Hi everyone, thank you for joining me for my next interview for repDISND 2024! Joining me today is author Allegra Pescatore whose book Where Shadows Lie is widely recognised for being one of the few fantasy books that features a main character using a wheelchair on the cover.

I talked with Allegra about the cover, the character Elenor from Where Shadows Lie, and much more.

Hi Allegra, thank you for joining me today for repDISND 2024! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Thank you for having me. It’s an honor to be here. Let’s see where to begin. Well, I’ve been called three raccoons in a trench coat, but I’m actually an Italian born indie author with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and a host of other conditions. I currently live and write from my little cottage in PA, which is currently overrun by a large food garden and two golden retrievers. 

Your novel, Where Shadows Lie, caught everyone’s attention by having a visibly disabled character on the cover. Can you tell us more about it?

I’d love to. I’ve been working on WSL since long before I got my slew of diagnoses. It became my way to process and work through the stages of grief and find acceptance and joy within my disability, and continues to be very close to my heart because of that. When I went to design the cover, I felt like it was important to portray my protagonist in her wheelchair because I’d at the time never seen it done before. I’m sure there were books out there, but I hadn’t crossed their path, and I had this deep yearning to put her disability front and center. Representation matters, and while narrative representation is I think ultimately more powerful, visual representation has a different kind of oompth. I thought about what it would mean to me to be browsing a fantasy book aisle and see someone who was dealing with the same issues I was right there beside the able-bodied heroes swinging swords. If representation on covers exists, 9 times out of 10 it’s on memoirs, self-help books, or inspirational literary fiction. I wanted it in my fantasy, and am so grateful that since then I’ve found so many more examples of it. I feel like it’s getting more common by the day.

In Where Shadows Lie, the main character, Elenor, is an ambulatory wheelchair user, using both a wheelchair and a cane as needed. How did your own experiences shape your writing? 

While Elenor and I don’t have the same disease (I don’t think I was quite ready to dive that deep at the time I started this), we have many of the same symptoms and accessibility needs. I chose to make her an ambulatory wheelchair user because I was struggling to adjust to the same. It’s still a very misunderstood thing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten puzzled or even downright nasty glares for standing up from my wheelchair to reach a high shelf. I’ve been accused of faking my disability, and have had people outright say that being an ambulatory wheelchair user isn’t a thing. That sort of misinformation hurts people, so I set about to making it so foundational to Elenor’s character that it would be impossible to ignore. 

Elenor, much like myself, starts off her journey with a lot of internalized ableism. She resists using the mobility aids she desperately needs for all the wrong reasons. Learning to accept and then embrace the freedom of having something to lean on (literally) has been life changing for me. Working through those feelings with Elenor has been an immensely valuable part of that process of self-acceptance. Now, I look at my canes and my chair with fond gratitude. They let me (and her) go places that would have otherwise been impossible, and do things that would have been painful. 

To capture that, I felt as though it was important that Elenor start and end the book disabled. This isn’t a new thing for her, and it definitely has not and will not get magically healed. It’s there, and sometimes it’s inconvenient when she wants to barrel on ahead and is slowed down by having to either find the right mobility aid or suffer through the pain of not using one. However, it never stops her from being fully immersed in the plot. She may not tackle obstacles the same way an able-bodied person would, but she’ll find her own way

What has been the response to writing, if not the first, but certainly one of the very few fantasy novels with a main character who is an ambulatory wheelchair user?

The response has generally been exceptional. I can’t tell you how many people have approached me over the years to say it was one of the first times they’d seen themselves on a cover, or how deeply they resonated with a disabled protagonist being the central character to a story. Unfortunately, I do occasionally get the odd ableist comment or review, which is sad but expected. Some people seem to take offence to a disabled character having the same tropes and beats as an able-bodied one (such as being attractive/the romantic lead, or uneducated comments that invalidate ambulatory wheelchair users by stating that it doesn’t count if sometimes they walk). While the days those comments come in are unpleasant, they are a tiny drop in an otherwise welcoming and encouraging bucket. I plan to keep writing disabled characters in great partly because of how much it means to so many of my readers. 

What are your thoughts on disabled representation in fantasy?

I think we are in an era of unprecedented disability representation, especially since Covid hit and so many people came face-to-face with it. That a book by a disabled author featuring a character with my disease (Fourth Wing) has topped the New York Times Bestseller list for weeks is heartening. That said, we still have a long way to go. Considering how high a percentage of the population is or will be disabled at some point in their lives, I don’t think I’ll be fully content until we have many times as much disability rep as we do now. It would also be nice if audiences stopped calling disabled characters ‘weak’. I see it all the time in reviews of other books, and it always hits like a freight train. What I’m most encouraged by, though, is how much diversity of representation within the umbrella of disability we’re seeing. I love it when I come across books with rare diseases, neurodiversity, and conditions that in decades past we never would have seen. The credit for this lies, in great part, with the indie book community, where the gatekeepers aren’t there to ensure books are ‘mainstream’ and therefore diversity is allowed to fully flourish.

What would you like to see more of in terms of disability representation?

I would love to see a broader spectrum of disability representation. Right now there are some that are often represented (which is great, we need as much as possible), and others that sadly rarely get mentioned. I also am a big fan of intersectionality. Being disabled doesn’t exclude other identities and I love it when I get to read diversity in all its forms, not just disability.

What are some of your favourite books with disabled and neurodivergent representation?

I love Sarah Chorn’s work, both because there is often disability representation and also because the writing is utterly stunning. I’m also a huge fan of Rachel Rener’s inclusion of neurodiverse and disabled characters in her urban fantasy books, as they are so fast paced and fun! Seeing my own disability portrayed in Fourth Wing was incredibly empowering too. Even though I have my issues with the book itself, I felt so seen while reading it that I can’t help but love it!

What are your writing plans for the future?

I am currently mostly working on sequels. My Last Gift Series has concluded Arc 1, but there is a lot more coming. The Mountain Fell is still getting its legs under it with a lot of building momentum behind the scenes as my various co-authors wrap up projects. I also have a secret Grimdark fantasy in the works with Christopher Russell which I’m incredibly excited for. However, all my writing is taking a bit of a back burner seat for the rest of 2024 and the first half of 2025 as I’m expecting twins in the fall! I’m sure they’ll keep me busy, but as soon as I’m sleeping through the night again, I plan to be back at my keyboard as often as possible.

Thank you, Allegra, for taking the time to talk to us!

Thank you for reading my interview with Allegra Pescatore! Please take a moment to check out Allegra’s website, and you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

This interview is part of repDISND (formerly known as GeekDis) an annual event I run for the disabled and neurodivergent community to discuss representation. Follow the hashtag #repdisnd or follow me on social media for more!

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