This week's YA Indie Carnival blog theme is discussing why we write what we do. For me, I've always been a lover of all things fiction. At one point in my life, I tried to force myself to read non-fiction because a mature, responsible, enlightened (so on and so forth . . . yawn) adult would do that. They wouldn't waste their free time hours tearing through the pages of make believe, right? You want to know the result (I bet you can guess)? I wasn't chomping at the bit to get back to my "age-appropriate" books, it seemed like more of a chore, another thing to check off on the list, and ultimately I gave up on the whole idea of it and embraced the fiction freak I am. Little life lesson I learned from this: let your fiction freak flag fly, people!
So what brought me to YA when I was in my twenties you might ask (maybe you're not, but just go with me on this)? I became more and more aware of the slow story lines plaguing adult fiction that were infused with morose themes and finished without delivering the happy ending I'm a total sucker for. Real life has enough sadness and unhappily ever afters in it, I certainly don't want to waste my precious entertainment hours reading the same sad stuff. No thank you.
So it was in this state of new-found awareness that I one day wandered a few aisles over to the expanding YA section of my local bookstore (it's come a long way from my tween days of Sweet Valley High and The Babysitter's Club). I picked out a handful of titles that I was intrigued by either a. the cover, b. the jacket blurb, or c. the COVER (have I mentioned I'm a sucker for a pretty cover?). I read them, devoured them, and found myself back in book utopia. I was hooked from page one, and stayed hooked due to the fast pace, witty dialogue and . . . the happy ending (sigh). So thank you to whoever was the first person to write a juicy piece of YA literature and thank you to the person who decided to give the genre a name. Thank you. You saved my literary life.
So why do I write YA? (please see above).
If you're pressed for time like I am the majority of the time, let me paraphrase: because that's what I LOVE to read. Simple. As. That.
Check out what the rest of my Indie sisters have to say on the matter:
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