Hello! I am a hearing person who is writing a fantasy story with a Deaf main character in it. I have been doing research on how to write them in a way that is respectful and honoring of the Deaf and HoH communities, but I would like to find some beta readers for future drafts of my work. Where are some websites I can find potential Deaf beta readers, and how do I approach asking them respectfully? I don't want to come across as nosy or looking to exploit them.
Hello,
the term you are looking for is “sensitivity reader”, “beta reader” is more used in fandom spaces and not in publishing of original fiction.
Here is a sensitivity reader directory, there is at least one Deaf person:
https://www.writingdiversely.com/directory
I didn’t find any other sites. (lot of places reccomended writheinthemargins.org, but that site doesn’t seem to be active)
But you can try reaching out to your local Deaf organization. You can also try searching for Deaf bloggers, and see if they mention the option in their bio. I don’t recommend cold-approaching random Deaf people, especially since lot of Deaf people dislike reading.
Keep in mind that sensitivity reading is usually paid position (just like editor). You might find someone willing to do it for free, but its a service that should be paid, as it is time-consuming work. If you pay them, its not exploiting.
Rules: List 10 songs you’re currently listening to, then tag ten people!
So, in no particular order and with varying degrees of “currently”:
1. This is Life from Bandstand (This one is the demo version, so a bit different but not that)
2. Road to You by Five for Fighting
3. All I Ask of You from The Phantom of the Opera
4. Annie Use Your Telescope by Jack’s Mannequin
5. Surrounded by Delta Rae
6. No Excuse by Judy Rogers
7. Here’s a Health by Cara Dillon
8. White is in the Winter Night by Enya
9. Snow by Loreena McKennitt
10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Ella Fitzgerald
If they would like, I tag @lover-of-the-starkindler, @idratherdreamofjune, @thewindthief, @morfinwen, @ladysnowangel, @thisbrilliantsky, @theworldiswhispering, @windwardrose, @maysartcorner, and @recoveringrabbit.
So you tagged that you are bitter about “The Black Tapes”, and now I am curious. Care to explain, my dear?
SO. It's been almost three years, which leaves my memory a little fuzzy, BUT. I The Black Tapes was such a nice, spooky podcast, right? For the first season. A bright-eyed-bushy-tailed and very clever journalist harrasses a Stuffy Paranomal Investigator Who Debunks The Paranotmsl into letting her cover strange stories with him, and also snoops around in his past, which is Mysterious and Traumatic. And there's a big plot about a creepy smiley-faced demon and a cult trying to bring about the apocalypse, and it's good. But the creators just. stopped caring about the story they were telling. They had other podcasts they wanted to focus on, and so season two suffered and flopped, before eventually, they absndoned the show. I never actually listened to the finale-that-wasn't-supposed-to-be-the-finale-but-ended-up-being-the-last-episode-bc-whashisname-couldn't-be-bothered-to-finish-the-show-properly, as I'd been warned they forced a last-minute romance between the male and female main characters, and by that point, I was already fed up.
I also heard scuttlebutt that they were trying to make a TV show now? I'm wary. I don't trust like that.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. And Stereotypical Apocalyptic setup.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
Chapter 1
Okay, so right off the bat, I am kind of disappointed by the way this is written. The author copied and pasted Mrs. Bennet’s dialogue almost exactly from the original 1st chapter (I compared the two texts), and just changed Mr. Bennet’s dialogue to basically “Shut up woman! There are zombies out there!! The girls need to learn how to fight, not get married!!!” However, Mrs. Bennet is still bent on marrying her daughters, while Mr. Bennet is trying to keep them alive and capable in defending themselves.
It’s....okay. I’m not digging the whole “rough and tumble apocalyptic” setting presented, but I mean, I guess it’s logical for the situation...just kind of.....overdone and bland. Humdrum.
I was more hoping that the stubborn folk of Victorian England would be trying their hardest to keep their everyday lives going, and doing their darnedest to push the zombies into the backs of their minds; not just Mrs. Bennet, but everyone (maybe except Lissy and Darcy). Just trying to enjoy their afternoon tea, as the hordes of undead are clawing at their windows. Talking about the weather as the men are beating back the masses. That would have been hilarious!!
But no. Just the usual, watered down “Gotta get ripped and kill them all!” plot, with Mrs. Bennet in her own little world. I will say though; it’s kind of fitting for Mrs. Bennet, in her flurried nature.
Here is my TSE Secret Santa for @maysartcorner! the prompt I used was ‘A TSE Charlie Brown Christmas.’ I am not sure whether or not this fic is a modern AU or not. If it is not... I took some liberties with the flower booth :P Merry Christmas, May!
Avidan wasn’t sure why Velvare had tasked him with finding a Christmas tree for the Capitol building lobby. He’d probably expected he would just send someone to buy one, which was something he could have done just as easily himself. Maybe he’d just wanted to keep him busy. But Avidan had decided he was going to do this well, if he was supposed to be doing this. He wanted to be involved in taking care of things around here, even if it was just something as simple Christmas decorations.
So now here he was, walking down the street, wrapped from head to toe to keep the cold out. He gave no heed to the snowflakes swirling around his head or the wind that bit at the exposed parts of his face. He just shoved his hands deep into his pockets and quickened his steps. He was on a mission.
He was determined that he was going to get the greatest Christmas tree ever. Tall enough for the topper to brush the ceiling, slender and uniformly shaped, not crooked or scraggly, and just the right shade of green. It would be a tree that drew everyone’s eye as soon as they entered the room, even before it was decorated. And once it was, they’d stand around and admire it, Christmas spirit welling up in their souls, and tell Velvare how exquisite it was. And he’d tell them, “Avidan picked this one out personally, he deserves all the credit.”
Well. No need to get carried away here. But he could still pick out a good tree.
He arrived at the tree lot and commenced his search. One by one, he looked each tree over them, and rejected each when they failed to meet the perfected image he held in his mind. This one was far too fat, that one just a bit too skinny. That whole row was far too short for any of the trees to merit a closer inspection. One was good almost all the way, but the tip just wouldn’t be right to hold a star. One had an unsightly bare patch - it didn’t matter if it could be turned against the wall, this tree had to be perfect.
“Are you going to buy one?” asked the girl who was currently running the stand. Avidan turned away from the tree he was analyzing to face her - the needles on this one were too long, he’d decided.
“Do you have any more?”
“If you want to go out and cut one down yourself. These go up fast.” She crossed her arms. Maybe that would have been a good idea. More genuine, and certainly more of a selection. It would be more complicated, but certainly this was worth the greatest amount of effort he could put into it. But he’d need to get help, and he wanted to do this himself as much as possible. Still, if none of these were good enough… He ran his eyes across the selection, and his eyes fell on a tree he’d missed before.
It didn’t catch his eye now because it met his extensive criteria. Rather, it didn’t even measure up to even one. It was short enough that he was looking down on it, instead of up. It didn’t stand up straight. Its branches were sparse, and its needles were falling off. Perhaps it had been forgotten here in the back, or rejected by every comer since the trees had been set up, and it was dying faster than the rest. It wasn’t pretty, not by any measure. They’d probably only cut it down to put it out of its misery, and stuck it out here because it was too thin and green to burn as firewood.
Avidan found himself stepping towards the tree, not completely sure why. He liked it, he realized after giving the matter a few moments’ thought. He actually liked this pathetic little thing. There was just something to it that the other trees didn’t have. Some character, personality. Maybe he should revise his evaluation of what made the perfect Christmas tree. Everyone was trying for the shining vision that had been in his mind. But this would be unique. This would be special. This would really be in the spirit of Christmas - this tree needed him.
He turned back towards the girl. “How much for this one?”
“All trees are the same price.”
“Are you serious?” He gestured towards it. “It’s tiny!”
“Yeah? Do you want it or not?”
Sighing, Avidan pulled out the money to pay for it and picked the tree up. He could carry it with one hand. The girl grabbed the payment quickly, probably making sure she got rid of that tree before he could change his mind. But by now, Avidan had already forgotten his unfavorable first impression of the tree, having replaced it with some sort of strange affection.
He’d come around so fully to appreciating it, in fact, that he was actually surprised when Velvare didn’t look on it with the same adoration. He didn’t voice his disdain aloud, but it was evident on his face and he tilted his head and struggled to find something diplomatic to say. “Were… were they sold out?”
“No,” Avidan said defensively. “I liked this one.”
“It’s pretty small, isn’t it?”
“Are you kidding?” Enel broke in, because of course Enel had coming to the Capitol when he showed up with his purchase. “That’s got to be the worst Christmas tree I’ve ever seen!”
Avidan glowered at him. “You’ve just got to have a little imagination. Once it’s all decorated -”
“What, it’ll collapse under its own weight?”
Avidan just scowled, finding himself unable to find the words to convey what he liked about this tree. Or rather, all the words he found sounded far too stupid to say aloud. He’d felt a connection. It had looked lonely. He’d thought it needed a home. Stupid.
“We can find somewhere else to put it,” Velvare said with an agonizingly conciliatory tone. “Just perhaps not in the lobby.”
“I’ll take it down to the orphanage.” It was a fine place to run to now that Enel no longer lived there. He left before anyone could protest the decision.
He carried the tree in, going largely unnoticed among the typical bustle of the place. They did already have a tree, he noted, but it was a big place. There was room for two. He made his way to a less occupied room, picking up an ornament that had been knocked to the floor on the way. He hung it on one of the top branches - and as predicted, the tree bent over at the weight.
“Just brilliant,” he muttered. “Best Christmas tree in the world.”
“Avidan? Is that you?” He looked over his shoulder to see Idony entering the room behind him.
“It’s me,” he confirmed, and she walked over.
“What have you got there?”
“It’s, uh, a little Christmas tree. I picked it out today but it wasn’t right for the Capitol.”
“I’m sure it’s lovely,” she said reassuringly, and he snorted.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “I guess you’d have to be blind to appreciate this awful thing.” Blind, or him, apparently.
Idony reached out to feel the tree, but waved her hand over the top of it completely. With a repressed sigh, Avidan guided her hand down to feel the laden-town top.
“Oh.”
“Completely unbelievable, I know.”
The surprised faded from Idony’s face, replaced with a soft smile. “No, I bet it’s cute. It’s something different.” She poked it with her umbrella, pushing it upright again. “You can appreciate something that other people can’t, that’s not something to be ashamed of.”
“Yeah, I guess,” he muttered. It’s wasn’t completely reassuring to have the blind girl be the only one who could have anything good to say about his tree, but he was grateful to her for saying it all the same.
“You should get Noah to help you, I’m sure he could rig up something to keep it upright.”
“Probably. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort, though.”
“Nonsense!” Idony removed her umbrella from the tree and shook it emphatically. “It’s Christmas! It’s always worth putting in the effort for a little cheer.”
“You could probably get a lot more cheer from a good Christmas tree.”
“I can get cheer from a tree no matter what it looks like. And this one gives you cheer.” She grabbed his arm. “Come on! Let’s go find them. And I think we’ve still got boxes of unused decorations…”
Idony’s enthusiasm was infectious, and Avidan did really want to see the little tree done up nicely, if he were honest. Noah didn’t get enthusiastic when he was recruited into the project, exactly, but he didn’t grumble about it, either. He set to work getting a solid base made up while Avidan went in search of spare decorations. Idony went to fetch them all some hot chocolate as they worked.
“You just have to spread them around evenly,” Noah said as Avidan gingerly hung a small ornament. With some strategic arrangement, it actually didn’t topple over when they were done. And it didn’t matter so much that it was so small and scraggly once they’d covered it well. The cousins stood back to admire their work, as Idony returned with the chocolate.
“Oh!” Avidan looked back to see Savannah looking through the doorway. “I didn’t realize you were all over here. That’s a nice little tree you have set up.”
Avidan smiled. “It is, isn’t it?”
“It just needed a little love,” Idony added, giving him a small nudge and handing him a mug.
Someone called her name, and Savannah glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, I’d better get back to work. Merry Christmas, Avidan!”
The sound of several voiced raised in carol singing rose above the other noises from the next room. Idony hummed along softly. Savannah had gone before Avidan could return her holiday wishes, but as he watched the little tree shine, Avidan smiled into his warm mug and repeated them anyway.
