Power Of Love: Eric Arvin And TJ Klune

When life goes to shit, these two men discover they don't have to go it alone.

A love story: Eric Arvin and TJ Klune

This is Eric Arvin and TJ Klune are both successful and popular writers of gay fiction.

They met, fell in love and after a whirlwind courtship that pretty much played out in public, got recently engaged at a convention in Atlanta.

TJ's proposal to Eric.

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Recently, Eric had some prior health difficulties and was in recovery from neurological trauma when one December morning, he woke up in distress. TJ rushed him to the hospital where he was intubated and many tests were run. At first, there was a supposition his condition was due to a reaction to his medication but it was soon discovered this was not the case.

Naturally overwhelmed, TJ hunkered down and sent out a call to friends and family for support. This was to be he and Eric's first Christmas together in their new house and life was going good. Eric's sudden downturn struck everyone by surprise and people rallied.

A close friend, knowing the costs of hotels and hospital bills, set up a fund for those in the gay author/readership community to donate what they could. The “goal” was set at 10K but really, when TJ heard of the effort, he thought “Oh that's cool. A few hundred bucks would go a long way in helping with hotel bills so the family could stay near Eric."

Thing is, this couple—these two men—are so very treasured among us. They are funny and sweet and have a love many, if not all of us, want to celebrate. TJ and Eric are adorable and most of all make so many people happy with their books, their friendship and often times, the videos they make answering questions about their writing. We've seen them fall in love, go on vacation, move to a new state and even debate when the Christmas decorations should go up (TJ is a firm believer of starting immediately after there is the first sign of fall starting while Eric has a more sensible approach of at least digesting Thanksgiving dinner first)

TJ Send Us His Thoughts.

Everyone is waiting to hear what the prognosis is. This is TJ's latest update as of this morning:

Hospital time is different than regular time. Anyone who has spent any length of time in a hospital can tell you that. Hours and days can go by quickly. I wasn't even sure what day it was until I asked the nurse this morning.

Eric is having a tracheotomy performed tomorrow morning to get rid of the uncomfortable ventilation and feeding tube. All the prior films we were waiting on come in today for the neuro to review, so hopefully we can get this finished and get back to our lives.

I have been put on sleep meds as I was awake for three days straight. They help a little bit. I try and sleep during the day so if he wakes up in the middle of the night, I am there.

Without our friends and family here, and all of you out there, I don't know what I would have done. Thank you.

Out of everything, out of all this shitstorm, I miss his voice the most. I can't wait to hear him say "Teej" in that exasperated voice I know so well. Hopefully soon.

The organizers hope to hit $30,000 soon but most of all, everyone truly hopes for Eric's recovery. The outpouring of support for a couple that's touched so many people's hearts isn't unexpected but it has been heartwarming during their time of need.