NaNoWriMo and Negative Infinity

Yep, I'm quite insane. I'm doing NaNoWriMo--fifty thousand words in one month--while attempting to keep my grades up. Oh, and did I mention the school's finally starting my evaluations? I might finally get the help I need. (And on top of that, I'm building NCC 1701D. Better known as the Starship Enterprise from the Next Generation. How, you ask? Slightly aired out Crayola Model Magic and paint with cardboard supports. Along with insanity, my ambition is extreme.)

But anyway, my novel is called Negative Infinity. It's my first novel I'm planning on publishing, and it pretty much disproves every stereotype that ever existed about autistics. (Sorry if you like it capitalized, I've never had the tendency. If I talk to you and you ask me to, I will.) For one, the main character is non-speaking. Although I speak, I sometimes lose it if I'm exhausted. In those cases, only a word or two can slip out. So I know the frustration that comes along with it. But Tanner, the main character, is really lucky--the school realized how smart she was and let her use a tablet. That tablet is her lifeline when someone doesn't know her crude form of ASL, adapted from her deaf brother Bryce, a senior in high school. She's mostly mainstreamed, except when no teachers want her in their class, the situation she has in history. She's allowed to do things at her pace because of that, something I know many autistics could use. Especially those of us with extremely good memories. So at the end of eighth grade, her math teacher allows her to take some time to herself, and she thinks of something extraordinary: negative infinity.

The summer after she turns fourteen, she visits her grandparents' ranch in Arizona with her younger sister, Brenn. For the first time, her father is able to see how much she loves animals. After she breaks in one of the stallions on the ranch with her grandfather's help, she's given a puppy to bring home to Upstate New York. She promptly names him Diablo when he undoes her carefully tied shoelaces two minutes after their first hello. After they go home, Tanner begins to train him. But high school begins just two days later, and that means struggles. But Tanner isn't worried, because she knows the school system won't mind her being herself.

Of course, that's not the case with Brenn. The book starts out with Brenn not even diagnosed, but we later find out she is, also, autistic. She hates third grade, and begins to run away at least once every couple of weeks. Tanner notices, however, that she doesn't go without first saying goodbye to Diablo. This prompts her to train Diablo even further, and after getting permission from her parents, she starts his training as a service dog for Brenn.

But in the meantime, Brenn's running has an effect on Tanner's parents. They begin to fight, and halfway through the school year, they start talking about a divorce. Brenn's recent diagnosis doesn't help matters. So while Brenn is running away and Bryce is getting ready for his graduation, Tanner alone has Diablo's training. But by May, with the divorce finalized and all three kids staying with their mom for the school year, Tanner gets a special gift for her birthday: a service dog harness. Diablo's training had come along so well that in Brenn's newly finalized IEP, it was stated that she could have him with her at all times. Her running away stops very quickly, as her frustration at her needs not being met disappears. Everything turns out alright for everyone.

People have been telling me they like the plot because it is realistic. That's the important part--it could happen. That's how we're going to spread the word. We're all perfectly intelligent. We just think differently.

Tanner's brain is wired like mine. And I'm going to spread this story.

So you'll try to understand me.

So you'll try to comprehend.

So I'll just mean discovery

Of trinkets, odds and ends.

P.S. One of my commentors will get this at some point, so I'll say this: BBC Radio Silence 2014. And I'll also give you credit if you can tell me the Vernon Dursley line that applies to this post. Yes, I'm an autistic fangirl.