Guest Post: Realism and Disability in the Apocalypse by Holly Kench

What is Defying Doomsday?

Apocalypse fiction rarely includes characters with disability, chronic illness and other impairments. When these characters do appear, they usually die early on, or are secondary characters undeveloped into anything more than a burden to the protagonist. Defying Doomsday will be an anthology showing that disabled characters have far more interesting stories to tell in post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction.

Defying Doomsday will be edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, and published by Twelfth Planet Press in mid 2016. Defying Doomsday is currently crowdfunding via Pozible. To support the project visit: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday

 

And now some words from Holly:

 

Realism and Disability in the Apocalypse

by Holly Kench

I’ve heard some people argue that having disabled characters in apocalypse fiction is unrealistic.

Apparently, in science fiction, the reanimation of the dead is possible. So is an alien invasion. But a disabled person surviving during an apocalypse? Now that’s just silly. We can only take suspension of disbelief so far, and that is the line.

I’m going to be honest. I don’t know that I’d survive long during an apocalypse. I have no idea how to fire a gun; I don’t know how to light a fire without matches; and I have no desire to live in a world without chocolate.

But I don’t really see my physical impairments as a particular problem. Of course, it depends on the apocalypse, and, sure, I’ll need to remember to loot the pharmacy before I head to the supermarket. But I’ve got a high pain tolerance, a solar charger for my iPad, and about as much chance as the next person of surviving a zombie hoard by covering myself in waste product.

So why aren’t there more people like me, more disabled people, in apocalypse fiction? You know, apart from the chocolate issue.

That’s a question Tsana Dolichva and I want to put to the test in an anthology dedicated to exploring tales of disabled characters in apocalypse fiction. Defying Doomsday will be an anthology of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories, featuring disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill and/or neurodiverse protagonists. We are currently holding a crowdfunding campaign through Pozible to fund the anthology. To support the campaign or to preorder a copy of Defying Doomsday, visit: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday

Your support is greatly appreciated! You can find out more about Defying Doomsday at our website or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Incoming - Defying Doomsday Fundraiser

The folks at Twelfth Planet Press are going to be fundraising for an anthology to be edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench.  Titled Defying Doomsday, it’s an anthology of apocalypse-survival fiction with a focus on disabled and chronically-ill characters.  Here’s a snippet from the press release:

The anthology will be varied, with characters experiencing all kinds of disability from physical impairments, chronic illnesses, mental illnesses and/or neurodiverse characters. There will also be a variety of stories, including those that are fun, sad, adventurous and horrific.

The stories in Defying Doomsday will look at periods of upheaval from new and interesting perspectives. The anthology will share narratives about characters with disability, characters with chronic illnesses and other impairments, surviving the apocalypse and contending with the collapse of life as they know it.

 

Fundraising for the project will launch on April 1st and they will be attempting to raise $13,000 through Pozible and with the assistance of a Tasmanian Government Crowbar grant.  For further info check out the specific landing page at Twelfth Planet Press.

 

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Cranky Ladies of History Pozible Campaign Launches

The Cranky Ladies of History Pozible campaign is up and running.  It only launched this morning and as of writing this post they have hit 18% of funding.  A cool $1580 on day one.  I haven’t even had time to fund it myself yet.

So what’s the fund for?

I’ll let Tehani, head of Fablecroft Publishing tell you:

Late in 2013, Australian writer and editor Liz Barr blogged about Tsaritsa Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, dubbing her one of history's great "cranky ladies". Being the editor I am, I immediately thought of several fantastic writers I would love to see write short stories about history's cranky ladies, those women who bucked the trends of their time and took on cultural norms to challenge society's rules and ideas about how women should behave. Within just a few days, I had the project idea fully formed, had brought historian, editor and multi award-winning writer Tansy Rayner Roberts on board as co-editor, and we had begun the process of soliciting authors to submit. The speed at which projects can come into being is perhaps one of the biggest advantages a boutique press like FableCroft Publishing has, and we use it well!

Within weeks, the feedback and response from readers and writers everywhere proved so positive that Tansy and I started looking at ways we could take the project to the full heights it deserves, and we conceived the idea of crowdfunding for the anthology, in order to be able to pay our authors, artists and designer the pro-rates they really deserve.
We have been so fortunate to have an astonishing selection of authors express interest in writing for us, from all over the world. We are a long way from being able to tell you who will eventually make up the final table of contents of the "Cranky Ladies of History" anthology, but we CAN show you the authors who have submitted pitches for stories or accepted our invitation to submit.

I will be posting some external material in support of this project over the coming month.  But if you would like to have a look at the writers they have had pitch to them and the women that might be covered check out the Pozible site here.

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