The Invisible College

I’ve always ended each of my books with a note talking about where the inspiration for a story may have come from or other tidbits that I think may interest my readers. For The Invisible College, I thought readers would be better served if I opened with my reasoning for certain details you’ll find in this book, especially since one of the characters is deaf. I’m inspired by history, settings, and events that are very different from our own. Writing from the point of view of a deaf character was especially challenging for me since I had to use my imagination and research to try to bridge the gap of understanding. Societies throughout history have regularly mistreated individuals who are considered different from what may be considered “normal.” The world of The Invisible College is no different and exposes some of the injustices that can and often still do persist despite more modern research and methods. For example, in this book deaf children are considered pariahs and unwelcome in Society. Those in power make false and injurious assumptions about their abilities and potential. Unrealistic expectations are also contrived, such as lipreading and vocalizing being preferable to other forms of communication, like sign language. In reality, lipreading and speaking might prove inaccessible for some individuals born without hearing. Such themes are in this book, but I wanted to point out to my readers that while I write about many topics and do a lot of research in my world-building, it doesn’t reflect my personal beliefs or attitudes. I wanted to state this because authors have to make hard choices about what goes into a book and what gets left out, and some of these choices may be viewed as perpetuating debunked ideas. It’s never my intent to injure or offend my readers. The teaching methods in the book were typical of the time it is based on—New England in the 1870s. Back then, many deaf children were sent to asylums to endure lives of misery because it was supposed,...