Magic, Maps & Mischief

Today, instead of my usual Friday round-up post, I have a guest blog from my dear friend David Green about the release of his latest book, Magic, Maps & Mischief. I’ve had the pleasure of reading this book - twice! - and it’s so heartwarming and full of kindness. Highly recommended.

Over to David:

Magic, Maps, and Mischief: A Cozy Neurodivergent Adventure is out today, and its release comes with bittersweet feelings.

I’m incredibly proud of the book, the themes within and what the story is trying to do when it comes to queernorm worlds, neurodivergent representation and showing that cozy fantasy can come in a variety of ways. They don’t have to be romance focused or contain heavy levels of spice (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but outside of the indie and self-publishing sphere, that seems to be the way).

But I’d hoped for a bigger platform to get the book as widely read as possible. There aren’t many traditionally published books written by autistic people about autistic people. It’s a voice that is sorely lacking in bookshops, book boxes and talked about on the biggest websites and by the biggest publishers. And that’s why the release of Maps is bittersweet.

This book had been on submission for 18 months. The decision to self-publish it wasn’t taken lightly. It wasn’t my first choice. Nowhere near it.

My agent and I had a few close calls when on submission. We had many editors request it, we had many sing its praises. We even had one editor basically say if I was Scottish or based in Scotland, they would have bought it but couldn’t due to the publishing company’s business strategy. We had another editor want to buy the book but felt they couldn’t for reasons I’m still not clear about.

But, depressingly, we had feedback I wasn’t expecting but probably should have: the main character is too autistic and can’t he be more ‘traditional’? Can there be more romance added? We’re only buying Romantasy. The book isn’t doing anything new (remember, this is a book about the autistic experience in a fantasy setting. That one was rather puzzling).

The book had its chance on submission before fizzling out. There were still a few editors we were waiting to hear back from, but my agent sent a new book out on submission and though I was willing to wait to see if anyone was still interested, something happened that made me make up my mind and release the book.

My mum almost died.

I have a… complicated relationship with my parents. On their part, there is some recent guilt about my never receiving an autism diagnosis until I was 39. I don’t hold it against them - we’re better at identifying needs now (though harmful stereotypes and rhetoric still exist and that was one of the things Maps was written to combat) - but I know they feel that way. Especially my mum. My son is autistic too, and she’s been looking forward to not only reading this book - a book about the autistic experience - but holding it. Seeing it. Telling others about it. Understanding me and my son on a deeper level. It’s important to her. I know that.

And she almost died with it still only existing as a word document.

Once I knew she was going to pull through, I decided to release Magic, Maps, and Mischief. It just so happened that the ugly rhetoric in the USA regarding autism reared its head at the same time, which only furthered my resolve.

So, today is bittersweet. I’m happy the book is out. I’m hopeful many people like me will get a thrill out of seeing someone like them lead a book, and I’m keen to see if it deepens the understanding of autism in neurotypical readers.

But I still wish the book had that bigger platform. I have a decent readership but I’m not a publisher. I’m indebted to all my friends in the industry and to my readers for signal boosting anything and everything about this book. It really makes a difference, especially during the months of submission doubt where I came close to giving up on having a writing career completely. But I firmly believe books like this, written by people like me, featuring people like me, deserve a bigger voice. They deserve the biggest backing. Hopefully it comes one day.

And hopefully Magic, Maps, and Mischief can still be a part of it.

Find out more about David and his books here: Writer | David Green Writer

Buy your copy of Magic, Maps & Mischief here: Magic, Maps, and Mischief: A Cozy Neurodivergent Adventure (Greton's Marvellous Maps Book 1) eBook : Green, David: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store