Autism Brothers Books: 💙 Book 1 Update - One Year Later

A New Inclusive Book Series Featuring My Two Autistic Sons

Nov 04, 2024

Welcome

Hello! I’m Emily Lupita. I’m a travel writer & artist from rural Iowa currently living between my hometown south of Des Moines - and Ankara, the capital of Turkiye. I’m also an English teacher & editor.

Autism Brothers Books is an inclusive book series I launched in 2023 because I want my sons (and other Autistic children) to see themselves in the books we read. 💙 The first book in the series, "Cappadocia, Turkiye" is now available - here - on Amazon. I post about our journey via my creativity journal - Emily Lupita Explores - where I share explorations from my art & writing desk + cultural travels, as well as motherhood with my two Autistic sons.

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🌿 One Year Later: The First Book in the Series

My big dream project is now one year old. Happy Birthday Dream! 🌟 Here are some of the milestones from this past year:

The Autism Brothers Books: Book 1 Kickstarter project was funded last year around this time thanks to 34 lovely backers, including an angel investor.
Almost immediately I fell extremely ill and recovered slowly
Only to enter the most difficult year of my life
I doubted myself but somehow kept painting through the fire
Started playing around with adding in traditional Turkish design elements
Finished the most detailed and complex paintings I’ve ever done in the Spring
Asked you, my gentle readers, for feedback on the story and finished writing
Took a leap of faith after asking for your help in choosing a book cover
Got a bit existential about my little family’s Autism journey
Asked for help translating the story into Turkish
Published the first book of Autism Brothers Books this summer.

Whew! It’s been a whirlwind of art, editing, and shipping out books to the lovely backers of our project. Thank you all for your continued encouragement and support of this art book that’s so close to my heart.

Above is my sweet Archie Zafer (now age 6) holding his copy of Ozan & Zafer Explore Cappadocia, Turkiye: An Autism Brothers Book. Wow! Its real and it’s happening - the boys were both delighted and just totally thrilled to see themselves on a cool travel adventure inside this book. I wrote about the moment the Brothers first saw their special book in a post - here.

My next step is that I’m working on finding a way to print the book here in Turkiye. (It’s only available on Amazon USA.) I’ve found a printer and we’ve done several mock-ups of sample books. I think we’re going to make the Turkish version a bit smaller in dimension - probably 20x20cm - because that’s the size of other similar children’s books on bookstore shelves here.

Once the printing is all finalized, my goal is to give a copy of the book to each of Charlie & Archie’s school classmates, as well as the other Autistic students at both of their Autism Centers here. I’ll update you more on this phase of the book project as it develops. I’m excited!

The mission of this project is to give Autistic kids a book where they can see themselves in the story and feel proud of being represented. 💙 Plans for Book 2 are coming together - there will be an Autistic girl who enters the adventure with my boys - and in the story the Brothers will travel to visit their grandparents in my home state of Iowa.

📚 Book Launch

The other major goal is to have a book launch. If each person who reads this could take one of the actions below, it would be a huge boost in helping us spread the word. A grassroots book launch of sorts. 🌿

We’ve sold 43 copies of the book so far - 34 copies were part of the original Kickstarter - so that means 9 copies total have sold online - on Amazon. I’d love to be able to sell enough copies online to pay for the printing cost of the free books I’m giving out at the boys’ schools.

💌 These are a few other ideas for how to help us spread the word:

If you happen to need a unique and special holiday gift this year, please consider our colorful travel adventure story.

Follow us on social media and like, comment, and share our posts on Instagram: @EmilyLupitaExplores and Facebook here.
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"Ozan & Zafer Explore Cappadocia, Turkiye" is now available - here - on Amazon.

👩🏻‍💻 Emily Lupita Explores: News & Updates

New! Read about my project plan for this newsletter’s third year (2024-25).
Check out my Lupita art books on Amazon by searching my author name - here.
New Art Shop (yay!!): My new Lupita artwork shop is now open on Threadless - I’ll be adding more to it each week - here: emilylupitaexplores.threadless.com