Since it’s been a while since I’ve blogged here, let me re-introduce myself. I’m a dyslexic engineer who dreams about being ya author. I started this blog when I was working on a book about dyslexia—trying to build a platform and all that good stuff.
The thing is, dyslexia is complicated. I’m dyslexic. All my family is dyslexic. I know a lot about it. But I’m not always sure how to write about it. After a few failed attempts, I started writing about non-dyslexic characters. Then I got to the point where I was ready to start querying my books about non-dyslexic characters.
That’s when it hit me. Sreaming “I CAN’T SPELL” all over the internet might not be the best move for an aspiring writer. If an agent or editor googled me, did I really want THIS blog to be the first thing they saw? I didn’t take this blog down or anything. I mean people love dyslexia jokes, even without posting in almost a year, I’m still getting as many as fifty hits a day. I just started another blog where I actually run spell check and pretend like I’ve “read” all the audio books I listen too.
But I started writing again—a new project, about a dyslexic fifteen year old. It’s the best thing I’ve ever written, and I’m not just being egotistical. This story is good. I needed to write other stuff and listen to a couple hundred more audio books to figure out what I was doing. But this is MY STORY. It’s the story that I was born to tell. And I’ve finally found the words to tell it.
So having a “platform” might not be such a bad thing now. Having a popular “dyslexia blog” is probably really good, if I’m going to be querying a “dyslexia book” soon. Not to soon though. There is a lot of revising and editing in my future. But there will also be a lot of thinking about dyslexia in my future. So I might as well write about it here.
Joke of the Day
What do you get when you cross a dyslexic, an insominac, and an ignostic?
Someone who stays up all night wondering if there's a DOG.
3 comments:
Welcome back Kate. Not that you went away. Still, I've missed the joke of the day. And does it make me dyslexic if I read your second-to-last line and immediately thought there will also be a lot of drinking in your future?
Writing about dyslexia is difficult for anyone if they want to be accurate,
My humble suggestion is this: Never try to say that the experience you( and your family )have defines dyslexia for everyone. There is enough misleading information about dyslexia already.
Your personal experience will resonate with the dyslexics with similar experiences and other dyslexics will understand that dyslexia is different for every dyslexic.
Looking forward to following along with you on this blog too!
One of my book club kids, who just joined, is dyslexic-she finds graphic novels are good for her and I'm looking forward to building that part of our collection and include her recommendations (we are a small town library and our graphic novel section is equally as small). Plus, going to start working on building our audio collection, as well. (not in a big enough system to offer download type borrowing). AnyHOO---enough from me!
Good luck with your sub!
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