Like so many authors, I spent my childhood either with my nose in a book or writing in a notebook. I made it a goal to read through the entire library selection.
I managed to read every book in my elementary school library, but not at the public library—even though it was the late 80s, and I was a latchkey kid who walked to the library after school until my mother got off work.
In junior high, I was already on my school paper and had won several Reflections contests when I had my first short story published. It was about an alcoholic astronaut who needed to go back to the moon to investigate the face on Mars. Astronomy has advanced a lot since then, and so has psychology. I was diagnosed as autistic when I was 24 years old, over two decades ago.
Finding authentic autistic representation in science fiction is difficult, despite so many of us gravitating to the genre. What I found was often a male character who hated who he was. It was even more problematic since it was written by non-autistic authors. After obtaining my MS in Developmental Psychology, I knew I wanted to use my academic and personal knowledge of autism to provide authentic and diverse representation in SFF.
Since then, I have published thirteen books with autistic, ADHD, C-PTSD, non-binary/trans, and queer representation. I have several standalone science fiction novels, as well as the first two books released in my Lunar Abyss trilogy. My bestselling fantasy series, Ember Town, has five books released, with a sixth coming out at the end of 2026. Each book has a unique POV to explore identity from a new perspective while building on a story that encompasses the entire series.
Writing has always been my greatest joy, and I am so blessed to do it every day and to have met so many other fantastic authors and writers along the way. You can find me on socials @mj_james_writes and at http://mj-james.com.