Safe in Ways Reality Isn’t: An Exclusive Guest Post from TJ Klune, Author of Ravensong

By TJ Klune / July 31, 2023 at 2:09 am

Debug Notice: No product response from API

The next installment of B&N favorite TJ Klune’s Green Creek series is here, and our exclusive edition includes the next installment of the story that spans all four books in the series as well as specially designed endpapers and foil stamping. Ravensong is a story of love and betrayal, second chances and forgiveness. Keep reading for an exclusive guest post from TJ Klune about how the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre has become more of a safe space for marginalized groups.

The science fiction and fantasy genres are more than just books about magic or swords or dragons or stars light years away only accessible through tears in space and time. For many of us, it led to worlds where people could be who they wanted, where even the smallest of us could change everything when we put our minds to it.

For years, the SFF genre was a straight, white male game — with a few notable exceptions. However, in my lifetime, I’ve seen it grow into a place where stories from anyone with an imagination can find themselves being the heroes of the story.

For many queer people, this has been so, so important. Gone are the days when we’re spoken about in vague, euphemistic terms, or we’re relegated to being side characters there to teach the straight counterparts a Very Important Lesson.

I know what it has felt like for me, being able to tell the stories I wish I could have read when I was a kid. I have been given such a unique honor in being able to write what I want to write. I don’t take that lightly, either; it is a privilege to do what I do.

That being said, I know how long and hard we fought to have our voices heard. The SFF genres have turned into a wonderful place for marginalized groups, but it wasn’t always that way. It’s fascinating, then, to have spoken with many queer people over the years and heard the same thing over and over: we read the books we do because of the love we have for the genre. We love stories of witches and wizards, of a band of people coming together to fight great evil. Why shouldn’t we? Stories are universal.

Not only that, it has become a space for us to learn about ourselves, and each other. We get to see people from all walks of life traveling the worn and beaten path of the hero’s journey. We get to see people like ourselves learn magic and swordplay, getting crowned kings and queens. It has become a place where anyone and everyone can be whoever they want to be.

Funny then, that our imaginations exceed our reality.

The real world is not a safe place for queer people. Every day, we see those with hate in their blackened hearts spit their vitriol, all in the name of preserving something that never really existed in the first place. So many are trying to take away our basic rights and yet, we look to hope and magic and dreams of worlds where everything is beautiful, and nothing hurts.

It is safe for us in SFF, safe in ways reality isn’t. And we will continue to tell the stories we’ve always wanted to tell, regardless of what others think. Ban our books. We’ll write more. Tell us we’re abominations. We’ll make wonders unlike anything you’ve seen before. And we will never stop.