The deeper I delve into the whole promotion game, the more I realize that I have placed myself squarely in a kind of a literary no man's land. I went to the YA/Teen Book Festival here in Austin a couple of weekends ago and the rules around YA fiction kind of gelled for me. Violence of any kind is okay. No amount of horor or gore is too much, but to be considered YA, you best not swear (not even damn) or have any suggestion of sex beyond kissing. So I am NOT writing YA, but I already knew that more or less. So then I started reading some NA books (New Adult) which are supposed to be for more college-aged readers. The problem with these books is that they are too much like country music for my taste: two dimensional characters playing for tears. My writing so isn't there either. It seems NA has none of the whimsical, paranormal, action-adventure, magic that I love about YA. So I have decided that my books are YA but more fun (fun=sex) or NA with less reality. At this rate I'll never find an agent because I have no clue who to send my book to.
On a totally different subject, I had a great time writing Book Two Stellar Navigaiton this weekend. Elena is so much more poetic and less emotional than Sage. I really like being in her head. Plus using her paranormal powers is a blast. Some of the writers at the YA conference said they had the most troublel writing the middle of the book. I don't get that at all. I love being able to live in my alternate reality. The end is the hardest part for me because I hate to see the story end. Maybe I will feel differently by the time I'm writing my fifth book. I hope not.
