A HUGE milestone for me: I've been quoted!

Back in April, I was contacted by Sara, a reporter from Quill & Quire - Canada's Magazine of Book News and Reviews. She said she was working on a story investigating the new genre called 'new-adult fiction' and wondered if she could talk to me "as you are someone who was essentially writing a new-adult protagonist before it became a trend." I was shocked. Like, stared at the computer screen, read the email a dozen times to make sure I hadn't misunderstood, SHOCKED. And then excited. And then I basically had a meltdown because I hate talking on the phone and I'm really shy and nervous and rambly. Beyond all that, I was incredibly honoured that a reporter from a magazine a) had even heard of me, and b) was interested in my opinion. 

It was also exciting to realize that, yeah, I was writing new adult protagonists before it became a trend. I didn't set out to do something new and groundbreaking, it just worked out that way. When I originally wrote Blue Sky Days about eight years ago, my MC Emma was in her twenties and I considered the book adult romance. Then two years ago something big happened: I pulled Blue Sky Days out of hiding and decided to rewrite and publish it, and around the same time I fell in love with YA lit and became a book blogger. When I decided on the rewrite, I figured I'd stick with Emma's original age, but I decided the book would work as YA, so Emma became a 19-year-old. When I published the book in January 2012, I had no idea that new adult would become a genre, let alone the wildly popular one it is today. 

I won't go into too much detail, because I've talked about it before, but I really do think new adult has a place in publishing. Some people are turning their noses up at it, and yeah, there's some crap out there, but let's be honest: there's crap in every genre. I think new adult has a lot of potential, and as more than just 'sexed up YA'. The age range it deals with is such an exciting time - characters are in that in-between time in life where they're not children anymore, but they're not really adults either. The world is full of possibilities, and even though they've likely experienced some heartache along the way, they're not as naive as teens might be, but not yet as jaded and cynical as adults who have seen and done a lot more. I genuinely hope that people will give this genre a chance - it's full of gems!

You can read the full article by Sara here: Growing pains: will “new adult” fiction catch the attention of Canadian publishers?

*A huge thank you to Sara for thinking my opinion was worth sharing, and to Ashley from Book Labyrinth for tweeting me about the article after CK Kelly Martin tweeted about it*

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