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In this interview, Vrinda Pendred from Conditional Publications talks about being a writer with a neurological condition, OCD and the new book, Check Mates.
In the video, we discuss:
- How Conditional Publications was started to give a voice to writers with neurological conditions. So much is written from a medical perspective, but the first book CheckMates is a fiction anthology containing writing from people who go through it. The aim is to try to enable connections and understanding.
- Vrinda herself has some neurological conditions but the labels can be confusing and they basically mean she's a bit quirky! Lots of other people are a bit quirky too and as a writer, Vrinda wanted to make it ok for people to be proud of who they are. The publishing house name is a kind of pun on the condition of being human.
- Obsessive compulsive disorder means you dwell on certain anxieties and the compulsions are the way you try to deal with that. Vrinda explains certain ways the disorder many manifest. CheckMates is a book written by people with OCD and it touches on many forms of the disorder. It ranges from poetry to science-fiction and horror. There's something for everybody.
- There's no such thing as a perfect neurology or brain. Everyone will sit on the spectrum but it only becomes a disorder if it impacts your life. So we might all have some aspects at some points in our lives.
- High degrees of creativity often can manifest in people with neurological disorders. (See Kay Redfield Jamison's Touched By Fire – excellent book!) People with these disorders may also have an ability to reflect on their lives and also on living with it.
- On writing about people with these disorders, people should be respectful and ask if they are unsure. Don't assume the stereotypes are true. Tourette's sufferers don't all swear and autistic doesn't always mean Rainman.
View Comments (1)
I too have a neurological disorder (mild Asperger's syndrome), so I appreciate the effort to avoid stereotypes, especially given the fashion for books about people with autism. But "quirky" is a great description -- I might adopt it for myself!