Joan of Arcadia
I’ve been rewatching this show on DVD. I love its philosophy and the image of God that it shows. It’s quite a unique show. It also features a paraplegic character, Joan’s older brother, Kevin. This character is played by non-disabled Jason Ritter, but he does a pretty good job. I heard somewhere that the character who plays basketball with him and teaches him about how to live in a wheelchair is a real life parapelgic, so I think that’s awesome. Kevin’s character arc is pretty predictable at first. In the beginning he is still holed up at home, feeling bitter and miserable and like his life is over. Over the course of the show he gets his life back: getting his driver’s license, starting a career as a reporter, and finding new...
Read MoreMonkeyShines and Bone Collector
I’m putting these two stories together because they are a similar theme, horror stories using the immobility of quadriplegia to make it scarier. In both cases, the books are far, far superior to the movies. One thing I really like is that in both stories, the main characters defend themselves. The movie version of The Bone Collector kind-of takes that away, but in the book he defends himself against his attacker. In Monkeyshines, the quadriplegic character is caught in a house alone with a killer monkey (yes, it’s a tad far-fetched). He very impressively uses his teeth to kill the monkey. Of course, MonkeyShines has to have the miracle cure at the end, and the main character recovers completely. Bone Collector does not fall into that trap. There are a...
Read MoreTreasure Island
Sometimes disability is used in writing as a metaphor for a broken soul. As you might imagine, I absolutely hate that. I think it was particularly popular in the 1800s to tell you about the inner mind of a character by his outward appearance. There was no expression “Don’t judge a book by its cover” in those days. I think they did believe that you could tell about a person by what he looked like. So, good guys are handsome, good women are beautiful and demure, and bad guys have some kind of deformity. That tradition has carried on in subtle ways. It still happens in stories today, though not as much. I still wonder whether Long John Silver fits into this category. On the surface, I would have to say that he does. He is the bad guy of the story...
Read MoreProgress Trackers
At proofreaders; available for pre-order
What Is Meant To Be
Second draft
Homework & Homicide (working title)
Second Draft
Book Montage
RFW winner October 7, 2011
