Friday 11 January 2013

An amazing interview with Tina Power Traverse.  Read on...



Title: Forever, Christian

Author: Tina Traverse

Page Count: 46

ISBN:1481003925

Genre: Non-fiction/Family & Relationships / Children with Special Needs

Cost:$15.00 paperback $1.99 Amazon kindle




Can you tell me something about yourself?


Okay, lets see…. I was born on a warm July evening in 1974 just as the sun was setting on the capital city of Newfoundland the first and only child(as later years will prove) to a lovely couple, Anne and Peter Power. I developed the love of writing at the age of eight when I read a story I wrote to my classmates, receiving rave reviews. I married the true love of my life and settled down to raise our tiny family, Christian 11, and Brandon, 3.

 

What inspired you to write?

The inspiration to answer the call of the writer came to me when I was eight years old and wrote my own little twist to a bible story and read it out to my class. When I received rave reviews from my peers and teacher, I knew I wanted to continue.

 

Who are you favourite authors?

Steven King, Dan Brown, Lauren Kate, L.J. Smith and every author of the Author Social Media Support Group (ASMSG)!

 

Can you tell me something about your latest book?

Forever, Christian is what I like to call a labour of love, or Love's journey with autism. The title may be confusing at first because it seems as though it is of a religious nature, but it is about my eldest son, Christian Peter, who was diagnosed with High Functioning autism in October of 2009, a diagnosis that took nine years to reach.  I really cannot truly explain it, but I knew something was not right with Christian from the time he was a tiny infant, right from the start. He would have many all night marathons were Christian would not cry, but scream these high pitch screams for apparently no reason. My husband and I did what ever we could to soothe him, rocking him, feeding him, burping him, giving him warm baths, etc but nothing would work. Even took him to the doctor several times who assured us that it was not colic and after several tests, nothing else physically wrong. As Christian got older, whenever he get upset, he would scream he high pitched screams, but this time he would hurt himself. Soon the symptoms included sensitively to certain sounds, touch, becoming hyper focused on one thing, everything like his food and toys had to be arranged in a certain way. Christian was a social child, but would do socially inappropriate things,such as invading another's personal space, asking inappropriate questions, taking their turns or becoming very clingy. Christian would always ask the same question over and over, even though he already got the answer, always needed to be reassured about our and others love for him. One of the most disturbing self harm when upset or when he realized he has done something wrong  was when he hurt another boy's eye at his daycare and then proceeded to fill up the sink with hot water and submerge his head in while the daycare worker's back was turned to tend to another child, so he could burn his eyes out! Lucky, the water was not too hot and the daycare worker pulled him out instantly. It has been instances like these and many others that were heart breaking, frustrating and other indescribable emotions that had us not asking, but begging many doctors to tell us what was wrong with our son. It was finally the compassion and knowledge of a teacher who set the ball rolling to get Christian tested for autism. While we were on the waiting list for two years for the testing, when we finally got the diagnosis, it was a relief to have a name. Feeling, with what I can only call, a "magenta"( the feeling once described by Rue McClanahan's character, Blanche Devereaux of the Golden Girls, as the feeling you do not know the colour off because it is a whole bunch of colours mixed up(I am paraphrasing here)) I took pen to paper and wrote down my feelings about the diagnosis, and about Christian's first nine years, Forever, Christian is the result. I am also proud to say that Christian himself does the foreword, he wanted to introduce himself to the readers. I figure it was a nice touch to get to know a little about the boy behind the title.

 

Wow! How long did it take you to write it?

 

Forever, Christian took me from start to finish, two years to write.

 

Can you tell us something about the writing process, do you have a set time for writing, did you do any research or anything else of interest that was involved?

 

I do not have a set time for writing, I write daily, but it is whenever I can fit it in during the day, but usually that is at night when everyone is in bed. For this book, no research was necessary to write it because the story is my own and my son's, but normally yes, I do research for every story I write as often the story involves a topic or two within it that I can not take off the top of my head if I want to achieve realism and/or accuracy.

 

What do you think readers will come away with when they have finished your book.

 

What I hope they will take away is, though I feel this is a very raw and emotionally charged story, because I spill my soul out onto the pages, I hope that with anyone who reads it realizes that though most journeys are long, laborious and dark, there is always a happy little light at the end and no matter what we are never alone. We just have to look.

 

AN INTERESTING PARAGRAPH OR TWO FROM BOOK

His hugs too, are healing, during those rare moments that he senses another's sadness. He may not understand why a person is sad, but he will walk up to them nonetheless and put two arms around them. Giving them a big, loving hug, he tells them not to be sad, that he is there with them, he loves them, and that everything is going to be okay. I cannot speak for the others, but whenever I receive one of those little miracle hugs, and his honest, unconditional words of pure love and affection, I feel better!

These, and numerous other qualities, not autism, are what define Christian Peter Traverse, these qualities, gifts, and ideals that will always be forever, Christian.

 

Any other links of interest:

Forever, Christian Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ForeverChristianPeter



 

Thank you Diane!

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment