News Items

I hate to come across as shamelessly self-promoting, especially since I posted this on Facebook, but there are some blog readers who aren't on the site, (like my mother!) So here is a link to the recent article I wrote about autism, from a first-narrative, which is quite new for me when it comes to my job as a news journalist. I was a little worried about it at first, but it has been met with great reviews and one very happy editor.

There are times where I feel like I was born to write... News items... A blog... A book... And there are other times where my mind is racing a million miles a minute that I find it hard to pin anything down. So I sit back and wait. Or I can't sleep and I write. Most of this article (I linked it below) was written at 2 in the morning, when I woke up with the exact idea of how I was going to approach it, and had to get to the computer before the article in my head was lost forever. There's a song, "Breathe," that sums this up perfectly:

2 A.M. and I'm still awake, writing a song

If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,

Threatening the life it belongs to.

And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd

'Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud

And I know that you'll use them, however you want to.

(By Anna Nalick)

Around 2:45 a.m., Manny budges, rolls over, sees me at the computer, and doesn't ask. He knows. And if the 2 a.m. days-before-deadline-idea doesn't happen, there's always the cure to the writer's block. Bourbon. On the rocks.

Finding Mary

Whitestone Dad Writes Book About Experience with Autism

By Stefanie Gutierrez
Published: 10/23/2010

My journey to the Robertson family began with a single e-mail from my editor: “new book about autism and Catholicism published in Queens.”
Two questions, I asked myself. Is he sending this to me as a personal note or for a piece in The Tablet? It was just four months prior that my husband and I received a devastating diagnosis for our daughter, Anna, when she tested positive for Rett Syndrome, a debilitating neurological disorder that predominantly affects girls and is the most severe form of autism.
After a quick e-mail exchange, he told me, “Whatever you want to do with the information is fine.”
I decided to contact Randy Robertson, the author of “Finding Mary: One Family’s Journey on the Road to Autism Recovery,” the very book “about autism and Catholicism published in Queens,” and I wanted to read it. ... READ THE ARTICLE HERE.