Taking Risks
I just came back on Livejournal after working on drafting Dead River for the past few weeks, only to find I haven't updated since March! Yikes! Not that there is very much going on; just plugging away on several projects. Yesterday I found out that Living Backwards is going to copyedits, which brings me joy, and that its new name is officially Touched. It will be out next summer, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.
Yesterday I was thinking about risk-taking in Young Adult novels. If any genre welcomes swimming against the tide, or working outside the box, it's Young Adult. However, any time you do something different, you're bound to have people go, "Whoa. No, that doesn't work for me." Which is probably why Fairy Tale has confused the socks off of some people. Most people were expecting something Twilight-esque, but Fairy Tale actually started as a spoof on paranormal romances. I never intended it to be a serious tale, but the humor in it caught a lot of people off-guard.
It's also why I've been very nervous about the release of Starstruck. With this book, I decided to combine two loves of mine: the paranormal romance, along with the issues of realistic problem novels I used to adore when I was a teen. I used to love reading about teens who lacked self-confidence, but learned through the course of the book to accept themselves. So I know it's kind of a risk to combine those two things, and people might go, "WTH?" but it was the book I wanted to write.
The same thing happened when my critique partner Mandy was writing But I Love Him, which came out this month. She had been struggling for a while trying to find a way to tell her story about abusive relationships. I'd read an article in Sassy magazine when I was a teen, that was told in reverse chronological order, and it had always stuck with me, so I told her to try it that way. Once she did, telling the story became a lot easier. I know several earlier readers did not "get" the whole concept, but since its release, a lot of people have praised her for telling it that way, as it gives the reader a fresh perspective on a topic that's been done a number of times.
That's what happens when you take risks. Not everyone is going to get it, but that's okay. Sometimes they pay off and people admire you for them. Sometimes they don't, and you move onto the next thing. I guess it's like a rollercoaster-- the bigger and more precarious the drops, the more frightening-- and also more exhilirating-- the ride can be.
Events News
I will be speaking about writing YA at the RWA NJ Monthly Meeting on Saturday, May 21. More info can be found here.
Yesterday I was thinking about risk-taking in Young Adult novels. If any genre welcomes swimming against the tide, or working outside the box, it's Young Adult. However, any time you do something different, you're bound to have people go, "Whoa. No, that doesn't work for me." Which is probably why Fairy Tale has confused the socks off of some people. Most people were expecting something Twilight-esque, but Fairy Tale actually started as a spoof on paranormal romances. I never intended it to be a serious tale, but the humor in it caught a lot of people off-guard.
It's also why I've been very nervous about the release of Starstruck. With this book, I decided to combine two loves of mine: the paranormal romance, along with the issues of realistic problem novels I used to adore when I was a teen. I used to love reading about teens who lacked self-confidence, but learned through the course of the book to accept themselves. So I know it's kind of a risk to combine those two things, and people might go, "WTH?" but it was the book I wanted to write.
The same thing happened when my critique partner Mandy was writing But I Love Him, which came out this month. She had been struggling for a while trying to find a way to tell her story about abusive relationships. I'd read an article in Sassy magazine when I was a teen, that was told in reverse chronological order, and it had always stuck with me, so I told her to try it that way. Once she did, telling the story became a lot easier. I know several earlier readers did not "get" the whole concept, but since its release, a lot of people have praised her for telling it that way, as it gives the reader a fresh perspective on a topic that's been done a number of times.
That's what happens when you take risks. Not everyone is going to get it, but that's okay. Sometimes they pay off and people admire you for them. Sometimes they don't, and you move onto the next thing. I guess it's like a rollercoaster-- the bigger and more precarious the drops, the more frightening-- and also more exhilirating-- the ride can be.
Events News
I will be speaking about writing YA at the RWA NJ Monthly Meeting on Saturday, May 21. More info can be found here.