Aspergian

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I am John Robison, a 49-year-old Aspergian from western Massachusetts.
I was diagnosed when I was 40, and learning about Asperger's certain changed my life.

My brother and I had kind of a rough upbringing. My brother wrote the story of our upbringing in his best selling book, Running With Scissors. I'm the older brother who appears in the chapter, "Raised Without A Diagnosis."

My brother does book readings and engagements around the country, and I have become a frequent subject of questions from the audience.

This past year, I wrote a book that describes my life with Asperger's, and I am pleased to say that it's being published by Crown this fall. Even better, they plan to promote me on TV and a book tour so I can spread the message in our culture.

I am anxious, as you might imagine. I am not comfortable in crowds but I feel it's important to tell people what it's like, being Aspergian.

I have a new author web site, www.johnrobison.com that I will be updating as fast as I can. I look forward to meeting more of you, and I hope I can make a meaningful contribution.

Welcome to WP

Welcome to WP. I just finished reading Running with Scissors. During most of the book I could not even believe that it was a true story. Anyway, it's nice to meet you, and I will definitely be looking for your book in the fall. By the way, I really related to the part in Running with Scissors where your brother gives you a camera because he thinks you will be more comfortable behind it. I love photography, and I prefer to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. A camera was my way to be a part of everything without having to be involved in the action, and it was a perfectly acceptable thing to as viewed by others.

Welcome. I have ordered Burroughs' book which was signaled to me by someone. It will arrive in two weeks or so.

Welcome to WP!

Hi!

Welcome!

Welcome to WP!

Tim

Welcome John. I will be very interested to hear how the book publishing works out. Best wishes from another 49 year old Aspergian.

Welcome to WP!! !!

I'm looking forward to reading your book when it comes out. Good luck and enjoy looking around the site!

Thank you for the welcome. I learned about my Asperger's about 1998, but I was sort of "in the closet" for a few more years. For the most part, I was ashamed of my past and did not want to do or say anything to make myself any more abnormal-looking than I already was.

The publication of my brother's book changed things because I saw that I was wrong about how people saw me.

Instead of making fun of me, they saw my story as inspiring.

That gave me courage to begin talking about Asperger's. Then, in 2005, my father got sick. Befor ehe died, he talked to me about fun things we did as a small child, before my family went bad. Those memories were what started me down the road to writing the book.

This January, I had the book as good as I could make it and I gave it to a literary agent to show the publishers. The response was overwhelming. All of them wanted it. I was just stunned. I gave it to Crown because the team that would be doing it are all moms who I felt had an inherent understanding of the topic. One has an Aspergian nephew, and their division has also published Temple Grandin, the OASIS book, and the Curious Incident book.

Anyway, they want to accelerate the production of my book to have it in stores this fall.

I had named the story Look Me In The Eye, something any aspergian could relate to. Crown now feels my book is a very inspiring story that could appeal to anyone, and they think that title sounds kind of unfriendly to a non-Aspergian. So I am thinking about new titles, something inspirational. I'd welcome any suggestions. I'm kind of stuck.

I am going to write the story of writing the book for my web site, and also post some excerpts, and I will keep you all informed.

Perhaps with all this publicity 2008 will be the year for many of us to "come out of the closet," as it were. We had Gay Liberation, now we will have Aspergian Liberation!

I am anxious to read your book. I will buy it as soon as it comes out. I am writing myself something about my life and it was taken by a publisher. But I am not satisfied of it in its present shape. So I will work more on it, and I might even translate in English. As a matter of fact I feel more at ease writing in English, for some reasons that may have something to do with with my autistic streak.
I am also wondering why these AS books have so many readers (Haddon, Collins, Williams). Perhaps the autistic condition is much more widespread than we might think. I think of all the old people (including myself) who had to live a difficult life without having the key to understand their horrible efforts and constant loneliness. Or maybe only they can see things that others connot see.

Don't use babelfish to translate your writings, paolo!

Welcome to WP, johnrobinson! I'm writing a story with an important Aspie character dealing with life, with things like her obsession with magnets, fear of water and most importantly, The Cure. It's fictional, and in fact it's on a different planet! as a result all the characters aren't human, but they're not tentacle-things, either! I'm only 16, a year older than the Aspie/Aspergian character.

I'll look out for your book. Will you do any promotions in New Zealand? Probably not, I'd imagine.

You are welcome!

Well, I have gotten busy and I have not posted anything here in quite a while, but here's what's happening . . .

To my amazement, my book has turned out to be a really big deal in the publishing world. They have given away several thousand copies to reviewers, book sellers, educators, and librarians. A number of people in the Asperger's community have read the advance copies. So the word is kind of spreading.

The book goes on sale September 25 in the US and Canada, and a week later in Australia and New Zealand.
The Australian edition of the book will be sold in the British Isles and they'll have their own hardcover edition at the beginning of February.

I've got an author website, www.johnrobison.com where you can click the "appearances" tab for an up-to-date list of places I'll be doing readings and q&a sessions. I've also got a blog, http://jerobison.blogspot.com where I write about Aspergian issues. There are links on the website and blog to places where you can buy the book. I'm also happy to report that most major libraries in the country have ordered the book for their collections, so it should be easy to check it out too.

In addition to the print book, I recorded an audio version, and I read the book myself. I always knew I had a distinctive voice, but now, having put my reading out in front of the world, people are writing in and it seems some of my speech patterns may indicate there's such a thing as an "Aspergian voice"

Hopefully I will see some of you on my tour this fall.


I'm going to post the list of appearances (as of August 24) below. Check my website for more up-to-date info, though


September 25 Barnes & Noble New York, NY 7:00 PM
33 East 17th Street
New York, NY 10003

September 26 RJ Julia Madison, CT 7:00 PM
768 Boston Post Road
Madison, CT 06443

September 27 Brookline Booksmith Boston, MA 7:00 PM
279 Harvard St.
Brookline, MA

September 28 I will be at the Asperger Association of New England event in Boston

October 2 Borders East Madison Store Madison, WI 7:00 PM
2173 Zeier Road
Madison, WI 53704

October 3 Harry Schwartz Booksellers Shorewood, WI 7:00 PM
4093 North Oakland Avenue
Shorewood, WI 53211

October 11 Food for Thought Books Amherst, MA 7:00 PM
106 North Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01002

October 16 Buttonwood Books - Coffee With the Authors Cohasset, MA 10:00 AM
Shaws Plaza Route 3A
Cohasset, MA 02025

October 18 Elms College Chicopee, MA 4-10 PM
291 Springfield Street
Chicopee, MA 01013

October 25 Northshire Bookstore Manchester Center 7PM
4869 Main Street
Manchester Center, VT 05255

November 2 UMASS Lowell Lowell, MA 7:00 PM
Comley-Lane Theatre
Address TK

November 15 Tattered Cover Denver, CO 7:30 PM
LoDo Store

December 5 Amherst Books Amherst, MA 8:00 PM

Welcome to WrongPlanet


I'm 48, be 49 in November.
Good luck with your book.