Today is Mother’s Day in the United States. My younger kid is still away at college, but the older one is taking me to brunch at a lavender farm, which I’m really looking forward to.

But the current state of the world, including recent events here in the US, makes me really worried about the future my daughters will face. They’re doing great personally and of course I’m incredibly proud of them, but it seems as if so many existential dangers lurk nearby. I mean, back in 1992 I was one of over half a million people who went to Washington, DC for the March for Women’s Lives—and yet here we are today.

I’m raising these rather dismal subjects because I want to make a point about the power of fiction. Genre fiction such as romance, fantasy, sci-fi, and horror is often dismissed as inconsequential. And sure, some of these books are literary cotton candy: fluffy and fun and without much weight. But that doesn’t mean they’re not important. Sometimes we need a treat, whether it’s a bowl of ice cream or a light rom-com. These sweet treats help us retain our emotional stability in an often-threatening world. A little bit of a happy ending, even if it’s fictional, can go a long way to brightening our lives.

And a lot of genre fiction isn’t light and fluffy at all. It comes with important messages: Everyone deserves love. People who’ve erred can find redemption. Fascism can creep up on us if we’re not diligent. Everyday heroes can defeat evil. Even small decisions can vastly change outcomes. Difficult journeys can often end well.

Sometimes it’s a lot easier to understand a complicated universe—or at least tolerate it—when we see aspects of that universe in the pages of a book. Good stories keep the right balance, allowing us some of the objectivity of an outsider while also granting us empathy for the characters’ plights.

I sometimes tell people that writing is my therapy, and while I laugh as I say it, I’m not entirely kidding. Writing gives me a (somewhat) controlled ability to work through my thoughts and emotions, and it allows me to shape solutions to all sorts of problems.

I think fiction—both reading it and writing it—is empowering. So my Mother’s Day wish is that we all find inspiration in our stories to find ways to improve everyone’s real lives.

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Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her family and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.

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A complete list of Kim’s books: http://www.kfieldingwrites.com/books/