Author TJ Klune’s The Bones Beneath My Skin is the sci-fi action queer romance you didn’t know you wanted

TJ Klune. // photo courtesy Tor Books

Author TJ Klune’s latest book, The Bones Beneath My Skin, is not his newest. Originally released in 2018 as a self-published novel, it’s found a deep and rousing fanbase, and on Tuesday, February 4, it’s getting an official release via Tor Books.

By turns hilarious, weird, heartrending, and exhilarating, the novel sees disgraced journalist Nate Cartwright’s visit to a family cabin in Oregon turn into a road trip across the country with a strange little girl named Artermis Darth Vader and the mysterious man named Alex who serves as her protector.

The Bones Beneath My Skin is one of those books you pick up and read through in a flash, like you were binging your favorite series. Klune’s writing grabs your attention and emotions, and the resulting blend of science fiction, action, queer romance, and comedy is one of the most fun reads we’ve had in a long time.

We spoke with author TJ Klune about The Bones Beneath My Skin ahead of its release and the author’s appearance at Unity Temple on the Plaza on Wednesday, February 5, as part of an event put on by Rainy Day Books.

The Pitch: The importance of found family is foundational to The Bones Beneath My Skin‘s story arc. Who in your life is part of your found family?

TJ Klune: I think it’s so important to recognize that the idea of “found family” is how so many queer people live their lives. So many of us didn’t get the love and support we should’ve gotten as children, and it’s forced us to go out into the world to find people like us.

My family is made up of my sister, brother, nephew–and those are the only people in our “family” related by blood. The rest are a bunch of misfits we’ve collected over the years, people who love and care about us regardless of who we are. That’s the way it should be.

Your author’s note at the end perfectly sums up the novel when you describe it as “an action movie in book form.” What movies did you take for inspiration when writing it?

I thought a lot about the movies I loved as a kid: Escape from Witch Mountain, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Fire in the Sky. That last–Fire in the Sky–was filmed near my hometown. One of my childhood friends had his family car in one of the shots. There is a church scene in the film they wanted extras for, and we tried, but we were weren’t selected. It was the first and last time I tried to be “Hollywood.”

Since this book was rejected by your former publisher, has it been gratifying to see how people have embraced a sci-fi action road trip queer romance?

It is. If you read the author’s note, you will see this book went through the trenches. At one point, my former publisher called this book “weird” even for me. I heard that word so much as a kid used as a pejorative to describe me. I had these weird flashbacks of being called weird by my parents, by teachers, but classmates. Now, my weirdness is a weapon, and I love how people are latching onto these characters.

Given that it began life as a self-published novel and is now getting a wide release via Tor, what has it been like revisiting The Bones Beneath My Skin after half a decade?

It’s been lovely. I adore the books I’ve written over the past few years, but there’s just something about The Bones Beneath My Skin that I love completely. These characters are painfully flawed, and I enjoyed getting to see them fight for themselves and each other.

Where does a standalone novel allow you to go narratively that might not be possible with a series?

There’s a bittersweet sense of finality when a book is one-and done. I probably could continue more adventures with these characters, but I won’t. Knowing this, I put everything I could into it. I like being able to close the proverbial book on the characters when I’m finished because it means I’ve done what I set out to do.

Why do you think that little kids with special abilities–Eleven in Stranger Things, Melanie in The Girl with All the Gifts, Charlie in Firestarter, et al–make such compelling characters?

Because they often must make adult decisions while still being a kid. They are more than they appear, more than the sum of their parts, and it’s a thrilling journey to be able to have a child character who is more capable than most of the adults that surround them.

How big a fan are you of Westerns, and are any of the books in the novel real?

I went through a Louis L’amour phase when I was in my teens. He found a type of story that worked for him, and wrote it over and over again. Valley in danger from robbers and thieves and dastardly oilmen. Sometimes there’s a girl. Most of the time, a gunslinger comes in and saves the day.

I wanted that feeling in this book. L’amour’s novels are like popcorn–you don’t necessarily get “full” no matter how much you consume, but man, is it good popcorn.

That, of course, paved the way for me to read Lonesome Dove which, to me, is the best Western ever written.

Have any Klunatics named their child Artemis Darth Vader in homage yet?

Hopefully not a single one! Don’t do that to your kid!

Dogs, cats, horses, parrots, that’s all fine.

Author TJ Klune celebrates The Bones Beneath My Skin with an appearance at Unity Temple on the Plaza on Wednesday, February 5, as part of an event put on by Rainy Day Books. Details on that event here.