Between the Teeth (Between the Teeth 3) MM

It took an embarrassingly long time before I realised David Chapman was autistic.It didn’t come as a flash of insight moment — or, it did, but only after a reader sent me an ask wondering I intended to portray David as autistic, because he seemed autistic coded to them. And the flash belatedly came.It was around the same time that I read about a romance novelist, who, while doing background research for her autistic protagonist, began to suspect that she might be autistic herself.‘That’s funny’ said I, and then went along with my day. But obviously I didn’t forget it. The subconscious is funny that way.I received some more asks over the years. Several asks from autistic readers saying that they felt very seen in my portrayal of David. One reader saying they were surprised I wasn’t neurodivergent, because David was written with so much empathy In the final installment of the Between the Teeth trilogy, David has the fresh start he’s always wanted. He’s on a better team, one that doesn’t depend on him for their wins and blame him for their losses. In a better room, with teammates David might even consider friends. It doesn’t make any sense for David to feel more out of his depth than ever. But then, so many things don’t make sense to David — why should this be the exception?