Story Behind The Book
The main character, Samantha Ryder, really fascinated me for a very long time (before she even had a name). She came from no one I ever knew... she's autistic, I never met anyone who is autistic, but... I first "met" the idea of her when I was taking a child psychology class in college (1980-1982) and I wrote a paper about autism. The mysterious condition interested me very much on a personal level that inspired me to write about it beyond that class paper. I was also taking a creative writing class that semester and I wrote a poem based on the ideas that came to me while I pieced together my paper (the poem was included in the paper, and the prof loved it!) The notion of color and emotions, art theory and art history, savants and autism continued to gather in my mind for years...I always knew I'd do something with it someday...ten years ago I started writing these things down for the first time, and this young woman with dark button eyes came into being as if she was always there, her stream-of-consciousness drawings and peculiar ways were almost second nature to me as if I have always known her...she could be me in some form since she's been with me for so long, but I'd like to think of her as her own character, created over time...no different from any other idea that inspires me to write books or paint pictures.