Kaleidoscope Guest Post: Chupacabra’s Song

I have a guest post on the Kaleidoscope blog today, talking about “Chupacabra’s Song,” the story I wrote earlier this year about Nicola Pallas, who would go on to become the Midwest Regional Master of the Porters, back when she was teenager.

From my post:

Nicola Pallas didn’t start out autistic. In the first draft of Libriomancer, the character was named Nikos, a weary, arrogant man described as looking ‘like an accountant in his plain suit and tie, gold-rimmed glasses, with thinning black hair.’ He was also neurotypical, which raises the question, Why did I go back and make the character autistic?

There’s another, equally valid question, albeit one I rarely hear. Why did I make the character neurotypical in the first place?

Check it out. And if you’re so inclined, head on over to the Kaleidoscope Fundraising Page. A $15 donation earns earns a Twelfth Planet Ebook and an ebook copy of the Kaleidoscope anthology. You could consider it a pre-order that supports an anthology of diverse YA fantasy.