So, with WHO HAUNTS YOU hitting this past weekend from Off Limits Press (in paperback, eBook, and on audio, as narrated by Annalee Scott - get y'er copy today), I penned a series of articles about neurodivergence in media, the first two of which have already hit online.

The first, for the Off Limits Press blog, is THE SPECTRUM OF HOLLY GIBNEY and goes long into how Stephen King's popular neurodivergent detective character, Holly Gibney, has evolved between the page, the audiobook performances by Will Patton, and then on television, as played by Justine Lupe (MR. MERCEDES) and Cynthia Erivo (THE OUTSIDER), the latter two both having spoken about their attempts to present autism with authenticity. With King's sixth Holly Gibney story, HOLLY, hitting this week, it felt like a good time to look at both the character but also how King's work itself has evolved over the decades when including neurodivergent characters, from Duddits and John Coffey and Tom Cullen to even a tossed off remark about Danny Torrance in THE SHINING.



The second article, for Writer's Digest, is ON WRITING NEURODIVERGENT CHARACTERS. As neurodivergence is presented more and more often in media, it's a sort of plea into the wind to avoid perpetuating tropes and stereotypes that have so often been associated with neurodivergent characters in the past, particularly ones that become culturally overwhelming as with RAIN MAN ("Yep, that must be what savantism is all about!" - an entire generation), and instead focus on more dimensional, authentic presentations in which folks aren't just the sum of their visible, neurodivergence-related traits and characteristics.

There's one more article coming after these (about my friend and yours, Jason Voorhees) and then, happily, I will hibernate from self-promotion for a while.