{"id":228071,"date":"2026-05-12T02:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228071\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T02:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:16:09","slug":"co-creator-of-how-i-met-your-mother-signs-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228071\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-creator of \u2018How I Met Your Mother\u2019 signs books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>BAY RIDGE \u2014 Craig Thomas, co-creator of the Emmy-winning television series \u201cHow I Met Your Mother,\u201d took to The BookMarke Shoppe in Bay Ridge on Thursday, May 7, to sign copies of his book, \u201cThat\u2019s Not How it Happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019s debut novel brings together his notorious sense of humor while commenting on real-world issues from the perspective of having a child with a disability. The book chronicles the experience of living with a disability through the voices of four family members impacted by Down Syndrome: Paige and Rob, their son, Emmett, and their neurotypical daughter, Darcy, who was born with Down Syndrome in the midst of his father\u2019s Hollywood career. Paige is forced to be a stay-at-home mom while Rob pursues his screenwriting career.<\/p>\n

Years later, Paige decides to write a memoir about parenting a child with a disability, which a famous producer attempts to adapt, with Rob as screenwriter. Through this creative journey, the four family members grapple with their experiences individually and collectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>Photo: Moira Weinstein\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Thomas is no stranger to this world. His son, Elliot, was diagnosed with Jacobsen Syndrome, a rare congenital chromosomal disorder that affects physical features, cognitive function and causes heart defects and bleeding disorders. Elliot was born at just three pounds and received heart surgery at two weeks old.<\/p>\n

Like Rob, Thomas was involved in the film industry during his son\u2019s birth, which made it difficult to create art and to fully focus on parenting a child with a disability. His wife handled the Individualized Education Program meetings and specialists\u2019 appointments during that time.<\/p>\n

Despite what he describes as \u201cliving two different realities\u201d for a while, Thomas and his wife immediately made it their mission to raise awareness for Jacobsen Syndrome. They\u2019ve made significant efforts in fundraising for research. Dr. Paul Grossfeld, whom they met in San Diego soon after Elliot was diagnosed, introduced them to the intricacies of the rare disease. Grossfeld is the lead expert in research and therapy for Jacobsen Syndrome.<\/p>\n

Once meeting Grossfeld, Thomas used his hit television series \u201cHow I Met Your Mother\u201d to raise awareness for his research, holding fundraisers in iconic set locations with the series\u2019 stars. He also performs continuously with his band \u201cThe Solids,\u201d bringing along celebrities to fundraise for Jacobsen Syndrome research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is part of our life\u2019s mission now. You just have to wrap your arms around that mission and do what you can,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAY RIDGE \u2014 Craig Thomas, co-creator of the Emmy-winning television series \u201cHow I Met Your Mother,\u201d took to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2571,2572,2878,98,20291,100,99,89540,50870,70825,2953,89541,9,24,63,2578,2579,89542,13416],"class_list":["post-228071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-bklyn-live","tag-books","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-bookbeat","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-disabled-people","tag-fundraisers","tag-has-teaser","tag-health","tag-moira-weinstein","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-premium","tag-premium-content","tag-television-and-streaming-tv","tag-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}