Monday Morning Blahg: YA Too Dark?

Many of you have probably already seen the Wall Street Journal article about the darkness in YA literature.  I hate to give this article any more attention, but the article irked me royal.  The writer of the article talks about how all the books are dark and gruesome, full of violence, abuse, self mutilation, profanity, addiction, yadda yadda yadda.

You know what I was reading when I was thirteen?  Stephen King.  Firestarter, Dead Zone, The Stand, Cujo.  Full of foul language and sex and violence.  Was this my only option?  No, but it's what I liked reading.

Teens are reading.  Isn't that a good thing?  These days, teens are reading topics that interest them, topics they can relate to, topics that deal with the problems they deal with.  The author mentions a few books that she says, "don't end well."  Life is not all butterflies and rainbows.  Teens these days face some really horrific realities-homophobia, depression, violence, suicide.  Most of these books they're reading do offer hope in the end.  It's not all gloom and doom.  And many teens feel these books help them deal.  If you don't believe me, check out Twitter #yasaves. 

And yes, the fantasy books are full of the same stuff the realistic books are: violence, death, profanity.  Again, this is not anything they're not exposed to in their every day life, but also offers a form of escape into a world other than they're own.

I wonder if the adults that have a problem with YA let their kids play violent video games, or watch movies or TV shows full of sex and violence. Kids are exposed to this kind of stuff every day, whether through media or reality.  Why should we shield them from their own actualities?

I've spoken my peace.

T Tuesday. T is for Theme

Themes.  Do you have some that run through just about every one of your novels?  Here are a few things that I see me constantly writing about, whether they play a major part or a supporting role.

Soccer: I love soccer.  I love watching my kids play soccer.  I used soccer in the MG series I wrote (my very venture into novel writing), it also had it's supporting roll in Never Eighteen (NE).  It makes sense because every weekend for about nine months out of the year I am either watching one or two games a week.

Coffee, particularly Starbucks:  I'm addicted, so this just makes sense.  In the MG series, they have a favorite coffee shop, in NE Kaylee works at Starbucks.  In Lockdown there is a scene with the shooters mom and the police where they talk over coffee.

Death:  Yep.  I'm starting to think I may be obsessed with or at least fascinated by it.  People die.  I've killed or made someone gravely ill in every book I've written be it nemesis, best friend, or the entire cast.  I think in my WIP (work in progress) I won't kill anyone, though my protagonist is fascinated by death.

Teen social issues: Eating disorders, domestic abuse, drug abuse, alcoholism, depression, sexual assault, homosexuality, violence, I've written about all of them.  The sad thing is, teens face these problems every day whether it's their own issue, or someone close to them.

So, what reoccurring themes do you find running through your writing?

Do share.

Top four things I desperately need/want to get done now that the holiday chaos is over

# 1 is REVISIONS. I'm beginning to hate the word. I might rename it Bob or something like that instead, just so it doesn't seem so daunting. I mean, can you say Bob and feel overwhelmed? I don't think so.

ABNA (that's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for those of you who don't pay attention) begins January 25th. That gives me another (give me a minute, I was never good with the maths) 18 days to get my novel, Lockdown,(which I wrote during NaNoWriMo, so there will be obvious flaws) as perfect as I can, AND write a pitch, which is actually a more difficult task than writing a novel.

On a positive note, I am on page 171, so, I'm more than half way there. Of course, when I'm done with this round, I'm going to have a couple extra sets of eyes look at it, then do another quick round of Bobs. (see that didn't hurt as much)

Once ABNA starts, then I want to go back and revise the rest of my novels, five in all. sigh.

That's it, come back tomorrow for the Friday Free For All.

Kisses :*

Megan

Lock Down

The other day I received a text from my 12 year old at about 2:55. She normally gets out at 2:45, then walks to her sister's elementary, where I pick them both up. I was at the grocery store picking up a few things, then moving on to pick them up.

The text said, mom this is Mary we are in a lock down don't text me back.

Scary.

It wasn't from her cell phone either, and she always has her cell phone on her.

What do you do?

I had another kid getting out of school shortly.

So, I head to the elementary and waited. I felt helpless. There was no sense going to the middle school, there was nothing I could do. I just hoped it would be over soon and I would hear from her and everything would be all right.

For 20 minutes I felt helpless. She called at 3:15. Once again not from her own phone. "It's over, I'm on my way."

Whew.

An 8th grader had brought a gun to school. I don't know what his intentions were, but apparently other kids saw it, reported it, and things were handled quickly and expertly. Things could ended differently. Another Columbine, who knows?

I've always been open and honest with my kids about everything. And I think it's so important to talk to our kids about school violence, and the importance of reporting if they see a weapon on the school grounds. It could mean their life, or the lives of their teachers and friends.