I just finished scanning a book for Bookshare entitled The Protected by
Rowena Portch. I ordered this from PaperbackSwap.com without having the
slightest idea what it was about. I ordered it on the sole basis that it
was a self published book and it was classified as science fiction. I
rather like the idea of promoting indy science fiction, so lately I have
been scanning a number of them for Bookshare. It turns out that it is
not science fiction at all. It is a fantasy and of the subgenre urban
fantasy. Unfortunately a lot of people don't seem to be able to tell the
difference between science fiction and fantasy, so a lot of books,
especially indy books, get misclassified. Also unfortunately, I didn't
like the book because its main purpose seemed to be to push religion.
Anyway, the main character turns out to be a woman with very limited
vision, legally blind, who lives on the Olympic Peninsula. She has
retinitis pigmentosa. Now that I have finished the book I found some
biographical information about the author at the very end. It turns out
that Rowena Portch based the main character on herself and she is
actually blind due to retinitis pigmentosa and she lives on the Olympic
Peninsula. She runs a wellness clinic there with her husband and if she
is that identical with her character she is a massage therapist.
Now, I don't know how large the Olympic Peninsula is and I don't know
what the population is, so I don't know what degree of unlikeliness this
is. But whatever the population might be I do know that wherever you go
the population of blind people is considerably less. I also know that
you, Carl, know a lot of blind people on the Olympic Peninsula. So, I am
curious. Carl, do you know a Rowena Portch?
