Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autistic Story Maker!! WOW
Transcript
- 0:00You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
- 0:04Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
- 0:07an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
- 0:11spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
- 0:21Guys, welcome back to another live podcast.
- 0:24I say live. I know it says every single time
- 0:25you're not watching this live, guys.
- 0:26You're watching a prerecorded version of a live conversation,
- 0:28which means all the bloopers and all the stuff is as it happens.
- 0:32So guys, I'm excited today. I'm inviting a guest on here,
- 0:35another author, an ASP, if you will, another autistic female.
- 0:39So this is my guest, Christine. And yeah, I'm, I'm excited to
- 0:43get this conversation start. So Christine, do you want to
- 0:45just explain who you are and what you do and that kind of
- 0:47stuff? Sure.
- 0:48So I am an author. I used to be in technology, high
- 0:53tech startups, I work for Microsoft and stuff like that.
- 0:56And then I decided, you know, what the heck, I'll just build
- 0:59worlds for a while. So I write 55 books a year.
- 1:03Each one has a different world. So if you think about like I,
- 1:08I'm, I'm a Tolkien girl. So each world has its own
- 1:11history and language. Each book you know holy.
- 1:14Smokes. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:16Do you do? I do 5A year and I do about one
- 1:19to two audio books. I narrate the audio books a year
- 1:21so I'm at 45 so far. Oh my God, that's incredible.
- 1:27Like I like I wrote my book in two weeks, right?
- 1:29My second book that's coming out in it's not, it's not a, but
- 1:33it's not a, it's not like it's more like a how I can say it's
- 1:36like a life story slash kind of guidebook slash, kind of like
- 1:40what to do if it's so it's kind of really easy for me to just
- 1:43smash that in two weeks and I could do 1A week.
- 1:44But the difference is if you're creating worlds, I mean, how how
- 1:47do you even come up with all these concepts?
- 1:49How do you do that? I love history, so I'm actually
- 1:52studying to get my masters in history at Harvard right now.
- 1:55So I just load my head up with a lot of stuff.
- 1:58It's like, I picture it like a kaleidoscope.
- 2:00And then when I start mapping things out, it just all kind of
- 2:04comes out and I thought like a lot of stuff if it doesn't fit
- 2:10so I get it. So do you have like a collection
- 2:13of off cut stories that you could like release as like extra
- 2:15content for your fans? Yeah, yeah, I had AII do I have
- 2:21them? And maybe one day I'll I'll
- 2:22bring them out. I have this one that I love
- 2:24where like my character is she's turned into a demigoddess and
- 2:28she has people like hanging out on her lawn eating gummies and.
- 2:33That's cool. What?
- 2:34Kind of gummies. I can't get it to work.
- 2:38Dude, I mean, yeah, maybe we should take some gummies maybe
- 2:40to help the process a lot. So here's the question.
- 2:43And so is is writing and story expansion your hyper focus and
- 2:48obsessive obsessive interest always a tech?
- 2:50Oh yeah. Oh yeah, you like AD and D girl
- 2:53as well? Like.
- 2:54Yeah, I used to be a Dungeon Master when I was a kid, so I
- 2:58actually have my own shirt that I made called plus.
- 3:00Oh nice. I know I like, yeah, I play a
- 3:03lot of DND like I actually have, dude.
- 3:05Like seriously, my girlfriend got me this for Christmas.
- 3:08These are D&D dice, right? That light up.
- 3:12Oh my God, that's so cool. Dude.
- 3:14That's a good girlfriend. I know it's a charging case as
- 3:17well. So yeah, everyone, everyone in
- 3:20the in the campaign's like. I was like the most obsessive
- 3:26dungeon master because I'd be I'd get like, we'd get through a
- 3:28room and I'm like, stop. I don't know what kind of rooms
- 3:31we should be putting on the walls here.
- 3:32I haven't developed out this world enough.
- 3:34And everyone's like on where? You are.
- 3:36So yeah, that. But that that that and Tolkien
- 3:39got me started on this whole thing.
- 3:41I think all of life is Dungeons and Dragons.
- 3:44Yeah, I always, I always see life as a campaign, right.
- 3:46Like how can I play the best hunt at this game?
- 3:48I need to re equip myself, you know, getting the PC handguard
- 3:51on like, you know, I mean like the whole time.
- 3:54Yeah, it's good. It's good to know because like I
- 3:56love that. I love that a lot of my friends
- 3:58who who are on the spectrum, we all play DND together and it's
- 4:01kind of like it's something about that.
- 4:04Like I wouldn't call it abstract or imagination.
- 4:06It's more like intuitive exploration, I guess that kind
- 4:11of D&D gives you, and it gives you a kind of excitement where
- 4:14you can really, because what, what I think like with lots of
- 4:16you can forget everything else and just focus on the thing
- 4:18you're doing, right? So with D&D, you get super
- 4:20submerged in, right. And, and that's why I kind of
- 4:23like, I lose track of time playing Minecraft and Dungeons
- 4:25and Dragons because I could just, you know, you get so
- 4:27sucked into it. So how long ago did you start
- 4:32writing these books? Then you said you're on like 45,
- 4:34right? Yeah, I started telling stories
- 4:36as soon as I so I was a late talker.
- 4:38My sisters talked for me until I started talking and then I just
- 4:43wouldn't shut up. And all I did was tell stories
- 4:45all the time. And in first grade, I would just
- 4:48stand up every so often. And Sister Virginia didn't like
- 4:51that. And I just tell my stories.
- 4:52So she sent me off to see side stories.
- 4:56She sent me off to see this priest who back in the whatever
- 4:58that was 70s was doing IQ testing because she thought I
- 5:03needed substitutionalized. And the priest like I, I can so
- 5:07clearly remember like some not so great things about a Roman
- 5:11Catholic education. This priest was like the best
- 5:13thing because I sat in, I started telling my stories.
- 5:15He listened for like 45 minutes. He's like my first fan.
- 5:18And he went back and told Sister Virginia, you got to let her
- 5:21have 5 minutes at the end of every day to tell the class her
- 5:24stories. So it would just been, you know,
- 5:27and every time I, when I got into technology, I didn't really
- 5:30expect to stay in it. I just, they kept, you know, it
- 5:34was built. It was world building back then,
- 5:36you know? And so.
- 5:37And they kept paying me a lot of money.
- 5:38And then all of a sudden it stopped being that it started
- 5:41being like working for a bank. And so I went back to my first
- 5:44love. So that was about 10 years ago
- 5:47that I, I really decided I'm going to, I'm going to do this.
- 5:51Dude, that's cool as hell. So, so just for anyone
- 5:53listening, how do we, how do we even get into like knowing about
- 5:55your books? What's your, what's your website
- 5:57and stuff? How do people find you?
- 5:58Just sure. So christinabauerauthor.com or
- 6:05if you look up my my kind of like my flagship series is
- 6:08called Angel Bound. It's about a part demon girl who
- 6:13fights evil souls in purgatory's arena.
- 6:16Dude, honestly, it sounds fire. I'm like, I'm a huge graphic
- 6:19novel guy, right? Like I love graphic novels
- 6:21because I'm dyslexic, right? I I can't read for buggery.
- 6:24And so I, I have graphic novels because a small, tiny bit of
- 6:27text, but lots of imagery to give you like a real visual
- 6:29representation. So I really take him by that and
- 6:31I read and that really sounds like graphic novel stuff, right?
- 6:34You know what I mean? Like that's to me like, Oh yeah.
- 6:36So here's a question here for you.
- 6:37How, how does a Catholic schoolgirl getaway?
- 6:42We're playing D&D and writing about demons like how does this,
- 6:46how are you able to do this? You know, I had an ongoing
- 6:50discussion about it with my priest, I added.
- 6:54That was part of my confession. Like I kind of think a lot about
- 6:57demons and like fighting them and Dragons.
- 7:00Yeah, like, you know, deaths and stuff's all good, you know, I
- 7:02just. And there was another one where
- 7:04I got lucky. He's like, I'm not gonna tell
- 7:05your parents. Just stay in Hail Mary and you
- 7:07can keep fighting. No way dude, that's crazy.
- 7:10So do you. Do you still practice that
- 7:13religious faith or you moved on from that from school?
- 7:15Well, no, I don't. I'm not active.
- 7:17No, I mean, it's still, I mean, I, I lean on the, the, the
- 7:20teachings all the time, you know?
- 7:22Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know a Christian brother when
- 7:24I was in high school who said Jesus's teachings are a great
- 7:29religion. It would be great if someone
- 7:30tried it sometime. I mean, it's really hard, right?
- 7:33It's super true. Yeah.
- 7:34It's super true. Yeah.
- 7:35He's like, like the ultimate badass dude, isn't he?
- 7:37He's like, gets it done, you know, and like, nobody can be as
- 7:40pure. And it's like, it's high.
- 7:42It's hard, dude. Do do you feel like your, your
- 7:46faith upbringing and kind of like religious background give
- 7:48you a lot of like inspirational ideas for fantasy?
- 7:52Yes, absolutely. That's another where place where
- 7:55I kind of clicked with both Tolkien and CS Lewis.
- 7:59You know, I I don't write anti heroes.
- 8:01I can't, I feel. Like.
- 8:03Storytelling and myth is like almost a sacred obligation to
- 8:08tell things that inspire the best in people.
- 8:10Dude, I feel like that's what Jesus was doing, right?
- 8:12Like, yeah, you know, and that's what he's doing.
- 8:14It's teaching in parables, right, by saying like, you know,
- 8:16it's a story, right? And I think like, you know,
- 8:19that's what it was so like when I was in Skyrim going to school,
- 8:21I went to a Christian School and it wasn't taught by like, you
- 8:25know, the, the clergy, but it was, but it was Christian.
- 8:28And so, you know, we pray every like morning, lunchtime and
- 8:31afternoon. But one of the cool things is
- 8:34every afternoon we do like a Bible story, right?
- 8:37We do read Bible stories and all the all the cool ones, you know,
- 8:39like Moses kind of like getting everyone visualized across the
- 8:42desert and all that stuff. And I was always like, well,
- 8:44these are like crazy stories. Like these make such cool
- 8:47movies. And you know what I mean?
- 8:48Like, it was so cool. Yeah.
- 8:49So I can see how that would really like inspire and and like
- 8:52you can act a bit more out of a flame to go, well, yeah, we
- 8:54could really, like use some of that stuff because they're cool
- 8:56stories, right? They're cool stories.
- 8:58Absolutely. And the other thing that that is
- 9:00was great about growing up Roman Catholic is that demon the
- 9:05stories are real. You know, I didn't have this
- 9:08like, you know, I could really feed it in my imagination, you
- 9:12know, you were so, you know. Here's here's a question.
- 9:15Have you ever, have you ever had a real life experience that
- 9:17you've then put into a story? Oh yeah.
- 9:20Oh, really? With demons.
- 9:22Pardon. With real demons like this is a
- 9:24question like. Oh, demons.
- 9:26I'm like all evil spirits, like dude, like I swear, I swear down
- 9:30like I've I've met a demon, like a demon like past me and and
- 9:35then entered my dream. And I guess it's a lot of crazy
- 9:37stuff, like a whole story. I'd love to tell you a story.
- 9:39It's not hugely long, but I'll say, oh, you won't hear it.
- 9:43OK, so I was, I was working, I was in college, which is
- 9:47Technical College, which is between high school and
- 9:49university in the UK, right, which is a little bit different
- 9:51to your college. And me and my girlfriend, we
- 9:54were getting the bus back to my house because she was staying
- 9:56with me because we both had our classes in the same building,
- 9:59right? So she was staying at me because
- 10:00we we'd lived quite far apart. So she got the best one to my
- 10:03house and my friends and and so did a friend of ours, Patrick,
- 10:06who was, who lived just around the corner from me.
- 10:09So we're walking home and it's like dusky time.
- 10:10It's like it's October, it's getting close to Halloween and
- 10:13it's kind of getting dark. It's a bit kind of going.
- 10:15We go off this like a lane. We're walking towards this old
- 10:17Chapel behind my house where I live now, actually where there
- 10:21was a convent there, right? There's lots of nuns used to
- 10:24make apples and stuff. It was cool.
- 10:26Anyway, so we're walking down this really like rough looking.
- 10:29I thought he's like homeless dude kind of like walks past us.
- 10:31And he was like, look, honestly looks like he was going to kill
- 10:35us or something. Oh my God.
- 10:36So I'm like talking to the guy, like hey, and this guy walks
- 10:39past us and I'm like keeping an eye on him and I'm like walking.
- 10:42I'm like looking at him. That's like, dude, did you see
- 10:44that guy? And they go, what guys like that
- 10:46guy there, I turn on, he's gone. I'm like, what the fuck?
- 10:49And they're like, what guy? I was like, he just walked
- 10:50straight past those guys. I thought he was going to attack
- 10:52us. So like there's no guy here.
- 10:53I was like, oh man, I need to lay down like this is too much
- 10:55like. Anyway, wow, I haven't had
- 10:58sighting like that, but I've had.
- 11:00It gets worse, yeah. Yeah, it gets.
- 11:03Worse, we get home. This is the thing and I want to
- 11:06hear about your things. We go home and then I'm like OK,
- 11:09I'm going to go to sleep because like so my girlfriend girlfriend
- 11:11and I are both on my bed. She's reading and I kind of lay
- 11:15down so I'm going to go to sleep because like, I just can't deal
- 11:17with it, you know, I'm super stressed.
- 11:18So we have like Stew or something and then we go to bed
- 11:20and then so she's sitting up reading some book and I'm like
- 11:23passed out. And then in my dream, a friend
- 11:25of mine like walked to the edge of my bed, which is kind of like
- 11:27the scenario I was in at that moment in time, right?
- 11:30Like a savage human head in his hand and he just looked at me
- 11:33and then like I heard a knock at my front door.
- 11:35So then I woke up in real life like, Jeez, who's knocking the
- 11:38door? My girlfriend's like nobody's
- 11:39knocking. Know what you're talking about
- 11:40at the moment the door knocks in real life.
- 11:43I'm like, Oh my God. So I go to the and I open the
- 11:46window of the hallway because like I'm not going downstairs
- 11:48knocking the door open at all. And there's like a really drunk
- 11:50guy out of his mind at the door saying, Hey, does Mary live
- 11:52here? And I'm like, no, try to have
- 11:54down the street buddy. And he just stumbles off dude.
- 11:57Like and that was it. That was like the scariest thing
- 11:59I've ever happened in my life. Like swear down.
- 12:01Wow, that is big. Mine might not be as good but I
- 12:04I definitely like two things. First, I feel like there, I
- 12:08mean, we don't there's like the more we learn about like quantum
- 12:10physics and stuff, the more that there's.
- 12:12There's shit going on. Yeah, there's stuff everywhere,
- 12:15dude. And then second, we, I, my
- 12:19husband and I used to live in Charlestown, MA, which is right
- 12:21by where the, you know, Battle of Bunker Hill, which is
- 12:23actually Bridge Hill, blah blah. And we lived in this old house
- 12:27and in the basement there was one of those old fashioned black
- 12:31Rotary phones on the wall. Oh dude, yeah, after a horror
- 12:35movie dude. Like I'm.
- 12:37Yeah, like it was like the phone that they made a movie later and
- 12:40I'm like, Oh my God, maybe this guy visit.
- 12:42For somebody else, yeah. And you'd go down the basement
- 12:45and like, you know, I would just run down there, like shove my
- 12:48laundry in and skittle on back. And then the phone would start
- 12:51ringing and it would. And it's like, so I'm a kind of
- 12:55person where after it's happening, I start to get
- 12:57pissed. I'm like, you're fucking with me
- 12:58and. I'm Yeah, I've got to answer the
- 13:00phone. No, you could wait.
- 13:01So good. Yeah.
- 13:02And I'm going to, I'm, I'm, this is not real, right?
- 13:05So I go and there's like a cord in the bottom of the phone and I
- 13:09yank it out and it goes silent. And then like one second, two
- 13:13seconds, ring ring. Oh fucking.
- 13:17Horse source. I ran.
- 13:19I freaking ran and. I'd have to move.
- 13:25That would be it. Like I'm out.
- 13:27I'll be like the house would be for sale.
- 13:28I swear that like I could not stay there.
- 13:31I'm such a shit bag with stuff like that.
- 13:33Oh dude, Jonah. It's really funny.
- 13:36I think mine was a catalyst from something else.
- 13:38A friend of mine is super religious.
- 13:40She was like, hey, you got to read the Bible.
- 13:41You read the Bible. It's like, hey, I did in high
- 13:42school and all this stuff. I was like, I don't read the
- 13:44Bible anymore. She's like, oh God, we'll reach
- 13:46out to you when he needs to. I was like, OK, she goes here's
- 13:48a Bible. It's like, oh God.
- 13:49So I got a Bible from him. I was like, hey, thanks.
- 13:50I'm not going to read it because I was like, you know, teenager
- 13:52in college, like I just wanted to play music and just hang out.
- 13:54And so like took this Bible home and started reading it.
- 13:57And then after that, that was the day after the demon thing
- 13:59happened. So I'm like sick one, like
- 14:02seriously did like crazy crazy, but anyway, crazy stories.
- 14:07I'm really excited. I actually want to.
- 14:09I would love to see your books in graphic novel format.
- 14:11Just the ideas I. Would too, man.
- 14:14Freak me out like I'm like dude, just fucking sick, but I know
- 14:16like not everybody's a graphic novel person.
- 14:18People want to read stories because like reading expensive
- 14:20mind, yada yada. Oh, excuse me.
- 14:22And I get it. I get it.
- 14:22I really do. And I think, like, people who
- 14:26are on the spectrum really love those types of things because
- 14:29you can just dive into those and just forget about everything.
- 14:31Like, right. Yeah.
- 14:33Yeah. Absolutely, I do get put art in
- 14:37my books cuz I feel like it's grim fairy tales.
- 14:39I can put that in there. Yeah.
- 14:41Yeah, I love if I had that, like serious rocking drawing talent
- 14:45that I get, but it's all very visual.
- 14:47I swear, maybe. Hey, look, anybody watching or
- 14:49listening, if you know anybody who's a visual artist who want
- 14:52to collaborate, let's do it. We'll hook it up.
- 14:54Yeah, totally. Details are going to be in this
- 14:57video. You can get off the website and
- 14:58stuff and find out books. So are you books on Amazon or
- 15:00are they all kind of like just through your website?
- 15:03Oh, I actually, it's all through retailers.
- 15:06So yeah. So Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
- 15:09Kobo. I'm self published so I, you
- 15:12know, I'm a control freak, so I do it all myself.
- 15:14Badass man. That's a lot of work, dude.
- 15:16Like I swear down like I've got I've got 2 publishing deals with
- 15:19two different I've never released self released a book.
- 15:21Like there's always been no publishers, but like the amount
- 15:24of work that they have to do is ridiculous.
- 15:25I'm something I don't self publish because I'm a second.
- 15:27I would never get anything else done ever because I should be
- 15:29like constantly working on the book.
- 15:31But look, dude, this has been like ridiculously interesting.
- 15:34Like I think we could do it. Do you have like Instagram and
- 15:37stuff? Yeah, yeah.
- 15:39So we should at Christina. under score CB under score, Bauer.
- 15:43Bauer. OK, I'm going to link that in
- 15:46the when we finish this, e-mail me with all of your links and
- 15:49details and stuff. And I'm going to put that in the
- 15:50footnotes of all these emails and all these videos.
- 15:53Sorry, what I think we should do, we should totally do an
- 15:55Instagram Live and talk about like, like some of the like
- 15:59cool, like ghost stories that you've made or some of the weird
- 16:02demon stories. That would be kind of cool,
- 16:03right? Like something that nobody's
- 16:04ever done for. Like why don't we do it?
- 16:06I think we totally dealt. I think my audience would love
- 16:07it. Something a bit different.
- 16:09Can we do also, once Dungeons and Dragons, the movie comes
- 16:11out, can we talk about it? Dude like swear down like I
- 16:15honestly almost cracked my pants when they released they said
- 16:17they were going to release this film.
- 16:18I was like holy shit. Like I'm waiting so bad for it.
- 16:20Like because there is one like years and years ago and it's
- 16:22really shit. So like this one should
- 16:23hopefully, hopefully should be good.
- 16:25I think they may milk it with like the toys and T-shirts and
- 16:29stuff and people will be like, oh, I'm just Dragons post and I
- 16:31was like OK, AD 20 ha ha. But like the the the true nerds
- 16:34and PCs and DMS, they're all going to be all over it and I
- 16:36think we're going to really love it.
- 16:37So yes, let's do an episode and an Instagram live is just about
- 16:40that. We should totally do that.
- 16:41All go live on my YouTube channel.
- 16:43Maybe we could like do like a, you know, like that kind of
- 16:46thing. Anyway, sorry guys, we're born
- 16:47in the hell of you like getting excited for D and.
- 16:50D Unless you skim on Dungeons and Dragons, in which case
- 16:53you're having. Yeah, yeah, we hear like, yeah,
- 16:56honestly, it's so good. It's oh, it's so good.
- 16:59It's so good. My parents are always like
- 17:01freaked out and your brother would like candles and like
- 17:03dress up and stuff, you know, just to kind of play DND in the
- 17:05kitchen. It was really good.
- 17:06Like super nerds. My brother was at the Embassy.
- 17:08So yeah, really cool. Anyway, enough about this.
- 17:12Really happy to have you on today.
- 17:14It's been really interesting. I think my views are going to
- 17:16hopefully find some interest in this, but definitely check out
- 17:19your books if anyone's interested.
- 17:20I'm really interested in them. And like, I'm not a book book
- 17:23person. I'm like a graphical person.
- 17:24I'm super interested. So I'll leave all the links for
- 17:26you down below. And yeah, let's get let's get an
- 17:29Instagram set up. Christine, thank you so much.
- 17:32Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.
- 17:33You're. Welcome.
- 17:34Hey, guys, thank you so much for checking out this podcast.
- 17:36Make sure you are subscribed because there are people
- 17:38listening right now who are not subscribed to this podcast.
- 17:41I can see you. Make sure you subscribe.
- 17:43OK guys, see you in the next one.
- 17:44Peace.