Hello, this is Anna Kennedy and we’re talking all things autism and another busy week I’ve had again. So yes, so what have I been doing? So I’ve met with Dr Radhika Mahase from Trinidad and Tobago. We met a couple of years ago online and she’s been following me.

So I met Maya as well and we all met in Covent Garden and it was so lovely there and we’ve been catching up and they’ve been telling me everything that they’ve been doing. So Maya has an autistic brother. She actually spoke at the Commonwealth and she met the Queen.

How amazing is that? So they have been following me for a couple of years and they have created the Autism Superhero Awards on the back of our Autism Hero Awards. So I’ve been supporting them and we’ve been chatting about other stuff that they want to do and Maya is an amazing young woman. As I say, her brother’s autistic but she was voted 30 under 30 as a change maker.

So she’s a founder, director of Autism Siblings and Friends Network and the founder of Ravel Clubhouse. So she is based in Trinidad and Tobago and they came over for a week. So it was so lovely to meet them.

Again, I’ve been sent in a book by Daniel M Jones. Daniel is amazing, a young man. Well, everyone’s young compared to me.

So he’s autistic. So he’s written a book called Autism for Adults and Approachable Guide to Living Excellently on the Spectrum. So Daniel Jones, the Aspie World videos are highly recommended for adults who get diagnosed later in life and that was a quote from Temple Grandin who was another amazing person and an author of visual thinking, the hidden gifts of people who think in pictures, patterns and abstractions.

So just to give you a little bit of background. So the Ultimate Handbook for Success on the Spectrum written by the creator of the Aspie World. So autistic influencer, educator and advocate Daniel Jones is an expert on living well on the spectrum.

He’s here to explain everything he’s learned and then some in this instruction manual and memoir about life as an autistic person. Dan’s book is packed with actionable advice that you can immediately start putting into practice. You’ll learn how to navigate common challenges such as dating on the spectrum, holding down a job or performing well in your studies.

Best of all, you learn to improve your life while also empowering others. So if you’re interested, you can buy this book. It’s £14.99 and it’s available on hayhouse.co.uk just to remind you again.

So it’s www.hayhouse.co.uk. I also met with one of our ambassadors, Tess Eagle Swan. She’s been one of my ambassadors for a few years now and the lovely Kratow is her lovely rescue dog and assistance dog. So we met at Stationers Hall.

I’ve never been there before. What an amazing building. We did a talk for the UK Pet Food Convention.

I get up to all sorts. I’m here there and everywhere and I had a queue of people wanted to ask me questions. A lot of the people that were in the audience have children on the spectrum and they were so pleased that we gave a talk.

Tess talked about her life and late diagnosed, talked about creating, how she rescued him from Romania. It was just such a lovely event and a beautiful building and we also had a three course meal which is amazing. But I also just sprung a surprise on Tess because I gave her the Lifetime Achievement Award for Kratow and for herself and awarded her a certificate and an award.

She was quite emotional and it was just such a lovely, lovely event. I also went to Fortnum and Mason. I haven’t been there for years and I’m part of the International Women’s Forum where I’ve been invited in.

I’ve been, I think I’ve been a member now for about three years. You have to be invited in and there’s 8,000 women across the world so we’ve been talking about all the things that we’re planning for next year. My guest today is a lovely, lovely, lovely lady.

She is called Samantha Lee Howe. She’s a former high school English and drama teacher. She’s got a BA Honours in English and writing for performance in Master Arts in Creative Writing and PGCE in English.

She’s an art and supporter of charities. Samantha is patron of advocacy charity HOA. I’m not quite sure if I’ve said that correctly but I’ll spell it.

It’s P-O-H-W-E-R and survivor ambassador for domestic abuse charity IDUS independent domestic abuse services which is based in Yorkshire. She’s also a supporter of our charity. Welcome Sam.

Hi Anna. Thank you so much for inviting me on. Oh thank you.

Long time no see. It was only a couple of weeks ago. Yeah it was.

So before we talk about everything that you’re doing and just doing so amazingly well and talking about any of our events, who is Sam? Well I’m a writer by career now, by full-time writer, but I was born in Manchester in 1965 and I grew up sort of in a very gothic, just outside of Manchester, a very gothic city it is as well and I grew up in an area called Presswich and Whitefield. I went to school there and moved around a lot because my parents weren’t very sort of stable. They were quite nomadic really so I went to many many different schools and yeah that’s kind of me.

I grew up, got married, I’ve got a daughter who’s 30 and I’m remarried very happily now to a wonderful guy who’s a writer called David Jayhow. Oh messy man he’s so lovely. You’re talking about moving.

My dad’s Italian and he just could never settle in the house. We moved 13 times and my mum said that’s it now. No more.

Isn’t that insane? That is just insane isn’t it? I mean it’s the same with us. Strangely though I think I caught the bug because I’ve moved house about three or four times since David and I’ve been together and we’ve been together 15-16 years now so we’re in our house. Our final house I’m saying I’m never moving again is what I keep saying is we’ll see.

My mum said she said she just gets it all nicely you know the way she wants it and then it’s like come on let’s go we’re moving again and then we immigrated to Italy twice and we almost immigrated to Australia and my mum was pregnant with my brother so my dad decided not to go in the end but it’s just like yeah but hen at least you see the world. Well Italy did you what part of Italy were you in because I didn’t know that about you and I love Italy. Yeah my parents are Italian both my parents my mum and my dad so we lived in Cassino which is not far from Rome but my mum was born in Cassino and my dad was born in a place called Annione which is the province of Izzernia so yeah I actually really loved it in Italy I loved it in Cassino because it was very near Rome and yeah but there was an earthquake um one particular week and my sister and my brother decided they didn’t want to live in Italy anymore because the earthquake just really frightened them they were only teenagers at the time but I didn’t want to come back but my dad didn’t want to leave me behind so hey does this mean that you’re bilingual as well yeah well the thing is when I was younger my dad always spoke to me in Italian but I always answered him back in English so he never made me answering back in English and sometimes he spoke what I call broken Italian so he’d speak he’d start a sentence off in Italian then finish it off in English so sometimes my friend came over she’d say what did he say oh dear all caught with that yeah yeah so when I went to Italy I could understand everything but at first I found it hard to answer them back in Italian because the door was answered my dad back in English so but hey it was it was amazing absolutely loved it so um so talk to me a little bit about when did you first know that you were a writer and I do know that I get contacted by a lot of autistic people and moms so hopefully you can share some tips as well about writing you know about how to make the first step of maybe writing about a book um uh either a novel or a biography so let’s talk about when you knew that you wanted to be a writer well I um my house was always filled with books my mum was always going to the library to come home with stacks of books and she was always reading so it was one of those things that all of us did we all read and one day I just picked up this book and it was called The Collector and it was written by John Fowls and it was an adult book it was an adult thriller and I’ve read this book and I was 11 years old and when I closed the last page I thought that’s it that’s what I want to do I want to be a writer and I kind of knew then that I was one even though I would say to anybody who said that to me now oh I’m a writer I’d say to me what have you actually written at that point I haven’t written or had anything published but in my head I just knew that this was something that was in me that I was able to do and and the process of doing that began then I guess I was always writing short stories always writing poetry um I mean in in answer to your question about what advice I could give well you know writing’s one of those funny funny things one you have to feel this sort of passion and obsession about it to tell a story if if indeed it’s a story that you’re going to tell if it’s fiction um and then you kind of have to practice it to get good at it and it’s one of those things you I always treat it the creative brain is what I always say the the creative muscle in your brain is a bit like any muscle in your body so you go to the gym you can’t pick up the heaviest weights on the first day you’ve got to start small and lift light things until you build up your strength and it’s the same with writing you have to the practicing of it builds up your stamina builds up your creativity exercises that muscle and makes it easier to do if that makes sense oh yeah um my son Patrick he has a passion for dinosaurs and paleontology and he started writing a book and he’s written three chapters so far and our lovely friend Steve and obviously he’s written a few books and he’s over it and he’s really impressed with his writing um but he’s a bit stuck at the moment and so what advice would you give to people where they’ve started something and you know he’s sort of three chapters in and they’ve got to like a bit of a writer’s block um yeah yeah I mean it’s one of those things that it’s it’s maybe needs to go away and think for a bit because writing is many things it’s not just about the physical act of writing there’s also that aspect of thinking about the story that is all the work as well as sometimes when I get to a point where I can’t write because I’ve just come to a point where I don’t know where I’m going or I go and do something mundane I mean like clean the house or or just do you know just go and watch some tv do something completely different take my mind off it and then all of a sudden my brain sort of like clears that fog away and when I go back to it again I reread that’s another trick as well reread what you’ve written before and then move forward just to get yourself back in the mood um of what you were doing and one of the things I do as well which is a good trick if you want to keep going and not lose your momentum is when you’re in the middle of an exciting part of what you’re writing stop there for the day and then you can pick it up the next day so maybe if he goes over and edits what he’s done have a reread of what he’s done before and get himself back into that frame of mind that he was in before when he started I mean that is that is one of the best tricks yeah okay I’ll pass that on thank you so when did you start your professional writing career and how did it feel I just want to ask you when you held your first book I started my professional writing career um in probably the late 1990s when I started an adult learning class and I got a few short stories and poetry published um then I went to university and got my first degree but I didn’t write my first finished my write or finish my first book until I did my master’s degree and at that point I just didn’t know what to do with it so I ended up self-publishing it and it’s still an amazing feeling just holding that book um and um it did actually go on to win um an award in America with the independent book of the year awards with them uh forward magazine and it won the silver award for best horror novel and that on based on that that got me my first three book deal with a small press publisher um and it just took off from there really you just talked about self-publishing so what actually is involved for self-publishing for those people that were listening in that might like to go down that route I mean well first of all I would say I wouldn’t recommend that route because it’s I mean one of the things I did I didn’t know anything about publishing and I ended up spending a lot of money uh paying a company to publish this book for me and they weren’t really helpful they were just a money-making scheme nowadays though you can publish and self-publish very easily by using um platforms like Lulu or even Amazon KDP and but I would say if you are going to go down that route try and get somebody a professional editor to look at it it’s worth spending the money on that to get someone to edit your work so that it’s it’s the best it can be um and obviously try and get a professional uh book cover made as well because those are the things that are going to massively let you down when you come to self-publish um because it is too easy in a way now to just throw anything up on on one of these platforms and um and not there’s not a lot sometimes there’s not some it’s not very good stuff up there but having said that there is also some amazing self-published stuff so um so it isn’t might wouldn’t be my route of choice now I would definitely say if you’re serious about writing try and get yourself an agent first get some advice join some writers groups um because you’ll share your work together and give each other advice and that’s a really good way of developing um and then you know obviously if you get an agent then that person’s going to have access to the publishers to hopefully get you properly published so you’ve mentioned horror and I know you are attracted to writing horror why horror um I always I grew up watching late night horror movies with my sister as particularly Dracula yeah me too I absolutely loved Christopher Lee and so we used to watch a lot of these late night movies these double bills and I’ve seen some really horrific ones um and I just was attracted to the idea of being scared but in a safe way if that makes sense because you when you’re watching a movie you can hide behind a pillow you have to see the awful bits when you’re reading a book you can have that excitement of reading a horror or a thriller story but you are actually safe it’s not happening to you and and I think actually possibly I feel from a from a health point of view we you know but bearing in mind where we all came from originally I think probably that fight or flight you know using that sort of side of yourself is probably a good thing for you I suspect and I think it’s quite fun to do it okay so um because obviously I’m going to touch on autism now because this program is all things autism and you’ve touched on your books because you kindly donated some books for us um for our auction and our raffle so you were one of the judges at the autism hero awards and that just recently took place so you were a judge with um um lots of people who basically you know have judged before and haven’t judged before so we had Vicki Michelle we had Gary Webster we had Superintendent Dionne Brown which was his second time obviously we had yourself Kelly Barker which was her second time Joe Luck which is her third time and David Grant MB8 which was his second time so how was the process for you and what did you learn from judging well I think the process was wonderful actually um and one of the things I learned from it was um it’s lovely to gather together with such an amazing group of people for a start who really care obviously about the charity um but one of the amazing things for me was reading the stories you know behind people who’d been either submitted for the awards or put themselves forwards and it was quite mind-blowing and very emotional and I think and I think it was just you know you you it’s shocking really how how much people have to go through but also how talented they are how very very clever and brilliant even and and talented they are and and how they still despite um having this disability actually are achieving so many things in the world and you know are so enthusiastic so it was quite tough then to choose the final three for each category it was very tough I think that was the hardest thing because you know I said this at the awards two year when we were on the stage together it to me I felt like everyone deserved it and that was a sad you know like I just wanted to give everyone an award it was you know they all deserve it because they’re all amazing yeah we’ve had so many entries this year it was the most ever so I’ll just read a couple of them obviously I can’t read them all because we had so many that attended on the evening so one of the winners was for the personal achievement award and that was Corey Chapman I think he captured the hearts of everyone so Corey’s 12 and has autism severe ADHD and global developmental delay when he was six months old he stopped breathing after contracting the severe bout of gastroenteritis he was nonverbal until the age of five and now speaks fluently Corey is addicted to motorsport so much that he has taken up karting he had a massive accident in April 2021 but made a full recovery and got back in the cart two weeks later and won his first race back on the seat Corey’s been racing in a national championship for the last four season organized by Rob Smedley Corey is now at that age where he moved up a level so from December 2022 he drives a minimax which is more powerful he got pole position and got a second on his first outing Corey has won over 40 trophies and his parents now are extremely proud of him he was so happy to be there and when he won he’s actually really tearful and I remember when we were having grabs on the red carpet he said can you give me a hug so I did give him a hug and he just said you give good hugs I remember that and he was incredible wasn’t he incredible he was adorable um I just thought I just thought he just so deserved that it was just it is what a story really you know we go through things in our life and you think you’ve you’ve been through things but then you hear a story like that and you go wow yeah to overcome all of that definitely I’ll just read one more um so this one was the lifetime award somebody that also grabbed my attention uh sponsored by liens james punch james is the most positive committed adaptable and professional autism support worker team leader manager trainer bbs specialist and mentor the quality james put into his work is never too much he spends every working moment living breathing working with positive social care in mind it’s inspirational james goes above and beyond in everything he does such as picking up a significant amount of overtime working in care and he supports the community by being member of a support group and helping families leading advice he also has parkinson’s disease which makes every day a challenge for him outside of work james teaches kickbox into people with autism and other disabilities and he captains a pool team for people who are on the spectrum james really does make a difference he just so impressed me that gentleman and um when we had a private chat I didn’t know he apparently been following me for quite a few years and he just said keep doing what you’re doing anna he said because we need people like you and I said we definitely need people like you as well james so that was the whole point of the awards it was people that go the extra mile and so many um of the people that attended that evening definitely went the extra mile and it was so lovely as well because obviously we had pineapple performing arts supporting us you know great um routines and then we had the lovely marie gorton who sang who was also on autism scot talent for us quite a few years ago and um we also um had asden as well who received um an award so I get to choose three awards so it’s I chose two for charity support of the year and I chose one for achievement which was the lovely um a lovely lady as well that has written a book called just like me books um so all of the information for everyone listening there’s too much to talk about the hero awards it’s all on the charity website so just to remind you it’s www.anna kennedy online.com and you can also follow us on social media so we just touched on autism’s got talent so you were there we’ve been to one or two autism’s got talent I’ve just been to the one I wanted to come last year but I was actually I was something else was happening that weekend for me that I’d I was already you know committed to but um I’m a great supporter of talent shows actually because that was one of the things I grew up doing I was a classical singer I used to teach singing drama part-time um and I absolutely my husband and I had the best time it was the most amazing evening and I think actually I was sat next to you and I kept giving you a commentary about what I was feeling I think most of the time when I was watching there’s amazing acts oh it was mind-blowing and at the end of it David and I were both nearly in tears because we just thought that’s just the most incredible thing we’ve ever seen um and we’re up for it again next year thank you yeah we’ve been we’ve got the um auditions that are open again so if you want to um apply to be on autism’s got talent at 20 I can’t believe it 2024 where’s all this time gone um it’s open now all the auditions all the information’s on the charity website yet again we were inundated and since I’ve been on the lorraine show because we talked about autism’s got talent we’ve had so many entries in already I thought Lisa how are we going to choose 20 20 people it took it took us long enough we narrowed it down to 30 this year and then we had to narrow it down to 20 because if not the show would go on for a few weeks but it was just do two shows a year oh do it but it’s so I always say you have to be there to appreciate what I’m talking about so if you’re a singer you’re a dancer musician magician you regroup you play acoustic or electric guitar you play the drums you report whatever it is that you do we want to see your talent all the information’s on the charity website please send in a video of yourself doing what you do best and then we have the tough tough tough task of choosing 20 performers for um october next year 2024 so the closing date’s going to be end of may I’ve extended it to the end of may and we’ll be having our show again at the mermaid theater we’ve been there for 13 years um and they’re a great supporter of our it was great it was great thank you so right so let’s talk about what you read for fun son you know not not what you are obviously you like what you’re right but who who who else do you like who which authors are you into well I was always into Stephen King Dean Coons uh Anne Rice more modern writers and more thriller because I’m writing more thriller stuff now I really like Tim Weaver um and I love his stuff I just love his narrative I love the way he writes and I’m a huge fan of brief ware who writes a lot of upmarket thrillers and like the death of Mrs Westaway which was the first one I read of hers and again I just love the way she writes there’s just something it’s it’s quite literary it’s but it’s a fantastic storytelling um and I just find her both her and Tim they’re my absolute favorites at the moment I have just dipped into uh a new writer called Femi Aodi as well and um and I’m I can recommend him too he’s really really good writer fantastic in fact so I’m going to be reading more of his I’m sure as time go as he writes some more um you’re supportive of the domestic abuse charity Idas um tell me how you got involved on why if you don’t mind not at all I don’t mind um I um was a sufferer of child abuse and I ended up when I left home ended up getting into a marriage with a man who was 27 years older than me who was also um a narcissist control freak um basically and carried on that that sort of trail trail of abuse as it were um into my marriage until till I got to about 40 and realized that this was my life had to change um and it took me many many years to come out about this but I decided to support Idas a couple of years ago um after a long chat with my friend our mutual friend Stephen Smith um because he he and I talked about my childhood etc and I said I want to do something to help other people um and I am as you know a big supporter of charities anyway um and Idas it just seemed like they they were so close to my heart that I could do some real good by sharing my story with these you know with people that needed support um and I yeah I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done I absolutely they they’re such hard working as you know all charities are very hard working and dedicated um and they do an awful lot of good you know at the minute and the smaller charities um even bigger charities I just I think I just read last week that one of the bigger charities and something like five million pounds deficit because of the rising costs in pacer absolutely yeah so and I you know if people are listening in you know if I know it’s hard times at the minute if you can spare a pound or whatever it is that you can spare um for smaller charities like ours as well you know because it’s it’s just we want to keep going we want to keep doing what we’re doing because we are a lifeline to many families so um you know whatever you can do um to help a charity of your choice please please do because I’ve spoken to um you know quite a few um accountants and people that you know are involved in this sort of thing and they’re seeing the smaller charities now they seem to be dwindling away or closing because they just can’t keep going which is very sad well I think we’re going to have to do more to support you then Anna because that is just that just horrifies me the thought that a charity like yours which is doing so much good and so much bringing so much joy to people which is really what it’s about you know I mean just quality of life and joy is just a big thing I just think it’s so important that everybody feels some joy in their life because life’s hard enough you know and um I so I think we’re going to have to do more to support you aren’t we get out there everyone get your get your hand in your pocket now support Anna Kennedy online thank you so much yeah because the thing is people don’t realize um you know even like yesterday I helped my son um put his Christmas decorations up because he’s mad about dinosaurs and as I was coming out there was a lady and she went oh are you Anna and Kennedy so I said yes she said I saw you on the Lorraine show and then she’s just said um you know my son um is autistic and then she she could I could just see she was on the verge of tears and and then she just um started so I said oh give me a hug so you know we hooked in the middle of the high street and then she just said to me you just don’t know what that means and what you’ve just done for me now so I said please message me she follows me on Instagram I said you know I chat to everybody on social media I’ve met so many interesting people as well on social media but you know you know things like autism’s got talent changes so many lives um you know I see people that have been on there a few years ago now they’ve set up their own business or it’s motivated them to do other things it’s given them the constant confidence or it’s given them a springboard even like the hero words people still messaging me from the event saying you know how great it was to be there and to network with other people so it’s just it’s all about sharing information it’s all about networking it’s all about positivity there’s just far too much negativity out there at the minute there is seeing people trolling other people it’s just not nice you know so it’s just like as I always say you know a smile or a kind word or whatever it is you know it just can mean an awful lot to a people because you don’t actually know what they’re going through um so I wanted to ask you if you don’t mind um what are the alarm bells but so if somebody might be going through domestic uh violence or domestic abuse what can they do well I think it’s there are different kinds of abuse so sometimes people think they’re not being abused and they’ve got a partner who’s like in my case was keeping complete financial control over them wouldn’t let them have friends you know criticize everything they do puts them down and you know and then there are there are other abusers that are just you know will will actually physically abuse somebody um and that in some ways it’s easier to to recognize because people will see the bruises yeah it’s not so easy to see that somebody’s being kept under the thumb as it were or being psychologically abused at home um interestingly friends of mine when I left they actually said they knew I was like I’d never been able to tell them and they’re and family so oh yeah we knew you kept you right under the thumb you know it just it so you know again if you suspect that somebody is not they may not ever admit it to you even if you do ask them give them a leaflet you know there are leaflets available on your local doctors or you know even if you contact somewhere like I doesn’t get some you could hand them a leaflet and it will like it will summarize all of the things that a textbook that abusers do and sometimes it’s it’s about being made aware of of the situation you’re in because innocently you don’t realize sometimes how bad things are until you’re out of the situation and it’s then that the PTSD sets in you know because you you realize you actually you’ve got to then what what the abusers do is condition their victims to accept that that what’s happening is normal right makes sense and so the only thing you can do is just be vigilant if you see someone who’s constantly getting bruised or injured talk to them about it breaks the subject be brave I would now I would definitely do that now so the charity that you support is called IDAS so that’s I D A S and can people contact them direct do they have like contact form or can they ring they do you they have their own their independent domestic abuse services known as IDAS and they’re on online um so yes if you if you google that you will find their website and they are you know fantastic people um will will understand will not judge you I mean don’t don’t be afraid even if you think you’ve just you won’t be abused but you want to talk to somebody why don’t you speak to them anyway because I think be surprised what you’re told by what when you tell your story to them that they’ll have heard it before and and if you’re in any doubt it’s nothing to be ashamed of and I think I think some sometimes people don’t contact because they’re worried you know they’re ashamed that you know people may think less of them or whatever I just that it’s what’s that saying it’s good to talk and it is things off your chest um absolutely so let’s talk about your first thriller the stranger in our bed and it’s been made into a film obviously I know all of this because I’ve seen it all on social media and it’s a great deal of critical acclaim even winning several awards and how does that feel so talk to me first of all about why you wrote stranger in our bed and how did it feel to receive that book and then the acclaim and all the awards but it’s been winning well I wrote the stranger in our bed because it was based on a story that a friend told me about a friend of hers who left her husband in the 80s for uh somebody she’d been having in a fairway and the guy disappeared so he basically catfished her and when when she told me that story I thought I took it and I thought I’m going to take that and make it into something completely different which I did but it inspired me to write the story and I’d never done a straightforward thriller before I’d always written something that was supernatural in or horror in in content rather than a straightforward sort of domestic violence thriller and I think part of me um it was a very cathartic book because I did sort of like address that side of of you know experience from that I’d had as well um of domestic violence and especially the um the kind that is sort of psychological um I love reading psychological thrillers myself as well so it was setting myself a challenge that I wanted to write a book that I would enjoy reading as well and I was really proud of it and um it’s Alta Harper Collins and unfortunately it came out in the middle of Covid and I thought I thought this is a disaster you know it’s not going to sell because it’s you know who’s going to bookstores they’re all closed at the moment but it did fantastic online and it ended up being a USA Today bestseller within a week of it being put out being published so um it was totally mind-blowing because I had so many hopes and I thought that all my dreams were dashed really that this book wasn’t going to be a success and then it wasn’t and then within a couple of months um Terry Dwyer from Buffalo Dragon and I were talking about making the film and it just it was like a roller coaster really and I was like you know that dream come true moment it really was that it really was tell me a little bit about what’s this you know without giving too much away what’s this stranger now babe what’s it all about well it’s about this woman called Charlotte who’s married to a very wealthy CEO called Tom and she falls in love with another man because she really is ultimately not very happy with Tom even though she’s been with him many years and she meets this other guy Ewan and when she decides to leave Tom she admits the truth to him that she’s leaving and Ewan goes missing and then it’s very much about how she finds out what happened to him and who was behind it okay all right then so people want to buy it where can they find it they can find it in all good bookstores um or waterstones whatever can order it for you if they haven’t got one in you can buy it online um or bookstores um any any bookstore really you can also get it on an ebook um and it’s also in audio okay so the film so what’s that all about so how it was is it very similar to the book well i wrote the screenplay myself i did have to make some changes because they weren’t practical for screen especially as the film was being made in the middle of covid so there were certain things that did have to change but it is essentially the same yes yeah very very very pleased with it they did a fantastic job of the film also where can that people can the people watch the film online or you can yes it’s um it’s available if you’re in the states it’s available in uh on Showtime and Hulu it’s also available on amazon and it’s available on iTunes Rakuten most most sort of download pay-for-view tv you can buy it i think it’s under it’s under four pounds so you can get to watch the movie for under four pounds sometimes amazon had it for 99p at one point which was great so did you go to the premiere we didn’t have get it have a premiere unfortunately because it came out and we and cinemas still weren’t open when the film came out but we did do a private viewing in a cinema and and so i did see it on the big screen and then i did a charity viewing um in pediston for for Eidos which was great because i was actually sat in an audience for the first time that i didn’t know the story and they were all jumping in and in you know being shocked at the right moments and i was giggling because i was just loving their reaction so um women’s radio obviously promotes mental health and well-being so what do you do for your own well-being and mental health so tips and advice people love tips and advice on this show so what do you do to help with your own mental health and well-being well um i sort of touched on it earlier i’ve my husband and i’ve got a thing about finding some joy in you know as much as possible i try very much to be in the moment these days so i try to enjoy everything like i absolutely loved the autism hero awards we had a great time to me that was a joy night um and um so i just look for joy in everything and also my writing i find it very cathartic so writing to me although it’s work it’s also it is also a way of getting rid of my own stresses if you know to me okay um talking about autism i always ask this of people so if you think back now you know a little bit more about autism because of you know supporting the charity can you think back of people when you were at school that might have been on the autism spectrum definitely definitely and my own and my niece two of my nieces definitely were um in those days they referred to it as educational needs um you know so it was yeah but they both were when you look back and my daughter actually has she’s just been diagnosed as an adult with ADHD and we’re pretty sure she’s also autistic but she hasn’t gone through that diagnosis yet how old is she she’s now 30 well i used to see it i didn’t know what it was but when she because she’s a wonderful singer so when she used to perform as a child she used to flap her hands used to flap while she was doing it at the side of her and there were certain things that she’d do and you know obsess about um that i and now i can see it yeah because i understand it more um but um yeah i was just going to say um a lot more adults now are being diagnosed autistic ADHD what made your daughter if you don’t mind me asking go for the diagnosis because sometimes people say well you’ve got this far i’ve heard this before you’ve got this far so why do you want to go now um and as i’ve said before some people want to do something with the diagnosis or they want extra support or some people don’t want to do anything with the diagnosis they just want to know and it’s almost like a way so what was it for your daughter why why did she feel that she needed to go in her case she has always suffered with unexplainable anxiety and she couldn’t explain it and for her own sake she wanted to know why and now she’s actually on dopamine now she’s not she’s not suffering from the depression that she was having she’s not suffering from the anxiety attacks that she was having and because obviously ADHD you know dopamine is a big factor in um you know that people have a dopamine deficiency can cause it um as i’m sure you know better than i do um and she and i’ve learnt this from her because i didn’t know this either um and she said in herself she’s now and i got this and as it happens i have myself been put forward for a diagnosis of ADHD as well because i completely got what she said and we have very similar symptoms and it’s keeping your brain still she said and now she can keep her brain still to focus on one task and get what she wants to do keep her attention on one task and i must have met i’m very much the same myself i’m all over the place sometimes take the dopamine to kick in would you say i don’t know i think i probably would try it myself because if it and she she’s um i think it was very quick i think she had a couple of a few weeks of it um i must ask her that question properly we did have long discussions about it but i think it took a few weeks for her to because they had to change the dose start with a small dose and then they start upping the dose to a tolerable level and i think it took a while but she’s now a very even keel and she’s very very happy with um it’s just amazing really the difference in it because honestly i used to get phone calls from her all the time about and you know because she was always anxious um and she’d worry about this what what people would just go that silly don’t worry about that what you worry about that for but to her it was a big thing okay and i completely got it i get it now you know now much more than i ever did so yeah so um that’s good to hear i’m good to hear she’s on an evil keel so um what are you working on at the moment what you’re up to i’m currently writing one of my vampire books because um a few people uh sponsored me uh to write this book i wasn’t ever going to get back to writing another vampire gene book i thought because i was going to be doing thrillists so i’m currently working on midnight masquerade which is book seven of the vampire gene series and this will be a sam stone book because that’s my one of my horror writing names is sam stone um yeah yeah i’ve written over 27 novels now well some of them are sam stone and some of them are sam and the lee house right okay so um just finished another book which will be out in december next year but i can’t tell you too much about that because they haven’t announced it yet um but uh but that will be a kind of me straddling both both things thriller it’s going to be a supernatural thriller i can tell you that much so so when you get ideas do you like sometimes you’re asleep then all of a sudden you’ll wake up you’ll just think oh and then do you write it down or record it how does how do the ideas pop in your head um most of it happens in the day but i do tend to once i’ve got an idea looping around in my head i do have dreams i’ve very vivid dreams about them and sometimes i’ve actually dreamed a whole book in a night if that like yeah jaded jewel was that i dreamed a whole story thread in this one night and i woke up the next day and that was book six of the vampire gene and then i obviously created another thread around that but this whole one character thread that i that i had no idea who the the main character of this book was going to be in it was her it was dual and um and it just it just happened to me one night and i was just you know incredible dream really very very vivid um i think once my creativity is going it’s just my mind is just working even when i’m asleep it’s terrible really i’m just saying you must be shattered when you wake up i always dream i’m jumping from building to building all the time um my dreams are never how can i say they’re never like lovely nice dreams there’s always some sort of i don’t know something going on or yeah they’re just like weird dreams that they don’t make sense and then my sister likes to uh look up dreams you have a dream book and what have you or looks it up online they’re always like weird dreams i’d like to just have a nice normal dream for once hey wouldn’t it be nice i had a zombie one this morning it was um the people who were bitten by zombies the only cure for it was them giving them cranberry juice and so your partner david he’s a writer as well isn’t he he is he’s written over 30 books on uh TV shows uh he’s a doctor who historian so um yeah he loves his doctor who we’ve been watching that again lately we haven’t thought of writing a book together we’ve only ever written one short story together and that was because i started it and i got pulled off for another project and i said oh i’m not going to be able to finish the story and he said oh well should i have a look and he finished it so that was that was fun but we’ve yeah we’ve never really not really worked on a book together it could happen though yeah good and did you like when he finished it off did you like what he bought it was really interesting because it wasn’t where i was going to take it but i liked it a lot yeah it was great he’s a great writer he really is okay so if people want to find you um you know and obviously look at your books and um and obviously might like to follow you on social media where can they find you well my my website is www.samantha lee spelled l double e how h o double e a w e dot com um and i’m on social media under samantha lee house sort of facebook instagram tick tock threads um yeah you can basically just put in samantha lee how anywhere and you’ll find me okay um so you also um have a book called the house of killers that sounds a bit i do yeah what’s that about the house of killers is a trilogy and the first book is called the house of killers the other the next one is called kill uh or die and the third one is killer spy and what it is is a spy espionage sort of vibe to it but it’s kind of um it’s still thrillers but there is um it’s about a character called neva a female assassin who was raised in a place called the house of killers from the age of five and was basically groomed to be an assassin and this is about her breaking that conditioning and becoming somebody else becoming who she really wants to be it’s kind of a love story as well because there is a an mi5 love element in there with an mi5 agent called michael so but it’s it’s very fast paced action based if you like jason baughan if you like killing eve you would probably quite enjoy this because it reads very filmically as well so so you signed the three book deal with one more chapter for an explosive spy thriller trilogy so we’ve just spoken about the house of killers um so what’s next um after this you’ve talked about um a couple of books that you’ve got in the pipeline but um what can you see yourself doing and say if you had a magic wand in five ten years time well i’d like to write some more thrillers definitely i have actually got three more that i’ve written that are doing the rounds at the moment or fingers crossed they’ll um but i’ve got i’ve got loads of synopsis ideas that i’ve written up and it’s just a matter of me doing picking really which ones i want to work on next um but i would like to do some more supernatural thrillers i think you know do the cross of the genre again how about incorporating an artistic um adult art child in one of your novels would that be exciting it absolutely would and i would do that could i also lean on you a bit for advice if that if i decide to do that so that i make sure that i handle that in the best way yeah most definitely and also my husband sean who’s autistic so um obviously be good to get it from an autistic perspective as well so that yeah that would be good i was just while you were chatting i was just thinking because i know do know a lot of autistic adults that are into um supernatural and horror and all that sort of that might be um something new to think about definitely um and yes uh we there are a lot of autistic uh fans of um of science fiction and fantasy full stop actually they’re big fans of dr who so you know it just absolutely gets their imagination it’s fantastic yeah um i’m not a huge fan of dr who myself but um i do know um especially one uh young man um that’s been um on the radio with me on gateway mason he is absolutely mad about dr who he’s had so many photographs with all the different dr who’s that have been um on they’ve just released a new one haven’t they um i think i saw it at the weekend they have i mean they brought david tenant back with um katherine tape for three specials and then they’re going to regenerate into a fantastic young actor called shooty gatwa who is actually i’m very excited to see him as the doctor i think he’s going to be amazing oh wow um i was also just um looking at the autism for adults book that we were talking about um that’s uh basically um been out now probably for a couple of months by daniel m jones got some really interesting stuff because um obviously autistic adults want the same as everybody else they want a good education you know they want a partner um you know they want a home they want a job and all the rest of it and um there’s not an awful lot of stuff out there talking about autism and intimacy and um what he’s saying in this book is for intimacy communication is key so let’s get back to intimacy touch can be tricky to navigate some of us mere like hugs but only soft hugs or hard hugs for me it’s the latter i can only enjoy a hug of its firm fresher based hug that being said let’s not forget that there are some of us who may not like hugging at all i do know quite a few adults it’s just like you always have to ask is it okay to give you a hug and it’s just like nope or it’s like oh yes please for intimacy to happen touch preferences and sensitivities need to be known because a lot of um children and adults do have a sensory processing condition so sometimes touch can be quite difficult for them so for example there’s something funny that happens between me and my partner when we’re driving our car we’d be driving along and my partner bless her would put her hand softly on my leg in an attempt to be affectionate and supportive as any loving partner would do the funny part is as soon as she touches me lightly on the leg i literally jump off my seat and a bit of a surprise screech screech and a dash of panic then she apologizes i calm down and we both laugh about it in all honesty her light touch of my leg is like an electric shock wave pulsing through my entire body with a sharp current that hits me like jumping into a nice cold lake in the middle of winter with no wetsuit on and what he says is an actionable takeaways so make sure that you express your wants and your needs clearly to your partner to get the best flow of communication listen to yourself get to know your needs and your likes and remember that sensory input from the environment can impact your mood and do not think you are wrong in how you feel just make sure you explain it all to your partner so please please this is a really great book there’s lots of lots of useful information on there so it’s autism for adults an approach guide to living accidentally on the spectrum and it’s by daniel m jones and you can buy it for www.heyhouse.co.uk and daniel is the founder of the aspie world which i’ve watched many times on youtube a platform created to help inform educate and entertain people about autism and other commonly co-occurring conditions daniel has worked at the national autistic society nhs autism teams the national team of whales and many other awesome ad pc groups so his website just to remind you www.the aspie world.com to remind you about sam he can follow on instagram so that’s samantha lee howl she’s on threads how are you finding threads what do you think of threads uh i like it actually it’s um it’s really quite pleasant on there yeah and um i keep forgetting that they don’t use hashtags no they don’t and i’ve tried to use a few times i thought oh nothing’s happening and also you’ve got your website www.samantha lee howl.co.uk and um what do you think about tick tock because there’s a lot of controversy um talking about tick tock because sometimes people go on there for advice and sometimes it’s not the best advice that’s been given on tick tock i’m not sure about tick tock i have to be honest i have got an account um i often forget to use it um i think it’s the kind of place you go to when you’ve when you’ve just got a few moments to kill and you just want to watch a silly video is this how i think of it really um i’m not taking it terribly seriously although there is apparently a big um area called book tock um you know lots of hashtag if you hashtag book tock in it’s supposed to help with book sales but i’ve yet to see that happen oh i’ve never read that one um can i ask your opinion on AI artificial intelligence and do you think that’s going to spoil it for people writing books or writing screenplays or whatever it may be that the way they’re talking about it sounds positive but it also sounds negative i think there’s a place for AI um particularly in um the medical community you know where they can where the AI can actually work faster than um a human brain count to to resolve some sort of medical issues however when it comes to creativity you will never ever replace human mind you never will um i’ve had a look at chat gbt and i don’t think it’s very good um i think anybody who wants to write a book using that well you’re not a writer you want to be ashamed of yourself and and you know um i don’t i don’t know how you can even consider it writing it is an artificial thing doing creating a story for you it’s not it’s not coming from you and therefore isn’t you know it’s not proper writing and to be honest with you what it does create is very very flat and unemotional and really to me just screams immediately that it’s not a human that’s written it but then that’s just me yeah i just notice it so can you can pick can you pick it up straight away when you think right oh no that’s not human well i do because basically it just seems to do one of the the biggest things it does is it tells a story it doesn’t show it which um is part of the skill of writing is showing it and bringing the reader into the story so much that they’re submerged into it they’re they’re experiencing sense senses through it they’re not even thinking about the fact but they’re getting that vision of the story popping in their head immediately when you read something that’s been done by chat to me it’s just um it tells you know it’s like oh this person is such and such um and it’s only as good as the information that they put into it anyway um all right i think the gist of what you’re trying to say so um we’ve only got a minute left so i just wanted to say thank you so much once again for supporting our charity um autumn scotts talent and also the hero wards and also for being a judge and if you’re up for being a judge again um please you know we’d love to have you um and um please keep writing and um just remind everyone it’s www.samanthaleehow.co.uk um thank you so much again for joining me today because i know how busy you are and always enjoy chatting to different people on women’s radio station and if you’d like to be my guest please contact me either on the charity website or you can contact me via women’s radio station if you’d like to chat to me about all things autism um so i just want to say thank you so much sam for supporting us and for chatting to me today so have you enjoyed the experience i have and you’re very very welcome and yes i’d love to be a judge again next year thank you so much it was great experience oh thank you thank you for chatting again i know you’re always so easy to talk to it’s brilliant oh thank you and best wishes to davis and keep doing what you’re doing and um sending positive vibes to everyone as i always say someday is good someday is not so good just keep going one day at a time thanks everyone take care bye now