AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Mette Ivie Harrison
Everything Is True
Ada Hoffmann's author newsletter
Mette is a national bestselling author of The Bishop's Wife as well as numerous YA fantasies like The Princess and the Hound. She is also an endurance athlete, a Princeton PhD (German Literature) and the mother of five. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Tell me about a recent work you released - a short story, a poem, a book, a game. What one work of yours do you hope readers will go out and read today? What's it about?
I have a new short story up at an exhibit created for the pandemic. It's about an autistic boy who loves superheroes and how his parents try to love his obsession with him. It's the first published piece I've written about autism and I have a friend who tells me it's the best thing I've ever written. It's definitely the scariest.
What do you enjoy most about writing?
I love first drafts. I think I like being in my own world, interacting with people who I can control. I like being in charge of the rules of the world. In some ways, I think that I write in a very autistic way, but in other ways, I think that it is the least autistic thing about me, because I don't often do outlines. I just jump in and play. It's one of the few places in my life where I feel safe to be myself, but maybe that says more about how prejudiced the world is against my true self than it does about me or writing.
What is most difficult for you about writing?
I struggle with expectations in "marketing" and "networking," because I'm not always sure what those look like. If given a specific task, like "fill out this interview online," I'm good at that. I'm less good at general "schmoozing" and I'm afraid that I overwhelm conversations if I start talking about my obsessive interests or myself. I often time myself to make sure that I'm not talking too much, but I'm sure that my general nervousness is just another part of the problem.
Tell me about a special interest of yours. Have you found yourself incorporating your special interests into your fiction?
I love training for endurance events. Definitely an obsession, but it's one I've come to late in life. As a kid, I was terribly uncoordinated and always picked last for any team. I only realized how much I loved swimming when I was in high school, trying desperately to escape from taking PE. I love being underwater and not being able to hear people at all. I remember in high school swim meets, the team tried to motivate me by trying to time their cheering to my head coming out of the water and I found it baffling, confusing and distressing. I like triathlon and running because they are solitary and I like long events because I feel like I get to disconnect from the world and not have to mask anymore. I don't have to smile if I'm just getting a cup of water at an aid station and I don't have to make chit chat.
What one thing do you wish more speculative fiction readers knew about autism?
I wish it wasn't always male autism, with techie skills and lack of empathy. I'm very well acquainted with that autism in my family members, but I personally am over-empathetic and have emotional shutdowns because of that. I always have and no one ever saw this as a symptom of autism. I was just "overly emotional."
What question do you wish interviews like these would ask? Answer it here.
I sometimes wish people would ask what it's like growing up in a family with so many (mostly undiagnosed) autistic people. I think nine of the eleven kids in the family would now be diagnosed as autistic (3 of us are self-diagnosed, but that mostly didn't happen until the next generation started getting diagnosed) and I think both of my parents are autistic. I tried to talk to my mother about the diagnosis recently (she is 90) and I just have to laugh at what she said. "If that's what autism is, then I'm glad we're all autistic," she said. Leaving no room for me to talk about any of the downsides, shutting down the conversation entirely. Sigh. And also, I love her so much. So, so much. She made sure we all survived to adulthood, which wasn't an easy thing with that many autistic kids all in the same household.
