Today we talk about The greatness of being different, a book by I.M. Cabral, published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author I.M. Cabral, to get to know him better, where he found the inspiration to write his book The greatness of being different, as well as what contribution has brought to his life having interacted with people with different abilities.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- Where and when did you find the inspiration to write your book?
Being journalist was my primary job, I was dealing with investigations, dealing with people, reading emotions and when I started having interest in the Autism world, I developed a great desire to deeply understand all sorts of different behaviours that I was exposed to, doing my personal investigations on a way that only I understood. I always made notes of anything that was difficult for me to understand at the time in order to later have a deep thought and analyse without any rush. And that’s when I began to realise how important is to openly talk about differences that we all may have regardless of being autistic or not because I have witnessed the struggles that people feel on trying to fit in. The importance to respect everyone’s differences and that when I created this character “Nathan” that is a voice for many people out there because I strongly believe that anyone that at some point felt different or not accepted, will relate to the character. This book was mainly written during pandemic days, when I have noticed that the mental chaos was growing alarming due to everybody’s life changes. The inspiration came from my greatest desire to raise awareness on importance of having empathy towards others and treating everybody with respect.
- If you had to sum up in 3 simple words the meaning of “The Greatness of Being different”, what would it be?
“The Greatness of being Different” for me is: Respect, acceptance, empathy.
- What contribution has brought to your life having interacted with people with different abilities?
Interacting with people with different abilities has changed my life. We live in a world that we must pretend sometimes and show different emotions than the ones we really feel. Sometimes we must smile when we want to cry. Be around people when we just want to be sitting alone. I have learned that sometimes we are judged for being who we are and that can trigger an avalanche of unpleasant feelings. Autistic people are genuine, they may behave in a way that society will judge based on how different they may project themselves, but they don’t fake emotions. If they want to cry, they will no matter where they are. If they are hungry, they will express themselves maybe not in a conventional way but the way, they feel comfortable to do so. I have learned how to be more comprehensive, more empathetic. I have learned that if we are willing to listen what others have to say, it doesn’t matter how they will do it, if our heart is set on listening with an open heart we always will understand others.
- How did it feel to see your book published?
Having my book published is a realisation of a dream. It is my contribute towards raising awareness of acceptance of different abilities. Life would be much easier for everyone if people didn’t judge others based on appearance, on personality or anything else that may be considered different. This is an ongoing work for me, and endless work. I feel happy to give me contribute towards this great mission. I feel that I can do so much more but I have also learned to let things happen when must happen, when the universe tells me “ it’s time, follow your heart and write from your heart”. Inspiration to write is not something that we can control. I am learning to be patient and let thing flow on its natural course.
- Are you working on a new writing project, you can tell us about?
At this moment I’m on the process of creating characters for my next project and this is a crucial important step to begin with. But certainly, my next book will include life struggles, I will insert more drama, suspense, but it is my priority to make sure that there’s a life lesson to learn, and that we only reap what we sow, as I am a strong believer that karma exists. I have my very own special, different way of creating characters, I have my own world in my head and I also felt for a very long time embarrassed of my own personal differences but with time, maturity I have developed and created a way to accept myself and I am actually happy and proud of my differences and this is what I will always project on my coming books in the future.
Europe Books thanks the author I.M. Cabral once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book The greatness of being different. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, I wish this book will help you to get to know autistic people better, truly special people who do not know how to falsify emotions and who live and express themselves based on their genuineness. And precisely this ability to be genuine can be something that we can all recover in our everyday life because I strongly believe that it can be of great benefit in interactions with other people. And I conclude by quoting the author “if our heart is determined to listen with an open heart, we will always understand others”.
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy this touching and very interesting reading!
Your editor!