A Message about The Extraordinaries
Hindsight is a horrible thing, and can be humbling. America—and the world at large—is in the middle of a reckoning. Black people and people of color are suffering at the hands of police. There’s no debate about that. And here I am, releasing a book in which cops are portrayed positively. A YA book at that. Nick Bell, the sixteen year old narrator, is the son of a police officer and in his world, the police—through Nick’s eyes because of the love he has for his father—are seen as the good guys, because that’s what Nick believes.
Given the common theme of antagonism between superheroes and police, I thought it would be interesting to have Nick caught in the middle between his loyalty to his police officer father and his loyalty to his superhero crush. And in the backstory, Nick’s father, Aaron Bell, makes an egregious mistake. He punches a witness who was goading him about his recently deceased wife. Aaron was briefly suspended and then demoted down to patrol officer, but it wasn’t enough. Officers who act violently toward civilians should lose their jobs and face charges, end of story.
This book had sensitivity readers, but the onus is on me, because these are my words, and this is my story. I didn’t know we’d be in the middle of a necessary reckoning when I wrote this book three years ago. Or when I finished edits a year ago. Or when Tor Teen started promoting the book at the beginning of the year. But the Black Lives Matter movement has been around since 2013 raising awareness around issues of police brutality and I did know police hurt people.
The good news is the series isn’t over. On Wednesday, July 15th, I sent my publisher an email because I wanted to open the conversation about how to make this right in my work going forward. The second book in the series is already written but hasn't been edited. My editor and I will be taking this conversation very seriously going forward. If Nick were living in our world over the past few months, he would have a lot to say about police brutality and he would be on the right side of history.
And in case you need to know what side that is, I'm the author and these are my words: I do not condone police violence, and I fully support defunding the police.
I promise to think about how things are in the real world, and what that means for my work going forward. I have a duty and an obligation not only to entertain, but to make sure the message I’m sending is authentic.
Some of you might think this is an overreaction, that a story is just a story. You’re entitled to your opinion, but I believe words do have power: both good and bad. I owe it to not only to do right by my readers, but the characters I love as well.
Thanks for reading.
TJ
Comments from the old website:
Nick Cutz
TJ, you are my favorite Romance/Queer Fiction author because, in part, you understand what love is about better than anyone I've read. You've been in love and suffered incredibly for it yet came out the other side stronger. You're the genuine article in every way. You know that we love imperfect people who sometimes will hurt us, intentionally or not, and we keep loving them anyway because their mistakes don't define them. We keep loving because we all deserve another chance to be better and we would want to be given the same chance by our loved ones.
People have different opinions on what to do about the police. It's a terrible situation that has been ignored for too long. If you were writing about the police force in general, particularly in a racial context, then by all means make a sociopolitical statement. But in this book, you told a story about one cop who made one mistake in a moment of emotional upheaval. And he suffered serious consequences for it. He was obviously a good man. I hope you don't feel he needed to be canceled to make a point. I turn to you to learn about love and forgiveness. I can turn on the news or read the internet to read about people's lives being ruined by hypocrites.
And to the extent you may have portrayed cops in general as good people trying to help and do their duty, I don't believe you think that's wrong. Police is a problematic institution that at its core is good, not evil. I can want to defund the police and know that most cops are trying to do the right thing. It's not your fault if some readers can't hold two ideas in their head at once.
Don't ever change, TJ. Well...grow as a person. But you know what I mean. Keep believing in yourself. You're extraordinary. ;)
Charlie
Thank you for this— even though it would have been easy for you to say nothing, this was absolutely necessary.
Doris McInnes
I think you handled Aaron Bell’s actions and consequences pretty well. I understood from the text that he punched a mouth a**hole once, was sorry, got suspended/demoted for kind of a while. Aaron is a good cop, a valuable member of the force. In his (spoiler) new position on the force he’s in a position to do a lot of good. He knows what he did is wrong and has learned his lesson. Sure, be sensitive going forward with the story, but Aaron has paid his dues and is poised to do much good henceforth.
