Ellie Mulligan, 55, was dismayed to discover that, in spite of her many talents, in most situations she is not much help.

In general, these days I love being autistic. I do not love the delayed emotional processing and the way my brain wakes me up at 3am to present a PowerPoint of the previous day’s emotions.

One reason I have loved this account for years is that so many of the postcards read like story prompts. This one, with that spooky photo, is practically a movie pitch.

While feasting on smoke and cooking smells, the horrid little gremlin pares its toenails with its teeth and borrows your coffee grinder to blitz the parings to smithereens.

If you’re cancelling your Disney Plus subscription today, now’s a great time to sign up to The Daily Tism Patreon. Not only is it a great time with bonus articles, podcast episodes & monthly community events but we pay real writers to write real things & we don’t fire them for being right on.

💜💜💜💜💜

I have just evicted a medium-sized spider with the spider-grabber. I feel like a war hero.

Love ‘em! This story has “make me into a movie” written all over it. Elderly nuns, students and a locksmith. Is Judi Dench free? I’ll write it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I enjoy the way that in this photo our cats look like a hip-hop duo quite a lot of people quite liked in 1996 who have made a comeback record, done an interview with a broadsheet newspaper and are attempting to prove they are still serious and relevant.

The theory was suggested first in an article by Avery Mann, 24, an autistic PhD student at Penhampton University. Mann had what she describes as a “eureka moment” while eating her nightly snack of peas slathered in tomato ketchup.

A new and highly recommended remedy for period pain. Gently vibrates in a soothing way. Possible side effects include occasional violent kick in the ovary.

I've seen several people refer to AI-resisters as having their heads in the sand over the last few days. But resisting doesn't mean the same thing as ignoring something. On the contrary, resisting means engaging with research, parsing information, offering critique, and making informed choices.

Lads - the freelancer applications so far are sooooooo strong! The more Patreon subscribers we have before applications close on the 14th, the more hilarious writers we can take home from the writing sanctuary. If you were thinking about signing up, now is a great time to do it!

Well I learned a fun new word today. I've had a paracosm for years and just found out that's what it's called.

For what it’s worth I’ve been writing for the Daily Tism for the past few months and it’s been a wholly lovely, supportive, fun experience. It has the flexibility I need and is decently paid. We are all being fucked over by capitalism but Sara and Sarah are not at fault here.

I was a guest on BBC Radio Solent this morning, talking about my doll hospital. Tolly the kitten was a bonus guest! You can listen here at about 1 hour 20 minutes in. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

There are some exciting things coming down the pipeline and one of the things that means is that there will be more time to focus on building our Daily Tism Patreon community. I guess my question is, what would people most value from a snarky autistic satire community? Aside from the content?

A neurodivergent household in which individuals have differing sensory needs is a situation that can only end in some sort of four-way duel, experts have warned.

One of my cats was just on the kitchen worktop and I was fussing him, saying, "If Tolly wrote an autobiography, it would be called 'A Life on the Scrounge.'" My 11-year-old chimed in, "At this rate, his memoirs will be published before yours." 💀😭😂

An autistic mother-of-two has reportedly resigned from a successful career as an educational psychologist so that she can give her full attention to the stream of e-mails and text messages from the school attended by her two children.

Hey you! Do you like queer Dickensian stories of grand and gritty adventure in pre-Victorian Britain? Poorhouses and moors, and transport to Australia—and two heroines who fall madly in love:

The Observer takes on the collapse of Unbound - some truly shocking allegations, almost all of which I have seen compelling evidence of as a member of the Unbound author WhatsApp group and through my own experience of being published by them observer.co.uk/news/busines...

“But immediately I started worrying about the spider. Did it have enough air in there? Was it afraid of the dark?”

Bags are packed, autoresponder is ON. I have never been more ready to fuck off for a while.

Boundless is going under, it’ll cease trading by end of day. Archna has emailed Neem Tree Press authors about this but not Unbound ones :/ Authors, a couple staff members are working hard to get reversions, subcontracts, and files to us—if you need them email NOW before the lights go off

In November we publish the paperback edition of @katharineq.bsky.social’s powerful historical novel The Low Road, currently on the shortlist for the New Angle Prize. Pre-order it online from Waterstones using the code SUMMER25 and you get 25% off shorturl.at/zUUyu

“My midwife says that birth is unpredictable – you can’t plan it,” Mann explained. “I took that as a personal challenge.”

thanks for nothing

“The causes of NSD are not yet fully understood. Some people blame environmental factors, or a lack of vaccines, but we do know that genetics play an important part. This means that if you have neurotypical family members, that does place your child at increased risk.”

This is the kind of nonsense we get up to on Patreon - keep funding our important research into how autism is hilarious, actually, by supporting us there!

Lottie Fitzgerald, 35, from Southsea, has developed a strong attachment to a blue studio pottery mug she was given last Christmas. She reports that she is beginning to feel intensely anxious about the effect on other mugs that she owns.

“What if I conned him? I really think I conned him. Not on purpose, but I think I might be a very specific sort of con artist who only deceives people by accident?”

I really don't think Labour have thought through the political implications of giving hundreds of thousands of parents throughout the country a reason to utterly hate them and get them out of office as fast as possible.

#send #ehcp #education #sendfamilies

Very much hoping this remains biting satire and doesn't become a government policy document, but early indications are not great...

“I didn’t even put it there!” should be the motto for delighted writers in libraries tbh Really thrilling to start seeing our anthology, No One Talks About This Stuff, in the Reading Well for Families stands!

I loved being part of the co-production group for #ReadingWell for families, a new booklist to support parents and carers with mental health during pregnancy and the early years. It's free and it's available from your local library or online at readingagency.org.uk/readingwell. 📚

Some lovely news. Accessibility means a lot to me with my books so I'm really thrilled that my anthology No One Talks About This Stuff has been chosen for @readingagency’s new #ReadingWell for Families booklist! Now available to borrow for free from libraries. readingagency.org.uk/get-reading/...

Being part of the whole Unbound saga has not been fun; one consolation has been the support of the many other authors involved. And so, in that spirit, we've put together a list of some of the great books that now need publishers and agents. Please do share! open.substack.com/pub/therebou...

UK/US LITERARY AGENTS: Are you willing to look at submissions from former Unbound authors on the, uh, rebound? If so, please drop a line in my DMs with your contact and #MSWL or area of expertise. Especially looking for people who rep nonfiction. Some TRULY excellent books looking for homes.

I'd like to thank Mr Toseland Toebeans for bringing a live vole into the house this afternoon. He's not even five months old yet. (Tolly, not the vole. I don't know how old the vole was. I didn't ask him.)

Thanks so much for having me again, @thedailytism.com I have so much fun cackling at my own jokes in public while I’m writing these.

The goal is by this time next year to earn a modest full-time living for three of us and be able to employ even more autistic freelancers. Every subscription gets us closer to that than we could have ever dreamed possible, so thank you thank you thank you 💗

Another day, another NHS trust expecting me to work for free.

Part 4: CALL TO ACTION

Part 3: More of the same...

Part 2: So what do now?

If I were still an editor, I would be whizzing through Boundless's list and going shopping RIGHT NOW. All these excellent books (really cannot fault Unbound's editorial judgement), ready edited, with existing followings and huge public sympathy: get *in*.

It’s time for us to rally as an industry. If you’re an agent who will take submissions from unrepped Unbound / Boundless authors or a publisher interested in completed manuscripts, please post in this thread with your details & the kind of work you rep & I’ll repost.