Ruth Madison's Blog

A Reader’s Guide To Ruth Madison Novels

Ruth Madison has been publishing books since 2009. She decided at 12 that she was going to be a novelist and she was single-minded in that endeavor. She has both a BA and an MA in Creative Writing and has been honing her craft for a couple of decades.

The most unique aspect of Madison’s work is that her books all feature characters with disabilities. From a young age, Madison has been passionate about disability rights and hopes that her work will help bridge the gap between abled people and disability culture so that there is less ableism in the world.

Through the years she has experimented with different styles and types of stories but what remains constant is her dedication to accurate disability representation and deep emotional themes.

Frequently her books touch on issues of family, acceptance, and survivor’s guilt.

Here is a guide to her books so far and future plans:

Stand-Alone NovelsThe World Between Us

An overshadowed brother in a wheelchair and a beautiful woman who needs something from him. Is there any chance for love?

Next to his super successful (and handsome, don’t forget handsome) rock star brother, Dylan Sinclair doesn’t expect any woman to look at him for a second longer than it takes to stare in horror at his wheelchair. Especially not a goddess like Stephanie Rowe.

But she does notice him and he can’t help but wonder if it’s because of the access he could give her to his brother.

Stephanie is a woman on a mission. She has a lot to prove to break out of a soul-crushing job and show her family she can be successful on her own terms. Even as she realizes there’s more to Dylan than meets the eye, she can’t get distracted from building a life her parents can be proud of.

And falling for an unemployed white boy who can’t move his own feet is not winning her any points.

But then she discovers Dylan has been keeping a secret that would catapult her to success and everything she’s been working towards. Now all she needs to do is betray his trust.

Spice Level: a couple of open-door intimacy scenes

Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CC6H6CLK

The accident took his voice, but she heard him anyway.

Former rockstar Gabe Whitlock has been hidden away in a long-term care facility ever since an on-stage accident stole his music, his movement, and even his voice. No one’s thought about him in years.

Anna Lin is still raw from losing her mother and battling the panic attacks that derailed her college career. Living with her father again feels like a step backward — until he gets her a job as the activities coordinator at Rosehaven.

What she doesn’t expect is to find Gabe Whitlock, former frontman and guitarist of Pressure Front, quietly wasting away in a nursing home in Western Massachusetts.

Drawn together by music and art, Anna and Gabe forge an unlikely bond. But when Gabe’s sister schemes to seize control of his estate, Anna and a ragtag band of residents push back.

Their defiance threatens to cost Anna the fragile new life she’s building — and Gabe the last shreds of independence he has left.

Waiting to Break is an emotionally powerful, deeply romantic journey about finding your voice after losing everything, the dignity of choosing who you love, and the courage it takes to find your own path in life.

For fans of soulful, emotionally charged romance novels and authors like Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult, and Nicholas Sparks.

Content Includes: institutional neglect, medical trauma, grief, panic attacks/anxiety, power dynamics in caregiving, public debate about “right to die,” false accusations, elder death, loss of a parent

Spice Level: a couple of open-door intimacy scenes

Purchase on Amazon: Coming September 30th

Short Bingeable Reads

KINDLE UNLIMITED Novella

Delaney’s life is in ruins — her apartment flooded, her art rejected, and her confidence in freefall. Desperate for stability, she lands on her brother Marcus’s doorstep…only to discover she’ll be sharing the house with his best friend, Dax.

Dax, the charming adrenaline-junkie turned paraplegic, is rebuilding his life on his own terms. He’s cocky, frustratingly hot, and infuriatingly good at folding towels. Living with him means late-night confessions, accidental touches, and a chemistry that won’t quit.

But when Marcus returns from his work trip, he sets off a string of accusations, assumptions, and buried resentments that force everyone to confront uncomfortable truths.

Perfect for fans of witty banter, deep feels, and fiercely independent disabled heroes who aren’t looking to be saved — but just might be worth falling for.

Spice Level: a few open-door scenes

Purchase On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKZZPTM5

An artistic young woman dealing with an unplanned pregnancy… A quadriplegic CEO in need of a wife and child… Their worlds are miles apart, yet in this moment they need each other.

Chloe’s life is unraveling fast. Her grand plans to live the starving artist’s life are brought up short when she gets a positive pregnancy test. Suddenly she’s got to find real employment and figure out a new plan.

Erik is on the verge of losing the company that he’s poured his life into. Despite an attack that nearly killed him and left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, he’s kept up with his work. But an archaic stipulation in his father’s will might cost him everything he wants.

When Chloe confesses her real reason for needing a job, Erik begins to suspect that they might be able to help each other out. But as they build a fictional relationship, are their feelings just for show or turning into something more?

Spice Level: a few open-door scenes

Purchase On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NB5VC0I

SeriesSled Hockey Team Of Cedar Harbor

Kevin Murphy is back in Cedar Harbor for a fresh start and totally not because he’s running away from mistakes that cost him his professional sledge hockey career in Toronto. No, he’s come to the small New England town to help others, not to hide.

Ten years ago Kevin lost both his legs and discovering adaptive sports helped give him his life back. Now he wants to start an amateur sled hockey team for newly injured men. Cedar Harbor is home to Thatcher Memorial Rehab where Kevin did his recovery and it’s the perfect place to give back to the disabled community.

Dr. Wilson insists on bringing a professional fundraiser on board. Carly Jennings is, as Dr. Wilson says, the best fundraiser in the state. She is organized, professional, and excellent at what she does.

Kevin takes an instant dislike to her, resentful of able-bodied people taking over his project and concerned that paying her will not be a good investment in the team.

What Kevin doesn’t know is that Carly has a very personal relationship to the disability community. Her younger brother Robbie is a quadriplegic from a car accident when they were teens and she knows exactly how important sports are for giving newly injured people their lives back.

She also knows that she’ll have to fight past some very ingrained ableism to get donors to invest in a hockey team instead of a cure…but she’s up for the challenge.

Kevin and Carly fight over the best way to build this new sledge hockey team while denying the intense chemistry between them. Until a game of Truth Or Dare changes everything…

Spice Level: Clean (spicy bonus scene available on RuthMadisonBooks.com)

Purchase On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CN63YLPY

Robbie has a simple life. Despite his spinal cord injury, he keeps up an active lifestyle participating in multiple sports. He works from home and has dinner with his older sister every few nights. His best friend is the girl who checks him out at the grocery store.

He might be developing a crush on Samantha but she’s married and Robbie respects that.

Then Sam doesn’t show up to work and disappears. Robbie decides he must organize the members of his sled hockey team into a “wheelchair mafia” and rescue her.

Spice Level: Clean (spicy bonus scene available on RuthMadisonBooks.com)

Purchase On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR7XW2Z8

Becca is the rare woman who was diagnosed with autism as a child but she is still determined to improve herself and works hard to overcome any limitations.

Jack wakes up in a hospital, his entire world turned upside down. He’s used to being the one giving charity to disabled people and is not prepared to accept being disabled himself.

Then he meets Becca with her unique perspective and they begin to inspire each other to accept parts of themselves instead of trying to fix them. But as they fall for one another, Jack can’t help but worry how an autistic woman will fit into the life of wealth, parties, and shmoozing he plans to return to.

Spice Level: Clean (spicy bonus scene available on RuthMadisonBooks.com)

Purchase On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXF9TDTV

Duet

Madison’s very first novel, (W)hole, is a deeply personal journey into what it’s like to have desires that are not socially acceptable. It being her first novel and written more than 16 years ago, it has flaws. It is less of a romance and more of a coming-of-age. If you are curious about disability devoteeism, this is a good book to get an inside look at it.

It also introduces the character of Stewart Masterson, Madison’s most beloved creation. He has a couple of stand-alone stories about just him but will soon be getting a brand new collection focused only on him and his journey.

The sequel to (W)hole, Breath(e), has only a little bit of Stewart in it. Out Of Water is a short story that follows up with what Stewart is doing during Breath(e) and it will be included in the upcoming collection.

Coming Up

End of October: The fourth book in the Sled Hockey series, Love Comes Back, focusing on Danny’s story.

A compendium of Stewart Masterson including all new material both continuing his story and looking back at when he was first paralyzed.

More novellas for Kindle Unlimited: Roadtrip Secrets, and How To Manipulate An Aries

Join Ruth Madison’s email list to be notified of new releases: https://ruthmadisonbooks.com/bonus

Criticisms and Praise for Ruth Madison

It has been pointed out that a lot of the antagonists in her books are a bit over-the-top, almost cartoonish. The mother in (W)hole and Breath(e), Nancy in Thawing An Ice Heart, and Patricia and Vicky in Waiting To Break in particular.

In (W)hole there are a few issues with consent, mainly due to the time when they were written. Madison has since explained that she has learned a lot more about consent in the years since her first books were published and she does not condone Elizabeth’s behavior.

One of Madison’s strengths is in writing dialogue. Her books are also fast and easy to read, which is a strength to some and a weakness to others. She is known for unique, strong characters, who stay with you long after you finish reading and heroes who are kind, loyal, and compassionate.

You can get a taste of her writing style by downloading the first two chapters of Waiting To Break for free on her website: https://RuthMadisonBooks.com

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How Authors Can Do Disability Representation Right

I am an “elder millennial” author and when I started writing, the Internet barely existed, there were no such things as ebooks, and self-publishing was a daunting and expensive endeavor. I have witnessed all of those things change.

As someone who has been involved in disability rights since the 1990s, I’ve witnessed the role of disability in fiction change too.

For a long time disabled characters were most often put into one of two categories: bitter villain or inspirational angel. Lazy authors leaned on disability as a quick and easy backstory for their antagonists and others saw disability as shorthand for an inhuman level of patience, grace, and wise advice.

Saw that as recently as the final episode of the Game Of Thrones show where somehow Bran was the perfect ruler because…he was disabled and stared off into space a lot? Said vague mysterious things? (And yet the portrayal of Tyrion Lannister was excellent, and I’ll talk more about that in a moment, so perhaps it’s that the TV writers were not as careful with these things as the book author).

What both of these opposite stereotypes have in common is that they utilize disabled characters for what they can represent to the able-bodied characters and readers.

For many years there has been no nuance in the portrayal of disability in fiction and the stories of disabled characters have been a two-dimensional foil for the story of the other characters.

Finally a push has come for more accurate representation and OwnVoices. There’s some problems with #ownvoices, especially in that it forces authors to disclose personal information they may not want to, but I appreciate the move towards listening to disabled people about their stories.

Disabled characters deserve to have the same dimensionality as any others. Authors need to stop relying on disabilities as a shorthand for what they think it represents. The biggest problem with doing this is the way it perpetuates ableism in the real world. Because disability doesn’t represent anything by itself.

The idea of diverse representation in fiction has two purposes.

One is for all types of people to see themselves in the stories of their community. Without that kind of visibility, people become isolated from the communities they are supposed to be part of, which can have devastating consequences on them throughout their lives and is harmful to the community as a whole as well. The other is for people who don’t have that experience to realize that those who seem different are still people with very relatable and similar hopes and dreams to them.

Without that part of it, abled people see the disabled people around them as the angels and devils in books, not human beings just like them.

What representation does when it is not just a token effort is it provides so many different stories and perspectives that the occasional stereotype isn’t going to have as big an impact on real people. Sometimes people really do become stuck and bitter from their experience of disability but from what we’ve seen in our books and movies, we could easily think that happens 99.9% of the time.

Think about how you treat someone who wears glasses.

The same as anyone else, right? You don’t even notice or care (unless they’ve got awesome frames!). It’s the same thing for mobility devices like wheelchairs, canes, or scooters. Glasses are a form of adaptive technology but we don’t read a lot into it or get weird about it because wearing glasses is so common. It’s all around us.

This is not to say that the disability experience doesn’t come with challenges. It is part of someone’s story. An example of this is why I said earlier that Tyrion was good representation. His disability and the way he is treated because of it is a central part of his story, however the book centered what it meant to him rather than what his story could represent to able-bodied people. Like every other character, Tyrion had his hopes, ambitions, weaknesses, strengths, and relationships. His disability colored each of those things but was not his only character trait. It was an aspect of his experience.

While I do see more disabled characters in fiction now than in past decades (and even sometimes nuanced and compelling storytelling about disability in recent years), there are always exceptions to generalizations. An interesting example of good representation from the past is actually Treasure Island.

Because of the movie adaptations and the general impression we have about the character of Long John Silver even if we haven’t read the book, it’s easy to think that he is a stereotype of the bitter villain. Yet his character in the novel is complex, nuanced, and compelling.

Long John Silver is an amputee. He does not wear a peg leg (though he is often portrayed that way in media). He uses a single crutch, his amputation is close to the hip. The source of his disability is never brought up in the book. The pirate life is a rough one and that’s as much as we know about how he may have lost his leg.

Is he a villian? Certainly he is an antagonist but it is not easy to pin down his motives. He is one of the most complex characters I’ve ever read. The source of his bitterness has nothing to do with disability and everything to do with the injustice of privileged rich men going after a treasure that he and his comrades actually deserve. He is a deeply relatable antagonist along the lines of Magneto or Killmonger.

For an example of bad representation in a more recent book there is Will in Me Before You. This book and movie adaptation are fawned over by many able-bodied people. Words used to describe it are “emotional,” “heartbreaking,” and…” inspirational.” People who don’t have relationships with any disabled people in real life feel like they’ve learned about the experience from it.

However, you can’t learn about disability experience from that book because the author has no relationships with any disabled people either.

She read a newspaper article that inspired the story and she forced the characters into the ending that she envisioned even as the story and characters were clearly going in a different direction. When I finished reading the book it took a few minutes to realize what was making me the most uncomfortable.

Will had a point-of-view chapter before the injury that resulted in a high-level spinal cord injury. Once he is quadriplegic, there is never another chapter with his perspective. In that whole long book he is only speaking for himself before he is disabled.

You might say, isn’t it the female main character who narrates everything except the prologue? And while she does have the majority of the chapters, there are random chapters throughout from other points of view, such as Will’s mother. His disability experience is all about what it represents to the people around him, to the readers, and especially to the author.

When we see disabled people around us in our literature and our communities (and one helps lead into the other), we can all finally realize that we’re all just people with our own complex and unique stories.

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A womanSteamy Romance v.s. Erotica — What’s The Difference?

A womanSteamy Romance v.s. Erotica — What’s The Difference?

The other day I told my friend about the “why choose?” romance genre that I’ve been seeing popping up a lot lately. It’s when there’s a love triangle (or more) in a romance novel and instead of ending up with one guy, the girl ends up with all of them. So we went searching and found a why choose novel that said it was a historical romance. Intriguing!

Not all my books include spice (the Sled Hockey Team of Cedar Harbor series is “clean” but with optional spicy scenes you can download at my website), but when there are sex scenes in my novels, they are part of the story.

She ordered the book and I’m going to read it after her. But when I saw her she told me that it seems more erotica than steamy/spicy romance. What made her say that was that during the sex scenes, the plot completely disappeared. Even the characters lost all traits that made them distinct people!

Writing sex scenes isn’t just for getting off, it is an emotionally vulnerable time for fictional characters (and well anyone probably), so it’s an opportunity to further develop the characters and show their struggles in a new light.

To me that’s the main difference between something that is a romance with sex scenes and an erotica. When you read a romance novel, being turned on is part of the experience but feeling something on an emotional level is also part of the point.

Here are two of my stories where the sex scenes further the plot and deepen the relationships between the couples:

The Billionaire’s Secretary (short read, Kindle Unlimited)The World Between Us (rockstar romance, interracial couple)

Do you agree with my definitions?

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Red Flag Blurbs

As I said in my last article, there’s now no shortage of romance novels with disabled characters but most of them are terrible.

I stumbled on this one and I like the cover. That looks legit like a guy who actually uses a wheelchair and it’s not easy to get or create models for your disabled characters on cover art.

Then I read the blurb.

So no I have not read this book and there’s very little chance I’ll be reading it because this description is packed with red flags for me. Maybe it’s a great book, but I’m highly skeptical.

Let’s start with the word “confined.” Referring to someone as “confined to a wheelchair” is a big red flag for me. It’s not necessarily an automatic no. Perhaps it’s some kind of taking back a difficult term, maybe it’s how the ignorant character with internalized ableism really is feeling.

But it suggests that this is a person who has never been anywhere near the disability community.

I say that because I got reamed out by an 80 year old woman in the 90s for using that term in a summary of a letter someone had sent to the disability rights organization I was volunteering at. I had just used the same language from the letter but the owner of the organization gave me an earful about how unacceptable that phrase was. Let me reiterate, that was an 80 year old woman thirty years ago. So for anyone to not be aware of how icky that phrase is suggests to me that they don’t know enough about disability life to write a disabled character.

The next red flag for me is the basic plot summary. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this exact type of premise (infinite times perhaps?) and each time it’s like the author and all the reveiwers think this is the most fresh and new idea ever.

Here are the cliches that are just exhausting to keep seeing in books:

He doesn’t want pity, he just wants to be miserable and sulk about his lifeHe’s the crankiest grouch that ever grouched but the nurse/caregiver/person hired to keep him from offing himself can change his perspectiveHe pushes her away for her own good/protection

Please tell new stories.

But they probably won’t because the reviews are always full of praise for doing something so new and unexpected actually writing about a bitter disabled guy finding love. Sigh.

So now you may look at my new book that is coming out in January 2024, see the title and the cover, and say “But Ruth, your book doesn’t look any different.” Is this not going to be that same old cliche of a bitter disabled guy who is grouchy about his “broken body”? No, it’s not.

Kevin Murphy is coming back to Cedar Harbor where he did his rehabilitation after losing both legs to an IED ten years ago. He tells everyone he’s retiring from his professional sledge hockey career and wants to start an amateur team to help others, but the truth is more complicated. There are things he’s hiding from and a small New England town like Cedar Harbor is the perfect place.

Carly Jennings is a beloved and respected fundraiser, tapped to help Kevin with his sledge hockey team idea. Behind her polished exterior of perfection she’s hiding her own struggles like the insomnia that plagues her.

Though Carly is excellent at what she does, Kevin is wary of an able-bodied outsider taking over his project and he doesn’t understand why they should spend money on events when it could be spent directly on the team.

The two start off on the wrong foot (as it were), but start to find common ground after being stuck in an elevator at a gala event.

Kevin is a little grouchy and he is bitter about something but it isn’t his disability, it’s how abled people try to take over and do things for disabled people without knowing what they actually need.

Having been involved in disability rights for thirty years myself I am fairly confident that I can do this book justice but you’ll have to tell me what you think when it comes out in January. You can sign up for updates and behind-the-scenes content at my website https://www.ruthmadisonbooks.com

Sledge Hockey Team Of Cedar Harbor COMING 2024 #booktube #authortube #smalltownromance

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There’s A New Problem With Disability Romances

When I started writing novels with disabled characters twenty years ago it was mainly because I ran out of books to read. I couldn’t find enough of the kind of books I wanted so I started creating my own.

As I was scrolling Amazon last night I realized there’s quite a few romance novels with disabled characters, particularly disabled heroes. In a few minutes I was able to download samples of ten books.

The problem has shifted a bit. No longer is it that there aren’t books with disabled characters, the problem now is that most of them are terrible.

I’m so sorry to the authors. As an author myself I don’t like to criticize others because I think it’s a potential conflict of interest.

But this is an important critique to bring up because many of these books are packed with abelism.

There are two types of disability themed books I usually see. One is the highbrow literary masterpiece where the author is praised to the heavens for their searing depiction of disability. These authors know nothing about disability and actually are depicting a tired old stereotype that has no basis in reality but the readers don’t know that because as societies we pay so little attention to disabled experiences. The most recent of these that I know of is A Little Life and the author proudly declared doing no research at all into the amputee experience.

The other type is the light romance novels where the hero is invariably bitter, angry about his disability, feels unworthy of love, “half a man.”

I so darn sick of seeing this trope that I had to write a post about it.

There are some tropes within a trope, I’ve realized. The “wounded hero” trope with disabled heroes has within it the bitter man feeling unworthy of love because of a broken body and there’s also the meetcute where the heroine doesn’t realize the hero is disabled when they first meet (remarkably common!)

Romance novels aren’t meant to be realistic but I think it’s a problem that the depiction of disabled characters is 90% of the time based in assumptions that abled people make about what a disabled life is like. That’s, quite frankly, dangerous to actual disabled people.

It’s hard to find good romance novels with disabled characters because the reviews are often a pack of five stars from people who are super impressed that someone wrote a love story with a disabled person. So brave. So unique. Ugh.

Most of the time now I depend on recommendations from friends I trust before I give a disability-themed book a chance.

Here are a few that are actually good:

Lobster, with a strawMy Ex's Wedding: A Fake Boyfriend RomancePlane Love: (Honoring Those Who Serve Book 4)[image error]

New Novel — The World Between Us

New Novel — The World Between Us

This book has been twelve years in the making. The first seed of the idea for it was born from my core philosophy in life, that everyone deserves love.

I thought about a young man who was challenging to find attractive, even to those who are attracted to disability. It’s not just that he uses a wheelchair, his body is also small and strangely proportioned.

But he is kind and generous with a loving spirit and I wanted to bring his love story to life.

Dylan is a man born with spina bifida and though he seems to most people to be at peace with himself and his body, in reality he is struggling with insecurity.

Because of this he has stayed in the shadow of his sucessful rockstar brother and avoided thinking about love or desiring anything for himself.

All of that is shaken when he meets Stephanie.

She is trying to grow her YouTube side hussle into a fulltime income and she wants Dylan’s brother to help her do it. She is passionate, ambitious, and she throws Dylan’s whole life off kilter.

For the first time in years he starts dreaming about something of his own.

These characters have been living with me for many years, waiting for me to tell their story. I’m so delighted to finally be able to share them with you.

The World Between Us is available now on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

The title is inspired by one of my favorite songs, Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Deep Blue Something. My little brother introduced me to this song in the 90s and something about it gets me in the heart every time. It factors significantly in the book as well.

This song is the inspiration for the title The World Between Us #booktube #romancenovel #ebook

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What To Do About Inaccurate Reviews?

As an author I try to stay away from reviews and reader spaces. I rarely read my reviews. But every so often I take a look and I’m fine with criticism and I know not everyone is comfortable with me and my writing. However, as I was updating one of my stories I saw a review that has a lot of inaccuracies.

And how do I not say anything?

I don’t want to end up on Reads With Rachel Authors Behaving Badly!

Amazon no longer allows comments on reviews so there’s nothing I can do about it except ask to have it taken down and I really don’t want that. I wish there were a way for me to address a few of the things mentioned in the review.

I think I’ll leave it at this:

Just because you would not be able to do the same things Stewart can do, doesn’t mean that his disability is not accurate. Spinal cord injuries, and disabilities in general, have a wide variety of abilities. You also said in one place that he was a quadriplegic and in another that he is paraplegic. He is paraplegic.

Another review claims that this is the story of someone injured in a car accident even though the story is extremely clear that it’s a surfing accident.

What would you do? Do you have a way to deal with reviews of your work that are factually inaccurate?

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