Do you know anybody who’s blind?
That may seem like an unusual question but it’s the premise of my novel, Southern Comfort. Carl was born blind, so, he’s had a rough life. Simple things like finding a job and relocating to a new area can be challenging for someone who is disabled. When he meets Miriam, his life changes. Carl is upset when his girlfriend turns down his marriage proposal. She said she didn’t want to marry a blind man. So returning to the dating scene is the furthest thing from his mind. He’s simply not interested in giving love another chance. Yet, when he first meets Miriam, he wants to know more about her.
Miriam is a single mom who is still haunted from the ghosts of her past. Raising her teen-aged daughter, Jessica, is challenging and romance is simply not something she’s interested in pursuing. When handsome Carl strolls into her bakery, her life changes.
Southern Comfort is partially based on my husband’s life. He was born blind and when I wrote this novel, I wrote it with the intention of not using blind stereotypes that I usually see in movies and books. From my experience from dealing with blind people, they don’t always count steps, especially not in their own homes. They seldom use their cane in private residences, either. They don’t usually touch people’s faces. However, since I’m writing from the viewpoint of someone who was born blind, the experiences that I’m focusing on could be different than someone who loses their sight as an adult.
I also focus on the problems that disabled people have when searching for jobs. It’s hard! A lot of disabled folks collect SSI simply because they cannot find a job. When I met my husband, he was working for the IRS as a computer programmer, and living alone in his condo. He’s still working at the IRS, but he’d told me that he was unemployed for eight years prior to finding the job at the IRS. Can you imagine searching for a job for eight years and you’re a grown man living with your parents?
I also talk about the adaptive equipment he uses everyday at his job and at home. He’s always on the internet and he reads all of the content on a Braille display called Focus (formerly called PowerBraille) and he uses software called JAWS.
I’m enjoying putting the finishing touches on this book. Actually, I shopped it around over a decade ago to traditional publishers and agents. I received LOTS of positive feedback about my writing and the story, but was told by many that they did not want to publish a novel with a blind hero. I was told he was not an alpha hero and it’d be a bit of a challenge to sell to readers.
So…I decided to indie publish it!
Southern Comfort is a sweet Christian romance with a hint of suspense and it’s now available for preorder!
So, have you ever personally known anybody who’s blind? If so, what challenges did he/she face?
Cecelia Dowdy has been an avid reader since she learned to string letters together to form words. While pursuing a business degree in college one of her professors tried to convince her to get an English degree since he felt she was a great writer. Years later, after receiving her BS in Finance, she took her former teacher's advice, and started pursuing her literary career. She loves to read, write, and bake delicious desserts during her spare time. She also loves visiting new places and listening to old tunes with her husband. Currently she resides with her spouse and pre-teen son in Maryland.
I don’t know anybody personal that is blind but there is a lady rides the city bus sometimes and she seems to be ok and gets along just fine.
Hi Cecelia, I love that you have a hero who is blind:) My mother-in-law is legally blind. She has sight, but has no depth perception and is colour blind, so cannot drive, ride a bike, struggles with reading (audiobooks are great) and so on. Yet, she has never let this slow her down- she earned her teaching degree and taught across a range of grades, manages the books for the family business, and chooses great stories for my kids to read. Her iPad has been a huge advantage to her- being able to enlarge text has helped her enormously. One of my dad’s cousins was also blind- he used to record for the Christian Services for the Blind.
Blessings:)
Hi Cecelia! My first encounter with blindness was with my dad, who was legally blind in his right eye. Then in college there was a blind girl with a seeing eye dog, whose dog seemed overwhelmed at a busy college intersection.
My first real interaction with a blind person was in the 1970s while my husband was attending seminary. David, a blind man attending our church, was in our deacon group. He used a cane and was on SSI, which helped cover his rent and $5 a day for food. Few restaurants in our town were open on Sunday; so even though on a limited budget, every week David came to our apartment for Sunday dinner. My husband often took him shopping. After about six months, David was hired by the telephone company. He took the phone number when people made long distance phone calls and had a 99.9 percent accuracy. David finally met a nice young lady and got married.
My next experience was around 2000. I had a blind student in my Freshman English class. This broadened my experience, since I worked with a Braille transcriber. This experience made me realize how much sight is used in school – textbooks, videos, worksheets, navigating classrooms and hallways. Also how spontaneous I was a teacher, doing group work or board work. That year made me be more focused in my approach to the material we read and how the students’ interacted with it. The transcriber needed at least two days to transcribe works sheets.
I preordered your book. Thanks for sharing your life and experience. Best wishes.
I do not know anyone who is blind, and I am so glad you decided to publish this story! I am looking forward to reading it!
Hi, Tracy
Thx for commenting. My husband used to ride the bus everyday. One time we were out eating and a lady came over to us because she recognized him from her daily bus ride!
Wow, that’s wonderful, Wemble! It’s so great about the technology that’s available for blind people nowadays!
Thanks, Paula! I hope you enjoy it!
Cecelia, what could be more manly than someone who faces enormous challenges, like being blind, and conquers their disability? Good on you for indie publishing this story.
We have a blind lady who comes to our weekly bible study (with Elana, her new guide dog. Domino, the guide dog she used to have had to be put down due to old age and she waited a good year or more to get another dog). Janie is such an amazing woman who does not let her disability get her down. I think she went blind as a very young girl. She’s humorous, encouraging, and golly, can she read the bible in braille at a speed!!
When we were in Budapest, my son took us to The Invisible Exhibition, where for an hour, you live in a blind person’s world. It was a fascinating experience (and yes, I did use my hands a lot to feel things, but we were told to feel what we should be seeing, and of course, suddenly being “blind” was totally foreign to us). Since then, I’ve wanted to write a story with a blind heroine. Maybe one day I still will.
My son is 44 and he’s legally blind. He has an eye disease called rhinitis pigmintosa and has vision in only one eye and that’s like looking through a straw. Even that little vision can disappear permanently at any time. He is unable to work because no one wants to take the time to train him and he can no longer be a souse chief. (not sure I spelled that correctly). I also have a friend that has a deaf son. She wrote a Scottish Highland book with him as a little boy (she used her son and how he dealt with them). The publisher liked the story with the deaf son so much they asked her to write another novel with him as an adult. He hid his deafness and was Laird. It worked beautifully. I think your novel will do great. Not everyone is as blind as the publishers that refused your book.
I taught a little girl who was legally blind. It was difficult for her to do the other work that my class did so I had to modify what she could do. It was really hard for her outside because of the bright light even though she wore sunglasses. I have often wondered how she is doing now. I taught her in first grade.
Thanks for preordering my book, Renate! Education has really come a long way! When my husband went to elementary school, he attended a school for blind students. He was in a regular school once he was in upper middle and high school. Nowadays I’m finding that most blind students are in the classroom with the sighted kids. A lot of them have a special teacher on site to help with their needs.
I’m so glad you commented and provided some insight into this topic!
Hi, Marion! Wow, I’d LOVE to visit The Invisible Exhibition! Yes, you should write your story with your blind heroine! My husband was training with a guide dog a long time ago, but he had to leave due to a family emergency. The dog pooped on his shoes during the training session! I’m not kidding! After he left for the emergency, he didn’t return. So my husband has never owned a guide dog but I’ve interacted with some of my husband’s blind pals at the IRS – some of them have guide dogs. I recall one woman was gone for weeks so that she could train with her new dog, Alphie!
Thanks for commenting Pat and for telling me about your son and your friend’s deaf son. Actually, my husband is hard of hearing, too. His blindness and hearing loss is due to a genetic condition called Norrie’s disease. The trait is passed from the blind man to all of the daughters but none of the sons – the daughter has a 50% chance of having a blind/hearing impaired male child. If blind man fathers a son, the son is not affected at all, if that makes any sense. That’s why we struggled with our decision regarding children. We prayed HARD to have a son and we’re so glad we did! So glad the publisher liked your friend’s book!
Hi, Lori. Thanks for commenting. Yes, it would be interesting to see how she’s doing.
Yes, my friend, Janie, also had to go off a few times for a few days for training. It’s so cute to see them now … LOL, this Golden Labrador “pup” (of course she’s about two years old so not so small at all), crawls up onto Janie’s lap at Bible study, spilling over onto Janie’s friend, Regina’s lap. We have a lot of chuckles at them.
I have an eye disease that often leads to legal blindness, so I spent a while mourning my vision and trying to imagine how I’d deal with being unable to see (or at least clearly) if it should come to that. Dictation software for writing books: check!
My moment of tears was when I came home from work one day and my 18-month-old granddaughter saw me through the window and grinned and grinned and grinned at me, but she didn’t move or make a sound. If I’d been blind, I’d have missed that entirely. That day I cried, not knowing if I’d ever SEE my other (as-yet-unborn) grandchildren. I’m thankful God spared my vision, even though it is definitely murkier than it was before.
And yes, an unlucky heroine will be blessed with Best Disease someday. Isn’t that a dumb name for ANY disease????? I guess the guy who discovered it had the surname Best. It’s genetic also. The marker lingers in the female chromosomes and crops up very occasionally. My niece also has it, and also is still sighted.
Oh, Valerie, how sad! I honestly don’t know how I’d cope if my sight were bad, or might go bad later. I love reading. I hate being read too. I love writing. My husband can type with a high speed and check stuff but, he’s used to doing that. It would be a HUGE learning curve for me to learn to function with limited (or no) sight!
I had a lazy eye growing up that never really pulled its share of the seeing weight. Best Disease “always” hits both eyes. In my case it only tackled my good eye! But my lazy eye has kicked in amazingly, and I have enough vision in my formerly good eye for depth perception, so I can function normally and drive. So much to be thankful for, every day!!!
Yes, that is a blessing!
When I was a child, my parents often picked up a blind fellow for church. I remember being fascinated with his talking watch. Many years later when we lived in Cambodia, we went weekly to a blind massage place called “Seeing Hands.” We had our favorite masseuses, and it always amazed us in later years when we’d come back after a year’s absence and they’d recognize our voices over the phone.
Yes, I worked with an amazing blind boy when he was in pre-school! He is now in 3rd grade and doing so well! He is such a fun young man and will do so much!
I know of several people who are blind are they do not let that bother them. My grandfather was legally blind and he was a pastor for many years.
I also have a friend who is blind and she participates in Special olympics and has a great job, that she enjoys.
I have a friend in my church who is a well respected Elder and has worked as a counselor in a boys home for years. He lost his eyesight as a long man. I’m sure that he had difficulties but, if you ask him, he always says that his life has been blessed.
I’m looking forward to reading this new book!
Blessings!
Hi, Margaret! Thx so much for commenting! I know what you mean about the blind masseuses! As I mentioned in an earlier comment, my husband’s blindness is genetic. His grandfather was also blind. He made a living as a masseuse! He got married and raised and supported his family with his talent! He died two years ago at 94 years old!
That’s great, Katie!
That’s great, Andrea!
Thanks Linda, G! I hope you enjoy the book and I enjoyed hearing about your church Elder!
Beautiful post Cecelia! Thank you for sharing! I don’t know anyone personally; however, we have a Braille program in prison where inmates are learning to translate books for blind people. I think it’s amazing! It’s part of their rehabilitation program.
Wow Cecelia, I’ve read a few stories with blind heroines with all the stereotypes you mentioned. How refreshing your story is since you know your husband’s story and daily challenges. I’m so glad you decided to publish it.