Tag Archives: YA

Ebook Giveaway – Nice Actor/Mik Murdoch

Congratulations to John P for winning Half Past Midnight and JP Harvey for winning Eyes of the Seer!

If you’ve already won, please feel free to comment, but I really want future e-books to go to folks that haven’t won anything. Also, though I’m giving two books away this week, I’ll do a separate drawing for each. You might still win both, but this way there’s a chance for two people to win.

The first book up to bat this week is actually a bit of non-fiction. What’s A Nice Actor Like You Doing In A Movie Like This? by Dan Whitehead. I’ve known Dan for years and the man has a sharp wit and a sharper pen.

What would Humphrey Bogart look like as a zombie mad scientist?

Does Hugh Grant have what it takes to defeat a subterranean worm god?

Can Brad Pitt’s precious face survive an attack by a power drill wielding madman?

How did the fangs of a poisonous snake end up in Oliver Reed’s testicles?

Why isn’t Catherine Zeta Jones wearing any clothes?

These urgent questions, and many more, are answered in startling detail in…

WHAT’S A NICE ACTOR LIKE YOU DOING IN A MOVIE LIKE THIS?

The ultimate guide to the most embarrassing movies in history, and the celebrities who appeared in them.

The second is Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero by Mike Plested. Mike is also a long time friend and I’ve read this. It’s a winner.

A delightful and truly Canadian tale of a 12 year old boy’s quest to protect his prairie town of Cranberry Flats, and in his search to acquire super-powers finds the most awesome power of all lies within his own inherent integrity.

So how do you get these? Merely leave a comment below and your name will be dropped into the virtual hat. There will be two drawings, one for each.

I plan on giving away a book a week this year, but none of them will be my own. Why? Well, I believe in helping introduce people to new authors and nothing does that like FREE! The contests will be as simple as leaving a comment on the blog, or showing me that you’ve left a review on Amazon or Smashwords of books you’ve picked up in the past. I’ll try and change things up to keep them interesting, but by and large you won’t have to work hard.

If you’re an author and you’d like to pitch your hat into the ring, let me know. I’m not asking you to give me anything for free. I plan on buying your e-book from Amazon/Smashwords as a gift for the winner. So in addition to you getting your name out there, you’ll also get a sale for the contest. The most I can budget per week is $2.99, so if you have a book in the $.99-$2.99 price range let me know. I reserve the right to turn you down, but I will try and do so gently. I’d like to have a variety of genres represented.

If you have a free book and would like me to just get the word out I can do that, but you won’t be part of my contest. If your book is more expensive and you would like to donate a copy, that works too.

Shoot me an e-mail, a DM, or leave me a comment to enter your book.

What is “Adult” about “Young Adult” Fiction?

After the marvelous post on Profanity in YA Fiction by JD Savage, I got to thinking about other boundaries in the YA category. When it comes to writing sexiness my brain immediately goes to Nobilis Reed. He’s one of the most prolific erotica authors I’m aware of (not a long list, but still), and is a smart cookie besides. He said yes, so here’s his post!

First, let’s get some terminology out of the way: The Young Adult Library Services (YALSA) of the American Library Association (ALA) defines a young adult as someone between the ages of twelve and eighteen.(1) This means that legally speaking, they are not actual adults, except for the eighteen-year olds. Instead, they are teenagers and adolescents.

So why is it called “Young Adult”? In my opinion, this is the reason: teenagers are in the process of becoming adults. They’re starting to think about adult things, they’re starting to look at life differently than when they were children. In some ways, they can remain remarkably childlike, but in others they can be stunningly grown up.

One of the things adolescents go through is sexual transformation and discovery, and as a result it’s a theme you find in YA novels. What I’m going to address in this essay is how I feel sexuality ought to be handled. Yes, it’s a value judgement, and I’m owning it as such.

My perspective on this issue isn’t unique but I think it bears a prefatory mention: I am a father of teenagers (my twin children are seventeen), an erotica author, and a former young adult myself. I know how ignorant teenagers can be about sex, even when they have good sex education. I know how fascinating sex can be for them, and how deeply they can hold onto ideas that fascinate them. I know the kind of messages they’re getting about sex from mainstream media, from their peers, and from porn. (Yes, from porn; teenagers look at porn, despite everything we do to try to stop them.)

The message I see kids getting is a difficult one for them to navigate. On the one hand, they’re being told they can act like adults; they can dress like adults, talk like adults, act like adults. On the other hand, they are also told that they are not real adults, they can’t be given authority or responsibility or respect. It’s a terribly frustrating time.

There’s something really special about how books are uniquely positioned to address the needs and desires of a teenage audience; for one thing, reading a book is an intensely private experience. A movie, a television show, or a video game is often something that’s done out in the open, where a teenager’s friends, parents (or worse, siblings) can see and comment on it. There is pressure to conform (or rebel) that can slant their opinions. A book, however, can be enjoyed in relative peace. It puts the author in a unique position of trust and power.

So what should an author do with that power, when it comes to sex? I don’t like telling anyone what they must do but I know what I’d like to see them do: I’d like to see them speak honestly and straightforwardly about the realities of sex. I’d like them to inject a little reality into the phantasmagoria that teenagers are subjected to in this area. Sexual fantasy is great, but I don’t think it belongs in YA literature.

Here are a few elements of sexual reality (as opposed to sexual fantasy) that are usually on my mind:

1. Sex ought to feel good. It doesn’t always. If you’re having sex and it doesn’t feel good, then something is missing, and you should stop, or change what you’re doing. Speaking up about what works and what doesn’t leads to fun sex. Fun sex is good sex. Enduring something you don’t find any pleasure in is not fun. Not-fun sex is bad sex.

2. Actions have consequences. Even if you’re using protection and pregnancy and disease isn’t a big concern, sex provokes powerful feelings, and can create a sense of relationship intimacy where there isn’t one. That can lead to a lot of pain, sometimes more than the sex was worth in the first place. Also, even for the most enlightened folks, people can work really hard to shame people who are sexual in ways that aren’t socially acceptable, and teenagers often haven’t had much opportunity to get enlightened.

3. Sex is complicated. People use it for a lot of reasons other than how it feels; they use it to prove things to themselves or to other people, to explore, to relate, and to mess with peoples’ heads. Sometimes those extra things that come with sex are good, and sometimes they’re bad, but mostly they’re both. There’s always extra baggage, and often there’s more than there ought to be.

These are the ones that are most important to me, and the ones I try to include in my own writing–for not-young adults! They go doubly so for teenagers. In my own work, though, I find that these messages can be mixed with fantasy. They don’t need to be as starkly clear. I can trust my audience to know when they’re being offered a pleasant white lie, a situation that could never happen in real life, because I can trust that they have had a real life in the first place.

As for how to go about getting these messages across, I’ll let authors decide for themselves how to do it. There are as many methods as there are authors, and I wouldn’t presume to advise.

(1) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young-adult_fiction

Guest Post – Profanity in YA Novels by JD Savage

Today, fantasy author JD Savage will be providing his unique take on things as part of the first ever Literary Plus Blog Tour!

Literary+ is a writer based project brought together and lead by Shen Hart. It brings together passionate, quality self-published writers to help each other promote their work, bringing more readers to every member. It was sparked by the simple fact that there are many top quality self-published authors being over-looked because they do not have the time and resources to efficiently and effectively market and promote themselves. With ambition and passion, Literary+ will take its members to the heights they deserve through a tight-knit community of like-minded writers.

What do Your Readers Expect?

A new study, a new round of hand wringing. After Brigham Young University professor Sarah Coyne released her study of popular best sellers, and found that many of them contained profanity, the writer’s internet world was all abuzz over the use and effect of profanity in YA novels.

To be sure, some books and series, like Harry Potter and Twilight, to name a few, were light on the cursing. Some others had more. Lots more. Talk of a rating system akin to movies and video games has sprung up, (again), so parents can be informed about what their children read.

The underlying sense, of course, is that profanity is a bad thing. Given the source of the study, I would go so far as to say that the use of profanity is considered immoral, (this is my take on it. Not specifically that of the good professor). There is, however, quite a bit of postulation about how kids will emulate the characters that swear, because they are depicted as “those with higher social status, better looks and more money”.

Kids swear. As with most things considered “adult”, many teens want to try them on for size, to varying degrees. There is shock value, how-much-can-I-get-away-with value and a sense of being grown up that comes with saltier talk. But, there are a couple of things that this study, and others like it, keep forgetting to mention.

First, teens are people. Every teen does not like the same things. Some will dig into a Harry Potter because it entertains them and they are okay with the fact that Harry doesn’t curse at every opportunity. If there was ever a character that had the right to drop an F-bomb, it was surely poor Harry. Others may like Gossip Girl, with its flippant use of cursing as a way of relating to the world they create for themselves. Still more may be okay with all of that, not blinking at the use, or lack of, words they hear on the school bus or at home, every day.

Another thing that gets mentioned is that cursing and profanity lead to aggressive behavior in teens. Again, it’s implied that this is a bad thing. But, what’s the opposite? Docile, compliant children who grow into docile, compliant consumers? That may be good for sales, but is that really what’s good for us as a whole? This kind of talk always reminds me of the record labeling hearings held at the behest of Tipper Gore during the 1980s. Frank Zappa’s quote, while specific to that issue, seems timeless in its implications. “There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.”

The writer has choices to make here. You can write with an eye on the current trends, hoping to score the next profanity-laced bestseller, religious university studies be damned. Or, you can go the other way, and meticulously weed out those words and phrases that creep into your character’s speech that some might find objectionable. Who knows…this may lead to the next honorable hero story that wins the hearts and minds of the world. A nun who swears like a sailor? Funny… at first, but it will surely begin to sound forced after a few instances. A four year old repeating a word heard at home? Even funnier, because it happens ALL THE TIME. A crackhead who speaks like a B-list Shakespearean actor? Maybe, but that’s a tough trait to pull off with any measure of realism.

It’s up to you, as a writer, to make your characters real to the reader and honest to the story you want to tell.

The audience is there for all types of stories. In the end, the use of profanity, or lack thereof, doesn’t make or break a story. A good story told well is a good story. Period. If you think it works for the story and will appeal to the reader you want, make your choices and stick with them. Make your next book better than your last, and it won’t matter if your characters use “dirty words” or not. Then you can flip the critics the bird and hold your head high.

Support Mike Plested and Mik Murdoch

Mike Plested has a great new book coming out. I believe strongly that this is a book you should have to read to your kids (and for your kids to read on their own) and heck for you to read for yourself! I reviewed it for Flying Island Press and gave it five capes. The gist:

If you have a young person in your life, who like Mik and I has that desire [to become a superhero], I can strongly recommend this book. The chapters are somewhat episodic and would make for great parent/child bed time reading. For young readers that have the knack of going on their own this is also an excellent choice. While Mik is a boy, I know plenty of girls who would enjoy his adventures and can recommend it to readers of any gender. I give this five capes and commend you to order it…

You can pre-order it here for $3.99 which is a great deal! But let me sweeten the pot. If you haven’t bought Ginnie Dare: Crimson Sands yet, don’t. That’s right, I’m telling you not to buy my book. Buy Mike’s during the pre-order period. Publishers like pre-orders. It shows that there’s a strong demand, or somesuch. If you do that and send me proof, I will send you or the person of your choice an autographed, personalized copy of the e-book for Ginnie Dare.

This offer ends August 1st, 2012. Gives you a week and a half to get it done. You won’t be sorry that you did!

Profanity In YA Novels – Guest Post

Today, fantasy author JD Savage will be providing his unique take on things as part of the first ever Literary Plus Blog Tour!

Literary+ is a writer based project brought together and lead by Shen Hart. It brings together passionate, quality self-published writers to help each other promote their work, bringing more readers to every member. It was sparked by the simple fact that there are many top quality self-published authors being over-looked because they do not have the time and resources to efficiently and effectively market and promote themselves. With ambition and passion, Literary+ will take its members to the heights they deserve through a tight-knit community of like-minded writers.

What do Your Readers Expect?

A new study, a new round of hand wringing. After Brigham Young University professor Sarah Coyne released her study of popular best sellers, and found that many of them contained profanity, the writer’s internet world was all abuzz over the use and effect of profanity in YA novels.

To be sure, some books and series, like Harry Potter and Twilight, to name a few, were light on the cursing. Some others had more. Lots more. Talk of a rating system akin to movies and video games has sprung up, (again), so parents can be informed about what their children read.

The underlying sense, of course, is that profanity is a bad thing. Given the source of the study, I would go so far as to say that the use of profanity is considered immoral, (this is my take on it. Not specifically that of the good professor). There is, however, quite a bit of postulation about how kids will emulate the characters that swear, because they are depicted as “those with higher social status, better looks and more money”.

Kids swear. As with most things considered “adult”, many teens want to try them on for size, to varying degrees. There is shock value, how-much-can-I-get-away-with value and a sense of being grown up that comes with saltier talk. But, there are a couple of things that this study, and others like it, keep forgetting to mention.

First, teens are people. Every teen does not like the same things. Some will dig into a Harry Potter because it entertains them and they are okay with the fact that Harry doesn’t curse at every opportunity. If there was ever a character that had the right to drop an F-bomb, it was surely poor Harry. Others may like Gossip Girl, with its flippant use of cursing as a way of relating to the world they create for themselves. Still more may be okay with all of that, not blinking at the use, or lack of, words they hear on the school bus or at home, every day.

Another thing that gets mentioned is that cursing and profanity lead to aggressive behavior in teens. Again, it’s implied that this is a bad thing. But, what’s the opposite? Docile, compliant children who grow into docile, compliant consumers? That may be good for sales, but is that really what’s good for us as a whole? This kind of talk always reminds me of the record labeling hearings held at the behest of Tipper Gore during the 1980s. Frank Zappa’s quote, while specific to that issue, seems timeless in its implications. “There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.”

The writer has choices to make here. You can write with an eye on the current trends, hoping to score the next profanity-laced bestseller, religious university studies be damned. Or, you can go the other way, and meticulously weed out those words and phrases that creep into your character’s speech that some might find objectionable. Who knows…this may lead to the next honorable hero story that wins the hearts and minds of the world. A nun who swears like a sailor? Funny… at first, but it will surely begin to sound forced after a few instances. A four year old repeating a word heard at home? Even funnier, because it happens ALL THE TIME. A crackhead who speaks like a B-list Shakespearean actor? Maybe, but that’s a tough trait to pull off with any measure of realism.

It’s up to you, as a writer, to make your characters real to the reader and honest to the story you want to tell.

The audience is there for all types of stories. In the end, the use of profanity, or lack thereof, doesn’t make or break a story. A good story told well is a good story. Period. If you think it works for the story and will appeal to the reader you want, make your choices and stick with them. Make your next book better than your last, and it won’t matter if your characters use “dirty words” or not. Then you can flip the critics the bird and hold your head high.

Review – Babcock

Today I’m reviewing Babcock by Joe Cottonwood. I don’t read/listen to a lot of straight up fiction, but the review at View From Valhalla convinced me to give it a whirl.

Synopsis:A fat boy with the blues. A skinny girl who runs marathons. And a con man on the lam. If you liked Clear Heart, or if you liked Boone Barnaby, you’ll like this one, too. The themes are a bit more grown up than Boone Barnaby, but it’s still family-friendly for reading. For any age it’s my brand of writing: humane, down to earth, good-natured, sometimes funny and sometimes sad.

In short, it’s about character. About making music. About family, hard work, about love and loss. Sometimes there’s laughter. Sometimes the lights are off in the kitchen; papa’s got blues. But always life is rich and deeply moving…

Babcock is part of the San Puerco trilogy, which makes it a companion book to Boone Barnaby: same characters (plus a few new ones) and more adventures in the scrappy little town of San Puerco. The book won awards as a novel for children, but it has many adult fans, too. Most of the issues appeal to an adult perspective as well as a child’s, though with different understanding. Other issues, of course, only a young person can understand. That’s life. That’s rock and roll.

Production: Excellent audio quality. A great use of music that was apparently composed just for the book.

Grade: A

Cast: Solid voice acting on the part of all involved. Joe does a few of the voices himself as well as the narration.

Grade: B

Story: Like I said up front, this isn’t usually my literary cuppa tea. Still I’m glad I took the leap. It’s well crafted, touching, engaging, and hits every note.

Grade: A

Verdict: I will definitely be seeking out the rest of his works. I’ll probably even get my twelve year old to listen. There are one or two instances of strong words, but given the circumstances in the story I don’t have a problem with that.

Grade: A

Playground Showdown

The latest News From Poughkeepsie prompt is “Western…on the schoolyard“:

Big Lucy’s Black Hats were the terror of recess. No snack cake was spared their greed, no shin spared their wrath. The teachers were useless. The Black Hats were the queens and kings of Tombstone Elementary, and they knew no one could challenge them.

No one, that is, until the new girl arrived. Her name was Marshal, and she wore a white hat…

Marshal Dillan, yes her parents were well aware of the pain that bearing such a name might cause, moved to town in the middle of the school year. Her Dad got a new job as an English professor at the local university that he just couldn’t turn down and though she would miss her friends, she was always up for an adventure.

She would remember the first day that she sat foot, clad in a size eight white Converse, on the dusty playground at Tombstone Elementary for the rest of her life. The wind whipped up grit into her face, nearly blowing the white Yankees ball cap off of her head. A present from her Grandma, she clutched at it with her left hand and eyed the level playing field through squinted blue eyes.

A group of what looked to be three fifth graders, judging by their size and attitude, were ganging up on a a smaller kid by the swings. She spotted a few others here and there, all wearing similar black hats and all taking part in what Dad would call “dubious behaviors”. A few of them were just looking out for teachers to ensure that their friends wouldn’t get caught and no one was turning them in.

Satisfied that her cap would stay in place over her tomboy-cut, auburn hair, she lowered her hands to her hips and set her jaw. There wasn’t anything she hated more in this world than unfairness.