Friday Excerpt: True Stories

A friend pointed out recently that people are really fascinated by true stories. He suggested that I might want to think about sharing more of my real experiences with my audience and not just my fiction. I thought that was a great idea.

I do get emails and other messages from people curious about my real life and what role disability has played in it. Where do I get the knowledge and confidence to write about disabled characters? Are my novels based on real life?

So I picked six stories from my real dating life to showcase in an eBook called True Tales: Encounters with Disabled Men. Here is an excerpt from one of the stories…

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I liked New Jersey a lot. He was a classic nice guy. Soon after we started IMing, he mentioned that he worked for an airline and could fly for free. So, he came to visit me.

We had a blast doing touristy things around L.A. then went back to his hotel room with some ice cream from the drug store. I love ice cream and when New Jersey learned that, he insisted we get some. We ate Ben and Jerry’s while watching Family Guy. Then I fell asleep. Like, fast asleep!

I was embarrassed, but he didn’t seem bothered. He made no move on me at any time during the whole weekend and I started to wonder whether he was attracted to me at all. We didn’t discuss attraction, my devness, or his disability. I didn’t feel like I could bring anything like that up with him. (Though, again, he did know that I was a dev. I have never gone out with someone without telling him first. Usually within the first conversation we have. Even able-bodied guys!)

On the second day we went to Long Beach and the village shops beside the aquarium. He took pictures of me next to the water, we ate at a nice restaurant.

When he left, he hadn’t even kissed me.

Which I guess could be interpreted as respectful, but I’m a fast moving girl (as you may have gathered from the previous story). I didn’t know what his feelings were because he wasn’t being as aggressive as I was used to. That’s my excuse for why I wasn’t more careful with his feelings. Looking back at it, he may have felt self-conscious and insecure. It’s hard for me to remember sometimes that guys with disabilities aren’t necessarily used to being seen as objects of desire.