My story “The Truth of Names” drew a lot of attention for its portrayal of the first openly and canonically transgender character in the lore of Magic: The Gathering. I jumped at the chance to write that story because it meant so much to me and my family. My teenage daughter is transgender (and a huge Magic fan), and seeing someone like her represented in the Magic Multiverse meant everything to her.
Well, she’s going to college this fall. And it turns out college is expensive. So I just thought I’d mention that if you want an easy way to support a transgender teen making the big leap to college, here’s one thing you can do: Buy my books!
In addition to my work on Magic, I’ve written five Dungeons & Dragons novels. This omnibus collects three of them in an ebook package that you can buy for only $10.
Will you find a transgender character like Alesha? Well, not exactly. But what happens when the changeling Darraun finds that he needs a way to escape a military camp?
The changeling who had been Darraun was getting comfortable in her new body, new identity, and new name—Private Caura Fannam, an enlisted soldier under the command of Major Rennic Arak. She wore her tawny hair pulled awkwardly into a tail down her back, a fashion popular with many female soldiers. A long shirt of leather studded with heavy steel rivets was standard issue for Aundair’s light infantry. She carried a short spear—not her favorite weapon, but easy enough to use: “Put the sharp end into the enemy,” she’d heard a training sergeant say once. In practice, she knew the hard part was pulling it back out in time to put it in the next enemy, which was why she preferred shorter weapons. But if all went well, she’d have no reason to use her spear as anything but a part of her disguise.
There’s also a loving, platonic relationship between a human woman and a sexless warforged, a living construct:
“So what do you want to do with your freedom?”
Cart looked down at her, into her warm, brown eyes. He eased his arm free of her hands and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her close to his side. She put one arm around his waist and laid the other hand on his chest, and her head rested beside her hand. It was confusing to him—he hated the thought of being owned: her dismissive words to the Cannith warforged had cut him like daggers. But the urge to hold her close, keep her beside him, protect her—it was a fiercely possessive urge.
“Freedom is a strange thing,” he said. With her body so close to his, he slowed his step and she matched it, so they found a slower rhythm together. “Nobody owns me, but Gaven and Aunn and you seem to have a hold on me anyway. What I want to do is to be with you.”
“Freedom is the ability to choose your commitments,” Ashara said, “to choose what owns your loyalty.”
“Then perhaps I am yours after all.”
Her smile spread all across her face, touching every one of the tiny muscles beneath the skin—such an intricate construction, he thought, like the work of a divine artisan.
“And I’m yours,” she said.
So please think about it. For just $10, you can have the satisfaction of contributing to the education of a wonderful transgender teen, and get three novels to read as part of the deal! This omnibus includes a short story, never published anywhere else, featuring the warforged Cart and his beloved Ashara.
Are they any good? Well, you don’t have to take my word for it. Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms, says, “Every James Wyatt novel I read is a delight—may there be many, many more!”
You can buy Draconic Prophecies for Kindle from Amazon here. If you do, I get a little bit extra thanks to their affiliate program. Or you can buy it for Nook here.
Or if you’re feeling very generous, you can make a direct donation to Sierra’s college fund here.
Thank you!
