Near and dear

Recently, a book blog's facebook page asked about books with disabled heroines. I've read a few and really liked them. I particularly enjoy Catherine Anderson's books because the heroines usually have either a physical or psychological limitation that the hero has to deal with... and does, because he loves her that much.

In light of the degradation of my own mobility, I'm thinking more and more about the need for those imperfect heroines.

I am now in a wheelchair 99% of the time when I go out, or I am in one of the motorized carts at stores. The other day, my father let us take a motorized chair that was left from a deceased relative. I can now join my hubby on walks and might even be able to venture to the nearest store, in case of emergency. :) It's nice knowing that I can, to be honest.

Doing things as simple as gathering up the trash from around the house on garbage pick-up day is enough to send me to bed in pain for hours. I'm still hurting from that ten minutes of working and bending and walking, and that was almost 12 hours ago.

But you know what? My hubby is still right there, with me. I got the chair, he looked up all the specs on it so we could see if there were accessories that would help me out. He walked with me as I got used to the controls, even laughed with me as I did donuts in the driveway under the guise of seeing what the turn radius was like. ;) I was able to ramble over to my container garden and could even reach my plants without bending over and hurting myself further. (note to self, time to put those up on a table!)

Anyhow... So yeah. I'm only 43 (nearly 44) and I'm going through this. I know a bunch of people my age and even younger who are also going through the same issues.

It's hard to feel sexy when you're confined to a recliner, a wheelchair, or even a super-speedy rolly-chair (it'll hit 4 mph!). It's hard to lose weight when you can't move the parts of your body that need to be worked on. Hell, my aerobic workouts  these days include yarn and either a crochet hook or knitting needles. I'm pretty fast and I honestly do work up a sweat. Doc says it still burns more calories than just sitting here watching TV, so I'll take it. :)

So I've started a story with a totally cheesy title that I will endeavor to change before I release it.

The thing is, I recently read an article that mentioned something about 'Mary Sue heroines'. It talked about the writers making themselves the star of the book, just adjusting for looks and age, usually. Mary Sues have the same talents and skills as the author, as well as some of the same weaknesses.

This book would be very much a Mary Sue, in that the heroine's limitations would be the same as mine. The way she deals with her growing lack of mobility, how she is constantly in pain, hurting herself with daily chores, and how she has to learn to rely on the kindness of strangers (who later become her loves, of course!), is very much me. (Except for the 'loves' part... I have one. Singular. ;)  ) She's also a writer, like I am, but that's mainly because it's a job that someone can do who finds themselves suddenly resigned to a wheelchair when they used to be active.  Not everyone can write a book, of course, but she can and she does. Just as I have started a new life with my writing, mostly because I became unable to do what I was going to school for, she finds herself learning to live alone with her disabilities and making friends despite her limitations. :)


This story is very dear to my heart, mainly because it's about finding and keeping love in spite of a major life situation.

But what do you think? What do you think about a heroine in a wheel-chair or a motorized chair? I just got one of those, so I want to include the experience in the story, make it as real as I know how. :)

I'm just curious as to whether you'd read it or if it would mainly be for my own entertainment. :)