Please say hello to my friend Irene L, author. Irene has chosen to represent herself as a buff tailed bumble bee, because she wishes to preserve her anonymity – and she loves bees. Today Irene and I are listening to Lizst and cloud-watching. Irene, welcome! Please tell us about your latest project …
Thanks for welcoming me! Right now my current project is My Plastic Jesus Umbrella, due to be published in January 2026.
That’s an intriguing title! Tell me more …
Well, the sub-title is When Autism, Faith and Trauma Meet – so the plastic Jesus umbrella is an initial faith, battered by storms, rather child-sized, and definitely not very biodegradable – perhaps even a bit toxic! It’s a series of moments from my life which come together to form a narrative of evolving faith/non-faith/doubt/acceptance.
Do you have any particular influences in your work?
Definitely – theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer have shaped my thinking, although I have never, like him, been part of an assassination plot! (Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis just before the end of WWII for attempting to kill Adolf Hitler). From Bonhoeffer I learned that weakness is strength when we offer it to God. And, incredibly, also, that God empathises deeply with our weakness and pain. But there is also one writer I’m reading just now and I must mention him because he is, so far at least, very much on my wavelength. So, in The Healing Path, James Finley tells a story of trauma, faith and recovery not unlike my own.
But when I use that word recovery, I also have to express a debt of gratitude – for my very life, actually – to the anonymous writers of the “Big Book,” Alcoholics Anonymous. The book’s teachings, and the support of that fellowship and others which have grown out of it, have been a massive component of my own trauma (and addiction) recovery. But the writing process itself is very much a practice of deepening self-awareness which I am eager to share with the reading public.
You also mention autism – where does that come in?
I was later in life when I was diagnosed with high-functioning autism, but all my life I have been odd, gauche, geeky and something of a glorious misfit. In My Plastic Jesus Umbrella, I don’t shy away from what I (perhaps unpopularly) see as the deficits and disabling facets of my autism. But I also revel in my autistic strengths and abilities, and my good qualities!
As you well should! Thanks for stopping by Irene, and all power to your writing stream!
Thank you, Truthless!
