I saw someone make a post on a different platform marketing their YA fantasy series with all the "overused" YA tropes they DON'T use. Like their main character isn't an orphan, etc. And ??? they said their dragon isn't "somehow disabled" (except they used a euphemism I hate), and 1) WHERE are they finding disabled dragons in YA in such high quantities that they think it's an overused trope 2) disability in fantasy is never a bad thing and 3) DISABILITY IS NOT A TROPE!! It's been like 3 days and I'm still so frustrated with this! Especially as a disabled author who has tried very, very hard to uplift, support, write, and bring awareness to as many fantasy books with disability rep as I can! I was in Artifice & Access, a disability in fantasy anthology, and my debut has disabled dragons! It's not been easy to find disability rep in books, especially not in fantasy, and especially not in major dragon characters! It just feels like a slap in the face, honestly anyway, if they're going to market their book by proudly declaring their able bodied dragons, I'm going to market my book by proudly declaring my disabled dragons!! Hello! I wrote a YA fantasy that comes out in March called Child of the Dragon about a rag-tag team of cursed shape-shifting dragons in high school trying to break their curse, take down an evil dragon government, and still pass calculus and features a POV character who's a chronically ill ex-assassin AND a dragon-shifter! There's also a side character dragon-shifter who's a wing amputee! Plus another one has anxiety, another has depression, and another has PTSD, so I've got a whole slew of disabled dragons! Did I mention it's also gay??? 1 POV character is demiromantic asexual, another is allo(??)ace, another is gay. A major side character is bisexual, and another minor side character is nonbinary. Also two minor side character are also super gay, but they're not out yet, it's just subtext (for now...) So, anyway. If you like disability rep and dragons, consider adding Child of the Dragon to your TBR! You can also preorder it (currently only from my publisher's website, but rolling out soon to major retailers!) I mean, look at this cover!
