The idea, and the name
Two things are said about neurodivergent people, and both are wrong. The first is that we're broken versions of normal people. The second, kinder and just as useless, is that we all come with a hidden superpower. We're not defective. We're not magic. We're different, and different needs different care, not fixing.
Why "spicy"
Nigerian food is spicy. Mexican food is spicy. Indian food is spicy. Nobody who has eaten all three would ever confuse them. The heat is real in each one, and it arrives completely differently: smoky, sharp, slow, layered. "Neurospicy" holds that idea. Yes, there is a shared label. No, it does not tell you what any individual tastes like.
So when someone tells me their nephew is autistic too, "so you must know exactly what we're going through." I don't. I know a different spice.
The tulip in a town of roses
My first book grew from a small image that wouldn't leave me: a tulip planted in a town that only knows how to grow roses. Everyone is well-meaning. Everyone is watering it wrong. The tulip did not need less care than a rose; it needed different care. Quiet is not emptiness. Withdrawal is not regression. A child folding inward is not a child going backwards.
Why a pen name
Lisa Kruger-Brent is a pen name. I write about my children's hardest days, and those days belong to them, not to a search engine. The name keeps their identity theirs. The stories are true; the surname is a curtain.
Who this is for
- Parents who were handed a diagnosis and a photocopied pamphlet.
- Neurodivergent adults who worked it out late, alone, at 2am.
- Allies, teachers and therapists who want the unedited version.