Money, Sex, and Tweens @ The New Inquiry

Today I’m chatting about young adult literature, Twilight, queer characters, and yes even adult entertainment w/ fellow Candlewick author Laura Goode at The New Inquiry. Check it out.

Interview on Down Under Wonderings

As a run up to next week’s MICRO SYNOPSIS contest on YATopia, Down Under Wonderings asked me a few questions about agenting, writing, and why I love Y.A…

 

3) What is the lure of YA for you?

The codes of conduct, the struggles, the newness of everything: adolescence is so intense! Teenagers have a purity of focus. Whatever their struggle, whether finding a date to prom or defeating a dark wizard, they’re stepping into the world for the first time, discovering who they are in relationship to everything else. From the ages of 12 to 18 our brains draw and redraw a map of the universe with a big arrow labeled YOU ARE HERE. Teenagers become themselves. Combine all this with the very adult problems kids often face (drugs, abusive parents, dark wizards), and you have very rich ground for stories. And personally, I’m not sure if I ever really left high school. I still pass notes to girls I like.

 

Read the whole thing here.