Words and enthusiasms

Sometimes it can be a real effort to write a paper, like the one I am still preparing that was originally intended for IMFAR (though it has since been rejected)

That is a real doozy of a paper which has to be meticulously referenced and well argued in scientific and sociological terms.

It is unfortunate I will not get to present it after all, but I guess it does not present in itself any new research on autism (which is what IMFAR wants) and so does not make the grade.

I do think though that it is saying important things that every autism scientist and social researcher should be listening to, but even if do I ever get round to submitting it to a journal instead, it has no greater likelihood of reaching it's intended audience.

I still live in hope of being able to presentit at the Disability Studies Association's conference instead, but it's not been accepted there either yet.

It's not a paper I am writing for the love of it, but out of necessity to get an important point across somehow, and it is tough work.

On the other hand, kudos to me, I am also working on another paper, for which I am being paid at the official lecturer rates for Birmingham University.

So far, because I am talking on a subject close to my heart, autistic politics and culture, it is almost writing itself, and the difficulty will be there to keep it within the timespan and subject limits of what I have been asked for.

Trouble is that being paid for it, raises all manner of questions, and I have had to go to the benefits people to ask permission to do this as therapeutic work.

It is therapeutic all right in that nothing lifts my self esteem so much as being paid for doing something like this. Everything else I have ever presented, I have ended up paying for one way or another, with accommodation, conference fees and all.

Being paid for once is a good start and a foot in the door at least.