Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Superpower by S. Lee Manning

Todays' topic is superpowers! Awesome, right? Here's S. Lee Manning to tell us more...

S. Lee Manning: You might not realize it if you meet me casually, and I didn’t always realize it myself, but I have a superpower. I can hyperfocus.

Hyperfocus is the ability to concentrate totally on what you’re doing. When I’m in hyperfocus mode, my family can set off bombs in the next room – or under my feet as a matter of fact – and I wouldn’t notice. I don’t notice the time. Phone calls go unanswered. Cats go unfed. Dishes pile up in the sink. 

I do have to be really interested in what I’m doing to go into hyperfocus mode. But when I am in it, bingo. Using my superpower, I aced law school exams and graduated in the top ten percent of my class. It’s also how I wrote my debut novel, Trojan Horse, being published October 16 by Encircle Publications. I fell in love with the story and with the characters – and, boom, superpower activated. What’s not to love? Kolya, a jazz-playing, poetry reading Russian Jewish immigrant to the United States who works for an American intelligence agency, is betrayed by his own office in an effort to stop a murderous neo-Fascist. Kolya is joined by a cast of appealing characters: his attorney fiancee, who puts Kolya in his place when he needs it; his best friend at the agency, a trust fund brat who defied his father to go into intelligence work; a language prodigy who is an annoying but loyal friend; and a host of menacing villains. 


I couldn’t wait to get back to writing the novel, and when I wasn’t writing, I was living in the imaginary world that I’d created, even though it was a pretty scary world with terrible things happening. But it was exciting. And it kept my hyperfocus powers going over the year that it took me to write and edit the first draft. When I finished writing Trojan Horse, I was sad. Not just because I had to leave Kolya’s world, but because I had to return to my non-superpower existence. 

I didn’t always know I had superpowers. In fact, for much of life, I thought just the opposite. Because there’s a catch to my superpower. When not in hyperfocus, I tend to be easily distracted. (Squirrel!) I have trouble finishing projects. I interrupt people. I abruptly switch topics of conversation. Because hyperfocus is one of the characteristics of ADHD – which I realized rather late in life that I have. 

I suppose I should have suspected when I was in school, but it wasn’t a common diagnosis back then. When I was bored in math or science, I sat in the back of the class reading novels. Or I would just daydream about television shows I’d watched or books I’d read. I never thought I had a neurodevelopmental disorder. I assumed that I was lazy. Or just a general screw-up. 

The teachers told me – and my parents – that I was smart. That I should be getting better grades in math and science – especially since I did well in English and history, subjects that interested me (and triggered hyperfocus). No one ever suggested ADHD. 

By the time I graduated high school, ADHD had been recognized as a mental disorder by the medical world. It just wasn’t recognized in me. Maybe because it presents differently in girls than in boys. Boys tend to be hyperactive and disruptive. Girls are more likely to be inattentive with a tendency to daydream. And it affects girl’s self-esteem. 

But then, those of us with ADHD do have that superpower ability to intensely focus on what we’re doing when we’re interested and block everything else out. Unfortunately, though, I don’t have perfect control over when I hyperfocus. Sometimes, I go from intense interest to less interested – and SQUIRREL. 

I also can’t completely control my tendency to wander off when not “in the zone,” but knowing I have ADHD changed everything. There are techniques (and occasionally medication) I can use to keep focus when I’m having problems doing so. I have stopped calling myself names when I do get distracted. And I’ve realized that my focus problem when not in hyperfocus mode is just the price I have to pay for having a superpower. 

And the price is worth it. I’m back in hyperfocus mode, now that I’m writing the next novel in the series, and I’m back in my spy universe. And it’s great to be here. 

So, Reds and Readers, what's your superpower?

S. Lee Manning’s career as an attorney ranged from a top-tier New York law firm to working for the state of New Jersey to solo practice. Now a recovering attorney, she spends her days writing. In Trojan Horse, which debuts this month, Kolya Petrov, a Russian Jewish immigrant working for American intelligence is betrayed by his own agency in a devious plot to thwart possible terrorism by an anti-Semitic neo-Fascist Romanian. Manning, who is working on the second in the series, lives in Vermont with her husband and two cats. Check out her website at https://www.sleemanning.com. 

 Trojan Horse is available through Encircle Publications https://encirclepub.com/product/trojanhorse/, on Amazon amzn.to/3fJdEDk, and through your local independent bookstore.

47 comments:

  1. Congratulations . . . “Trojan Horse” sounds so exciting!

    As far as superpowers are concerned, I’m still in discovery mode, trying to figure out exactly what mine might be . . . .

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    1. Everyone has a superpower. Sometimes, it just takes patience and time to find them out.

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  2. Waving high to Sandy! Congratulations on the book coming out. That's super news. I love your take on your ADHD and your superpower of hyperfocus. Best of luck with the thriller!

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    1. Oops, my superpower? It might be putting in the work to follow my dream. Right now I'm away on a solo writing retreat, and I've written half a book. So it's a kind of hyperfocus, but it's also keeping my butt in the chair.

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    2. Edith, You've got half a book! Wonderful! You're well on the way! You can do it!

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    3. A solo writing trip would be fabulous. And putting in the work to follow your dream, definitely sounds like a superpower to me.

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    4. Keziah, it was the second half - the. First draft is now done!

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  3. Oooh, your book sounds like a must buy for me. Hey, I live in Brooklyn! That community is fascinating and overlaps ordinary life in many ways. ( I mean Russian-Jewish,of course, not intelligence pros) I've even written about myself. My superpower? Probably organizing.I was a librarian-we tend to be the kids who labeled our dresser drawers.

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    1. Meant to say congratulations! Enjoy this exciting time.

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    2. Thank you. I am really having a wonderful time - despite a wee bit of anxiety. And if you read Trojan Horse, I'd love to know what you think.

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    3. Correction ( I was not awake when I first wrote): I've even written about IT myself.

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    4. Absolutely! I'll go order right now. (Responding to your: And if you read Trojan Horse, I'd love to know what you think.)

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  4. Congrats on your book, it does indeed sound fascinating.

    I don't think it counts as a superpower but I do have a T-shirt that states "I'm multi-talented...I can talk and piss people off at the same time."

    Probably as close as I can get to anything remarkably resembling a superpower.

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  5. Hey Slee,

    Looking *so* forward to reading Trojan Horse. Big congratulations to you!

    Brenda B.

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  6. Congratulations on your new release! Excellent premise and engaging characters.

    I used to be better at multi-tasking: making dinner while balancing the checkbook while drilling a kid on spelling words, geography facts, or the arithmetic times tables.

    Now, I'm grappling with a balance of short story writing and novel writing, plus blogs and self-promotion. And reading.

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    1. Margaret, that multi-tasking continues, then! It's really helpful in the life of a writer to be able to pivot like that!

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    2. Life is so complicated these days, it really helps to be able to multi-task. I do find writing multiple things at the same time to be hard - but coffee, or Ritalin, helps.

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  7. Congratulations on the release! It sounds exciting!

    Sometimes I think my superpower is just getting out of bed in the morning.

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    1. I've had days like that - somehow especially in the past four years.

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  8. Whoa! That cover!! Brilliant! Congrats on harnessing your superpower--looks like you're on a roll with book #1 debuting and #2 in progress!!

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  9. This sounds great, and so fascinating! (I know the squirrel experience.)
    I also noticed you talked about stopping calling yourself names. I am so aware of that! And I am so with you. We do it so often, and so casually – – and I do think it is unnecessary negativity. So agree!

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    1. I think that women are particularly prone to calling ourselves names when we're disappointed in how we've performed - and it's so counter productive.

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  10. Congratulations on your new book. I think getting a book from idea to publication is a definite superpower!

    Mine? Not sure if it is a superpower or just a collection of years of experience. I can make a pretty close diagnosis of illness if someone gives me a set of symptoms. I am usually right, but just in case, the first thing I tell them is to call their doctor. Because, like all superpowers, mine can fail too. Most recently I got an early morning text from a FB friend, asking me what her symptoms might mean. I recognized angioedema, told her to get herself to the emergency room asap. not to take her blood pressure meds unless she already had, and to take benedryl on the way. By the time she got there, she was losing her airway, and they took her right back to a treatment room without even going thru the admission stuff at reception.





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    1. Saving someone's life definitely makes you a superhero. Bravo.

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  11. And congratulations on the book. My superpower? Well, putting one foot in front of the other, I suppose, is a pretty high bar these days. Xxxx

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    1. I'd say that right now - putting one foot in front of the other is pretty good.

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  12. Congratulations on the new book!

    My superpower seems to be realizing when two people in a conversation are misunderstanding or talking past each other and translating to get them on the same page, or at least to correctly hear what the other is saying.

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    1. Susan, is that called peace making?

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    2. We need more people to have your kind of superpower, especially these days.

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  13. Hyperfocus sounds like a mixed blessing... Obviously you got over the problem of not finishing because the new book is DONE and sounds wonderful Congratulations!
    My superpower. I'd say I'm really good at reading a recipe and anticipating whether I'll like the final dish. Useful when you're up for cooking something complicated and trying to assess whether it'll be worth the fuss. (I'm also pretty good at looking at sentences and telling whether they're adequately 'baked' or not.)

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    1. Hmmm. I'd love to evaluate your recipe superpower - or, to be more precise, the finished product thereof.

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  14. Oops, you described me. Now you have me thinking. Isn't it wonderful to be in the zone!

    Congratulations on Trojan Horse - it sounds fabulous!

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    1. The zone is wonderful. Not being in the zone can be annoying. But it balances out. And thank you about Trojan Horse.

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  15. Congratulations on Trojan Horse! And I love how you take what is commonly called a disability and flip it to a superpower. All kids with ADHD need to know that they can harness their superpower. My superpower? I have an excellent auditory memory. I remember the exact words and intonations used in conversations, whether in real life, songs, movies, and often, books. And when I write dialog, I hear it in my head. Somehow, words stick with me. It has been helpful for learning languages, too!

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  16. This is such a wonderful post, Sandy! I love that you harnessed your ADHD into a superpower of hyperfocus. One of my hooligans shares this superpower, and he has already ordered your book because he loved the premise! I can't wait to read it, too. Kolya sounds like a fabulous protagonist!

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    1. Thanks, Jenn. Having ADHD really is a blessing as well as a curse, a fact which I wish I'd realized earlier. That being said, thrilled that your hooligan already ordered Trojan Horse.

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  17. Sandy, congratulations on your book--and on turning what is usually seen as a disadvantage into a superpower! I could certainly use some of yours at the moment.

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    1. Some days, it's still a drag. It's one of those superpowers that's not under complete control - but even so, I'm happy when it's working.

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  18. Congrats on the publication of TROJAN HORSE, Sandy! It feels like there's been a dearth of good spy novels lately, so I'm looking forward to reading yours.

    My late husband was a special ed teacher, and so dealt with a LOT of kids diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. I recall one terrific book that helped him reframe the condition: A Hunter in a Farmer's World. It posits ADD and ADHD were important adaptive traits during the long centuries when we were hunter-gatherers. Someone who flicks from cue to cue is less likely to miss a plump rabbit or juicy berries, and someone who can hyperfocus will stalk prey relentlessly or find every single edible root in a patch.

    When he shared this with his "kiddos" and their parents, students would puff out their chests and proclaim, "I'm a hunter!" You still have to learn how to read the chapter from beginning to end :-), but it does wonders for self-esteem to think of ADD not as neuroatypical but as minority neurotypical.

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    1. What a wonderful way for your husband to reframe ADD and ADHD. And it makes such a difference to see it as an advantage rather than a disability. Back when I was in school - I didn't even realize I had ADD. Having a teacher like your husband would have been such a help.
      I hope you enjoy Trojan Horse.

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  19. Your book sounds amazing! When my son was being "tested" for ADD I realized I had some of the same symptoms. That certainly put some of my "faults" in perspective, looking back on my school years. I learned how to work around it as an adult. My superpower is so deadly dangerous and amazing it has been kept under wraps from everyone including myself.

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    1. My experience exactly. My son has ADHD - and that helped me realize that I had it as well. It really did make me look at my school experiences in a different light. The problem with any superpower - learning to control it.

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