#Excerpt from THE REALITY MASTER(Vol.1) by @PMPillon #SciFi #YA #AmReading

ARRIVAL

On a cool and clear night, a sheer and towering cliff awaited its approaching moment to become the temporary abode of a celestial interloper. It stood stoic, unimpressed by the clamorous sea imperiously fulminating with an incessant barrage of waves against its base. A stone’s throw away was the exit point of an effluent stream, a capillary of the fecund land mass it flowed through. With the aid of a clear sky and a full moon, a distant horizon was visible in every direction; ocean filling the entire sight in one, verdant and untrammeled panoplies of mountain forest in another. A hundred miles of this California Big Sur coast and its regions to the east were in virtually pristine condition, more than two hundred thousand acres with relatively few human inhabitants.

Inland, the luminescence of moon and stars bestowed an unfettered. evergreen view of redwoods, maples, pines, firs and oaks. Flying about the natural paradise were raucous jays, crows, magpies and woodpeckers. Invisible in the shimmering light, a sonorous ocean air swept in from the west, rustling the trees; a natural refrain emanating from their dancing, undulating branches and leaves, increasing and decreasing in compliance with the invading force. The wind’s voice eerily equivocated, fluctuating back and forth from a bare whisper to an angry, frightening ululation of dominant abandon; now gradually quieting, at last dying, only to be reborn and assiduously grow unto a mature and bellowing rage. Animals added their sounds to the holistic cacophony: a bark, a howl, a burst through bushes, crackling twigs and branches stepped on or dragged. The stars were in full bloom, complimenting the moon to illuminate the peaks, the canyons, and all within.

One of the star lights was moving, and as it came nearer the earth, it grew in size until was clear that it was not a star but a far smaller, soaring, perhaps piloted, object. As it came into the atmosphere, it developed color – an orange tint. A few hundred feet from the ground, it stopped and remained in place for more than an hour. Finally, a smaller light emerged from it, and the larger light rose again until it disappeared. The new light was purposeful, changing directions as it descended. It floated down and meandered among the trees as though surveying the scenery, until eventually it traveled westward, following a gushing stream to its merger with the ocean. Hovering above the beach, the light hesitated, then floated into a crack on a shrubbery-laden boulder that was lodged partway up the cliff next to the stream, as though perching there for a view of magnificent sunsets. The object continued to glow for some minutes, its light gradually diminishing and finally extinguishing completely. Someone who saw it at close range would describe it as small and round, and maybe add that it looked for all the world to be nothing more than an ordinary stone.

His celestial companion was waiting for him

Precariously climbing a sea-side cliff near Big Sur, ten-year-old Joey Blake was as yet unaware that near his grasp was an object, so odd, mysterious and alien to earth that it would change his life forever and the lives of countless others in the next few astonishing days. Reaching up as far as he could for a handhold it was just there; it had subconsciously lured him, occupied his mind, and made him find it. It was like he was meant to see and discover this object of unimaginable power … the power to change reality.

Time travel and more

This young adult series of sci-fi fantasy novels begins with The Reality Master and continues through four other exciting and amazing stories about time travel and mysterious alien devices. Joey and the reader will face dangerous shadowy criminal organizations, agents of the NSA, bizarre travelers from other times and even renegade California bikers and scar-faced walking dead.

- Vol 1 The Reality Master
- Vol 2 Threat To The World
- Vol 3 Travel Beyond
- Vol 4 Missions Through Time
- Vol 5 The Return Home

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Genre – Science fiction, Fantasy, Young adult

Rating – G

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Claudette Melanson's RISING TIDE - Four Seasons @Bella623 #AmReading #YA #Paranormal

Caelyn – Winter

Caelyn is full of winter.  But though she may have an aloof chill about her, she still wants to offer her daughter warmth and comfort, like a cup of hot cocoa or a fire in the hearth.  She is crystal beauty, but keeps everyone, sometimes even her own daughter, at arm’s length, never allowing anyone too close.  As strong as an arctic wind, she carries the weight of many responsibilities, but her emotional shell is ever-ready to crack—like the ice at the thaw–at the wrong word or suggestion, reminding her of the love she’s lost.  Maura, at times, wants to break out of the ice, but Caelyn wishes to keep her safe, attempting to protect her from the same mistakes she made, when she was Maura’s age.  She is very anxious about her daughter’s relationship with Ron and wants nothing more than to protect her from the fake friends lie in wait to wound Maura, just as she begins to emerge from the winter respite she and Caelyn have taken from the outside world.

Maura –Spring 

Maura and Caelyn are both stuck in their own kind of winter, tucked away inside, just waiting for the right conditions to make them blossom.  They are closed off, emotionally, sheltering themselves against outside elements.  But, in Rising Tide, Maura is more like Spring, as she seems ready to break out of her antisocial slumber and experience the world.  She wants to try out love and the friendships she’s wished for her whole life, while Caelyn wants to keep her under that protective layer of ice, away from the harsh realities of life.  But Maura is changing in so many ways.  She’s growing out of the weak, shy girl she’s always been into more of a take-charge, independent woman.  And like spring, something new emerges within her every day.  Both emotionally and physically, she gives birth to changes continuously, as she transforms into the creature waiting inside, of which she isn’t yet aware.

Shane—Summer

Shane is warmth without cessation.  He never holds anything back and is sometimes very in-your-face.  Like summer, he sets people in motion, calling them to action.  He is the most gung-ho when the band he and Ron are a part of, books their first gig, displaying nothing but optimism.  At the amusement park, Shane drags everyone to the roller coasters, daring them to break free, just as the summer sun calls people outside to try new things after a long, cold winter.  Even though he may come across sometimes as too intense—like a relentlessly hot summer day—like the summer sun, he is a source of brightness and warmth in the lives of everyone who knows him.

Ron—Fall

Fall is the official end of the year.  Ron is there as the official end of Maura’s time in the town she’s grown up in.  Autumn is also regarded as a time of bounty and harvest.  Ron has a huge heart and is ready to give love, understanding and assistance without end.  He is mild, like fall temperatures—non-judgmental in his relationships with others, especially Maura—and as easygoing as the gently falling leaves.  Like the trees, in all their colorful splendor this time of year, he is also pleasing to the eye with his long, dark hair and deep hazel eyes.  Fall is considered the precursor to winter, and Ron is about to usher in a cold, lonely, barren time for Maura, as she must start a new life without him physically by her side.  And some of his actions in the latter part of the novel, definitely bring a chill to Maura’s heart.

CHOSEN AS ONE OF 400 FOR THE SECOND ROUND OF THE AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL AWARD FOR 2014!!!

ARE YOU A FAN OF VAMPIRE ROMANCE?

Rising Tide will sink it’s teeth into you, keeping you awake into the wee hours of the night

Maura’s life just can’t get any worse…or can it?

Isolated and sheltered by her lonely mother, Maura’s never been the best at making friends. Unusually pale with a disease-like aversion to the sun, she seems to drive her classmates away, but why?

Even her own father deserted her, and her mother, before Maura was born. Bizarre physical changes her mother seems hell bent on ignoring, drive Maura to fear for her own life. And her luck just seems to get worse.

Life is about to become even more bewildering when her mother’s abrupt…and unexplained…decision to move a country away sets off a chain of events that will change Maura forever. A cruel prank turned deadly, the discovery of love and friendship….and its loss, as well as a web of her own mother’s lies, become obstacles in Maura’s desperate search for a truth she was never prepared to uncover.

Featured on one of the most popular health blogs on the internet as a giveaway!

Be sure to check out the blog on Maria Mind Body Health to win a free copy today! Go to Mariamindbodyhealth.com and check out the blog Chicken “Wild Rice” Soup for your chance to win!

Offered as a giveaway on Goodreads!

Head over to Goodreads for a chance to score a free copy today!

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Genre – YA Paranormal Romance

Rating – PG

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Website http://claudettemelanson.wix.com/author

LEVELING UP by J.R. Tague @JR_Tague #AmReading #YA #Fiction

When I returned to school the next Monday, it became a little harder to ignore that something had changed. Getting out of bed in the morning was even more difficult than usual. I mean, yeah, sure, I had stayed up super late the night before finishing up a forty-man raid with some dudes on the west coast. But it’s not like that was new to me or anything.

Everything looked different as I entered into the vivid, fast-paced chaos of my high school. I stared, bleary eyed, at the mobs of students, my theoretical peers, moving in and out of doorways, around lockers, through the halls. They looked like schools of tropical fish, brightly colored and somehow swimming in formation despite the disorder around them. I wondered what it’d be like to move among them. I mean, yeah, I walked among them. But I wanted to, you know, swim. It seemed like everyone else had figured out some sort of secret, had learned how to make our time in this ocean bearable.

Until then all I’d wanted was to wait out the rest of my teen years in the hopes that I’d earn passage into a bigger, better, infinitely more interesting world. Now, for the first time, I wondered if that had been a mistake. I mean, what if this was all I got in the end? Maybe I should have been making the most of it. After all, if I really were dead and gone, how many of them would even notice?

I sighed as I opened my locker, wondering if everyone who had a near death experience got this emo about it. I was reaching up for my biology book when something crashed into my locker door, slamming it closed.

“You OK, man?” asked a guy from my Algebra II class as he retrieved his wayward football.

“Sure,” I replied, a little startled. He gave me a quick once over, then nodded before trotting back to his friends down the hall. I reached into my locker again to grab the textbook when I noticed a small cut on the middle finger of my right hand, and white indentations on the tips of the other three fingers.

What the hell?

The hand worked just fine as I pulled the book down, my fingers functioning normally as they curled around the cover and carried its weight for the short journey between shelf and backpack. It should have hurt like hell when the locker slammed into them.

Max McKay gets a second chance at life when, after a bizarre accident on his sixteenth birthday, he is reanimated as a new breed of thinking, feeling zombie. To secure a spot for his eternal soul, Max must use his video game prowess as well as the guidance of Steve the Death God to make friends and grow up. As if all that weren’t hard enough, Max discovers that he’s not the only zombie in town. As he enlists the help of his new friends, Adam and Penny, to solve the mystery of their un-dead classmate, Max discovers that he must level up his life experience in order to survive the trials and terrors of the upcoming zombie apocalypse. And, even worse, high school.

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Genre – YA

Rating – PG

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Website http://jrtague.wordpress.com/

@MBMulhall on Little Women, Reading & Writing #AmReading #AmWriting #LGBT

1. Why do you write?

I write because I have stories to tell, because the voices (characters) in my head are anxious to get out and tell their tale.  I write because I love to read and I love when people enjoy reading my stories. It’s a win/win situation for all!

2. Have you always enjoyed writing?

No! I started writing a fantasy/sci-fi story when I was in middle school or so.  My mom ran it through one of those computer programs that tells you the reading level of your writing. Mine was 6th or 7th grade and I felt really insulted (even though that was probably the grade(s) was in at the time!) and it put me off of writing for years.

3. What books did you love growing up?

My mom started me off early with Little Women and the books that followed (Little Men, Jo’s Boys, Little Cousins?) but then she gave me Trixie Belding and the Bobbsey Twin books which lead to my love of Nancy Drew. I would devour three or four Nancy Drew mysteries a week and all my allowance would go to buying new ones! I loved when she teamed up with the Hardy Boys because the books would double in size. A bookworm’s dream!

4. Do you find it hard to share your work?

I have a few tried and true folks who get to see early work. I trust them that they will be truthful on whether something sucks or not, but when it comes to telling other people; acquaintances from school, relatives, etc., I find it really hard to tell them I’m a writer and talk about my books.  Then I often get strange looks when I finally do break down and give them a blurb.

5. Do you plan to publish more books?

Of course! I’ll keep writing until the voices go silent!

6. What else do you do to make money, other than write? It is rare today for writers to be full time…

I’m a direct support professional with the ARC. I work in one of their residential homes; helping developmentally disabled adults lead more independent lives.

7. What other jobs have you had in your life?

I’ve worked for Six Flags amusement parks, and for two companies that specialized in title insurance and home closings. I have built computers, worked for a security company (CCTVs), supervised an order entry department for a company that made pet products, and have worked for a marketing firm putting together PowerPoint presentations for their clients.  I have worked in retail, been a nanny and a substitute teacher.  I am now a direct support professional. You can say I’m a well-rounded employee.

Secrets. Their weight can be crushing, but their release can change everything—and not necessarily for the better. Ian is no stranger to secrets. Being a gay teen in a backwater southern town, Ian must keep his orientation under wraps, especially since he spends a lot of time with his hands all over members of the same sex, pinning their sweaty, hard bodies to the wrestling mat.

When he’s trying not to stare at teammates in the locker room, he’s busy hiding another secret—that he starves himself so he doesn’t get bumped to the next weight class.

Enter Julian Yang, an Adonis with mesmerizing looks and punk rocker style. Befriending the flirtatious artist not only raises suspicion among his classmates, but leaves Ian terrified he’ll give in to the desires he’s fought to ignore.

As secrets come to light, Ian’s world crumbles. Disowned, defriended, and deserted by nearly everyone, Ian’s one-way ticket out of town is revoked, leaving him trapped in a world he hates—and one that hates him back.

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Genre - LGBT, YA

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://keystrokesandwordcounts.wordpress.com/

HAUNTED #Excerpt by @EileenMaksym #NALit #YALit #Paranormal

Once in the lab, Tara shrugged off her overcoat and scarf, and hung them on a hook inside the door.  While Steven was hanging up his jacket, she  pulled on a white lab coat.

“You can sit there,” she said, gesturing toward a cluttered desk.  Steven sat and pushed aside an odd mixture of magazines: Neuroscience, The Chicago Literary Review, People, Cosmopolitan.

Tara disappeared into a back room, then reappeared, carrying a small black tray that held maybe 20 slides.  Steven noticed a bit of mist curling up from the black plastic into the warm room.  Tara set the tray down, sat, and picked up a clipboard.  She took out a slide, positioned it in the microscope, flipped a light switch, and leaned forward to peer through the eyepiece.

Steven took the Laceys' number out of his left pocket, his cell phone out of his right, and dialed.  One ring.  Two rings.  Three rings.  Four rings.  He started to wonder if they were home; what he would say if he had to leave a message on a machine.  Five rings.  Six –

“Hello?”

“Hello, may I please speak to Mr. Lacey?”

“You’re speaking to him, son.  What can I do you for?”

“My name is Steven Trent, and I’m a member of my university's Society of Paranormal Researchers.”

Tara turned her head over her shoulder and grinned at him.

He grinned back.

Mr. Lacey chuckled.  “This is about that article in the Register, isn’t it?”

“It is, yes.”

“Thought so.  My wife warned me about this; she said that if we had the story published in the paper, chances were we’d attract more than just potential buyers.  I wasn’t too concerned about it, though – figured any publicity would be good publicity at this point.”  He chuckled again.  “You wouldn’t want to buy the house, would you?  It’s really a spectacularly good bargain.”

Steven smiled.  “As a college student, I’m afraid I’m not in the market.”

“Ah, well; I had to ask.  So, Mr.…what did you say your name was again?”

“Trent.  Steven Trent.”

“Mr. Trent.  You haven’t called to buy my house…unfortunately…so, what can I help you with?”

“Well, we here at the Society were wondering if you might be willing to allow us to investigate the property.  Usually, when we get reports of ongoing hauntings, the houses are occupied, which limits what we can do; most people don’t want us tramping through their house at all hours.”
 

“I can imagine.  What sorts of things are involved in these investigations?  You’re not going to break windows, are you?  Scratch up the wood floors?  Tear down the vintage wallpaper?  Or otherwise lower the value of our property?”

“No, no worries," Steven answered, amused.  "We won’t damage anything.  Basically, we spend some time in the house – ideally overnight.  We have cameras that take regular pictures, as well as some that take infrared shots; we take a number of pictures throughout the house.  Then, we use instruments that measure electromagnetic waves and temperature changes.  And that’s pretty much it.”  Steven didn’t mention Paul.  Even though the Laceys believed in ghosts, he figured they might balk at the idea of using a psychic in their house.  Bringing up the subject had the tendency to make people’s opinion of the Society of Paranormal Researchers go from “odd but credible” to “who the heck are these wackos, and how did they get my number?”

“Well…” Mr. Lacey said, “I’ll have to run it by the wife, of course, but I don’t see why not.  The house is just sitting there empty anyway.  It would be interesting to know a bit more about the scientific side of the things we heard and saw for 20 years.  Say,” he said, his voice becoming more serious, “what do you do with all this information?  You won’t publish it in the paper or anything like that, will you?”

“Not unless you want us to – more publicity, right?  We'll write up a report with everything that we find, including copies of all the photographs.  We’ll keep one copy of it for our files, and we’ll give you a copy to do with as you wish.  Heck, if you wanted to, you could give it to anyone who asks about the haunting when they come to see the house.”

“That’s a great idea,” Mr. Lacey said.

“We’ll even make you a few copies, if that helps.  And if we ever want to use it for any future publication of any kind…an article for a journal, a book, whatever…we will get your permission in writing first, and you can have your names changed and the actual location of the house obscured, if you wish.”

“Sounds pretty good.  Tell you what: let me go ask the missus.  Can I call you at this number?”

“Sure thing."

“Great.  Let me go talk to Susan; she’s right out back.  I’ll give you a ring in a moment.”

“Great; talk to you then.”

Steven hung up and turned toward Tara.

She was bent over the microscope.  “So,” she said without looking up, “that sounded like it went well.”

“He’s clearing it with his wife as we speak.  I definitely think he's up for the idea.”

“Certainly sounded that way.”  She sat up, made a few notes on her clipboard, then looked back into the microscope, adjusting the focus knob. Steven's phone buzzed. Tara smiled.  “You’re on, Mr. Trent.”

“Cute,” he smirked, then answered the call.

A few minutes later, Steven had the name and number of the Laceys' realtor, as well as some more information about the haunting.  Aside from the moving furniture, Mr. Lacey and his wife had seen lights moving up and down the stairs and had heard scratching on their bedroom door.  They knew nothing of the origin of the haunt, however, and had learned to live with it, even coming to regard it, in a strange way, as their child.

Steven noted all of this, thanked Mr. Lacey, and flipped the cell shut.  “Well, there you go: we have permission to investigate.”

Tara lifted her head.  “Good job.”

"Thanks.  How’s the research going?”

“Slowly.  I’m on slide number five, and I have to get through all 22 now, since I can’t refreeze them.  Would you mind hanging out while I finish up?  It might take an hour or two, but after that we can go to the library.”

“Luckily, I have some Plato with me…”  He pulled a beaten-up copy of The Republic from his bag.  “And if I want to sound at all intelligent in class, I should probably actually read it. Because, y'know that whole learning-by-osmosis thing?  Doesn’t work.”

“Don’t I know it.” Tara turned back to her microscope and put the next slide in place.

Steven sat and looked at her for a long moment, noticing how her red locks fell down her back over the white lab coat.  Then he shook his head and opened his book.

As Tara went through her slides, Steven read about political theory in ancient Greece –  looking up every once in a while to glimpse her cascading hair.

Tara Martin – exceptionally accomplished neurobiology major with a troubled past. Steven Trent – confident political science major with an irresistible attraction to Tara. Paul Stratton – history major who is able to hear spirits. Together, they make up the Society for Paranormal Researchers at their prestigious New England University. When they’re not in class or writing papers, the three friends are chasing their passion….ghosts.

When the group learns of a local retired couple trying to sell a house they claim is haunted, they decide to investigate. As the clues unfold, a familiar spirit interrupts their investigation and Tara finds her life in danger. Can her friends save her before it’s too late?

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Genre – YA paranormal, NA paranormal

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://eileenmaksym.wordpress.com/

@SMMceachern Shares Her Opinion on #YA is for Agea 16 & Up #SciFi #Dystopian

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.

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Genre - YA Science Fiction, Dystopian

Rating – PG-16

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Website http://smmceachern.wordpress.com

Anne-Rae Vasquez on Young Adult vs. New Adult? @Write2Film #AmReading #YA #Thriller

I received an honest review for my latest book Doubt, which focused on the point that the reader expected a more mature storyline and questioned why my book Doubt was categorized in the New Adult category.

It made us here at Truth Seekers’ headquarters stop and think…

• Doubt’s main characters are former child prodigies, geeks who socialized mainly online.
• Cristal and Harry are 22 years old, just graduated from university with their PhDs
• They have never had a “boyfriend”, “girlfriend” relationship before.
• Emotionally they are more like young adults.  Virgins, with little or no experience physically with anyone.
• Doubt can appeal to young adults because the content is clean and safe. No sex scenes, no swearing (just implied swearing with censored out letters)
• Does New Adult require the book to have “sexual scenes”?

What qualifies as New Adult?

See an excerpt from J. Sterling’s interesting article What Does New Adult Mean to You?

“I classify my books as New Adult when the main characters are either college aged, or in their early 20′s. The story may not necessarily appeal to the true YA audience because the characters are doing things they can’t relate to yet (interning, working full time, living with their bf’s, etc). It’s about a period of time in our lives when we’re not necessarily sure where we’re headed. We’re still figuring things out. It’s that in-between stage between high school and true adulthood. We’ve all been there.

Now my characters in In Dreams are in college, but I wrote that book in a younger voice, with no sex, very little swearing, etc. I classify it as YA because it reads as YA, even though the characters are no longer in high school. I felt like the situations the characters go through was appealing enough to a younger audience that they wouldn’t feel like they couldn’t relate.

I honestly think that if your main characters are in high school, then your book is Young Adult. At least that’s what i’ve always just assumed as a reader. Young Adult = high school aged stories. No matter if they’re having sex, swearing, doing drugs, etc-  high school kids have sex, swear, do drugs, etc.

But I’ve seen some high school aged books being called New Adult. So i’m wondering, are we classifying that category based on subject matter of the book, the way the book is written, or the age of the characters?!” The content is an excerpt from What Does New Adult Mean to You? article on J. Sterling’s blog.

Feedback and Comments from the article

The interesting feedback makes us more confused than ever.

Here are some comments that J. Sterling’s followers posted about her article…

I see New Adult as a mixture of both content and where the characters are in life. While these days, high school kids shouldn’t be shocked by cursing and sex in books, I think their parents do. I don’t know, I prefer the “older” context and content personally, and more often than not seek out something that says New Adult over Young Adult.

Yes, if I’m starting a New Adult book I assume that the characters will be at least in college or in their 20′s. And I also assume there will be sex. If I’m reading a book with high schoolers, and they are having sex, doing drugs, etc., I would assume it be called Mature Young Adult. I would say I could be wrong, but let’s face it, that’d be silly. Because if I am wrong, then the rating system needs to change so that I am right. Ha! Otherwise it’s way too confusing.

It’s a little contradictory for me, because I am a young adult in university, and yet I do not find myself drawn to “young adult” novels, because I always thought that they were fluffy stories that stayed away from the idea of sex or anything sexual related and language. Something too lovely-dovey that I would not be able to relate to or stomach when reading. But was my mind changed after reading “Game Changer”. I enjoyed the storyline, and given the young adult theme attached to the book, it was the right amount of sex, and language and it was a relatable story.

With that said, “young adult” for me deals with young adults, between the ages of 16 to 18. Young adult novels if applicable can have sexual scenes but nothing to the degree of erotica, because that is in a category of it’s own. But I think that there are different degrees of young adult novels, considering Twilight was considered in this category, it does cause conflict and misunderstanding. That is why there should be a difference between young adult that deals with novels between the ages of 16 to 18, and young adult for over the ages of 18 dealing with more mature subjects and content and then the full out erotica. At that point can it be said that its’ young adult NC17 while warning the reader that the subject matter might not be applicable to a certain reader?

Read the full article at: What Does New Adult Mean to You?

Your thoughts?  Please comment below. We really want to know how you feel about these two genres.

About Anne-Rae Vasquez

Anne-Rae Vasquez is a freelance journalist for Digital Journal.com, author, film maker and web design programmer.  Her latest novel, Doubt, is the the first book in the Among Us Trilogy series.  Her other works include: the novel and screenplay for the award winning feature film and web series Almost a Turkish Soap Opera, Salha’s Secrets to Middle Eastern Cooking Cookbook Volume 1, Gathering Dust – a collection of poems, and Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week, published by Sams.net (a division of Macmillan Publishing). Almost a Turkish Soap Opera was her feature screenplay and film directorial debut. Anne-Rae Vasquez is available for interview.

PR Contact Details

J. Suarez c/o AR Publishing 7360 137 Street #517 Surrey, BC Canada  V3W 1A3 +16046085747
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Do you love shows like J.J. Abrams’ Fringe and read books like Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones?

“Doubt” mashes fringe science, corporate espionage and paranormal encounters to catapult you into an out-of-this-world experience.

At 21 years old, Harry and Cristal are fresh out of university with their PhD’s. Labeled all their lives as being ‘weird’ and ‘geeky’, they find true friendships with other outcasts by playing online virtual reality games.

Harry Doubt, a genius programmer and creator of the popular online game ‘Truth Seekers’, has a personal mission of his own; to find his mother who went mysteriously missing while volunteering on a peacekeeping mission in Palestine. His gaming friends and followers inadvertently join in helping him find her; believing that they are on missions to find out what has happened to their own missing loved ones. During Harry’s missions, Cristal and the team of ‘Truth Seekers’ stumble upon things that make them doubt the reality of their own lives. As they get closer to the truth, they realize that there are spiritual forces among them both good and evil, but in learning this, they activate a chain of events that start the beginning of the ‘end of the world’ as they know it.

Doubt is Book 1 of the Among Us Trilogy. Among Us is a book series which delves into the world of the supernatural and how it intersects with the everyday lives of seemingly ordinary young people as catastrophic events on earth lead to the end of times. Among Us weaves the theme of a young man and woman, who while not fully understanding their ‘abilities’, are drawn together in their desire to find out the truth about the world they live in which is similar to themes used in J.J. Abrams’ TV shows Fringe and Lost.

What readers have to say…

As a big fan of the show Fringe, this book appealed to me tremendously. The writing was well done, and the way the “supernatural” forces were introduced was great.

A good, clean read for any age.

It was an excellent story that I’m sure both adult and teen urban fantasy fans will enjoy. You don’t have to be a gamer or know one to identify with the characters. They’re very well developed and definitely feel like people. I would definitely recommend it to a friend and I’m really looking forward to the second book.

…the novel is written in such a languid style, it moves on effortlessly and absorbs the reader into the story completely. Although the story itself revolves around the online gaming industry, one does not have to have an in depth knowledge as it is ably explained and discussed within the plot line.
OMGosh! I just finished reading “Doubt” INCREDIBLE! I couldn’t put it down.

˃˃˃ >>> Depth and Substance mashed up with Fringe Science. Will entertain young and old alike.

This book is intended for mature young adults and new adults. Ages 16 to 45 +

˃˃˃ >>Inspired by real Truth Seekers Aaron Swartz and Harry Fear

The main character Harry Doubt was inspired by Aaron Swartz, internet prodigy and activist, co-founder of the Creative Commons and Reddit, and Harry Fear, journalist, documentary filmmaker and activist whose coverage of the conflict in the Middle East was seen on UStream by millions of viewers.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Young Adult, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Thriller

Rating – G

More details about the author

Connect with Anne-Rae Vasquez on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://amongus.ca