The Extraordinaries, Queerness, and Why I Went YA
Back in 2017, I wanted to do something different.
I felt myself growing a bit complacent, and it didn’t help that I was with a publisher that I was losing faith in. I wanted to see what else was out there in the publishing world, and to push myself in a direction that I’d never really considered before.
When I was a kid, I never got to see people like me in my safe haven: books. I was a queer kid with a brain on fire that never, ever seemed to slow down, no matter what I did. If I was lucky enough to actually find a queer character in books, they were offensive stereotypes, or they existed only in service of the main characters, or they served as a lesson by getting hurt or sick.
It’s gotten much better since that time, but we still have such a long way to go.
And so, I had a strange thought: what would sixteen year old me want to read, if he could read anything in the world?
The answer was easy: queer superheroes.
I loved anything and everything having to do with superheroes. I was (and still am) the ultimate nerd: I had hundreds of comic books and graphic novels, and would spend hours and hours reading through each brightly colored panel. These characters had an otherness about them, like I did. Yes, they could shoot lasers from their eyes or have adamantium claws grow from their hands, but they were like me in that they were different. Granted, my superpowers were being gay as balls and having a mind that never shut up, but I felt a kinship with them that I couldn’t find anywhere else. I devoured anything and everything I could get my hands on: X-Men, X-Force, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, all of them. I loved each and every one of them.
So I decided to write a young adult book about my love of superheroes. It turned into so much more than that because it became a story about not having superpowers, but being true to oneself, and believing there is magic in the ordinary.
This will be my twenty-sixth (!!) novel. And yet it feels almost like my first, because I’m opening up to a new readership. I’m always nervous before a book comes out, but this time, it’s increased tenfold, which is both good and bad. The good, of course, coming from excitement. The bad is because OMFG, I’m writing about teenagers. Complex, messy teenagers who make dumb mistakes and questionable decisions. But there’s something so wonderfully human about that, and this book took me on a journey I did not expect when I first sat down to write it. I had a blast with this book, and I hope it shows through the narrative.
If you’re reading this on the day I posted it—July 13—that means the book hasn’t yet come out. I hope that you laugh when you read it, because we need laughter right now. I hope you cry, because Nick’s relationship with his father is one of the most achingly honest things I’ve ever written. I hope you find the joy in the little things: Nick and his best friends, Seth and Jazz and Gibby, four characters I love dearly. They are ridiculous in all the best ways, and they would do anything for each other.
But above all, I hope you realize that difference—the otherness—is something to be celebrated. What makes us unique as individuals should never be used against us.
Tomorrow, a new adventure begins, and I can’t wait for you to see what I’ve created.
tj
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