Hi, I'm TheInkyDragon.
I haven't been part of a forum community in about ten years, and even then, it wasn't one with fellow neurodivergent people.
I'm a writer and something of an artist (currently honing my watercolour and gouache techniques). I have quite a few books published, both fiction and poetry. I mainly write middle grade and YA fiction, with a focus on fantasy and speculative. I'm a big reader too, and my favourite author is Diana Wynn Jones (who was dyslexic, so technically neurodivergent herself, which, given the complexities and unusualness of her plotlines, makes a lot of sense to me).
I actually have a new book coming out with a small press this Friday (28th Feb, if you're reading this in the future.) I'm a bit unsure how much detail I can post about it on here due to the community guidelines, but it's a middle grade time travel mostly set in Victorian London in the Thames Tunnel, and was the first book I wrote after getting my official autism diagnosis back in early 2019 when I was a few years shy of turning thirty. Because of this, it's also the first one where I've actually defined a character as autistic on page, and it was quite a journey writing about her. She pretty much unmasked as I unmasked, and some of the things she goes through with her bullies at school are extremely similar to things that happened to me at school. She does have some cool hobbies that have nothing to do with my personal hobbies though, like learning about the behind-the-scenes of magic tricks (a bit like Jonathan Creek), and cardistry (card manipulation).
As this book means a lot to me, I've been trying to do more 'author' things, like holding an in-person book launch and thinking about arranging library visits, book signing, and even school visits. Which I'm not against doing and have done a tiny bit in the past, but it takes an awful lot of energy, and unlike last time, my body isn't up to much anymore thanks to hypermobility-related chronic pain and dysautonomia. I refuse to mask through things this time, though, and it's quite nice that my book actually backs up that idea -- if I'm going to be talking about my autistic character, why should I mask my traits? To be honest, I'm not even sure I can mask anymore. I went through intense burnout around the time of my diagnosis; which I wanted as I was struggling at work and needed reasonable adjustments, but it came too late and I ended up in a terrible state and can't work anymore (as in, paid work that society tends to value, which writing tends not to fall under).
Anyway, that's a little bit about me!
Since I don't think I can share much more about my book without revealing personal information about myself and breaking guidelines here, here are some other neurodivergent authors to check out: Elle McNicoll, Lizzie Huxley Jones, Kate Foster, Kristiana Sfirlea, Michelle Mohrweis, Avery Carter (some of their books are suitable for kids, but some aren't, so if you're looking for books for young readers, just keep that in mind).
Oh, if anyone has ideas of organisations/magazines/reviewers who might be interested, I'd welcome them! My publisher does have a big list of media places they plan on contacting (and probably already have), but it always helps to have more.