characters with disabilities – Nomad Authors Blog

We all write characters with all kinds of characteristics. But have you written characters with disabilities?

I’ve been thinking back, and I don’t think I’ve written any characters with disabilities except for Frank in Awards night (in Your Desire). I don’t know why that is. I have a disability myself, so you’d think I would lean into that topic with my characters, but I haven’t. Maybe that’s because my mom pounded into me that I didn’t have a disability—that I could and should strive to do whatever I wanted. Good mom! I love her. Think I’ll keep her. 😉

There’s no formula for writing characters. No magic equation that helps us come up with believable heroes or heroines. In my novella Awards Night, Allison comes home to find a car crashed through her fence and plowed into a tree. The man who’d been driving is not injured much—except he’s blinded by damage to his head. Allison doesn’t know the man. He says his name is Frank, and as you might guess, he’s pretty cranky. Some might even say nasty. But really, he’s scared half to death. In reality, though he doesn’t share this with Allison, Frank is the CEO and founder of a major international electronics firm. He’s not used to taking orders or feeling helpless. But now he does (to a certain extent) and he is. How he adjusts is quite interesting (I hope!).

Frank’s wound in Awards Night was not due to a war but to an accident. However, in the years since 9/11, we’ve all had too much exposure to the damage war can do to our warriors. And the internal wounds, the ones no one sees, are as bad as the missing limbs. Maybe worse, since they’re hidden from sight. We have a whole generation who have seen the ravages of war. It’s up to us as a nation, as humans, to respect those who have suffered in our service, and to help as best we can.

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee

Burning Bridges by Anne Krist: old letters put the lie to Sara’s life. Now, mending her past mistakes while crossing burning bridges will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers

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Your characters: made them have disabilities?

I didn’t consciously set out to give Adrian Bryce, Perilous Love, a disability until he and Gabrielle were hiding from German soldiers in a hay loft.

Adrian’s life of wealth and beautiful women came to an abrupt end when the British Secret Service ordered him to accompany his estranged wife Gabrielle to Belgium. They wanted evidence her uncle was supporting the German Empire. What Adrian found, as the Germans crossed the Belgian border sparking World War One, had them running for their lives. It’s in this loft, that Gabrielle learns of Adrian’s infidelities, his lies and his secret life. Then, when it’s safe to climb down, he falls breaking bones in his foot. This injury is a great leveller, not only is there a price on his head, he can’t walk and must rely on the woman he’d shamefully neglected to get them to safety.

Not many people survive a war without physical or emotional injuries.

Harry Connelly, The Proposition, was one of the ‘what the hell’ soldiers. He enlisted to escape arrest and a wife who despised him. On the eve of the Battle of Amiens, he meets Andrew Conroy, a man with no family. In the thick of that huge battle a bayonet slices through Harry’s leg and he collapses beside the body of Andrew Conroy. Could he? It’s a huge risk, it’s his only hope. Harry swaps identity discs. Now Andrew Conroy, he’s one of the thousands of casualties and injuries in overcrowded hospitals, and eventually discharged as medically unfit with a leg that leaves him lame. Months later, the impact of this deception hits home when an unknown cousin of the dead man finds him. What follows pushes Andrew into a nightmare of murder and deception. His disability will be his alibi and almost his downfall when he meets Lacey, with secrets of her own. The only way to get to the truth is tell her the truth.