Autistic Reader Interview: S.J. Groenewegen
Everything Is True
Ada Hoffmann's author newsletter
S.J. Groenewegen is the author of The Disinformation War (GoldSF, June 2023) and several novels and short stories tied into the extended Doctor Who universe (Candy Jar Books). SJ wrote a monograph on the Doctor Who story Face the Raven as part of the Black Archive series (Obverse Books, 2018). Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, SJ has lived in Canberra, Birmingham (UK), London, Amsterdam, Washington DC, and now calls the Highlands of Scotland home. SJ left a 25 year public service career to write full-time, and at age 53 was diagnosed autistic. https://www.sjgroenewegen.co.uk includes a full listing of publications.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Is there anything you've written or made recently that you'd like other readers to know about? Other than what's in your bio, is there anything about your connection to autism, books, and reading that you'd like to share?
My first original spec fic novel, The Disinformation War, is going to be published in June this year by a new intersectional feminist SFF imprint, GoldSF (working with Goldsmiths university press and MIT press). My novel is based on a work that I rage-wrote about ten years ago in response to a lot of things going on politically in the world. I didn’t expect that what I wrote then would ever see publication but I am glad that it found such a perfect home.
From the outset, the main protagonist presented herself as an undiagnosed autistic aroace person questioning her gender presentation in the safest place she knew – the internet. The novel is set in the very near future and online she’s a veteran social justice warrior. Her real-life world is much more messed up, which kicks off the novel and drives the story.
I didn’t set out to make her autistic. This was genuinely one of those creative moments when a character had her own life and pushed my subconscious to tell her story. GoldSF accepted my proposal during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. As work progressed on the novel I got to thinking about whether or not I might be autistic. It took a while but at age 53 that facet of my life was confirmed. I see it as intrinsic to who I am in much the same way as my homosexuality (I came out at age 25) and vaguely masculine gender expression (I’m still working through all that).
I grew up in a house filled with books because both my parents were avid readers. They encouraged borrowing from the library and indulged my early attempts at writing stories. They passed away five years ago but did both read and enjoyed my first novel, a Doctor Who tie-in. We never got to talk about autism and I have a wistful regret that some questions I have about my childhood will never be answered.
What are you reading right now? What are you looking forward to reading soon?
I am reading Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, having read several essays and talks both by her and others concerning the depiction of gender in it. I’d read most of the criticism before but not the novel itself. I think the elements of the novel that are very much of its time and place would have put me off reading it before now. I am glad for the contextualisation.
I recently completed reading Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Such a lushly written series, so evocative of Henry VIII’s court and yet also incredibly human. I must read more of her work.
I am looking forward to reading more of Octavia Butler’s work, as well as Aliette de Bodard’s The Red Scholar’s Wake, Zen Cho’s Black Water Sister, Nicola Griffith’s Menewood and your The Infinite.
Have you ever had a special interest in a fiction series or genre of fiction? What makes a work of fiction special-interest-worthy for you - or do the interests seem to descend at random?
Looking back on my life, oh yes. They were particularly intense during my teenaged years, and I now ponder whether it was partly my brain’s way of dealing with the hormonal storm of adolescence. I recall grabbing everything I could find by Anne McCaffery and reading and re-reading them to the detriment of eating or sleeping at times.
Doctor Who is an enduring special interest, although the intensity levels have varied over the decades.
Crime fiction and true crime have both been special interests of mine, which happily coincided with much of my 25 years as a public servant. For about 20 years I worked as an intelligence analyst/researcher/strategist in criminal justice.
What grabs my interest, and what doesn’t, does seem to be quite random. I have managed to learn how to bend how it works for me into something that’s both enjoyable and productive.
What makes a book difficult for you to read? What, if anything, helps make books accessible to you?
There is a style of writing that I cannot engage with; it’s like my mind slips and slides away from it. I’ve noticed it mostly in certain fantasy novels written in a kind of epic style. It’s similar to my general inability to grip onto certain types of poetry and song lyrics.
I much prefer stories that get in close to characters and their thoughts and motivations. Kameron Hurley’s God’s War novels and stories and her The Light Brigade are great examples of what I really enjoy in terms of getting under the skin of the characters.
Is there anything (a type of character, a type of plot, a type of setting, a type of author, an idea, a style, etc...) that you have difficulty finding in the books you read right now? What do you wish that there was more of?
I adored Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars and would dearly love to read more fiction that melds together so many disparate ideas and characters in such a delightful way.
Mostly, though, I am happy with what I’ve been reading. So long as there’s queerness and weirdness, and ideas that expand my thinking or knowledge then it’s good.
One thing I have struggled with for a long time was the effect of what I realise now was probably autistic burn out. My previous career was intensely stressful and I didn’t have the spoons to read much for pleasure. My personal circumstances have changed in such a way that reading is a priority but for a few reasons my reading speed isn’t as fast as it once was. I’ve also learned to not force myself to read things that just aren’t working for me.
This month at Everything Is True, we’re interviewing a wide variety of autistic readers with questions like these! You can find a schedule with the rest of the interviews here.
Meanwhile, some news from Ada:
THE OUTSIDE appears on Books Forward’s massive list of books to read for Autism Acceptance Month! There’s a ton here, and you should check out all of it.