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Midland author donates funds to help autistic children

One Midland mom is giving back to the autistic community through writing. Karissa Winters just got a book published that is now hitting the stores and she's using it to raise proceeds for an organization that gives service dogs to autistic kids.

One Midland mom is giving back to the autistic community through writing. Karissa Winters just got a book published that is now hitting the stores and she's using it to raise proceeds for an organization that gives service dogs to autistic kids.

The book called "Your Guide to All Things Caticorn" was a way to help her daughter Presley with sensory issues, who is diagnosed with autism.

"It's like my brain works differently than another kid,” said Presley. “Like an apple computer and a regular computer. How their compute works different but it’s kind of the same. "It taught me a lot of emotions and stuff that I really had to recognize.”

Karissa created a mythical creature called the caticorn. its a mix of cats, unicorns and butterflies. It's all thanks to her daughter who helped her create the creatures. But not only is the book helping kids like Presley, but it's what they Karissa and Presley are doing to help other autistic children.

"It morphed into writing her special interest, caticorns,” said Karissa. “Now we have this book and she's the one that said, let's do something to help other kids who have autism."

Since the book has been published, she's donating a portion of the sales to give back to a non-profit called Good Dog Autism Companions. The organization helps connect service dogs with children with autism.

"When you get a diagnosis like that for your child, you feel lost you don’t know what to do,” said Karissa. “Just know everything will work out, everything will be okay. For us as a family, we've taken this and turn it into something positive.”

"If I weren't here, I wouldn’t have told my mom to make this book,” said Presley. “She wouldn't have made this book me and my mom work together basically on the book."

But even though it's the first book Karissa published, she plans to expand the Caticorn empire, turning pages to give back to the autistic community, because after all, it’s just the beginning of a new chapter.

"I'm excited for people to see what's inside Presley's mind and my mind and its cool to see it come to fruition,” said Karissa. “We want to share it with everybody and do some good with it."

MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - On January 20, Karissa will be having a book signing at the Barnes and Noble on Loop 250 in Midland. It starts at 11:30 a.m.

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