When I decided to write Sunset Rising,
my first obstacle was figuring out the age group of the YA genre. Some
define the age group as 12 to 18, while others define it as low as ten,
and some as high as 18 to 25. Wikipedia reports that 55% of YA readers
are over 18 years of age. In the end, I had to decide what age group I
was writing for and I came up with this rationale: YA is sixteen and
over. While this may seem like an arbitrary decision on my part, it’s
not. I’ll explain.
During
the time I was struggling to define the age group for YA, my 13
year-old daughter came home from school and told me about her day. She
and her friend Birdie (yes, it’s a made up name to protect her real
identity) were hanging out on the school grounds watching the popular
boys when one of the boys suddenly started vomiting. The other boys
walked away in disgust, but didn’t stay away for long. They returned to
the scene with a stick in hand and started poking at the steaming
pile. Grossed-out and yet fascinated all at the same time, my daughter
and her friend watched as the boys dissected the contents of their
friend’s stomach.
When
the boys got bored of poking at it and left, Birdie urged my daughter
to come with her to check it out too. My daughter is a bit squeamish
about barf and didn’t want to get too close, but she went in support of
her friend and kept a respectable ten-foot distance. Fearless, Birdie
went right up to it and reported back to my daughter that it was indeed
chunky and had a really weird color. It also stunk. With their
curiosity now satisfied, the girls went in search of the boys to see
what else they were getting up to. Why? Because at thirteen, these are
the popular boys and the girls see them as eligible dating material.
Now
let’s consider how a sixteen-year-old would have reacted to seeing
someone barf on the school grounds. I’m going to guess that the vast
majority of sixteen-year-old girls would avoid the pile of barf, and
maybe even one or two them would seek help for the sick person. The
sixteen-year old boys would probably not have the urge to poke it with a
stick, although they might take a peek and profess loudly to each other
whether or not it was chunky. Boys would do this for the same reason
that when someone announces he farted, they all have to sniff the air to
confirm the claim. This is mature behavior for boys since they rarely
change with age ;) While some girls may be turned off by the boys’
behavior, by sixteen they have come to accept it as normal, quirky
behavior; in other words, a guy thing.
My
point is by the age of sixteen, most individuals have gained enough
experience to start making some mature decisions. They recognize gender
differences and are beginning to accept them… in fact, maybe even
embrace them. They are leaving their childhood behind to embark on
becoming an adult. And most societies do recognize sixteen as the age
of initiation into adulthood. Western culture celebrates the sweet sixteen birthday,
Spanish celebrate the cuinceañera, and other cultures see sixteen as an
appropriate age for marriage. So, when I wrote a Young Adult novel, I
did it with the understanding that a YA is 16 and up.
February
2024: Desperate to find refuge from the nuclear storm, a group of
civilians discover a secret government bio-dome. Greeted by a hail of
bullets and told to turn back, the frantic refugees stand their ground
and are eventually permitted entry. But the price of admission is high.
283 years later…
Sunny O’Donnell is a seventeen-year-old slave who has never seen the
sun. She was born in the Pit, a subterranean extension of the bio-dome.
Though life had never been easy, the last couple of months had become a
nightmare. Her mom was killed in the annual Cull, and her dad thought
it was a good time to give up on life. Reyes Crowe, her long-time
boyfriend, was pressuring her to get married, even though it would mean
abandoning her father.
She
didn’t think things could get any worse until she was forced upstairs
to the Dome to be a servant-girl at a bachelor party. That’s when she
met Leisel Holt, the president’s daughter, and her fiancé, Jack Kenner.
Now Sunny is wanted for treason. If they catch her, she’ll be executed.
She thought Leisel’s betrayal was the end. But it was just the beginning.
“Sunset Rising” is Book One of a series.
Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre - YA Science Fiction, Dystopian
Rating – PG-16
More details about the author
Website http://smmceachern.wordpress.com
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