I wrote Airphibious because I was craving a heroine like me - Queer and disabled. It can be really hard finding intersectional representation in mainstream literature. Most of the time, if a character has some sort of minority identity, they are only allowed one (for example: they can be gay or a person of color, but they can't be both). It's also really hard to find disability or chronic illness portrayed in a way that's authentic and ancillary (meaning it's part of the character, but not the obstacle that the character has to overcome by the end of the story).
The main character of Airphibious, Genessa Starling, is a ship captain. She's a smart and conscientious leader who puts her crew and her mission first. She's an adventurous spirit who doesn't have time for other people's BS. She also uses a variety of mobility aids and deals with chronic fatigue and pain. Those things don't disappear during fight scenes or when she meets new dangers. They are a constant presence in her life, like they are in mine. Captain Starling finds ways to work with her body, asks for what she needs, and finds creative methods to accomplish the tasks she must in order to complete her mission.
This kind of representation is something I missed out on growing up and continue to struggle to find today. It is so much easier to find characters whose disabilities turned them into villains, who are the victims in need of saving, or who is the magical truth-teller who teaches the protagonist to appreciate what they have because they are lucky enough to not be disabled than it is to find than it is to find characters like Genessa whose disability is an ever-present part of them, that impacts their life experiences and identity. Characters written in such a way that it is clear their disability isn't something they have to overcome. Characters who have bad days as well as good days, who use adaptive equipment, who get frustrated at inaccessible parts of their world, who are stuck pushing through pain, who borrow from tomorrow's energy reserves in order to get through today, who still have goals, friendships, communities, responsibilities, romances, families, opinions, strengths, and weaknesses. That's the kind of character that I hope Genessa is, and I look forward to exploring this character further in future books in this series.
Image Description: A photo of a hand-painted book cover. A stormy river depicted in shades of light and dark blues and white courses through a green space. The background is fairly abstract. Superimposed over the blue and green spaces is a painting of a gray-brown boat suspended in the air with the help of a purple hot air balloon. A woman is seated in a wheelchair at the railing of the ship. Her clothing is purple with white and gold accents. Her brown hair whips around her head in the breeze.
Credit: Laura Browne-Lambert
Airphibious, is now available on Amazon as a "pocket" novelette! I've formatted it into ebook, paperback, and large-print (hardcover) editions, so if you’re someone who does better reading large-print books, that option is available to you. This brings the total number of books I have available on Amazon to three. You can find each of those books at the links below.
I try really hard to keep the costs of my books as affordable as possible, but if you find cost to be prohibitive, I also publish them on WeInk which supports authors through ad revenue while keeping content free for readers. So, if you want to read or support me as an author for free, you can do that through the WeInk platform.
I hope this video and this book find that person, like me, who is craving authentic disability representation. You are definitely my audience with this book. I should also mention that this character is queer, but we won’t go into that deeply until later books of the series. If you’re looking for this kind of intersectional representation of disability and queerness, I hope this book finds you!
If you are also an indie or self-published author and you have a book you would like to share with the Underground Bookshelf community, please contact me at contact.undergroundbookshelf@gmail.com so we can explore including your book in a future Book Release Radar.
About the Author
Laura is queer and neurodivergent, and has a chronic illness caused by long-COVID. She lives in Boston, MA with her wife, Jasmine. She enjoys gardening, painting, and finding new science fiction or fantasy books to enjoy. She is the creator of Underground Bookshelf and the author of The Wood, Aftermath (Book One of the Stone Series). and Airphibious (Book One of The Starling Chronicles).
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