Making Fantasy Worlds Accessible with Top Shelf Magazine

I joined Top Shelf Magazine to share my article "You Can't Miss the Library," an examination of disabled characters in science fiction and fantasy worlds. I'm grateful they provided the space to untangle these thoughts and hope you'll take a look, especially if you're a fellow author!

Stark land sweeps from the buildings atop the hill. I’d liken farm fields to skirts. This vista is too sharp for that. These are nature’s tassets. Narrow stone paths and hard-packed trails wind between sod roofs. This is a place with the brutality of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. The latter was filmed here, and I can see why: I’d gladly immerse myself  in this landscape. But it, like many places I’ve visited in the past year, has barriers.

Fantasy is known for austere settings, twisting streets, and remote cities. Even outside of the grimdark subgenre there’s a mercilessness. I settle against a wall across from the broad stairs, knuckles white on the handle of my cane. Pain tunnels my brain to the duality of dissociation and immediacy...read more