Hello, my name is Lesley Jacobs, as you might guess from the title of this website.
As it is, I would like to welcome you to this pretty unremarkable site which holds a few of the things that keep me busy; my job as a Software Developer, my writing of horror novels and short stories and my life with my girlfriend, two sons with autism and a daughter without that diagnosis.
Writing
Everyone starts to write a story at some point when they’re young. Whether it’s a 4-panel comic, a short story, a blog – there are lots of ways to tell a story. A lot of people dream about having a story published when they grow older. Many don’t give it a try, some do try their hand at writing and stop when they feel they don’t manage to finish a story. But a few do succeed in actually finish stories. And even though they might not get their stories published, it’s still a feat.
I have gone through all kinds of stages and even though I haven’t been published, I would like to help you just as I would’ve like people to help me. So I’ll be blogging here about writing things in the broadest way you can imagine, along with posting some snippets from my novels and sometimes a complete short story until they get published.
As for my own writing, I write horror. But before you turn away in fear, let me tell you that I don’t believe in rolling heads and sees of blood. If there is any horror, it is the kind of stuff you and I can experience if we’re lucky. Or unlucky, depending on how you view it. Most horror is simply the way our minds experience it; for some the shadowy figure is a ghost, for others it feels like a relative that has passed away, and for other people it’s something that surpasses their fears. Most of the time if you see a shadow it’s just a shadow, but sometimes it’s something different. And when that happens, I’ll be writing a story about it. Because you would want to know about it.
Software development
Having a job where you deal with all kinds of troubleshooting when it comes to research, setting up new tools and mechanisms and all kind of other things can sometimes be frustrating. So I hope I can help out by giving you the processes I went through, the problems I encountered and often ridiculous solutions I encountered that actually solved the problems. It also functions as a way for me to read back and see how I solved certain things. Documentation only goes that far after all.
Autism
Autism is something we were confronted with and had to make our own, regardless of whether we wanted to. Having two kids with a pretty unique genetic disorder (only four cases in the world) does that to you. At least some of the problems we can deal with. Others are a little harder.
Our eldest is what one would call a low functioning autist; he doesn’t speak, he doesn’t make eye contact and the only way he communicates is by grabbing your hand and dragging you towards what he wants. Our youngest son on the other hand seems a high functioning autist; he can talk, he can communicate and he never gets tired of hugging you. Or anyone else in the vicinity.
While those are classifications none of the people with autism appreciate, as they only show how well they integrate in a society where most people don’t have autism, these are terms which the people without autism understand and I will mention it just to make you understand how many different forms of autism you can experience.