April 2025 Newsletter

Hello everyone! Happy April—and happy Autism Awareness Month!

This is the perfect time for all of us to learn a little more about autism, whether we’re autistic ourselves or not. It’s a chance for us to better understand how we tick or to get a glimpse into the mind of our autistic friend or acquaintance.

I hope you take this opportunity to expand your perspective—starting with an interview with my fellow autistic writer, Olivia G. Booms!

Writing: Structuring Your Novel vs. Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

If you were to look up bestselling books of the art of plotting a fiction novel, two books would most likely be close to the top: Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. Having just finished reading the first, I thought I’d do a quick comparison of these two popular writing craft books.

To sum things up: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel offers an enjoyable read and is perfect for writers who are just dipping their toes into plot structure. Structuring Your Novel, however, offers in a more technical, in-depth look at plot structure for those looking to refine their craft even further.

Reading: Epic first lines

Have you ever opened a book to the first page, read the first line, and then had to take a moment of silence to digest just how amazing it is? Maybe I’m just more sensitive to it now that I know how hard it is to come up with a truly great first line.

Today, I’ve compiled five of my favorite opening lines. Some are funny, some mysterious, and some are just plain iconic

• “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” —Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

• “Jason was having a bad day even before he got electrocuted.” —The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” —Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

• “The screw through Cinder’s ankle had rusted, the engraved cross marks worn to a mangled circle.”—Cinder by Marissa Meyer

• “Joost had two problems: the moon and his mustache.”—Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

What are your favorite first lines? I’d love to hear them! Leave me a comment letting me know.

Progress on my reading challenge: 4/16

Throne of Glass was this month’s pick for my book club and I found Heretics Anonymous at a lovely bookstore in Hawaii!

• A Band of Misfits: Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry

• A Comeback Story: Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas

(Curious about this challenge? Click the link to find out more.)

Spotlight: Interview with Olivia G. Booms

I was first introduced to Olivia during an office hours session in the YWW (Young Writers Workshop) community. A group of eight or so young writers who were published in the anthology Voices of the Future: Stories of Family and Fearlessness gathered to share their insights—and their wisdom was so helpful.

After the Zoom call, I signed up for Olivia’s email list and instantly fell in love with her honest and thoughtful reflections on autism and how it intersects with other areas of life. I had never read the perspective of another young autistic woman before, and it meant the world to me.

I hope you enjoy hearing from Olivia as much as I do, and I highly recommend clicking the link at the end of the interview to subscribe to her email list!

Hey, Olivia! To start, could you introduce yourself and share a bit about your current writing project?

My latest published book, A Book Dragon’s Story, is about a disabled book dragon desperately working to earn her place by her mother’s side in their family library, without burning it down in the process. If you like cozy stories you can read with anyone, fantasy, bookish vibes, family relationships, and mental health/disability rep, this is the perfect story for you!

I’m also working on some secret projects, but I only share those secrets with my email list. (Here’s a hint though… it involves fairies)

What was your experience working on the anthology Voices of the Future: Stories of Family and Fearlessness like?

That short story collection was a whirlwind! It was my first time writing on deadline for a story I knew would be published. People I know would read it! So I wanted it to be its best, even as I struggled to turn it in on time. 

It also taught me to be okay with curveballs. There were times things wouldn’t go as planned, or we didn’t even have a plan, but all the other writers and I had to keep moving forward. Somehow through the unexpected mishaps and scrambling to patch the holes, we worked together as a team and made it all happen. If you ever launch a book, make sure you have some fantastic people around you to help make it happen!

One of the main reasons I wanted to interview you is because I love your writing on autism—particularly your perspective as an autistic girl. Your insights have helped me understand myself better, and I’m sure they’ve helped many non-autistic people gain a deeper understanding as well. What does autism look like for you personally? What are some of your strengths and challenges because of it?

I’ll say a common quote used in the autism community; if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person. Everyone has different variations of how they experience autism, and my disability interacts differently with my body than anyone else's.

One of my strengths is that I don’t adhere to silly social rules just because I don’t know they exist. I can do things that people would normally be afraid to do, like do cartwheels down the sidewalk. (If I could do a cartwheel) Though this is definitely a challenge as well, because people will judge you accordingly.

There’s plenty of challenges that come with autism. One of the biggest for me is sensory issues. Because my brain can’t filter stimuli properly, I can be in a constant state of what autistics call “overstimulation.” Lights are glaringly bright, rough fabrics can feel like sandpaper, and someone talking across the room becomes yelling in my ear. Places everywhere, from airports to the grocery store are too much to handle.

If you could correct one common misconception about autism, what would it be?

That’s a good question. There are many things that I wish I could change about how autism is perceived by the world, but my biggest wish is that more people understood the fundamentals of what autism is. Autism is, in its broadest definition, a neurological disability that affects your communication, affecting how to filter, behave, and interact within the world. People seem to misunderstand what that means. (Which is funny since I’m the one with the communication disorder)

There seem to be two sides of the confusion; either autism is a tragedy, a disease that takes everything happy in life, or a smart, cool personality trait that everyone should have. It’s both and neither at the same time.

Yes, autism is a disability that makes my daily life difficult and frustrating, but I thoroughly love who I am and live a fulfilling life. Yes, autism affects my personality as it’s a brain disorder, but that shouldn’t downplay the difficulties. I struggle, but I love who I’m created to be, whether I’m autistic or not.

How does autism influence your writing? Are there any ways it shapes your creative process or storytelling style?

I wouldn’t be writing autistic girls if I wasn’t autistic. Other than that, autism doesn’t influence my writing or storytelling style in many, at least noticeable, ways. What I mean by that is if you held up a sample of my writing to one written by someone who’s neurotypical (Has a typical brain) you wouldn’t be able to tell which was which. But I have noticed small things here and there. One is an absence of body language. Most people are able to recognize and interpret body language, while autistic people can struggle to varying degrees. My characters use body language less, especially in my first drafts, because I notice it less than others.

What are some of your favorite books with autistic or autistic-coded characters?

This is one of my special interests that I’ve spent years working on, so I’ve got quite the list of autistic and autistic-coded characters in my favorite stories across books, movies, and TV. The movie/TV industry has had struggles portraying autistic characters well in the past, but the best I’ve ever seen is Addie, Keedie, and Bonnie in A Kind of Spark the TV series. The range of autism shown, as well as the balance of showing the difficulties of living while autistic with abundant kindness made it an Oscar winner in my eyes. Not only that, it’s the only film I know of that is portrayed by autistic and other neurodivergent actors with consultation from the author, who is also autistic. It makes it the most accurate film out there with autistic and neurodivergent characters.

If you would like to learn more about Olivia and here writing, you can sign up for her email list or follow her on Instagram. (If you sign up for her newsletter, she’ll automatically send you a list of her favorite books with autistic main characters!)

Quick Writing Update

• Wrote two short stories

What did you think of interview with Olivia? Do you have any questions about autism? I’d love to try my best to answer them. Let me know by replying directly to this email or leaving me a comment of the website that corresponds to The Introverted Writer!

Thank you so much for reading! Have a great rest of your day!

Abby Henderson

P.S. Stay tuned to hear from bestselling author Marissa Meyer!