A Deaf Writer with Hearing Characters

Recently, I came across a call for submissions for an anthology. They wanted sf/f stories from writers who have disabilities. Since I am deaf, and I had a sci-fi story I was trying to find a home for, I submitted my story. I figured I met their requirements in just being a writer with a disability; they didn’t say anything about how the stories submitted should contain characters with disabilities. My story didn’t; there were no deaf characters and there were also no other characters with disabilities.

 

Still, the whole thing made me think. I have been deaf since age 13, and by the time I became deaf, I was already writing stories, poems, and articles. Becoming deaf didn’t change how I wrote my stories; I did not start writing stories with deaf characters in them. I have, however, come up with novel ideas with deaf characters, but I haven’t written those novels yet. (I’ll get around to them, at some point!)

 

But even so, I didn’t write stories with deaf characters. Then I wrote a children’s story with a deaf character, who is the main character in the story. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any luck placing it with a publisher, and these days I can say that I am glad for that! It needs a lot of work. I actually plan to revise it at some point in the near future and try to find an agent for it. (Right now, I have to finish writing my middle-grade series!)

 

As far as writing anything deaf-related is concerned, that happened in my poetry and in my nonfiction writing. I have written a lot of deaf poetry (with only two published so far and I have a collection of deaf poetry I plan to get out there at some point), as well as a lot of essays on subjects related to being deaf. I wrote articles on deafness, and I also wrote for a newspaper called SIGNews, which was a national newspaper for the Deaf/HOH community. I wrote about Deaf education and Deaf parenting for that paper, but I eventually branched out to cover other topics.

 

And as a ghostwriter, I have been sought by other writers who are deaf who want me to write for them mainly because I am deaf.

 

And, of course, I wrote essays about my experiences as a deaf parent in the book, Parenting Pauses.

 

But as far as my fiction is concerned? Well, there are not many deaf characters. I do plan to introduce a deaf character in The GHOST Group (in Book 9), but we are not there yet. In one of my novels, my character learns sign language so she can communicate with a deaf barista, but that deaf character never makes an appearance.

 

This tendency to not include deaf characters in my fiction very often has always baffled me. Writers of fiction are told to write what we know, and if there’s one thing that I do know, it’s what it’s like to be deaf! (This is a common question I receive.) So why haven’t I included deaf characters in my fiction? I mean, aside from the children’s book I wrote, there really aren’t any. Why haven’t I included deaf characters who go through the same struggles I have as a deaf person – the discrimination, hostility, ignorance and feeling left out? I write about this in my deaf poetry, but not my deaf fiction. And I really wonder why I haven’t done that yet.

 

Part of me thinks that maybe the reason why is because writing fiction is like a form of escape for me. One thing I know very well as a deaf person is the communication barrier that exists between me and the hearing world. There are so many things I chose not to do simply because of that barrier. For example, I can’t participate in group discussions, because I can’t keep up with the conversation when there are multiple people talking and EVERYBODY is talking fast and nobody wants to slow down to sign to the deaf girl what everyone is saying. But when I write fiction, I can be a part of those things. I can “talk” with people on the phone through my characters, shout things to someone in another room and hear their response through my characters, and have an ongoing back-and-forth conversation that is not slowed down for signing through my characters.

 

I know this kind of discrimination exists in the hearing world. One guy I was interested in a long time ago said he likes to walk and talk and he prefers not to be with someone who can’t hear and keep up with the conversation. I was told I could not have a job at this one agency because I couldn’t answer the phone. I have sat through MANY appointments and meetings where everyone is talking but I don’t understand a single thing said because there are no aids to help me understand them.

 

I know all of these things, and more, as a person who is deaf. As someone who has been deaf for a long time.

 

I think as much as I like to escape from those limitations in my world by writing about a world where those problems aren’t there is nice, but I really think I should start putting in more effort where I have deaf characters going through those experiences just so more people can understand what life is REALLY like for a person who is deaf. There are struggles, yes, but we find a way around them and we adapt our lives to live with them. We can’t communicate on the phone like everyone else, but we CAN still communicate on the phone. We can’t order at a drive-thru like everyone else, but we CAN still order at a drive-thru, thanks to certain businesses who are aware of customers with disabilities who want the same access to fast food that everybody else has.

 

Life is different for people who are deaf, but we find a way to make things work. After I bring my deaf character into my series and after I get that children’s book published (fingers crossed I find an agent for it!), perhaps then I will finally start to include more deaf characters in my fiction. I think that really needs to happen.

 

Making Time for You: New Ebook Shares the Simplicity and Necessity of Self-Care

 

This post is late because January ended on a good and bad note. Good because I was able to self-publish an ebook before the month was out, and bad because my aunt died and I learned that a friend who has been battling cancer for months was entering hospice.

 

I didn’t know it was possible to work on self-publishing stuff while crying until then.

 

Then, on February 1^st, I learned that another friend had passed away. I was too depressed to even think about the new ebook.

 

Yesterday, I was holding my breath, bracing myself for more bad news. Thankfully, 2-2-22 passed without anymore bad news. It wasn’t a good day for me, but it wasn’t a bad day either. So I call that a win!

 

Anyway, on to the news!

 

Sometime ago, a friend and fellow writer, Jenn Greenleaf, took on the challenge to write and self-publish an ebook for every month of the year. Of course, being the superhero that she is, she was able to pull it off! (Yay, Jenn!) I was so inspired by this that I decided to take on the challenge as well. That idea was renewed as the beginning of 2022 drew closer. Also at that time, I was reading ebooks that were available for free through Kindle Unlimited. I noticed that there were A LOT of writers publishing ebooks through Kindle Unlimited. I wanted to get in on that too!

 

So I took these two things – my desire to do the writing challenge and my desire to publish ebooks through Kindle Unlimited – and put them together!

 

Now, I have NEVER published through Kindle Unlimited before. I started dreading it, especially when another writer I know was dealing with a lot of headaches in trying to publish through Kindle Unlimited. But I was still willing to learn how to do it. I had to give it a try!

 

As to the ebooks I would use for this challenge, I already had a series of ebooks that I wanted to use for … SOME purpose or another! And since there were 12 of them, I thought, why not use it for this challenge?

 

Even so, the final list of books to use for this challenge was not the same as the original list of books I wanted to write for this series. The reason why is because I did research on the market for some of them and realized that some of them were not going to work. There was really no demand for them. Also, some of those book ideas were conceived on a whim, and I no longer felt they would have an audience. So I culled the ideas that didn’t work and turned them into ideas that would. For example, the book idea on ways to reward yourself became a book on self-care and the book idea for “my ghost stories” became “true ghost stories” that included stories from other people. The book idea on freelance writing was turned into an idea for a book containing writing challenges. Finally, an idea for a story collection was moved to another project and replaced with a different story collection idea.

 

The first book in this challenge was about self-care. I spent a lot of time before and during January doing research on this topic. By the time I was done, I told a friend I think I have read enough about self-care to last me a lifetime! That’s when I knew I researched the topic to death. Heh.

 

I managed to write the book in one week. I spent the weekend going over it – editing and revising as needed – then, when the time came, I sent it out for edits. When the edits were complete, I reviewed the file, finalized it, then got started on the self-publishing process. I already had the cover for this book thanks to my subscription with Shutterstock, so that was already taken care of.

 

I read and watched a lot of tutorials on how to publish through KDP. Getting the tip to use Kindle Create was a BIG help because I was able to get it ready to publish in the format of an ebook. My first attempt using Kindle Create took some time to get used to, though. I kept saving, reviewing, fixing, then doing that all over again probably a dozen times! But I finally got it just right and sent it in for publication.

 

Self-Care Suggestions Book was published near the end of January and I was so thrilled to finally get it out! YAY!! I am so happy I was able to figure out how to self-publish an ebook on Kindle and I am grateful for all the tutorials available online! I am also grateful that I am now joining the ranks of the Kindle Unlimited authors. Now I get to say that among the many ebooks I have available, I also have some available through Kindle Unlimited.

 

And because it was my friend Jenn who inspired me to take on this challenge, I dedicated the first ebook to her.

 

I am currently working on the next ebook for February.

 

Meanwhile, here is the blurb for Self-Care Suggestions Book and the link to where you can get it for FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

 

In today's busy world, it's easy to forget that while we are busy of taking care of everybody else, we need to take care of ourselves too. But when it comes to taking care of ourselves, what exactly do we really need? How can we make time for self-care in our already busy schedules? This book will answer those questions and more.

 

In this book, you will learn:

 

·        What is self-care?

·        Why is it important?

·        Do I need to pay for self-care?

·        What types of self-care are there?

·        What kind of self-care routines can I use?

 

 

By taking the time to arm yourself with the knowledge about what self-care is and why it is crucial to practice self-care routines, you'll start to feel better about yourself and empowered to take on whatever else life throws at you. Self-care is not selfish! This book will show you just how easy, affordable and practical self-care really is.

 

Check out this book and download it for free on Kindle here.