New adult fiction... the new fronier?

Wow! 96 followers! I feel so loved! Thank you all and welcome! And stay tuned, when I get 100 I’ll have a contest or giveaway or something!  Because free swag is always amazing ^.^ Also welcome fellow crusaders! Especially those from group 7(YA) and 32(New Adult/Crossover) I am very excited to get to know each of you!

And what I want to know today is how you chose the age bracket you write in?  Did it just work out that way? Have you always dreamed of writing the books for children to grow up on? To help teenagers connect? For people like you? Like your children? Like your friends? Family?

For me it was a few things, when I was younger I always dreamed of writing a YA book that would help teens with the issues I dealt with as a teen…well deal with them. That never really panned out, the story never really coming together, but the intention was there. And while I was not working on the next great contemporary YA novel I began to devour YA. And I still read a lot of YA, about 8 of every 10 books I read are YA. And I love YA I really do, but at 25 I find it harder to be able to identify with the main characters of most YA’s. After all, I’m 25, living on my own and engaged and have lived more than the average 14-17 year old MC. My world is not a world of first kisses, parental imprisonment, strict teachers, and so on. She when I sat down to plot out my book I thought about this.

I also thought about the ‘Adult’ or regular fiction I read. I seem to have the same problems with that. I cannot fully connect to a 35 year old woman with kids, a house and not only a steady job but a career. So when I started to write I wanted to fill in the gap, I figured there had to be a market for it but didn’t really think of it more than that.  I just plotted away. It wasn’t till fellow crusader Rebecca Enzor contacted me and gave me a name for my genre, New Adult.

New adult fiction is not, well, new, but it is something until recently I did not have a proper name for. Fictions dealings with 20 something are very rare it would seem, and it seems to be my understanding that most agents are unwilling to venture to new adult section of publishing preferring to choose between targeting the book at teens or adults. After all they know those audiences so well, and know how to make money there, and publishing like anything else is about money. So I can hardly blame them.

But despite that I feel like I have found a home. A genera or writing about transitions, about self-discovery, about changing and reevaluating ideals. And it may not be widely accepted, but if I chose the easy road it would not be me. I need a little bit of a uphill struggle to be contented, I am a Taurus after all. And I think it is a voice that is needed, there is a developing age bracket we are seeing form right before our eyes. A whole group of people who are not teenagers, but do not think of them selves as adults. People who have small apartments filled with furniture from Walmart and Target, who are working towards something greater but still have a road to travel to get there, who have real pasts but not solid futures. I think NA is needed, but it need a voice.

So why not lend mine? 

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Be sure to check out the Now Staring...Blogfest I'm hosting with my platonic-life-mate, Lindz. There are a couple of fun prizes, and it should be a lot of fun!