u/MsBit_Commit

(Note: this is not me looking for praise as a hearing person. Rather, I’m curious to know if this thing my friend said is a widely felt sentiment among others in the d/Deaf community)

I was recently texting with a Deaf friend from college (she was HoH in college and lost the rest of her hearing a few years later). We reconnected after a decade or so, and I let her know that whenever we next see one another (we don’t live nearby), my ASL is kind of rudimentary, so I ask for her patience with my signing. Her response was to explode with joy at the fact that I as a hearing person would know any ASL or make an effort to sign with her at all. When I expressed embarrassment, saying that I feel awkward that she’ll have to do extra work to understand what I’m trying to say and it will slow down the conversation (compared to what, I’m not sure. Writing things down? She uses her voice but I wouldn’t force her to lipread) she said it didn’t matter and expressed that her feeling about me learning was a sentiment shared by most Deaf people - I’m curious to know what others feel about this. Do you agree?

Do you ever see clear recycles/restyles of plots and characters - either a single author using the same plot/names/character rebooted with different name across their own works, or another author seemingly restyling an author’s idea with a different setting/altered premise?

The one that comes to mind for me is Mary Balogh.
She has two books in separate series that contain a MMC named Ben who has been to war involved in a plot surrounding an acquired physical disability in which the main character yearns to walk “and even dance.”

And they’re different books, but like… it happened twice!

On the other hand, Shana Galen wrote a Survivors series different from Mary Balogh’s, also focused on a close knit group of Napoleonic War vets who help keep each other above water, and while a few characters are similar, the books are totally different.

I absolutely inhaled The Survivors’ Club series by Mary Balogh- I loved the rich depth and maturity of the friendships within the group, the Sad War Boy trauma, the way that each couple’s story included some version of adapting their world to heal them and suit them a little better, whether it’s war wounds/disability or emotional trauma, or repairing relationships leading up to the HEA. I have reread each and am very much stuck in the story world, and would like to read something that scratches a similar itch. Does such a series exist? Where should I start? I am also a big fan of KJ Charles and I like select works by Tessa Dare, if it helps.

I’ve acted and done improv for awhile now, but I’ve never done a themed long-form show (a la “improvised noir” or “improvised anime” theme). Now I have my first audition for this kind of show and I feel surprisingly adrift. I’ve done the scripted kind of audition with a headshot and prepared monologue or cold reading sides, and I’ve done the more abstract “play without boundaries” improv audition, but I don’t know what to expect in the room.

Any tips?