My books are YA (at least in my eyes), but they are clean (no sex, no crude language, only a little violence) and engage with deep themes. But, sadly, the general public wants what we're getting. Or perhaps it is that the publishers are only publishing smut, and the general public accepts it as what YA novels are.
So true! I always feel weird comping my YA work to the likes of Diana Wynn Jones and Gail Carson Levine but there are very few wholesome and sweet YA books to compare to so I have to compare to MG books that have generational appeal!
Same! Except my YA books aren't really as heavily based in myth as Jones's, so I still don't think it's a great comparison. I tell people that my YA trilogy is a vampire romance for people who are sick of vampires, because the hero monster looks and acts like a vampire but is actually something else. Also it's clean. I don't think they even kiss until book 3. Also it has singing bees that make magic honey. :-D
>Because someone, somewhere will read my books, and it might very well stick in their imagination and affect their life choices.
This is an important bit. I know I've read some works that for one reason or another I've elected to ape. I'm certain there are others here two who would reflect a similar idea.
YES! I love Reflections so much and have read it a couple of times. I'd forgotten about this section but it really helps point out much of what I feel is important about fiction and fantasy, and is being lost-- the idea of a blueprint for how things SHOULD BE. Which is lost in the morass of so-called "realistic" fiction. I love all your points here as well. The world that's presented in entertainment and teen fiction etc. isn't actually how things ARE and nor is it how things SHOULD be. Great post!
My books are YA (at least in my eyes), but they are clean (no sex, no crude language, only a little violence) and engage with deep themes. But, sadly, the general public wants what we're getting. Or perhaps it is that the publishers are only publishing smut, and the general public accepts it as what YA novels are.
So true! I always feel weird comping my YA work to the likes of Diana Wynn Jones and Gail Carson Levine but there are very few wholesome and sweet YA books to compare to so I have to compare to MG books that have generational appeal!
Same! Except my YA books aren't really as heavily based in myth as Jones's, so I still don't think it's a great comparison. I tell people that my YA trilogy is a vampire romance for people who are sick of vampires, because the hero monster looks and acts like a vampire but is actually something else. Also it's clean. I don't think they even kiss until book 3. Also it has singing bees that make magic honey. :-D
>Because someone, somewhere will read my books, and it might very well stick in their imagination and affect their life choices.
This is an important bit. I know I've read some works that for one reason or another I've elected to ape. I'm certain there are others here two who would reflect a similar idea.
So true! We have a deep responsibility as writers to illustrate true principles in our works.
YES! I love Reflections so much and have read it a couple of times. I'd forgotten about this section but it really helps point out much of what I feel is important about fiction and fantasy, and is being lost-- the idea of a blueprint for how things SHOULD BE. Which is lost in the morass of so-called "realistic" fiction. I love all your points here as well. The world that's presented in entertainment and teen fiction etc. isn't actually how things ARE and nor is it how things SHOULD be. Great post!
One tries.
I have been told that *Isabelle and the Siren* has been helpful for people suffering from depression.