The Novel I am writing now: Literary Fiction: Dirt Bike Town by Tim Barrus

I ask you. How many autistic, neurodivergent, authors do you really know. Most of us mask it, I do. I am not Romeo Void, but I do love him. Romeo Void will be starring in the next few books. I am bringing ideas into Dirt Bike Town that have to do with who makes what and why. They do not want us in publishing. I do not know how to break the moat of the Castle and the Gates. I am here to tell you I have tried. When I tell people there is a blacklist of writers the business of publishing is shaped and constructed and also sculpted by class and caste, but they will deny this portrayal and loudly and to me. One word. Neuromisfit. I am a neuromisfit, and all hell will break loose if this missive goes Anywhere, Anywhere. It is not unlike a small paper ship, carefully folded, and sent to the far end of the pond where the frogs live. In my books, there are no frogs. The entire environment has been fried dry, and how many wars can the species sustain. Apparently, a few. This is very much how I view reality. I make it up as I go along. I blame no one but me. It Speaks is a character, he’s an albino little person. He’s also a military genius.

Be careful what you ask for. Tom Pynchon will strangle me with Gravity’s Rainbow. If I am forced to play analogies (and I am) Gravity’s Rainbow is the one. If you are not in your lane – in Dirt Bike Town – as elsewhere, you are punished no matter what side you are on. Romeo Void is intent to change things. The Leader of the normals is a terrifying, Joe Frazier. I pick the names, too. Romeo can be whoever and whatever I want him to be. This time around, he’s autistic. Because I say so. I also know what conflicts he will confront. They’re big ones. Like Civil War. Like building safe radiation paths that will only give you cancer. How bad does it get. His brother Mitya is the only person who can translate for Romeo.

At times, Mitya is a little creative in the translation of whispers to spoken words. I would argue that a neurotypical is only one way to interpret the 28 dimensions that move, and pop in and out of place, and all of this is happening in waves, waves. I am down deep into Xrayy Photography. X-rayy, my term.

I want refrain — I can see for miles miles miles — played out like an icon of what John Wayne sees as he leaves the cabin, and opens the door.

Then, to be only a whisper or even just the movement of a pair of wet lipsticked lips. It is androgynous. I am giving it a vile wind because I can.

The brothers are stealing cars. Just the beginning. Few people have ever heard Romeo’s voice because his larynx was removed. Normals ate it. Normals grew us in vats. They believed that if you ate a part of another homo sapiens, it became part of you. It is a story. It exists. It is a rendering of reality. There is an escape on dirt bikes. There are no roads. Vegas is the shore. The oceans are toilets. After the Dope Wars, some semblance of community begins. Romeo Void is elected Leader in Dirt Bike Town. Romeo declares War Against the Normals. Dirt Bikes could make the difference. It Speaks discovers a vast Earthquake Line of Lithium. Pure lithium. Stage 100 lithium. Syringe quality. They have choices. Always choices. Romeo Void consults his Second Self. The one whose identity cannot change. Romeo himself, can spin on a dime. But his second self is the anchor but it has been a difficult relationship. They say Romeo is unstable. Dirt Bike Town rises from the desert. A temple is made of Motel Six. The neuromisfits worship in the temple and sing songs to Motel Whoever It Was, we think, the sixth dimension. Physics is one of the intense passions of the neuroinquisitive. Not everyone believed.

Some people thought it was all bugbuga. Others, fell to their knees. There were no days of the week. And there was no time of day. In the Normal cities, owning Neuros was the basis for  their economy. What Normals did with other normals was a pornography of indifference. What is pornographic is slavery. This is a slave rebellion. Editors will absolutely want to turn down the violence. The dirt bike appears in all scenes, all vignettes, and is driven at night, dirt bikes have no lights. There are still no roads, the dirt bike could be anywhere. We are only maybe up to a quarter of the book. That has taken five years to write. But I’m working toward a huge idea at the end, and I am not going to tell you what it is. Stay tuned. – Timothee Barrus