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08 April 2012

Book Blast Schedule For Hope by Victoria Ferrante




BACKGROUND OF HOPE

I began writing my novel, Hope, in 2005 in a notebook with a pen, of all things, sitting on my steps as I waited for my daughter’s bus to bring her home from school every day. I had about 45 minutes each day when I started. It probably would have taken me 20 years to write Hope only working minutes a day. So, in 2006, I bought a laptop and made more time in my schedule for “Hope.” I set my alarm for 4:30 in the morning, weekends included, and wrote while my household slept. I rushed through my chores and skipped lunch.

 I cannot write when my daughter, Adrianna, is home. She is profoundly autistic and is much too demanding of my time. People might wonder why I didn’t write all day while she was at school. I know a lot of women work during the day and then come home and do chores and errands in the evening and on weekends. I do not have the evenings and weekends. When Adrianna is home, she is my full-time job. So, pressing household tasks eat up most of those school day hours. Also, having a child with special needs means there are many appointments. I usually find myself at a school meeting or doctor’s appointment at least once a week. Free time has become something I value more than anything else. I am very protective of it.

So, jumping back to March 2005, I started jotting down random ideas in my notebook. The first thing I wrote was “I want to write a book, but what should it be about? Autism, of course.” Autism saturates every aspect of my life. I could have picked any topic and autism would have snuck in and taken over. I wrote blindly, putting down my thoughts and feelings about autism and how it has affected my life. In the process of doing this, I recalled a question my sister-in-law had asked me about a news story about a mother and her autistic child.

“How could someone do that?”

I realized then that even though she knew my daughter all her life, she did not know autism. If Tammi did not know autism, then people without a relative with autism were completely in the dark. I had relevant knowledge to share with the world.

That news story was not a singularity. It dawned on me that in each community where one of these tragedies occurred, people for whom autism was not a daily part of their lives might believe it was a one-time event, because, for whatever reason, these stories do not become national news.

I decided my book would answer Tammi’s question. Obviously, it would be fiction, but I wanted to show the harsh realities of this life. So, I based a majority of my main character’s experiences upon the true events of my own life. To get an idea of what that is like, imagine a 5’4, 200 lb toddler. You are imagining my daughter. She is mostly nonverbal. She makes one or two-word demands: “Pretzels!” or “Dance! Yes!”  She (and therefore the rest of us) adheres to a strict daily and weekly schedule. Any deviation causes a meltdown, which is not a temper tantrum but a form of panic attack. She screams, beats her head, and scratches and bites her arms or anyone who gets too close. She is unable to think from a point of view other than her own. So, I’ve danced and worked out with her while I had the stomach flu, and, once, a fever of 104. I’ve driven all over town to the library, shopping, and restaurants with a severe migraine. There are no breaks and no vacations. Despite the Risperdal she takes to curb her meltdowns, many nights are sleepless; sometimes for days or weeks in a row. At age 19, and despite great effort on her parents’ part, she is only partially potty-trained

Despite the mountains we climb and the clouds hovering in my daughter’s future, we have managed to be a happy family.  We love and enjoy each other, but other families are not always so lucky. Many are poorer than we are. They don’t even have the resources to use to help their children. Autism can be destructive to relationships. Many fall apart, leaving a single person to care for a disabled child. The rate of depression in parents of autistic children is more than double that of the general population according to research. Services, which are still too few in number for the needs of these families and children, are being slashed because of the recession.

Most books about autism are written for people whose child has been diagnosed with autism. I wanted to write a book for neurotypical (non-autistic) people. I wanted them understand what I already knew; how somebody could do that. My Hope is those who read my book will have more empathy, will reach out, and maybe even prevent another one of these tragedies.

There you have it. That is how Hope went from being a question aired at a family gathering to a novel held in your hand.

Victoria Ferrante

Thank you so much for the guest post Victoria, a wonderful testament I think to a parent's love and hope...

Victoria Ferrante is the mother of two children with autism. Hope is her debut novel. It is available online at http://hopethenovel.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

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