Kaleidoscope Picture Book

This post is a personal promotion, I thought it was about time I promoted Kaleidoscope, especially given that it came out in 2021.

I didn’t promote it for several reasons, but mostly because I’d taken on too much. I just didn’t have the time to focus on it as well as everything else. Also my publisher had went bankrupt three weeks after it was released. That meant that I lost a lot of money because of it. Plus by that time I had committed to working on behalf of the community, and I wasn’t going back on my word.

So to the book...

Kaleidoscope was designed around an autistic person’s visual sense. This will differ slightly from person to person, however more balanced imagery seems to contain fewer visual triggers.

This means that Kaleidoscope is unique.

It’s been created to take into account an autistic person’s visual perception and acuity with the hope that it could help keep bedtime routines more settled and a more comfortable experience. When it was published I applied for an international world record for “The first autism friendly traditional picture book”. It is still being considered, so in all this time there hasn’t been a single book found like Kaleidoscope. (If there had been the world record application would have been rejected). I’m really hoping that I will hear about the world record later this year.

I wrote this book for my daughter. At the time my ability to read and write was about the same as a primary school child. It took me 3 years to learn to read and write properly and 10 years in total to publish.

I had read it to Megan for years when she asked, “Dad can I have a proper book with pictures and everything”. That is when the decision to get the story published started.

So Kaleidoscope is deeply personal, it was written for my daughter but it’s more than that. It was published on my Dad’s birthday, includes my daughter’s date of birth (hidden in an image) and at the beginning of the book is a note to my mother-in-law. She passed away as a result of having motor neurone disease (MND/ALS). The acknowledgement page “To Duck Duck” was a heartfelt message to her.

Kaleidoscope is like me, its a little bit different but compassionate and kind. It’s the story of how a lost bear cub finds his way home.

The price for Kaleidoscope is £10 plus postage (please message me or email ross.fraser@mylifeautistic.com with your country for the postage cost and I will check and get back to you), and we can post outside of the UK. Payment can be made via my wife’s PayPal account.

I asked my daughter once why she wanted me to give her a published copy.

She said...

“It always made me smile and go to bed feeling good, I wanted other kids to get to have that too”.

Megan Fraser aged 10

Image description: A "Fraser" bear, with a butterfly brooch on its nose. Four pictures make up the image, showing the covers and a couple of pages from Kaleidoscope. The images show Ray (the bear cub), Hope (the main butterfly from the story) and a kaleidoscope of butterflies in flight.

All my best and love

Ross Fraser

An autistic and dyslexic author

Warwickshire Council

“SEN children should be institutionalised and not given as much funding as they are unable to be helped”.

This was a statement made by certain councillors at a meeting on the 25th of January this year. The councillors involved in making this statement work for Warwickshire Council and more details can be found in the petition linked below.

I will attempting to phone all three councillors personally this coming week. In the meantime I ask that you please consider signing and sharing this petition. It’s asking for fairer and a more equal funding allowance for supporting SEN students. I don’t think that is unreasonable at all, especially as someone that wasn’t helped by the education system. Having a more personalised education based on my needs, that would have made a massive difference. Plus I don’t think I would have grown up feeling that I failed in every thing I did, with the right support. That’s the key, because the wrong support, even if with the best of intentions, can have a detrimental effect.

The term “SEN” covers a wide range of needs. These include behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, speech, language and communication, hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment, physical disability and autism.

In this particular case, the people who are in charge of fund allocation think anyone that falls under the category of SEN should be locked up. That essentially we should be treated as criminals by default.

If anyone wants to add anything please do comment below. I will choose a few comments to read back to them when I call. I don’t know if I’ll actually get to speak to any of the councillors involved ,but I’ll definitely try to.

Councils to prioritise allocating funds to SEN services.

Petition started by Melvyna Hawes

https://chng.it/QQ6Wk9sRst

All our best and love

Ross Fraser and Jeni Dern

Written by – Ross Fraser

#NewLifeAutistic

#mentalhealthadvocate #together #community #actuallyautistic #autismacceptance

Jeni and Ross

Personal updates:

Jeni

I am still involved with mylifeautistic, however for the foreseeable future I will need to focus on my daughter and I. I’m currently going through a divorce and may be a witness in the trial against my husband. I don’t want to add more pressure on myself at this time. When things settle a bit ill properly be back, it’s just the future is very uncertain at the moment.

Ross

I have reduced my workload quite considerably. The main problem I have is passing out due to nerve pain. It’s much like the feeling you get when you are sedated for surgery. At the moment I am getting the available pain management from my doctor’s , but it’s not enough. I can cope with the pain in the summer but the winter is an arduous undertaking.

I have been referred back to the pain clinic and I have a telephone appointment on the 28th with my GP. I have been made aware of a potential solution to the nerve pain. I have asked my doctor about the possibility of spinal decomposition surgery. This wouldn’t be an end to my pain, but may reduce it and/or give me back some of the mobility I’ve lost. For me it’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment, until I get further information from my doctor at the end of the month.

As for mylifeautistic we have two projects that I’d like to see through. We want to help create medical support cards for doctors offices, dentists and hospital. We need to hire an artist and create a focus group on Discord. I plan on doing that this summer. The other project is to find more suitable alert sounds for emergency service vehicles. We already have someone looking at the sounds of emergency service vehicles in other countries. This is to see if there are more suitable options already being used elsewhere in the world that we could consider.

Image description: A person sitting on a bench resting with a thought bubble showing a clutter of thoughts. On the white wall behind them is a collection of graffiti, which includes abstract shapes, colours, a stylised skull and music notes. Text: Always be kind to your mind.

All our best and love

Ross Fraser and Jeni Dern

Written by – Ross Fraser

#NewLifeAutistic

#mentalhealthadvocate #together #community #actuallyautistic #autismacceptance