Craig Thomas , the co-creator of “ How I Met Your Mother ” is now a novelist. His debut book, “That’s Not How It Happened,” releases Nov. 4 from Hanover Square Press. Told from four different perspectives, the book is a family dramedy about a young man with Down Syndrome, his parents and his teenaged sister — and how their lives are upended when Hollywood decides to adapt their story into a film. It’s a funny, heartfelt story filled with meta-moments from Thomas’ own experiences as a TV writer and a parent of a child with disabilities. “ This family is not my family,” Thomas tells Variety , “but there’s a lot of my family and there’s a lot of me in there.”

Eighteen years ago, during the gap between Seasons 2 and 3 of “How I Met Your Mother,” Thomas’ first son was born with Jacobsen S

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