Coming Soon: PDA in the Family book!
Life After the Lightbulb Moment
Hello again! Thank you for signing up to my emails, I feel honoured that you are allowing me to send you info. I promise I won’t write this thanks every week, but I want you to know I will be feeling grateful every week.
One person replied to my poll last week saying they weren’t that bothered about my book cover reveal… that made me giggle today. I will go with the majority in this instance though and if you keep reading, you will find the book cover reveal at the bottom of this email. I’m so excited to hear what you think of it!
It is only Tuesday and already it feels like we’ve had a week full of ups and downs, starting with a full power cut in our whole town yesterday, as I was on my way to McDonalds for an extra fries run to celebrate good work done by our PDAer. A power cut that knocked the WiFi out but also the phone signal! So that was fun as I’m sure you can imagine…
Book Reviews
There’s one main post on my blog that I try to keep updated with news of all the PDA books I have managed to read. I always love adding new ones but it all takes time! If you’ve looked at the post before, you might want to check again as there are some extras on there now: Books about the Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) profile of autism.
Highly recommended
These are two of my favourite parent bloggers writing about PDA; these girls cheer me up and support me and I’m grateful to have them around:
Danielle from PDA Parenting – Danielle is a single mum to three young neurodivergent girls and she has faced battles with the education and social care systems. Danielle also has a book due out very soon and I know all parents of PDAers will LOVE it! Find her blog at pdaparenting.com.
Becca from A Boy Less Ordinary – Becca is mum to an 11 year old PDA boy who has also found the education system very challenging. Becca was shortlisted for the BAPS SEND Bloggers Best Newcomer award in 2021 - check out her Facebook page at A Boy Less Ordinary.
Not Fine in School
Another new blog post has been published in my Not Fine in School series. For all those who are experiencing difficulties with the education system, you are not alone. This week’s post includes insights from Emily Katy, a young autistic ADHD woman.
“The education system that I thrived in was the same education system that broke me.”
Cover Reveal Time!
I began writing this book three years ago, and I can honestly say it has been a labour of love! Here goes with the cover reveal… I’m actually feeling quite nervous about this. I hope you like it. Pink would have been the preferred colour for a certain person in our house but I think orange might help this book stand out if it ever makes it to a bookshop shelf :) I love the lightbulb design because I remember thinking many years ago about how finding out about PDA was like a lightbulb being switched on.
Please do let me know what you think? Any other comments about how I can best make people aware of this book would be much appreciated too - Facebook seems to be restricting who gets to see posts these days so it feels more difficult to get the word out on social media. Sharing directly with parents and professionals or into any groups you are part of could be helpful!
Question Time
I love the function in Substack that lets me read this email out loud and attach a recording, because I know it helps some people who find a lot of text difficult to cope with. I would love to be able to record an audio version of my book but have been told it’s unlikely unless there is a lot of demand for it. So this week’s quick question is:
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, please get in touch via stephstwogirls@gmail.com or reply to this email.
Hi Steph, I think your book cover looks great - as well as loving orange, I also felt like it was a lightbulb moment when I first read about PDA so the illustration is also a great choice. I was speaking to my mum recently about some volunteering she is doing for a charity that creates audio recordings (apologies - I can’t remember the name). She will be doing some reading and recording for them. Just thought it might be an avenue worth investigating if you haven’t already. Good luck, thank you, and keep up the good work! Holly
The cover looks amazing! Is the book already out?