Romance While Disabled: What To Consider When Writing a Disabled Love Interest

Romance–and especially intimacy–often look different when you’re disabled. We’ll discuss what these differences look like in the real world, how existing media often fails to reflect those differences, and how writers can create respectful and realistic depictions of disabled folks in romantic relationships. 

This panel is part of Storycrafting Sessions: Disability in Writing, a free virtual conference hosted by Weeknight Writers and happening on May 30th. Check out our full panel listing to learn more.

Supporter tickets 

While Storycrafting Sessions are free, there are costs involved in hosting, plus a lot of work that goes into the event. If you’d like to support us financially, please consider buying a PWYC Supporter Ticket; this will also give you access to the Conference Companion workbook, which can help you take notes and make the most of this event. 

Want to support all of our events and get more support in your own writing journey? Join the Weeknight Writers Pro Community to access the Conference Companion workbook, plus year-round writing and publishing support, including free entry to all of our paid events.

Cait Gordon is an autistic, disabled, and queer Canadian writer of speculative fiction celebrating diverse bodyminds. She is the author of the award-winning, disability-hopepunk adventure, Season One: Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space! Her upcoming space-opera romantic comedy, Hot Wings and Sauciness, stars a disabled and neurodivergent heroine and boasts the meet-awkward of the 25th century! Cait’s short stories featuring disabled and/or neurodivergent heroes have appeared in several anthologies and in her first collection, Speculative Shorts: Stories that fell out of my brain. Cait twice joined Talia C. Johnson to co-edit the (award-nominated) Nothing Without Us and (award-winning) Nothing Without Us Too disability fiction anthologies. She is also the host of The Disabled Crone podcast. And she really, really loves cake.

Nikki Flynn is your average gamer and avid reader ascended to author. Enjoying fiction in all forms she has been writing most of her life across genres. Most likely her works fit into either fantasy, horror, or romantasy. With degrees in psychology, philosophy, and criminology, she puts her analytical mind to writing against expectations with subverted tropes or underutilized situations. When she isn’t reading and collecting books, Nikki is doting on her four cats and four dogs and planning her next tattoos.

Her current projects include various romantasy stories, an own voices disabled MC, and continuing her previous projects as audio books and scrolls.

Nikki Flynn is also pro mental health representation: the good, the bad and the ugly. She has chronic fatigue, arthritis, fibromyalgia and other ailments but is trucking through the best she can.

None of her books use AI. Her art is commissioned from artists who also do not use AI.

A.E. Bross is a nonbinary, agender, disabled indie author interested in fantasy in all of its forms, as well as romance, science fiction, and horror. When not getting lost in their writing, they are an academic librarian, passionate about open education resources and information literacy. They reside in the mountains beyond the Greater New York area with their spouse, kiddo, and two feline grandchildren.

Jaye Viner lives on what used to be the plains of eastern Nebraska with two feline fur bombs and a very tall man. She knows just enough about a wide variety of things to embarrass herself at parties she never attends. She holds an MFA and MA from the University of Nebraska. Her writing has been published in Drabblecast, The Roanoke Review, Everyday Fiction, and the Soul Jar anthology from Forest Avenue Press. She is the author of Jane of Battery Park, the Elaborate Lives series, and The Island of Dreams. Find her on Instagram, Threads, and TikTok @Jaye_Viner.

Meet our moderator

Jade Benjamin is a Canadian writer and editor who is fiercely in love with language, words, and magical worlds. After acquiring a double undergraduate degree in English (and Environmental Sciences), a Postgraduate Certificate in Book Publishing, and interning as an Editorial Assistant at Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd. (Markham, Ontario) she discovered that finding a permanent paid position in Canadian traditional publishing was easier said than done. 

Jade now works as a freelance editor, fitting work for independent author clients around her 9-5 expenses-paying job. She has a penchant for collecting interesting names and a fondness for projects that expand her knowledge of story structure and use of evocative language. You can find out more about her editorial work and how to hire her at Eclipse Wordsmything.