STEALING THUNDER

Based off of the Moghul Empire, a fantasy novel where a young trans girl runs away from her rich but abusive father to create a new life for herself. Finding a new community, she also falls in love and becomes a trusted military advisor, and respected dragon (zahhak) rider.

By night, Razia Khan is one of the most sought-after dancing girls in the desert city of Bikampur. By later night, she is its most elusive thief. When Razia finds herself dancing for the maharaja's son, the handsome prince Arjun, she knows that she's playing with fire.

As a hijra (a trans girl), she can never be a wife to any man. As the former Crown Prince of the Sultanate of Nizam, she guards her identity carefully, lest her father's assassins find her. But in the dragon-riding Prince of Bikampur, Razia sees not just a ticket out of the gutter, but a kindred spirit.

As their romance blossoms, Razia finds herself once more thrust into the dangerous world of politics in Daryastan, and in order to survive, she will need the skills of a courtesan, a thief, and a warrior princess.

Alina Boyden is a cultural anthropologist focused on organized communities of transgender women in Pakistan, known as khwaja siras, or more popularly as hijras, focusing on how they use their unique community organization to advance the fight for their rights at home and abroad--something which, as a transgender woman, has inspired her in her own battles for civil rights in the U.S. as she fought for transgender care in a major court case with the ACLU.