Idea for Grand-Scale Book Project

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[not in Books section because I wanted to reach a wide audience; understood if moderators think it should be moved]

Who here would be interested in contributing to a book by adults with autism spectrum conditions, for adults with autism spectrum conditions and the people in their lives, both personally and professionally?

It could be split into two books, one focusing on young adulthood (18-30ish say) and another on later adulthood (30ish on?). Or they could be combined.

Basically the goal of the book(s) would be to provide firsthand narratives from a wide cross-section of adults on the autism spectrum. The narratives could be in any form - anecdotes, diagrams, charts, etc. and the point would be to provide a good glimpse of the challenges people with ASCs face in societies today and of the unique perspectives and strengths we have, so that people and professionals who don't know much about what's it's like to be a Spectrumite adult can gain a much better understanding and incorporate this knowledge into their personal and professional interactions with us.

Ultimately hopefully a book like this could play a role in leading to better understanding and better services within various systems - educational, health care, government, etc.

I am picturing a pretty comprehensive meaty book for lack of a better and less gross-sounding word.

Contributors would enter into an egalitarian agreement wherein all members' desires for the book will be taken into account and everyone who contributes will receive a fair and equal share of any profits. That part would need to be worked out in greater detail possibly with the help of people with greater knowledge of various publishing options but to be clear this is not a moneymaking venture for me.

This thread is to gauge interest in and brainstorm ideas for the book; since it's Alex Plank's site and this is the launching platform for the project he would definitely receive some sort of acknowledgement but it seems that if one were to post something here that they wanted to include in the book it would first need to be cleared by Alex since he owns the site. I will e-mail him to get a better idea what's what on that front.

So! What do you think? Comments, questions, concerns, anything?

Put me down.

I've just got my sci-fi to finish before April and I was going to focus on other writings, but I'm sure I can fit something in between.

FYI: no I'm not being overly optimistic by failing to put a "No" button, I just can't get it to work! Use the "I have to find out more" option instead. Sorry about this!

It depends on the specific nature of the articles requested.

pensieve, the time commitment for this would be as little (or not-little) as you wish. Could be around 350 words, or a diagram,. or a drawing, whatever you might wish to contribute.

Fnord, there is room for a lot of different types of writing/other information in this book. In general it is all based on firsthand experience, so articles will not be scientific/medical in nature unless a certain contributor or contributors happen to have scientific/medical degrees/professions but if you named the kind of article you'd want to contribute I could give you an idea how it would fit into the book (by section/theme, etc.)

There may be some data tables on contributors to the book if the contributorship is large and representatively diverse.

I'm sorry, but I write best when I know what is expected of me - it's an Aspie thing...

Put me down.

Oh oh, okay! Well here are some narrative topics I think it would be really magnificent to include in the book:

1. How I experience the world
2. My daily life - the things that are hard for me
3. My experiences with the health care system
4. My ideal living environment/job/social circle
5. How I found a job that worked for me
6. How I found a living arrangement that worked for me
7. How I found a social circle that worked for me
8. How I picture the way my mind works
9. My experiences with government programs
10. What I wish people knew about me
11. My suggestions for lawmakers

Etc.
Would any of these be something you would be interested in writing about or making a diagram about or otherwise expressing in some form?

I'd be interested in participating - likely focusing on how sensory issues affect people with ASDs and the relationship with SPD.

I'd also possibly be interested in writing about things like how an AS/AS relationship has been working for me, my experiences with vocational rehab (assuming they get back to me and get back to working with me...), what I want people to know about me as someone who appears higher-functional than am I and things of that sort.

I am really excited by the interest so far!

Tuttle, those are very interesting article/essay ideas.

One thought I had was that there could be an equal balance where possible between pointing out issues and suggesting prescriptions/offering directives to address these issues. If not within the same essay then in essays that build on each other, etc.

The things that most differentiate this book project from books already out there are
A. Its focus on adults
B. Its scope (e.g. not just female adults, but all adults, about all issues)
C. Its by-the-experiencers-of the subject nature
D. Its prescriptive nature (gives ideas to make positive changes in the lives of people with ASCs)

"better services within various systems - educational?"... um i thought my educational services were fairly decent already.... um i would like to help with this book project thing... but i am not sure what i would write about

Oh! Well if you think your educational services are decent already that would be a good thing to write about so it can serve as a model for people interested in creating good educational programs for people on the autism spectrum.

If you wanted to write about something else, there's the list of 11 topics I came up with above that you could choose from, or you could come up with an idea of your own. Really anything that gives your experience as someone on the autism spectrum would be very worthwhile book material!

For example: I might write an essay explaining my Five Years of Doing Nothing as an adult, since so many people around me didn't understand the difficulties I've had. Then I might write what could have made it Five Years of Doing Something.

um if i did write something for the book... what would i do with it... email it to you or something?...

Yes, something like that. Well once it's clearer who's interested in participating maybe a better system will be come up with, but in the meantime you could write it, save it, and if you want, e-mail it to me (I am trying to figure out a system whereby people feel safe sending me their work - in any case all work remains the property of its author and anything sent to me will be respected as the author's work and contribution to the collaborative project).

I would do, but I'm not officially diagnosed, so I don't think I'd be of any use to you. Good idea though. Good luck.

Thank you Henbane! Well you don't have to be officially diagnosed, I mean part of the diversity of the autism community is that a lot of people aren't diagnosed and it might be helpful for people to see one aspect of the reason why this is the case. So if you care to participate your participation would be much appreciated, and if you don't care to your decision would be much respected!