In childhood I was called Dolly Burger by my mother’s side, Miss Polly by my father.  I’d rather have been Miss Polly even if I was sick, sick, sick too often than be anyone’s doll.  I didn’t like doll’s, those staring, plastic almost demonic representations of a one-size-fits all normality or perfection.  I never identified with being Doll-y or anyone’s doll.  When my mother told me I was hers, her doll, I felt the foundations of my feminist rejection of conformist expectations of ‘what a girl should be’.  I liked the ballet dress with its fluttering leafy skirt, its sheeny pink sating and mother of pearl beading catching rainbows in the lights.  But the doll thing… Read the rest of this entry »

I first met Dr Danczak when I was working as an autism consultant in the UK.  When I saw kids who had physical symptoms I’d send them up to him and I was pleased to find most would end up in a healthier state and more switched on and together once their health issues were addressed.  Here’s our interview Read the rest of this entry »

We had an awesome Halloween night performing FOOTSTEPS OF A NOBODY at The Guild Theatre last night.  It was a good turnout, great ambiance and my heartfelt gratitude to all who contributed so much to the show – fellow producer, Harry Paternoster, of Walking Into Bars who co-produced the show with Aspinauts Players, Paul Spears who is both The Aspinauts drummer and technical manager doing the audio, arranging the stage, driving the trolley, Stuart Moore and Chris Samuel who are absolute gems and attended the shop and were the most wonderful ushers for the night, Anthony Julian who really rose to the occasion on the keyboards and provided us the seamless yet theatrical transitions from prose to song throughout the show, all the members of the band on the night for their musical and personal professionalism and being so damned fab to work with, the venues technition and supervisor who made it a great venue to work from, and to the wonderful audience who got so into the show, Rosemary Crossley, Chris Borthwick and Anne Mc Donald for the fab after show Halloween supper back in Brunswick.  THANK YOU.

Next, we take the show to Geelong West’s Woodbin Theatre on Jan 23rd 2010.

All future Aspinauts shows can be found at http://www.aspinauts.com

Warmly,
Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

Once upon a time I was in Toronto, a place with icy ponds and mother of pearl rainbows sparkled in frost.  I was taken to CBS radio station to meet with a journalist, Peter Gzowski.  He was a toasty man, a voice like an open fire, a manner like Read the rest of this entry »

It was 1996, a time when the rate of autism was still thought to be 1 in 10,000 people, high functioning people with autism were still thought to be rare and it was still believed that around 70% of people with autism were severely mentally retarded.   In that year my honors year that the Sociology lecturer mentioned in my first book, Nobody Nowhere, story writer, Dr Chris Eipper of La Trobe University, got involved with journalist, Kathy Gollan at ABC radio with a story.  With no qualification in child development, psychology or psychiatry (nor any medical qualification whatsoever), he was going to deliver to her people who would dispute my formal diagnosis of autism by one of Australia’s leading autism specialists, Dr Lawrie Bartak.  To back himself up, he would: Read the rest of this entry »

A reader from Aspergers Parallel Planet, Alyson Bradley, sent me interview questions about the fourth book in my autobiographical series, Everyday Heaven (published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers).  A brave woman indeed for she is diagnosed with Asperger’s, is Dyslexic with learning difficulties and cognitive challenges and not a big reader.  Her questions are interesting.  Here’s our interview. Read the rest of this entry »

Katherine Kasper is a reader on the spectrum who read the third book in my autobiographical series, Like Colour To The Blind.  When she emailed me about the book I offered her the opportunity to send me 10 interview questions about it.  Here’s that interview. Read the rest of this entry »

    I invited some of my readers to interview me on particular books which had been helpful to them.  Kathleen chose to interview me about the book Exposure Anxiety; The Invisible Cage of Involuntary Self Protection Responses.  Here’s that interview: Read the rest of this entry »

  Of my nine published books, my fourth text book, The Jumbled Jigsaw, recently came out in Japanese under the title NO JIHEISHO NO YUTAKANA SEKAI with publishing house, Akashi Shoten.  I invited Yumi Yamaoka of Akashi Shoten to ask me some questions about the book for his Japanese readers: Read the rest of this entry »