YA Cafe HOST Mary P: ****ATTENTION**** The chat is now beginning. We ask everyone to quiet down now, find a comfy seat, and hold all your comments and questions until the HOST opens up the floor.
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Hello, everyone! Welcome to the YA Author's Cafe! Thank you for coming! I am Mary Pearson, the guest host for tonight's chat. Before I introduce our guests, I would like to refresh you on our format. I will be asking our guests a few questions. Before my last question, I will invite the audience to get ready to participate. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, type "?", send it, and then type out your question so it is ready to SEND when I call on you. Please do not press SEND until I call on you. Violators will be asked to clean up the room at the end of the night! ; ) There is sometimes a system delay when several people post at the same time, so please be patient if it takes a moment for your question to appear. I will make every effort to call on you in the order that the "?" are posted. I will type: (Your name GA) when it is your turn. GA stands for GO AHEAD. Let's begin!
Tonight's topic is: YA Fiction: What's the deal? Who's reading it, who's writing it, and why. We have three YA authors with us tonight who will be sharing their experience and insights with us on this subject . . . Gail Giles, A.M. Jenkins, and Patrick Jones! Let me tell you a bit about them . . . Gail Giles is the author of the highly acclaimed and popular psychological suspense novel, SHATTERING GLASS, the inaugural book in the Roaring Book Press line and the equally suspenseful DEAD GIRLS DON'T WRITE LETTERS. This August This AugustPLAYING IN TRAFFIC, her darkest book yet, will be released. You can learn more about Gail and her books at www.gailgiles.com. A.M. Jenkins (aka Amanda) is known for her unflinching honesty in portraying contemporary teens in real-life settings. Her critically acclaimed books include the Delacorte Prize-winning BREAKING BOXES, OUT OF ORDER, and DAMAGE, a BBYA Top Ten Pick and an LA Times Prize Finalist. School Library Journal called it " A brave, truthful, stylistically stunning young adult novel." Patrick Jones is the author of the just released teen novel THINGS CHANGE from Walker and Company (Congratulations, Patrick!). He is also the author of over 100 articles and reviews for professional publications, including THEALAN REVIEW, as well as six nonfiction books, including CONNECTING YOUNG ADULTS AND LIBRARIES, and most recently A CORE COLLECTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS (Neal-Schuman, 2003). And if that is not enough, he also runs connectingya.com, a firm dedicating to creating services for teens in school and public libraries. You can learn more about Patrick and his books at www.connectingya.com. Wow! An amazing bunch, huh?Welcome, Gail, Amanda, and Patrick! Thank you for coming!
Patrick Jones: thank you - or for all the texans, thanks ya'll
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Are you three ready to begin?
Gail: Thank you. Doing the the Queen Elizabeth wave
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Great! Let's begin the discussion with a simple question. What IS YA literature? Is it defined by who reads it? Or what it's about? Or is it something else? Who would like to go first? Gail?
Gail: Sure
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: What is YA literature then? How would you define it?
Gail: Oh, great. The big hard one. I think it is about the main character and what he does in the book. If it's about a guy looking back at his life as a teen-it's not YA. If it's about thehere and now of a teen, then I think it is But if it is only about a YA as he relates to an adult then no again It's about a teen's experiences and not about what someone is judging a teen to be or about. Does that make sense
Rockstar: AND GURLS 2!!!!!!
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Yes! Patrick? Amanda? Do you agree? Anything to add?
Gail: Does someone help me out here or do I keep blathering
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Yes. Totally defined by the gatekeepers, IMO. I include marketing departments in that statement.
Patrick Jones: Lets light this candle Well, YA literature is a genre of literature written for the YA market; which is not always the same as literature which teens read
Gail: Hmm, okay but isn't that sort of the guideline that the gatekeepers use?
Patrick Jones: It is about issues relevant to the lives of teens without the aid of relfection
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Who cares what guidelines they use?
Gail: I agree with Patrick about the reflection
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: not to be rude, but if we let marketing considerations drive our writing, we're screwed. Plus--not to be rude, I resent that things like graphic novels and comics and magazines and song lyrics aren't considered literature.
Patrick Jones: A lot of this stems from my role as a promoter of books from teens than an author
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: It sounds like you're out there fighting the good fight, Patrick.
Patrick Jones: True: I did a whole book about RL Stine trying to get people to consider what he did to be of value
Gail: Agreed, Amanda, but I think graphic novel at least are getting there
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: LOL, Amanda, why don't you tell us what you really think ; ) But really I do apprecaite your honesty.
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Oh yeah, and series books . Why should people be made to feel ashamed for reading anything at all?
Patrick Jones: There are lots of great stories about authors writing YA books without even knowing the genre existed -
Trevor Oakley: Yes! Thank you Amanda! I use GNs frequently in my library and used Persepolis recently as part of a parent/teen literacy grant program.
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: I think reading should be an open er...book. All are welcome.
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: One thing I'd like to go back to--something Gail mentioned. She said teen books should not be about teens relating to adults. Isn't that part of the teen experience? Or did you mena something else Gail?
Gail: I meant something else. When the story is really about the adult and the teen is used to show the adult's story. White Oleander comes to mind and the graphic novel and movie Road to Perdition
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Oh, that makes sense. Yes.
Patrick Jones: I also think that "looking back" at teen years AS in the adult voice is good stuff, but not what I would call YA lit, not that as Amanda mentioned the labels mean that much: all readers find books that a relevant to thier lives; they define the literature thru reader response
Gail: I agree with Patrick. And I think teens will like a lot of it. But it does have a sense of judgement in it that doesn't make it YA
Rockstar: ROAD TO PRETENSISOUSNESS IS MORE LIKE IT
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Who is actually reading YA literature? The "official" age designation of YA seems to be 12-18 year olds. Does the age range seem to be changing? Do you find that that age group is who is reading your books? (hold on rockstar - you'll get a chance soon ; )
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Unfortunately, it looks to me like a lot of YA readers are middle schoolers...I said unfortunately because I like to write for older teens.
Patrick Jones: Teens are aspirational: ya lit is normally lit for 11-15 year olds
Gail: I lurk in the book store aisles and I see kids much younger buying YA
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Hmm, is that perhaps why the gatekeepers, as Amanda mentioned earlier intervene?
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: And I can tell you, when I was an older teen, I wouldn't have been caught dead in the YA section.
Patrick Jones: To be self promoting, I just did a chapter in a book about reading interests of teens, and YA lit is more of a grades 6- 9 thing
Gail: It makes me a bit nervous--I write such dark material and older kids are reading adult stuff--I'm wondering if anyone is going to read my stuff
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Crossover covers help.
kay: I've read that publishers are now doing more YA for older readers, like maybe 16-up and even into early 20s?
Patrick Jones: Well,I can tell both Amanda and Gail that I know older kids are reading their stuff and this new trend toward not every ya book being about a 12 year old girl is still catching on
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Are they finding and reading it on their own, Patrick?
Gail: Love those 12 year old girls, but thanks goodness
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Is this leading to the crossover? Is that a good thing for YA lit?
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: I think it's a good thing.
Gail: I'd love for the crossover to catch on. Get mom or dad to read my book on the plane then hand it to his/her teen
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Well, since we are talking about "older" YA . . . A new YA writer I talked with who has a first book about to be released expressed this concern: How to you handle criticism that seems to be based on someone else's belief system, such as teen books with sex=bad, books w/o sex = good? Are there certain subjects/areas that are still out of bounds?
Patrick Jones: We'll see how Michael Cart's lit magazine Rush Hour does: that is really aimed at older teens
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing how Rush Hour does.
Gail: Everytime I think something is out of bound--a book comes out with that something in it
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Mary, I don't think any subjects are out of bounds. The criteria isnt subject matter, but why it's in the book. Nobody wants to read some writer who's all about themselves and what boundaries they can push.
Gail: True--how it's handled and why it
Patrick Jones: Seems to me in the age of Jerry Springer nothing is in terms of subject matter
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: People want to enter another world while they're reading, right? They want to be caught up, believe. They can't be caught up if the writer is writing to an agenda.
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Absolutey, Amanda!
Gail: Oh, you hit my hot button. Agendas!
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Of course there's a thin line between my agenda and my strong feelings about something.
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: (All right gang, I am going to ask our guest one more question and then it will be time for you to ask your questions. Type your "?" at any time, and then get your questions ready to send and for me to call on you.) What's the hardest part of writing for teens? Do you feel free to write whatever you want or do you feel that people have come to expect a certain kind of book from you?
Patrick Jones: More Blantant, but this whole "edgy" thing is in an essay I just wrote--email me (patrick@connectingya.com) if you want a copy. Writing about adults in books aimed at teens
Gail: Oh lordy,my editor wants edgy and dark from me only. Psychological suspense only and I want some leeway to do other things
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: I write what I want, what makes me happy. The characters I like to spend time with every day.
bub: ?
Rockstar: ?
Amber: ?
janie: ?
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: What other kind of things, Gail?
Gail: Funny
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Ha! yes, there is not enough of that is there? Okay, gang, You ready to answer some questions? Melody GA
Patrick Jones: Looks like your editor "won" on this issue based on the intro as you new one being edgist one yet
Melody: What is the most important part of developing a YA book?
Gail: So far, yes The main character
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Making the reader want to turn the page.
Patrick Jones: The voice / point of view
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: So we have three different opinions. Interesting. Did that answer your question, Melody?
Patrick Jones: Well Breaking Boxes shows what happens when all three work perfectly
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: That's one thing different about YA--adults will read for voice.
Gail: I don't think so. If the reader doesn't hook into the main person and want to see what happens to him/her--nothing going doing
Melody: yes, in a way...
Gettysburg: ?
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Ha ha! I am always told I have no plots, Patrick. I have given up on plots.
Gail: I was thinking of Cole in Out of Order, so there you go
Melody: everyone approaches it differently... (and I thought BOXES was great, Amanda.
Patrick Jones: By voice, I think I don't mean style,. but does the narrative - if told in first person teen voice - sound authentic
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Gail, you should have seen the mess that OOO was. I worked my bohiney off to get the reader to want to turn the page. I don't think voice or character are enough, alone.
Rockstar: I LUVED OUT OF ORDER
Gail: Amanda, I taught kids with language learning difficulties and Cole was spot on!
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Do any of you focused in on what is hardest or easiest for you? Like fleshing out character, pacing, etc? Maybe that is why answers vary so much?
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Thanks, Rockstar. I can't plot. I don't even speak plot.
Patrick Jones: True: the voice has to have something to say; I'm just saying as a reader of lots of YA books that matters most, and now as an author, it was only when I figured that out that the book came to me / came to be
Gail: I have the hardest time fleshing out my supporting characters
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Oh! voice is what makes writing fun, isn't it?
kay: ?
Patrick Jones: If by fun, you mean.....
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Let's get to another audience question. Bub GA
Rockstar: ?
bub: Back to gail want tobreak out a bit. I'd like to see a Fabio Romance from Gail. Game? My ? was character or plot first. I think you guys have answered it. Love shattering and dead Girls, gail.
Gail: No Romance from me. No Fabio--wait--that could be funny. Thanks bub
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Amber GA
Susan: ?
Amber: This is to all 3: Do you find it harder or easier to make characters the opposite of your gender, like a woman's main character being a guy? and Gail I loved Shattering Glass, why was the date on PIT moved to August?
Gail: Bub, I did get the plot for Dead Girls first and decided what kind of person would not want a letter from a dead girl, etc
Patrick Jones: Amber, I wrote (sorry Amanda) for the target market in the voice of the market
Gail: Roaring Brook was sold to Holtzbrink and the whole spring line was pushed to fall
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: For some strange reason, I find guy characters easier. Strange, because I'm a female myself. A straight female, too--go figure.
Patrick Jones: I found writing a teen girl voice difficult, but not unattainable
Gail: It doesn't make a lot of dif to me when my mc is a guy. I just make sure I don't have any tell tale feminisms in there.
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Patrick, why? Did you see a gap to fill, or what?
Amber: Patrick, for the record, you did a really good job
Patrick Jones: (thanks Amber)
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Rockstar, you're on! GA
Patrick Jones: Well when I wrote the first draft of Things Change it was 1987 and I was ready to smash three taboos
Patrick Jones: Well when I wrote the first draft of Things Change it was 1987 and I was ready to smash three taboos. Sadly, by the time I got around to working on it / publishing the novel, most of them were already in ruins.
Rockstar: HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO WRITE A BOOK
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Why did you want to smash them? Just fed up with what you were reading?
Patrick Jones: Rockstar - see my last answer! A long long time (for me)
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Rockstar, jump in. I have three kids; I'm a multitasker.
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Janie, GA
janie: As adults, how do you come up with believable teen characters? Do you write about what it was like for you and the people you knew when you were my age? How do you keep your street cred? (3 questions, sorry, but all kinda the same thing)
Patrick Jones: Yes, too preachy, too filled with false happy endings
Gail: Rockstar, that really depends. It took 5 yrs to write Glass. It took only six weeks to write the first draft of Dead Girls.
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Rockstar, the shortest book so far has taken me less than a year. The longest--fourteen years and counting.
Gail: Janie--for me, I try to stay away from fads and try to tell a human story. Those stay the same all the time
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: (oops, sorry Janie, there was a system delay. first, rockstar, then you)
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Patrick, good for you.
Patrick Jones: Well, I didn't really write it for 17 years, that was just how long from first draft to publication...I worked on very seriouly for about three years.
Patrick Jones: Well, I didn't really write it for 17 years, that was just how long from first draft to publication...I worked on very seriouly for about three years.
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Janie, I take a trait that *I* have and exaggerate it and rip it apart and look at it--but I do it from inside somebody else's head.
Gail: Rockstar--it took a year--and it was a hard, long year to write Traffic. Very stressful write on that one.
Rockstar: 6 WEEKS! I CANT EVEN RITE A TERM PAPER IN 6 WEEKS!!!!
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: All right, can yall answer Janie's question now?
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Janie, I grew up around boys, so maybe that's why I'm more comfy in their viewpoint.
Gail: RS--Yes, that was totally unusual. It kind of told itself. It's also a really short book. It took longer to rewrite and edit than it did to get a first draft
Rockstar: WRITING IS STRESSFUL; I THINK IT WOULD SUCHACOOL JOB
Patrick Jones: I work a lot around teens in my librarya job, so that helps. Also I think I have a pretty good understanding of the teen mind
Gail: Janie, I was the only girl of my age group in my whole extended family
janie: when I write I find out that everybody I write is really just someone I know IRL. that's why I asked.
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: I have zero street cred, though. I'm totally uncool.
Patrick Jones: But mostly, I dig inside my own emotional memories of being a teen, and work on those
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Does that answer your question, Janie?
Patrick Jones: But mostly, I dig inside my own emotional memories of being a teen, and work on those
Gail: I get along best one on one with women but with men in a group. I watch a lot of teen TV--I don't know if that helps or hurts. I taught school for a long time
janie: kinda. still trying to work on making fake people real, which you guys all do such a fab job of
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Janie, watch out for the people you never notice, the ones who sink into the woodwork. They're the writers, and they're watching you!
Patrick Jones: Well, change the names to protect the guilty and avoid lawsuits
janie: that's me!!!!!
Gail: That's so true!
Rockstar: ?
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Gettysburg, GA
Gettysburg: Do you find teen input useful and if so how do you solicit it/find it? Do you feel teen response is as important to you as professional reviews?
Patrick Jones: Although the author of Perks of Being A wallkflower (back to crossover books) didn't bother using names of high school teachers and classmates in his fiction
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Professional reviews don't come out till the book is done, so they're no help except to rip your soul out of your body.
Gail: I have a couple of friends that have teens still at home. I ask them for help. And yes, I'd rather have a teen opinion that a professional reviewer. But my editor doesn't
janie: patrick: did he or she get sued?
Patrick Jones: Take it away Amber...... reviews by teens matter most to the writer
Gettysburg: (reviewer for 3 sources) I'll keep that in mind! :)
Amber: do you really want me too?
Patrick Jones: reviews by the journals matter most to the publisher
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Teen reviews scare me sometimes because you guys don't know how much it HURTS to get panned!
Patrick Jones: Amber is a great teen reviewer! ANd honest
Amber: *blushes* Thanks :)
Patrick Jones: If you are going to ALA in Orlando, go to the afternoon session where teens talk about the best books list - very cool
Amber: hey you sent the book it was the least I could do
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Gettysburg, are you a teen reviewer too?
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Gettysburg and Amber, just remember there's people under them there author names.
Rockstar: ?WHATS ALA?
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Kay, GA
Patrick Jones: I worked with two book review groups when writing and rewriting things change
Patrick Jones: And have a meeting with another for something else I've just finished
Amber: I'll be happy to review for anyone else :)
kay: Can you all speak briefly about the spark for some of your novels? How do you know which one to pursue?
Gail: My idea about reviews is if I believe the good ones, I have to believe the bad ones, so I kind of read them and think it's an opinion and I have to not let either kind affect me
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Rockstar, they're talking about the convention for the American Library Association.
tadk: ?
janie: ?
Gail: I have several sparks that I start and then they fizzle. The good ones keep you typing and one spark leads to another.
Patrick Jones: Gail and Amanda began with violent incidents, no doubt - one of them shattered a glass, another one broke a box.
Rockstar: THANX
Gail: Dead Girls and Glass both came from something I eavesdropped on. I can't be trusted
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: All right, Patrick. Kay, I pursue a spark, and if I can keep it going for 50,000 words, then it'll work.
Patrick Jones: Gail, do you work for the CIA?
Gail: THey don't trust me enough
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Also, I think if you start writing and you feel like you're dealing with a big bowl of spaghetti and it'll nevermake sense, that's a good spark.
Patrick Jones: Music: things change was inspired by Thunder Road; the thing I just finished was inspired by "Man on the Moon" and the thing Im writing as we speak is based on "fast car" - three songs that no respectable 16 year would listen to now
Gail: Traffic came fron something I read about a girl making a prom dress out of duct tape. Now that took a major turn to get the book it came to be
Amber: I listen to fast car
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Folks, Our "official" time for tonight is up--but if our guests can stay I am sure they will answer a few more questions--some of us need to go--but the rest of you are welcome to stay and chat as long as you like. Don't forget next week! Drumroll . . . . . . for next week . . . We are having our first Publication Party! We'll be celebrating the publication of Melissa Wyatt's first book RAISING THE GRIFFIN. Bring your confetti, cheers, and questions!
tadk: Thank you to everyone here. Very informative.
Nancy Werlin: Thank you all. Fascinating.
kay: Thanks, everyone.
RoseMary: Very interesting discussion. I'll be asking for your essay on edgy YA, Patrick.
Rockstar: Y DID YOU USE JUST YOUR INITIALS AM AND NOT YOUR NAME. WHEN I WRITE A BOOK I WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW MY NAME!!!
Amber: Thanks Gail, Amanda, and Gail, oh Amanda, when I read Damage I thought you were a guy *whoops* guess it pays to read the back little leaf
PamelaRoss: Patrick- THUNDER ROAD-- inspired what book?
Patrick Jones: Things Change, my novel
Susan: for amanda: was it your choice or your publisher's to use your initials instead of your first name? (waves from Arlington, TX)
Tori J: I was sort of sorry to hear that you worry that only Middle School students are reading your books. I wonder if the younger teens are reading the "edgy" books because our children are exposed to so much more than they used to be?
Amanda(A.M.)Jenkins: Rockstar, I just don't want anybody judging me on account of gender.
YA Cafe HOST Mary P: Good night! Thank you all for coming! See you next week!