Who We Are in Real Life by Victoria Koops

IRL, Darcy has just moved to the small prairie town of Unity Creek with her two moms. It feels like she left everything good behind in the city. She misses her tabletop gaming friends and her boyfriend and is horrified by the homophobia her family faces in their new home. Then she meets kind, quiet Art, who invites her to join hisDungeons & Dragonsgame.

Art is mostly happy fading into the background at school and only really coming alive during his friends' weeklyD&Dgame until meeting Darcy pulls his life off-course in wonderful and alarming ways. Suddenly he has something worth fighting for. But what if that something puts him in conflict with his father, an influential and conservative figure in their town? Can Art stand up against his father's efforts to prevent Darcy and her friends from starting a queer-straight alliance at school?

Meanwhile, in game, Darcy's and Art'sD&Dcharacters join forces to fight corruption as they grow closer in the homebrew world of Durgeon's Keep as fantasy and reality collide.(From Groundwood Books)

Victoria Koops is a Saskatchewan-based author and practicing counsellor.Who We are In Real Lifeis her debut novel.