My name is Barbara Graver. I was diagnosed with autism in 2022 and ADHD in 2025 after a lifetime of masking, misdiagnosis and burnout.
I live in North Appalachia with my three adult sons and a lovable but wild little border collie named Luna. I enjoy reading, writing and hiking. My special interests include ancient mysterious, neurodivergence, literature, mythology, genre fiction, tarot, writing and the supernatural.
My Writing
I grew up on Dark Shadows, Gothic fiction, and my mother’s paperbacks. I wrote my first short story in grade school and have been writing ever since. In many ways this was a good thing.
Writing was my preferred method of communication. It helped me understand and process things. It was a refuge. But I never felt that any of my work was good enough to publish.
Manuscripts and short stories piled up on my computer but they all seemed wrong. Workshops and critiques groups and how-to-write books didn’t help me.
I was about to give up on ever publishing anything when a diagnosis of autism and ADHD, helped me see my writing and my life in a very different way.
I’m currently publishing my completed slow burn vampire romance to Substack along with essays, media and short stories. All of my fiction includes at least one neurodivergent MC.
I also write and speak about my lived experience of AuDHD and create content around my special interest in the supernatural.
My Online Content
I have two newsletters. One on neurodivergence / writing and one on metaphysics.
- I started my neurodiversity and writing newsletter Barbara Graver | AuDHD Author to share my ND informed fiction along with my thoughts on autism, ADHD, writing, PTSD and more. Sign up for Barbara Graver | AuDHD Author and get all of that content for free including my serial fiction.
- I started blogging on metaphysics in 2010 in the wake of an unusual and life-changing dream. I called that blog The Mystic Review and it became a guiding force in my life. I still post there about one a month and share those posts on the original site in my free Mystic Review newsletter.
