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On Friday morning, March 17th, 2006, the National Public Radio program Morning Edition broadcast a brief clip from an interview of me done at the StoryCorps booth in Grand Central Station, New York, by my then twelve year-old son Joshua, who was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder, when he was five years old.
The response was overwhelming.

“Our best friends are a couple who have a boy with Asperger's. I wrote to the father this morning and told him he had to go to NPR and listen to the story. My exact words to him were, "I was in love with this kid." … Man...another morning driving to work with tears in my eyes.”

“I have never had this happen before, but when I was listening to the Story Corp interview and heard your son ask you if he had met your expectations as a son and your tender reply tears ran down my cheeks. Your answer to his question is the most loving thing I think I have ever heard a parent say to a child. How blessed he is to have you for a mother and how blessed this world is to have you in it”

“Well, I've had my share of "driveway moments" in 25+ years of listening to public radio, but your Story Corps segment with Joshua this morning was a first for me: a "burst into tears while driving 70 mph moment."

“I’m the father of a 10 year-old son who was (finally) diagnosed with Aspergers a year ago…After listening to Joshua’s questions and Sarah’s responses, I feel for the first time that my son, my wife, and I are not alone in dealing with these challenges.”

“I am a principal of an elementary school and wish I had more parents like you. You see the qualities that Joshua has, and don’t seem to focus on the one he doesn’t.”

This was just the beginning. As a fiction author by trade, I’m not short on imagination, but the reaction to our interview was beyond anything I’d have envisaged. In fact, our story turned out to be one of the top three most responded-to StoryCorps segments in 2006.

It wasn’t just the sheer volume of e-mails that amazed me.It was the depth of the responses - the heartfelt connection people seemed to feel upon hearing this brief snippet of conversation between my son Joshua and me.

The father of a five year-old with autism wrote: “I found your interview very uplifting! It gave me the sense that we can get through this journey together…Please remain vocal about your experiences and share them with other people in your position. It helps!”

What’s more, it wasn’t just parents of children on the autistic spectrum who wrote - our conversation seemed to strike a chord with parents in general. One woman wrote of her frustration trying to communicate with her son, and concluded: “Thank you for allowing strangers to peek into your life. It has inspired me to work harder to become a better mother to my son.”

All I can say is that she didn’t peek into our life at 7:15 am on a school morning, when I can usually be found shouting something along the lines of: “Aren’t you dressed yet? I woke you up half an hour ago! Stop winding up your sister! And feed the dog, already!!”

So how did Joshua and I end up at StoryCorps in the first place? Well, every school vacation since my kids were little, I’ve tried to have a one-on-one day with each of them, doing something fun.
One of the many difficult things a working mother of more than one child is the feeling that there simply isn’t enough of you to go around. You can multiply that feeling by however many hours a week you have to work to earn a living, because even if you’re fortunate enough to be a writer, working from your basement lair, your kids won’t be thinking, Gee, I’m so lucky that my mom works downstairs instead of having to commute into New York every day. No, they’ll still resent the fact that you’re in the middle of a phone interview w

or how many topics can I cram into one post when I'm taking a break from revision?

I did want to take some time out to thank all of those who have served our nation in the armed forces on this Veterans Day. In honor of our veterans, Mike and Tim Rauch, the immensely talented forces behind Rauch Brothers Animation posted their award-winning short Germans in the Woods, based on a StoryCorps interview of 86-year-old World War II veteran Joseph Robertson, who fought at the Battle of the Bulge. It's timely and moving reminder of the lasting impact that combat has on our soldiers.




Meanwhile I've been somewhat hampered in my Major Freaking Revision Month (MaFrReMo) efforts by this:



Public Service Announcement: If you think you might have tennis elbow, DO NOT KEEP PLAYING TENNIS.
Even if you do ice your elbow afterwards. Because eventually the pain will radiate down from your elbow into your forearm and down to the hand. The hand that you rely on to type with every day for hours. The hand that you need to DO YOUR JOB. The hand that feeds you.

Some of us (ehem) did not follow that advice, and now are paying the price. But we are also learning from our physio therapists that it's not just about the tennis. It's about the fact that because we write on a laptop, we sit in all sorts of weird positions that are not conducive to good posture and good ergonomics. And that the chair we were sitting in was ALL WRONG.



Too low, so my wrist was pronated upwards to type, and no lumbar support. Actually, I quite often sat with my feet on the desk and my laptop in my lap. Well, it's called a LAPtop, right?

My physio ordered me to get a new chair, pronto, since I spent so much time with my butt in it, so I promptly asked THE ORACLE, aka my favorite YA Listserv, for advice on writerly chairs. As usual, I had expert advice within minutes. eluper who is an expert chiropractor, and who I hope will soon be bringing his fantastic hints to a writing magazine near you, provided me with what I should look for when buying a chair, and armed with my tape measure and his e-mail I ended up with this:



Note the box under my desk: that's to put my feet on, because now that my chair is high enough to get my elbows at 90 degrees, my feet barely touch the ground (cue Randy Newman's "Short People"). The box is a little high, so I need to find something lower. But in the meantime, I'm so much more comfortable, and hopefully I'll get rid of all the various contraptions I've got to wear on hand and elbow and will be back on the tennis court soon.

Meanwhile I learned something else today. Add a Comment

Back in 2006, the StoryCorps interview between my son and me was broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition.

Well, now we're animated! The extraordinarily talented Rauch Brothers, Mike and Tim have created an animated short, Q & A, based on our interview.

Here's the trailer!:



I've seen the storyboard and it was priceless, so I can't wait to see the finished short.