Okay hear me out.
A young adult novel written by a disabled author.
Where the main character gets into an accident and must use a wheelchair.
(And is written fairly accurately as the author is also in a wheelchair.)
There are more disabled characters than you can count.
The ones who aren’t disabled are the enemies.
It takes place in an alternate version of the 1950s, at an institution for people with disabilities and superabilities.
You see how the disabilities relate to the superabilities (superpowers).
The main character goes through the stages of grief after she realizes that she won’t be able to walk again but she is able to come out of it, not because of a love interest, but because she’s able to find her own strength. (And hit her mentor in the face with a weight.)
In fact, the main character doesn’t have any love interest at all.
None.
You could make the argument that she’s aromantic/asexual.
And the author would totally support that argument.
But despite not having a love interest, the main character is truly cared for, especially by her gruff mentor with a heart of gold.
Did somebody say found families and father-figure-daughter-figure relationships?
Also there’s an interracial couple thirty years in the making.
And an underground resistance of students with disabilities trying to prove that they’re stronger than people think.
And in the end, they’re able to save the day.
And there are a lot of hugs.
And a lot of chocolate milk.
And the main character comes to terms with the fact that her biological family is horrible but she’s fine with that because she’s got the gruff mentor with a heart of gold who may or may not be in the CIA and also knew Al Capone.
And nobody dies.
And nobody dies.
And nobody kills themselves because they think that their lives are over now that they are in fact disabled.
Unlike some other books!
Oh and there’s a pig in a wheelchair.
And it’s all written by a disabled college student who really really needs the money for college and her apartment because apparently life is expensive (who knew?)
And it’s not the best written and it’s not error free but it was written with a lot of heart and a lot of passion in the early hours of the morning because that’s when the author had free time. But if nothing else, it has amazing disability representation. And a pig in a wheelchair.
Interested?
Well, guess what?
That author is me, that book is mine, that book is published, that book is available for you to buy, that book even comes in a paperback version so that you can hold in your hands a story with disability representation in which none of the characters die or talk about how they’re a burden and how their lives are over (well, Juniper does once but Ryder knocks some sense into her.)
It’s called The Defectives and you can buy it here:
https://www.amazon.com/Defectives-Burgandi-Rakoska-ebook/dp/B01G7TTLXE?ie=UTF8&qid=1464304077&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
So if you’re looking for disability representation that doesn’t end with death and you want to help out a novice disabled author who really needs the money, please consider buying this book.
If nothing else, please signal boost!
If you’re not familiar with Amazon’s authorcentral or affiliates program, it’s worth researching. It gives you a way to potentially earn a tiny bit extra on navigation from your book page. ( https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ )
Lemony Snicket’s Advice on Writing a Nice Thank-You Note
1. Do not start with the thank you.
2. Start with any other sentence. If you first say, “Thank you for the nice sweater,” you can’t imagine what to write next. Say, “It was so wonderful to come home from school to find this nice sweater. Thank you for thinking of me on Arbor Day.”
3. Then you’re done.
I recommend learning how to write a very good thank-you note. A child who can write a nice thank-you note can turn into a cocaine dealer five years later and be remembered as the child who wrote nice thank-you notes.
I used to think that when I grew up I would never expect anyone to write a thank you note to me, but I was wrong … everyone should write thank you notes. They are the best writing exercise I know.
I love receiving thank you notes, and because of that–I always try to write them. People remember hand-written notes; they’re so rare now.
(Source: NPR, via meganwhalenturner)
http://plusalpha-glass.com/index.html
Artist Satoshi Tomizu creates small glass spheres that appear to be miniature solar systems or galaxies, in which planets made of opal are circling into spirals of colored glass and gold flakes.
Each piece includes a small glass loop allowing them to be transformed into a beautiful pendant.
(via meganwhalenturner)
Can we please talk about how our history teacher sent a barbie to the smithsonian as proof of the presence of man two million years ago
pleas,e for the love of God read the whole letter, there are tears streamign down my face rn
Can we please talk about how your history teacher has done this sort of thing enough times that he has his own specimen shelf in the Smithsonian
“yours in science” tho
“B. Clams don’t have teeth” is the part where I lost it.
The letter says:
“Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled “211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post. Hominid skull.” We have gien this specimen a careful and detailed examination and regret to inform you that we disagree with you theory that it represents ‘conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago.’ Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be the ‘Malibu Barbie’. It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to it’s modern origin:
- The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.
- The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.
- The dentition patters evident on the ‘skull’ is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ‘ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams’ you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:
- A) The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.
- Clams don’t have teeth.
It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in it’s normal operation, and partly due to carbon dating’s notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results. Sadly , we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation’s Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name ‘Australopithecus spiff-arino.’ Speaking personally, I for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn’t really sound like it might be Latin.
However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your back yard. We eagerly anticipate your trip to or nation’s capital that you proposed in you last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the ‘trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix’ that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.
Yours in Science,
Harvey Rowe
Curator, Antiquities”
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(sorry if there are misspellings or wrong wordings. this was long and i was reading it off my phone)
“I for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn’t really sound like it might be Latin.“
"It’s not the load that breaks you down. It’s the way you carry it."
— C.S. Lewis (via onlinecounsellingcollege)
(via yabooknerdlibrarian)
"Just for the record, she still loves you. She wouldn’t bother to torture you if she didn’t."
— Chuck Palahniuk (via quotemadness)
(via quotemadness)
