Historically, characters with disabilities have been presented in the context of society's misperceptions. I will talk more about this over the next few weeks, but you will commonly see either amazing heroes (even if sometimes they are just living life) or terrible villains.
News Flash: People with disabilities are people first. We live our lives, whether or not our disability is apparent. Most people, if we live long enough, will experience some disability in our life.
A disability is a characteristic or attribute that sets the character apart in the same way hair color, eye color, height, and build do. As we write more realistic characters in our books, some of these characteristics will shine through.
Some of my friends have written such characters. Dave Bond's release, The Attache', features a hero who is losing his sight. Kris Tualla's hero in A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery (March 15 release) is deaf , Tami Dee's hero Royal in Innocent Deception stutters. Some of the people in my March 15 relase of More than a Job have developmental disabilities.
Check out these and more from my publisher at http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/StoreFront.bok
News Flash: People with disabilities are people first. We live our lives, whether or not our disability is apparent. Most people, if we live long enough, will experience some disability in our life.
A disability is a characteristic or attribute that sets the character apart in the same way hair color, eye color, height, and build do. As we write more realistic characters in our books, some of these characteristics will shine through.
Some of my friends have written such characters. Dave Bond's release, The Attache', features a hero who is losing his sight. Kris Tualla's hero in A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery (March 15 release) is deaf , Tami Dee's hero Royal in Innocent Deception stutters. Some of the people in my March 15 relase of More than a Job have developmental disabilities.
Check out these and more from my publisher at http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/StoreFront.bok
This truly is a topic near and dear to me, which is why I was drawn so quickly to David Bond's blind character, Kris Tualla's deaf character, and Tami Dee's stutterer. Years ago, when I was first trying to break into publishing, I wrote a book with a deaf hero. I was told by editors that while they loved my writing, and my 'voice', NO ROMANCE READER would read a book with a disabled hero. They told me readers would, however, allow for a disability in a heroine.
ReplyDeleteHow prejudiced!
I published Precious Things a few years later with an ebook publisher, and have since rereleased it, and readers LOVE Benjamin. So... I'd love to have a talk with those editors today.
Thank you for bringing up this topic.
Thanks for choosing books with key characters with all kinds of attributes, including some with disabilities. To have an editor willing to see those books is a great big plus for Desert Breeze Publishing.
ReplyDelete