#Disabled Author

[queer-edmundpevensie]

Shoutout to artists with disabilities whose symptoms are an obstacle to their craft. Who draw but their tremors keep them from being able to pull a straight line. Who would spend hours making art if their carpal tunnel and joint pain would let them. Who stare longingly at guitars and pianos but know the instrument's not compatible with their misshapen, webbed, or missing fingers. Whose neurological disease makes it impossible for them to memorize sheet music or play lines. Who have vivid, glorious stories living in their heads that their aphasia won't let them put so clearly on paper. Who spent more time in waiting rooms and hospital beds than rehearsals and recitals. Who resent their bodies for not letting them portray what they see in their minds.

You are not any less of an artist. Your talent is immeasurable. Your creativity is divine. I'm sorry this world wasn't built for you and me, but that doesn't mean we can't still make something beautiful with our lives.

[hellishrebukesystem]

Do you like obsessive relationships? Folk Horror and The Gothic? Are you interested in shows such as Supernatural, Yellowjackets, The Stand, and movies such as Midsommar, Carrie, and Saint Maud?

Boy do I have the collection of poetry for you!

SEWN, TOGETHER, ANEW is a collection of poetry about an obsessive and codependent relationship that has ended--it deals with themes of cannibalism, religious trauma and religious horror, and the apocalypse. It is a collection of art and poetry which brings together the feelings of yearning, isolation, and desperation that can really only be possible when it is the end of your world.

Find it now on amazon in print or attached to this post for free!

Be sure to check out my ko-fi shop at this location: https://ko-fi.com/hellishrebukesystem

[ducks-on-jupiter]

BSD disability week day 2: Blindness

I know this is a day late, haha... I wrote it as fast as I could

TW: internalized and external ableism, descriptions of medical settings, injuries, and scars

Dazai woke up to find that he was in Mori’s medical office. The last thing he remembers, he was on a practice mission Mori had sent him on. He tries to blink a few times to adjust to the bright light. The room stays blurry. There’s an uncomfortable cloth over his right eye. His head ached.

“What happened to my eye?” Dazai pushed himself up with his elbows. “There’s bandages over it.”

“You don’t remember?”

“If i remembered, I wouldn’t have asked you.” He snaps back.

“You got in a little… accident.” Mori sighs. He’s shuffling through documents at his desk. At least Dazai thinks that’s what he’s doing. It’s hard to tell when everything is blurry, and one of his eyes is covered.

“Accident?”

“You aren’t going to get that half of your vision back.” Mori’s tone comes out cold. “You’re lucky you still have a functioning left eye,”

“It’s all blurry.”

“That’ll get better once it stops swelling.”

Theres a heavy pause in the room. The air sends chills down Dazai’s spine.

“You’re going to need to re-learn how to shoot a gun. I thought you knew to be more careful Osamu. You were unconscious for three days and im not interested in having to replace my demon prodigy.”

“I’m not replaceable.”

“You’re going to be if you don’t adapt to this.”

This was the very first experience Osamu Dazai had in relation to his blindness, and it did not help set his internal tone about his impairments whatsoever.

.

.

.

Dazai was sitting in Chuuya’s office, groaning over their mission report paperwork. He’d been staring at the lines of letters for ten minutes. It hurt to look at them, the words kept jumping around because his vision wouldn’t stay focused, chuuya was waiting on him to finish his section of the report.

“Dazai, I want to hand this in soon. My ideal afternoon is not sitting at work waiting on your lazy ass to finish paperwork.”

God, why can’t he just get it done like a normal person? It isn’t that hard, his head doesn’t hurt that bad, he should be trying harder, doing more, doing better in the rank that he earned- that he has to keep that-

“Mackerel, are you crying over paperwork?”

Dazai flinches, he was crying? Oh, he was crying. Oops. He wipes his eye and turns away from Chuuya.

“Dazai?”

No response from dazai, other than his shoulders shaking as he hides his face from chuuya.

“Osamu?” Chuuya said gently. “Are you okay?”

This was turning into one of those rare moments where the two teenage boys actually showed each other some semblance of care and worry. There was some weird friendship hidden underneath all of their fighting and screaming at one another.

“I’ll get it done. Sorry.” Dazai mumbles and picks up his pen.

“No, forget about the report for a second, why are you crying?” Chuuya pulls his chair over to Dazai’s desk. Yes, dazai had a desk in Chuuya’s office. Dazai looks up at him, having given up on seeming emotionless and mysterious by now. Chuuya brushes a strand of hair from Dazai’s face. “Do you want to talk?”

“You’ll use it against me.”

“I promise you, i won’t.”

“Yes you will.”

“I swear on my hat.”

Dazai laughs lightly.

“What is it, Dazai?”

Dazai takes a deep, shaky breath before looking at Chuuya. “Before you joined, when i was doing a training mission for Mori, i got hurt really badly. Left me half blind.”

The process of the dots connecting in Chuuya’s head is visible on his face. He lets out a long, but quiet “oh.”

“Yeah. Not a very good thing in our line of work.”

After that, Chuuya and Dazai had established a few things to help dazai out a little bit. Chuuya started letting Dazai link their arms or hold onto his bag or sleeve while they walked, because Dazai had really bad depth perception. Chuuya would read their paperwork to him when dazai was having trouble.

.

.

.

“Can I see under your bandages?” Chuuya asked gently. He and dazai were siting on his couch, almost cuddling but not quite. It had been about a year and a half of Chuuya knowing Dazai was blind.

“It’s not really something i like showing people.” Dazai starts fidgeting with his wrist bandages.

“I’m not going to judge you, but you don’t have to show me.”

Dazai has seen Chuuya on the verge of death tens of times. It only seemed fair to offer a little bit of vulnerability back, but vulnerability has never been Dazai’s thing. At all. “Are you sure you wanna see that? It’s kind of gross-“

“I want to understand you better.”

After a few moments of quiet, Dazai unwraps the bandages on his face. Theres a really bad scar over his eye, red and purple and raised. It made him feel gross. He always thought his existence was gross. This made it worse.

“Im sorry-“

“Why? It’s just your body. You can’t change it. There’s nothing ‘super gross and disturbing’ it’s a scar.”

“You mean that?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks,” Dazai feels a small pang of wariness in his chest.

.

.

.

Dazai and Chuuya were sitting in a cafe, across from one another. It was a warm and cozy, small little building. Chuuya lets out a small, content sigh,

“You look happier, now.” He says softly. “Being away from the Mafia was good for you?”

“I guess it was,” Dazai shrugs. “Thanks for meeting up with me, I know we aren’t on the… best terms,”

“We’ve never been on the best terms.” Chuuya laughs slightly. “I wrote the whole menu out on my phone before you got here, so you can adjust the text and-“

“You didn’t have to do that,”

“But i wanted to? It’s just the decent thing to do,” Chuuya hands Dazai his phone.

Dazai skims through the menu on Chuuya’s phone for a minute, he hums quietly.

“Also,” Chuuya says with a small smile audible in his tone, “We’re you going to acknowledge the cane, or did you just assume I saw it?”

“Oh, yeah that. I just got used to it, I guess.”

Chuuya takes a small breath, “hey, I’m happy your accommodating yourself now,”

“…Thanks. It was really hard to admit I needed it.”

Chuuya scoots his chair closer to Dazai’s and gives his hand a small squeeze. Dazai smiles.

[cy-cyborg]

Tips for writing and drawing disabled characters: you're allowed to have fun with it

I get a lot of people responding to my posts/videos on writing and drawing disabled characters that, while they never outright say it, kind of imply to me that people are interpreting those posts as:

THIS IS THE OBJECTIVE ONE AND ONLY WAY TO WRITE CHATACTERS WITH [Insert disability here] AND IF YOU DONT INCLUDE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE POINTS AND SUGGESTIONS IN SOME CAPACITY, YOUR CHARACTERS ARE BAD AND YOU ARE BAD FOR MAKING THEM!

And just ....no that's not my intent lol. So let me make it abundantly clear: with a few exceptions, my content is just suggestions, mainly aimed at making your characters feel more realistic and/or grounded, or demonstrating certain ideas. If thats not the vibe you want, or the suggestions are clashing with the tone of your work, you don't have to include them. Still consider the advice, make sure the reason you think it doesn't match isn't based on stereotypes or assumptions, and if it's not, and you still don't think it fits, don't include it.

If it doesn't make sense to include a chapter about how your character is struggling with debilitating phantom pain in an otherwise really light-hearted, cozy slice of life comedy, then don't add it. This isn't to say that your character's disability shouldn't have any effect, but pick ways that fit the tone. For example, instead of dealing with debilitating pain, maybe your chatacter is out camping, they take off their leg to relax but oh no, a stray dog mistakes the metal pole for a bone and steals it, making your chatacter have to hop after them. When they catch them and get their leg back, they decide to adopt them! Hjinks and cozyness ensues

That actually does sound adorable, I might save that for later lmao

Or just small things, the same way you might show an able bodied chatacter getting ready for their day, show a disabled chatacter doing the same, but adding in the extra steps. Do what works with the tone.

This also isn't to say the advice can't be used in more fantastical settings. Most of what I write is fantasy and sci-fi, and while I don't use all of my own advice in those settings (because not all of it is relevent) I do use a lot of it, depending on the character in question. The main character in my sci-fi comic voidstar, Xari, for example, has been a double leg amputee for a long time and that, combined with the setting means not all of the standard advice about writing amputees is relevent to them. They don't struggle with pain or have trouble adjusting to prosthetics because it happened a long time ago and the medicine/tech in their world is better, but there's other ways it effects their daily life in ways fitting for the lighter tone in chapter 1. the intro sequence shows them running and jumping and being active, but also shows they use a wheelchair sometimes and a bit later in the chapter, crutches, depending on what they're doing. It also effects how they interact with people: late in the chapter someone makes a weird comment about their legs, and Xari uses it as a chance to mess with them and have some fun.

All this is to say don't be afraid to be a bit looser with the advice if the story you're writing has a lighter tone and just have fun. My content is there for those who want to use it, but it's not the "only objective way" to handle those subjects.

[leebrontide]

After a spring they barely survived, the superhero team the Sentinels, and their family, head to rural Minnesota for long awaited reunions and a chance to finally start to heal. But when they realize that genetically altered people have been going missing from the small town that houses the US's only full service hospital for genetically altered people they have to decide who they can trust- and fast, our thousands of people could die.

OK! I now have NON AMAZON buying options for Names in Their Blood, right in next to the FREE download option for the previous book, Secondhand Origin Stories. I've set the price for Names in Their Blood ebooks at $5 on both sites.

Gumroad download/buy option

Itch download/buy option

[nopoodles]

Do Your Books Have Disabled Characters?

Yup.

Unlicensed Delivery

A sci-fi space romp (mostly light-hearted)

Matter, one of our 5 protagonists, has a chronic pain condition including a pain flare day on page and snark when people ask the dreaded "what happened?" question

Accomodations built in for our character who sees the world through sensory input not sight (Sauraxen, also a protagonist).

Welcome To Humanity

A sci-fi dystopia (will make you laugh, might make you cry)

Ravi, one of our 3 protagonists, was reconstructed sci-fi style and now has a cybernetic prosthetic right hand side (leg, arm, eye). It causes him trouble and doesn't always work the way it should. He also has PTSD.

Blue, one of our 3 protagonists, is a malfunctioning cyborg who can no longer charge properly (chronic fatigue?) and can no longer be repaired. They also have a broken emotional surge adaptor, aka a heart condition.

Lots of background characters have disabilities too, since the whole narrative is an allegory for what it is like to be disabled/neurodivergent/trans in the world we live in now. Particular mentions to Toria, the resistance leader who has cybernetic legs and Star as chop shop owner with a cybernetic eye.

Guardian Cadet Series

A traditionalish fantasy, sword and sorcery style (light-hearted)

Merry, our protagonist, gets bonded to a magical artefact inside book 1 (Merry Arlan: Breaking The Curse) leaving her with limited use of and pain in her dominant left arm.

PT is semi-retired because of injuries he sustained in the line of duty.

In book 2 the Elven Queen is a wheelchair user.

Not That Kind Of Dandy

A pseudo-historical pirate fantasy (light-hearted)

Turns out being tortured by pirates can leave you disabled just ask Nat, our protagonist, who has scarring all the way down their dominant left arm that affects it's use. Or Bear who can't talk any more because of what pirates did to him.

[somketv]

I saw this post recently and honestly this is the way I've been thinking of #HowFatedDominoesFall , as I've been writing it over the past year and a half. I sat on the story for *years* before ever putting it to paper, thinking no one would want to read it. That it would delve too far past the realms of what is expected for its genre.

And then I decided to just write the idea down, it couldn't hurt after all, right? And quickly realized, over the 26 hours straight of writing as I literally couldn't stop myself from cranking out this idea that had been festering within me for so long, that *I* wanted to read it. And that was enough. I realized my desire to see how the story would unfold should have been all I needed in the first place, and in fact at first I never planned to share the story at all. How Fated Dominoes Fall was and is *my* story. It wasn't written to appease an audience-- it was written to fulfill my own desires for representation in a genre I love. It's something I have reread a dozen times as I've continued the narrative, and yet I find something new to love, to be surprised by, at every turn. And I can only hope that there are others out there who might, someday, love it even a fraction as much as I do.

[ALT TEXT: Screenshot of a Twitter post by @ / Devon_OnEarth, containing two pictures of a white man with a salt and pepper beard and hair, that says "I think I did this movie for a single audience member," and "which is me" respectfully. The tweet is captioned with "Many do not understand that this is the ideal creator mindset" [end of ALT text]

[r4v3nr0s3]

HELLO!

SEPTEMBER 22 is my B-day, I am trying to get my completed series THE EMERALD FORMULA, published.

So I’ve started a GoFundMe! Please check out my story below and if you could like, share, or donate it would mean everything to me.

LEARN MORE BELOW

I'm Raven Rose a queer, Latino, chronically ill, and disabled author and artist. Welcome to my journey as I get ready to be on my own for the first time in 15 years, go back to school, try to get on federal disability in the United States, and get my first novel published. September 22 is my Birthday month so if anyone is feeling extra festive, in lieu of gifts, I'd appreciate help here!

I’m restarting from scratch after a near decade of health problems, and despite great efforts to re-etner the workplace, 6 months time doing what I used to love, put me back in the hospital. For more about me visit my web page !

My lifelong dream has been to become a writer, but I can't do it alone. You can help me reach my goals and achieve my wildest dreams, and I could not be more grateful! Please do whatever you can do - like, share, and/or donate. I'm finally investing in myself and I believe my ideas and this story deserve investment too, so that's why I'm asking for your help.

Now for the goods!

THE EMERALD FORMULA is a series I've been working on close to 20 years.

The Working BLURB for novel 1 is as follows:

Renata Salcedo has never made a wave in her life. In the last few years though, she's broken up with her long term boyfriend, moved into her own place, and was diligently working towards the career of her dreams: a spot at the Smithsonian.

Fine... Adrenaline Junkie, Renata was not. She learned to stay small and figured out how to move quietly enough to stay unnoticed and survive. But it wasn't like she was unsuccessful. Her carefully planned path of baby steps lead her to exactly where she wanted to be: living her boring life and people leaving her alone to do her job. If anything, the job provided her all the excitement she needed. Unearthing old civilizations? Cataloguing the past through objects and art? Thrilling stuff! All done from the safety atop of an orthopedic pillow from behind a desk.

There was only one teensy problem with Renata's goals.

An entire world she knew nothing about existed right under her nose, and it's going to disrupt her boring little life whether she's planned for it or not. And really she can't complain too much, as it all starts with one of her absolute, most favorite things...

A Book

(Story EXCERPT at the bottom too)

REALM OF MATTER is the first novel in a complete 3-Book series called THE EMERALD FORMULA. At this point, the series needs refinement and editing, so both developmental and line editing. Funds will go towards paying the editors. Whatever is left over will go towards my publishing goals, and my intent to get an art degree and start doing marketing and making book covers. The three mock ups below were all created by me in Vector and Photoshop.

This Epic tale is a paranormal adventure with elements or horror, humor, fantasy, and an underlying slow burn human/humanoid monster romance. It features a diverse cast of human characters who break the mold of the Hero's Journey, and reject its sanctity all-together.

Its universe is heavily based on the History of science, magic, and folklore, focusing mainly on Pagan and Catholic mythology to give this Hero's journey a darkly poignant and comedic edge that digs in and punches up. The magical system is highly elemental, and dives deep into Alchemical and Spiritual theory from thousands of years ago. All of the artwork you see was done by me, a self taught artist (thought I'd like to go back to school next year).

I created my own language and phonetics system, also an alphabet.

All so I could make these transmutation circles based on sacred geometry.

YOU CAN READ CHAPTER 1 HERE

THE EMERAD FORMULA: REALM OF MATTER is a snarky thriller that features a bunch of traumatized, relatable saps often thrust into magical and extraordinary circumstances with not much but found family and magic on their side. But if they can't find hope in a hopeless situation against the ultimate evil, no one can. If you vibe with sacrilege, and enjoy flawed, funny characters, family antics, awkward slow burn romances, complex but accessible lore, legacy heroes, ancient monsters, chaos, magic, and mayhem? You've found the series for you.

Please do whatever is accessible to you: liking, sharing, and donating are all extremely important to make this project a reality. This means a lot to me and I greatly appreciate your support.

Thank you for your time,

Raven Rose

[mushroommanchanterelle]

we love foreshadowing in this house

[aesthetically-dying101]

Hey!

I read your story on Archive of our own and it's really good, like, I enjoyed it a lot. But I gotta say, I think you should re-evaluate your characters. You're kinda appropriating deaf culture and that's not cool. If you're not deaf, maybe you shouldn't write about it, you know?

You should probably take the story down and change the characters or something. Just my two cents.

UH??????

IM SORRY WHAT?

Bro idk if you didn't know, but I am hard of hearing. Like? I have hearing aids... And what culture am I taking away from?? Especially if I am a part of that "culture".

I really hope this is some sort of fucked up joke or something cause this is just weird.

[bones-ivy-breath]

Marrying Outside the Faith by Anya Krugovoy Silver, from The Ninety-Third Name of God

[chronicallydragons]

There was a pitch party over on twitter earlier this week, #UnhingedPit, and I just felt like Writeblr might enjoy my contributions I just need to also point out that "behold, the phases of the pancake" IS a direct quote AND I'd already painted the phases of the pancake before the pitch event was announced. The vibes of the book and the vibes of the pitch party matched perfectly

[smoking-witch]

I'm writing a novel trilogy. A Sherlock Holmes story, in three acts. It's absolutely definitely fictional and not autobiographical in any way.

[youngchronicpain]

For the next three days there is a "stuff your kindle" event on Amazon where a bunch of romance novels will be free to purchase!

The website above has a list of the books that are available. There is even a category of books written by disabled authors!

Make sure you purchase the books for 0 dollars instead of clicking the "read for free" button for Kindle Unlimited, which is not free. You don't have to have a Kindle to read the books. You can read them on the kindle app on your phone, tablet, or desktop.

Happy reading!

[cy-cyborg]

Me:

I've been in hospital more times than I can count. Literally hundreds of times. I think it's safe to say im an expert at this point.

Me trying to write a scene in my story in a hospital:

I remember... absolutely nothing.

if im going to be traumatised, the least my brain could do is remember enough for me to use in my stories, but nooooo lol

[ididit-allofit-foryou]

hard pills

  The back-ache days and too-long nights  are becoming unbearably heavy, gouging  my eye-bags deeper with every fall  of the sun. I can only hold so much under  my tongue without swallowing–  and I don’t want to taste  the truth that this might be forever;  that all my tomorrows will be a battle  to keep my eyelids from dropping;  that every time I rise from my prison-bed  slumber I will have a clock  on my spine counting down at slipping-slide  speeds to the time I have to return.  The brain fog chews at my mind,  the fatigue eats at my soul.  I can’t take this! I want to live! Let me be!  I just want to be okay.  I’ve never known peace  in my life, and just when I just began  to look it in the eye, my body started to crumble.  What good is a life you can’t live?  What good is a sharp  mind when it can’t cut through the smog?  I’ve been dealt a losing  hand, again, and again, and again. I don’t want  to give up the hope I just found,  but I feel so helpless. Everything costs  too much, including consciousness.  Every time I move, a joint pops.  Every minute I spend upright  is another hour lying down.  Math doesn’t add up here, and the clocks  turn too quickly. How does a bird fly  when there’s no air?

This is a poem I wrote about my experiences with chronic illnesses, including chronic fatigue, POTS, and chronic pain. I thought I would share it for disability pride month! You can find it, and more like it, in my latest poetry book, KNOW ME!!!