Sabina Nordqvist
@sabinaposts
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♿🥄 😷 Author of IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD (Grand Central 2026) | spoonie | disabled | sensitivity reader | she/her | rep: @SamBFarkas
Joined October 2015
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Pinned Tweet
For
#RareDiseaseDay
, I’m so excited to announce that my debut novel, IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD, will be published in winter 2026 by
@GrandCentralPub
! 🎉 ✨ 🥳
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Some ableism is obvious, but I want to mention a few types of more casual ableism I see in sensitivity reads and published works that are harder to pick up on with an abled gaze. Many of these are likely unintentional, which is why it's good to have a SR in the first place.🧵
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I'm just a girl, standing in front of publishing, asking them to publish stories about disabled characters... by authors who have those disabilities. 🙏
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I can’t express how much I need doctors to stop asking “what’s your pain level today, 0 out of 10” and instead ask, “how is your pain impacting your life?” 🥺
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Let me be crystal clear: making fun of a character who has a disability that involves bathroom habits is ableist AF. Saying romance shouldn't include these topics is also ableist AF. Disabled people exist. We fall in love. And we DO have to concern ourselves with body functions.
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FYI for publishing people who think masking at events might not be popular, I am part of a huge Covid-safe group and they regularly post pictures of authors who actually mask at their events and you’d be amazed at how many people reply that this makes that author an auto-buy.
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Validation from my therapist: “You don’t have anxiety. You have trauma from ableism & being gaslit. Your body is having a normal response to trauma. Please externalize that it’s your environment that’s the problem because its not okay, rather than internalize that it’s you.” 🥹
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Power dynamics: relationships (even love) between doctors & patients, therapists & patients, etc can become easily squicky. Caretaker family & a disabled loved one also tend to show imbalances that are uncomfortable. (The assumption is usually that the abled person knows best.)
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Family dynamics: related to the above, the assumption that the sick or disabled person is a burden. That the abled siblings have it worse off, that the parents' life is less valid. Watch how characters monologue internally about roles & responsibilities and perceived burdens.
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Do you show us that characters who can't be productive are considered 'lazy,' 'unhelpful,' or 'sloppy'? Is a person who can't work or orders food instead of cooking or has a cleaning service instead of doing laundry himself shown to be undesirable because of it? That's ableism.
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How authors describe disability: is it associated with negative traits? This isn't just describing a person with disability. How do characters relate to things like walking, talking, hearing, and moving about? How do they relate to space, productivity, work, and resting?
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So let’s recap.
Only the vulnerable need to m*sk, you do you! —> Not even doctors need to wear m*sks, feel free to die at the hospital —> Just stay home if you’re scared of one-way m*sking —> We mock & beat people up who still wear m*sks —> Let’s make it illegal to wear m*sks.
The NC Senate Judiciary have passed HB237 NC mask ban with amendment making it illegal to wear a mask for health and safety reasons. Next it goes to Senate Rules
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Interdependence: How is interdependence valued in your books, if at all? What about asking for help? Is part of your character arc independence? Disabled people enjoy independence too, but we rely on community to thrive. Careful with emphasis on doing it all yourself.
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Ableist language: There a million threads on this already, but so many people don't realize the words they use are rooted in eugenics. We are writers. Let's find different ways to insult people & things we dislike that aren't based on ability and intelligence.
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Insurance, appointments, and how the US medical system works: most healthy people have no clue how messed up and traumatizing US healthcare is. Also, unless your character is rich, don't assume they can afford the elaborate treatments your character is getting.
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Not having any disabled characters: I wouldn't note this in a SR, but in general, why wouldn't there be disabled people in your books as side characters or even a random colleague or shop owner? We are reaching 30%+ of the population.
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Forcing a disabled person to do something in terms of care: read a book where one character w/ panic attacks is required to go to therapy in order to get help with a basic need from friend. Gross. Interventions *can* be necessary, but usually we know what treatment works for us.
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Intersectionality: a Black, queer disabled man will experience disability differently from a white, fat, straight woman and so on. If your book includes multiply marginalized people and/or multiple disabilities, you should get a SR from someone who shares those identities.
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The disability is the only thing we learn about the character: Do you have to mention how much the character limps every single time they're in a scene? It can be a trait, but shouldn't define them in the same way only mentioning a character's eyes gets repetitive. We get it.
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I feel like I’ve said this to death but I’ll keep screaming into the void: until traditional publishing publishes more disabled authors writing lived experience, you, an abled person, have no business writing a story arc where a character comes to terms with her disability.
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Finally, remember that disability is not a monolith. There are so many types of disability: mental, physical, intellectual, pain, illness, genetic, neurodegenerative, etc. One person's experience won't mirror another's necessarily. Just because you know one, you don't know all.
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Lots of pity for the disability: a lot of people don't even realize they're showing this, so pay attention to the way your character relates to & thinks about a sick relative, a man who is taking care of a disabled wife, "that must be so hard" for the healthy person, etc.
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there are many different ways to have sex. There are also ways to write about sex without putting down people who aren't abled or super athletic. (It's also strange when characters have sex immediately after surgeries/procedures and/or the disability doesn't impact the scene.)
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Sex: I hesitate to talk about this one because everyone has their own preferences, and that's valid, but there is so much ableism in mainstream fiction sex & sexuality. All I'll say here is that disabled people can be very sexual, too, and that
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Probably doing myself a disservice if I don't mention that I am available for sensitivity reads, but I also want to point you to examples of disabled authors who are doing a great job writing authentic stories about disabled characters living their best lives. Here is a start:
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Inadvertently using the disabled character as inspiration: again, pay attention to how you frame the relationship. If your MC or LI is doing something because they met the disabled person or to prove that their life can be okay because the other has it worse, that's inspo p*rn.
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Wow, I'm glad people are interested in avoiding ableism! I also relate to the people saying they want more disability rep! I write romance featuring disabled characters where I subvert a lot of tropes & dive into a lot of these issues. Just waiting for publishing interest. :)
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CW: ableism
Yes, let's make our characters disabled so they'll be more likeable. 🤢
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“Households with at least one disabled person in them spend at least 30% more of their income to have the exact same quality of life as nondisabled people.”
I’m glad we’re addressing tipping culture because as a disabled person, there’s an aspect I don’t see widely discussed.
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Sometimes people wonder, "Why is it hard for chronically ill people to work?" There are many reasons, friend, but sometimes it's not even the sickness itself. It's the amount of time you have to spend at appointments that keep you from being a "good" or "acceptable" US employee.
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♿ Starting an ongoing thread for books I enjoy that include disability rep. I try to read
#CripLit
rep specifically by disabled authors. That info isn't always available though. But know that many of us are looking for it. Will update as able. QTing an old list to start. ♿
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Listen up. I don't care how well-intentioned you are. DO NOT tell someone with a chronic condition that a specific food or workout will cure their problems. Spoiler: It won't, they've already tried everything under the sun, and it'll make them want to smack you.
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I’m reading a craft book that shall not be named, but I would like to point out that labeling things like homelessness, disability, and illness as “flaws” your character might have…isn’t it. A flaw isn’t the same thing as a problem, health condition, or a structural injustice.
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I've gotten hugged in parking lots before and grabbed to be prayed over without asking
When they say “consent” they don’t mean disabled people.
Subtitles:
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♿ Starting an ongoing thread for books I enjoy that include disability rep. I try to read
#CripLit
rep specifically by disabled authors. That info isn't always available though. But know that many of us are looking for it. Will update as able. QTing an old list to start. ♿
A little late to the game (thank you chronic illness flare), but here are some of my favorite
#CripLit
&
#Spoonie
books I read in 2019. No particular order. All
#OwnVoices
.
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Gonna mute for a bit, but for everyone asking: This is from the Writer's Craft series by Rayne Hall, "Writing Vivid Characters." And a lot of y'all are following them.
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Let's talk about why "your sex scene is a buzz kill because the characters discuss pain and disability accommodations" is ableist – and how this relates to books with characters who have certain disabilities often being relegated to an 'issue book' category by default. Overdue 🧵
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Toxic positivity for the disabled character - check.
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Shame on you for making fun of this.
PS: the fact that the book is self-published doesn't change anything. If traditional publishing actually allowed more physically disabled amd chronically ill people into its space, you would see that this is perfectly fucking normal.
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Having convos lately with a few disabled authors about needing to 'pare down' the number of illnesses we give our MCs because publishing has pushed back on the 'reality' of multiple diagnoses. Truth is, it's more realistic to have multiple co-mordities than only one.
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Immortal beings in books are always filthy rich. What about a chronically ill immortal who can never catch up on their medical debt so they just keep living in perpetual poverty because the system never gets better for them since they didn’t inherit generational wealth?
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Unavoidable medical appt today in a "masks optional" office. How are other
#CovidSafe
folks handling these safety-wise? I'm sitting with my Levoit AP at full blast blowing up into my face +
@flo_mask
.
#CovidIsNotOver
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Hi. Let's talk about lateral ableism. You can be disabled & still be ableist towards someone with a different disability. You can have the *exact same* disability & still be ableist. You can be disabled & still support systemic ableism. Don't hide behind your disability.
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Listen up, Ableds. Me walking around with mobility devices Doesn't give you the right to comment on how I'm walking. "You're doing great!" & "Wow, look at you go!" are patronizing and inappropriate. If you wouldn't comment on how a non-disabled person moves, don't do it to me.
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So, also, if you are an author that still masks, just know it’s not going unnoticed and it’s getting new people to buy your books. ❤️
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@HannahM_Writes
There’s a romance novel series called REAL MEN KNIT and it has this energy 🙂
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I'm thrilled to announce I'm now represented by
@SamBFarkas
at
@JillGrinbergLit
!🥳Thanks to everyone on
@DVpit_
who supported my
#Spoonie
romance featuring chronic pain support groups, fake dating, hurt/comfort, and lots of disability & chronic illness culture!
#DisabilityTwitter
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Unsure why no one remembers that
#OwnVoices
was created BY a disabled person. Yet disabled people have THE LEAST AMOUNT of published OV stories, we're consistently left out of diversity conversations, and super problematic books re: disability keep hitting all the lists. 🍵🍵
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Make MCs redeemable bc they are nice to a disabled person - check.
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There is a TON of hate going around on Goodreads for a recently pubbed book about a disabled girl from a disabled author. I just read it & DAMN y'all just really wanna look at everything from an abled lens. Ask yourself if you'd leave the same hate if the girl was abled. 🍵🍵
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Young adult novels with disabled teens on Best of the Year lists and Awards Lists...it's almost like people want to read about disabled characters, publishing. 😉
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I was talking to a friend about disability in publishing and how often it's considered 'niche.' She pointed out how every single person has the potential to become disabled, so when you think about it, there's universal appeal to these books. Let's get this rep out there.
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With all this talk of agents, listen, you can research as much as you want (good) but often it's hard to tell the fit until the call. I almost didn't query my agent bc her profile said she was a "gritty fanatic" and my romance novels aren't gritty. Folks, it is Gritty the mascot.
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So a normal part of revising is where you think you messed up your entire book and no one on the planet will want to read it once it’s published, right? Right??
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Honestly never had a therapist who wasn’t ableist and didn’t gaslight me themselves so I’m feeling lots of feelings.
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My debut novel, IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD, is now available to add on Goodreads! It’s a romance about two Spoonies who meet in a chronic pain support group and start fake dating to deal with some family ableism (but oops, he forgot to mention he’s famous). 👀
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✨For the weekend crowd, in case you missed it✨
How it started // how it’s going
For
#RareDiseaseDay
, I’m so excited to announce that my debut novel, IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD, will be published in winter 2026 by
@GrandCentralPub
! 🎉 ✨ 🥳
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Did you all know that most of
@TaliaHibbert
's books have disabled MCs? A lot of people have been talking about GET A LIFE, CHLOE BROWN but y'all, she's been doing it for YEARS. Autism, diabetes, trauma, PTSD, anxiety, fibro... Check out the rep from this disabled OV author!! 🔥
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But a lot of healthy people can't grasp why we would need more sick days, or more flexible schedules, or simply the reasoning behind NOT being able to work. It's very hard to hold down a job with this kind of appointment schedule.
Being sick is a full-time job.
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My timeline is so full of disabled folks, it's hard to imagine that other people have no idea what's going on with us. What the issues are. The change that needs to happen. If you're not seeing these things, you need to start following disabled people.
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Whenever I read a popular new book, only to discover there's harmful disability rep throughout the entire story, it hurts deeply every time. Our communities have fought so hard to be believed & included. People ignorantly championing characters that misrepresent us does damage.
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Let me say this really loud:
We! Don't! Need! To! Inspire! You! In! Book! It's fine if a disabled character questions her worth and makes bad choices with teen boys. She can be insecure! She can f*** up. She is NOT your inspiration. UGH
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Disabled characters in books:
1. Should be able to have more than one disability. In fact it's more common to have co-morbidities
2. Should be able to have intersections w other marginalizations.
3. Are not a monolith. ND ≠ physically disabled ≠ chronically ill ≠ mentally ill
It's the end of the year and everyone's too drunk and tired to start discourse, so drop your most controversial book take now.
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I’m sad that the Disability Pride Month lists especially in kidlit are overflowing with appropriated books when we have so many disabled authors writing and publishing in that space. Please consider who you are elevating and why during a month dedicated to actual disabled people.
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One last thought: THIS IS WHY WE NEED MORE DISABLED REP. So people won't be shocked when the one
#ownvoices
disabled book of the year (side-eyes the non-OV books this year) isn't your cookie cutter role model of a disabled girl. Give us more disabled books by disabled authors!
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Wouldn't it be great if all women with chronic conditions had a team of doctors actually looking for a diagnosis like on
#ChasingTheCure
rather than the typical fat shaming, gaslighting, and blaming of depression/anxiety we see in actuality?
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I shouldn't be surprised that a racist transphobe is now making the villains of her self-insert fanfic book a group of chronically ill folks who use social media for support. But fuck.
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"Build yourself like a character until you are who you want to be." Fav quote by
@mstiefvater
from
#madcapRT
this week!
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If you are recommending a book by a nondisabled author feat. a MC or LI with a specific disability, can you name at least five other books feat. that disability by authors with that disability? If not, maybe ask yourself why the book you're recommending should take that space.
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ONCE AGAIN.
Stop making your MCs disabled/ill & then making that disability or illness part of a twist:
-Their disability is magic!
-She was never really sick!
-Their disability is suddenly gone!
-STOP
Let's instead ask why these books selling & authentic OV stories aren't?
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And herein lies the problem with unmasking early,
@nytimes
. Slipping in disability like an "oh well" IS the problem. We matter.
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I'm super grossed out by the Emotional Wound Thesaurus writer resource book having an emotional wound category called "Disabilities and Disfigurements." Short thread.
~CW ableism and me being sick af that this keeps showing up in writing resources.~
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Thankful for the disability community on Twitter tonight to remind me
#MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy
🫂
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“The percentage of books published by disabled authors is still disproportionate and paltry. […] Crumbs aren’t enough. Disabled people deserve and demand more.
Disability representation for its own sake isn’t enough and it isn’t the goal—” (1/2)
Author and activist Alice Wong reflects on disability representation in publishing.
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In all seriousness, this whole media situation with Spoonies 'addicted to being sad and sick' just shows how LITTLE media we have with authentic Spoonie rep & how much we need POV characters written BY Spoonies. Maybe if we had that, journalists wouldn't get away with mocking us.
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//
My point here is not that everyone who is chronically ill will be at Urgent Care or the ER every week. But when you have several conditions, or long-term problems that need continuous addressing, the appointments often just stack up. There's no way around it.
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I would like to challenge publishing to rethink a "happy ending" without an ableist lens. This is why chronically ill characters are always dying or getting cured. But there are other alternatives. We can still be happy at the end even if we remain ill. It just looks different.
@bennessb
This is the trouble we run into with authentic chronic illness narratives in fiction as well. Our stories don't wrap up in a neat little bow if we're not cured. But I'm learning that's a problem with story structure bent on an ableist lens, not me as a writer.
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My agent said this book is ready to go, and I’m all sorts of happy and emotional and nervous. Really hope my chronic pain babies make it into readers’ hands some day. 🥹🥰
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I got my first official edit letter and I'm super excited to dive back into my chronic pain romance novel and shine this baby up! 🥰🥰
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You also should not be using a disability to make your book have a quirky plot line or have a disability be the plot twist. Disabled readers and writers have been saying this for YEARS and I don’t understand why in this year 2023 nondisabled people still cannot grasp this.
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For anyone who still doesn't understand why all this is problematic and hurtful, watch this response video by
@Simpson_Romance
So I said a few things re Rayne Hall and her vile ableist writing advice.
Kept getting words mixed up etc and hadn't planned it out so more Chaos™ than usual haha anyway, I had a rant
Listen, some LANGUAGE and Cw for ableism and racism
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Also, there's a bunch of comments about "acephobia" in the book. She flirts a lot (and states it) because every guy assumes she's asexual not because that's bad but because ABLEDS ASSUME WHEELCHAIR USERS can't have sex!!! This is a common misconception about disabled people.
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#NEISVoid
does anyone else with dysautonomia have trouble with breathing exercises? Always feel like I'm losing my breath and getting lightheaded no matter how many years I "deep breathe" even in classes.
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There’s a new adult category on Publishers Marketplace now 👀
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This
#DisabilityPrideMonth
, I want to talk about why, craft-wise, disability can’t be your main ‘problem’ when writing a romance unless you make it “sicklit”—and therefore not a romance. A thread.
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Sometimes dialogue advice is funny. “Keep it short, no one in real life talks for more than a paragraph.” Whoever said this clearly never met a neurodivergent person who can go off on ten tangents until they come back around and connect it all to their original point. We exist.
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And in this entire scenario, which was a real week for me, we're not even accounting for the general fatigue that comes with being sick. It's really really exhausting to drag yourself to the doctor when you don't feel well. It's not fun. We are not on vacation. It zaps you dry.
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Feeling so hopeless after this CDC announcement. Disabled people are never gonna be equal members of society, are they? It's just *soul crushing* to think how expendable we are even after a years-long global pandemic that should have woken everyone the fuck up. I can't.
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Our US workplaces are not meant to accommodate this kind of health schedule. Even taking one day off every week, if you could squeeze all appointments into one day (hint: you can't), would be unacceptable. There is intermittent FMLA, but it's hard to get approved and runs out.
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The worst stage of editing is when you can no longer ignore all of the [FIX THIS LATER] brackets because now it finally is later. 😭
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Can you count even five people on your hand that have written about that disability in fiction from a lived experience? No? Then you shouldn’t be writing about it if it’s not your experience. Include disabled characters in your books, yes! But leave the acceptance arcs to us.
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There are so many nuances like this in the book and people are viewing it from an abled gaze rather than trying to understand it from a girl who
-is disabled
-really wants to have sex
-tries to fit in
-is insecure
-wants to be wanted
-chooses the bad boy
Sound like a teen?
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Regarding disability in fantasy novels, I was brainstorming how to include shape-shifters who have mobility aids, and my partner sent me this pic. 😍
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Since people are asking, I'm talking about This Is Not A Love Scene. If you actually read the title and the back cover you can get a strong idea of what this book is about. Someone in their review wrote "I expected a book about a girl bravely dealing with her MD" yeah okay bye
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Had a crappy day, but I went to my support group and told the other woman about how I started querying a romance book that features our disability. They got so excited at the possibility of rep and are already planning to buy it when it comes out someday. Made my day 💚💙💚💙
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