Larre Bildeston

Based on the picture I am significantly happier about this insect’s discovery than it is :<

Interesting!

Looks like she’s stepping away from Olive (and also Lucy) a these are new characters… but I’m confident her new characters will be equally engaging.

I feel like she left Olive in a great place.

Olive is a straight talker who often understands social situations only in hindsight. She has sensory issues. As a maths teacher she was guided by rules and her husbands were the social ones. She is not shy but eschews small talk.

She can absolutely be viewed through an Autistic lens.

The miniseries adaptation is on HBO. Frances McDormand is a very good fit for Olive, though Olive is written as a large person & McDormand is not that.

They’re different enough that screen and book can be considered different (but equally good) stories.

I just finished reading Olive, Again and Olive is one of those characters I miss like she’s a real person.

Elizabeth Strout is so good at describing ambivalent feelings about a social situation—e.g. the disconnect between how an old woman is meant to feel & how she really feels.

My auntie got some a while back. They weren’t very good but she couldn’t afford the really good ones. It might depend on whether your exact hearing profile matches what they sell. I believe the really good ones have now come down in price and she’s much better off with them.

People often think autism means lacking empathy.

What it can actually mean is feeling too much and having to build ways to survive the intensity of it.

Sensitivity isn’t the opposite of strength.
Sometimes it’s the raw material of it.

Excellent, thank you

I’d love the link (for something I’m writing). Was it an article or a Bluesky post…?

I think the same about myself and have reason to think it.

Yep

There’s a reason why I seek out Autistic writers these days. But looking back on my reading life, if I “get” someone’s work it might be that they were unidentified Autistic.

I’ve read biographies of e.g. Enid Blyton, Shirley Jackson, Larry McMurtry… all relatable weirdos.

Same lol. I’m related to people who have it more than I do and it’s a problem if someone changes their hair.

“When I read about love as written by an autistic writer, I do not feel as though I am doing it wrong. It no longer feels there is a ‘right’ way to do things, with every other thing being ‘wrong’.”

—Kay Kerr

www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761266447/

That is how I spelled it in the book, yes, based on the German name Reiner.

Ah, yes, in my mind Sam deals with some degree of face blindness as well. That’s a little hint.

Happy #IndiePressMonth , everyone! To celebrate, I'd like to review even more books from indie publishers & self-published authors! Reply below with links to your work!
Please RT! I'd love it if this could reach authors I have not read work from yet.
#BookSky #indiepress #indieauthors

Well if it gets too much and you’d rather read along I am happy to send you the ePub.

I also donated a PDF copy to trans reads.

It’s funny how autism is both this little thing that doesn’t really matter but can also be absolutely fucking apocalyptic depending on your position in the world

(It’s silent because I don’t experience—obvious—pain. It wasn’t silent to my teeth. Dentist told me to see doctor. Doctor at the time advised doing nothing. Doctors are often wrong. Nightly Gaviscon is preventing further damage.)

I’ve spent thousands on my back teeth and now because of years of untreated “silent” reflux I have to spend thousands more at some point.

Autistics are more prone to reflux on top of everything else so I’d tell my younger self to take Gaviscon Dual Action every night from about age 35.

That would make sense.

I’m seeing HP pushed *everywhere*. They are spending so much on marketing.

Sadly most people don’t know or care how awful she is and I suspect the books doing just fine even without those of us who do care. There’s a chance the books have aged out of relevance. Here’s hoping

Lovely to hear—thank you for telling me.

I am using a few different accents heard across Australia and Aotearoa, which may make it even more of a challenge. But hopefully they are similar enough that you don’t notice the change much.

Isn’t JKR a litigious POS on top of everything else? I don’t understand how fanfic of her work goes the traditional publishing route when she sued the creator of an HP encyclopaedia years ago, from memory?

Ooh, this will come in handy for doing many various crimes. I haven’t worked out the details yet but I just know it.

Relatable.

Also, universal basic income would function as a permanent strike fund for all union workers. Because UBI goes to everyone, it would also enable general strikes and even support all unpaid work like care work at home.

Inside you there are two Elephant Seals 🐘 🦭
#mammals #seals

Yes, in my part of the world we were fed the bad messaging that it's binary--that a badly fitted N95 is useless.

But it seems far more likely that a room full of people wearing improperly fitted N95s over their noses and mouths is better than no one wearing any mask at all. And so on and so forth.

The Astounding Physics of N95 Masks YouTube video by minutephysics

Okay, well the woman in the pic is wearing a respirator mask so I’m going to leave this excellent explainer here in case there are people who haven’t heard what a marvellous high tech bit of kit N95s are.