Does that book have an unhealthy message?
I’ve talked before about how an author needs to check what their book is saying. Even if you write without any intention of having a message, there may be one, and if you look at it carefully, what you’re saying, suggesting or inferring might not be particularly healthy. In adult writing, it maybe doesn’t matter so much (though I’d prefer it if all authors were socially responsible), but in YA writing, it is extremely important because your works are going to a naïve and often impressionable audience. I’m not going into sex and violence here, but into something much more subtle – beliefs about the nature of things and about what is appropriate behavior. Love and sexual attraction is a common theme in YA, and exploring these things is one of the exciting things about growing up, but what if we pick up misguided ideas about it? If we read many books…
The best fantasy illuminates reality & highlights truth.
The best fantasy is real. This might sound like a contradiction in terms but it’s not, simply because fantasy must be believable or it won’t quite work. That doesn’t mean that the fantasy can’t be wildly outrageous and bizarre, it can, but the characters have to act and react like people, and cause and effect must operate logically and consistently within whatever world the author has created, or it simply won’t work. That’s what I mean by ‘real’. Characters have to do things for clear reasons and in line with their motivations, otherwise the story won’t make sense. And if those characters, be they automatoms, walking plants or whatever don’t have humanlike feelings and reactions, or at least ones we can understand and feel for, we just won’t care about them, and if we don’t care, we won’t engage with the story. But, the very best fantasy goes even further…
My Interview with Ambrose
Ambrose Musiyiwa posted an interview with me on his blog site ‘Conversations with writers.’ It’s about ‘Lethal Inheritance’ and my writing process. If you’re interested, follow this link to read it, http://conversationswithwriters.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-tahlia-newland.html
Are your assumptions about demons culturally limited?
Demons aren’t limited to a Christian context based on western myths. Eastern cultures and philosophies have a different set of parameters for demons and their role in man’s world. Eastern demons exist without reference to God, angels, the devil or hell. They are metaphors for the real demons in the world – our negative emotions.
Wanna read a positive rejection – sob, sigh!
My agent just got the following response from Allen & Unwin I read the sample chapter over lunch. It’s clear that Tahlia has a good handle on action and pace, and I’m tempted to ask for the whole manuscript. But as we’ve got a number of similar titles in the pipeline, I think it’s best at this stage for me to decline, as I don’t feel confident, in such a crowded fantasy market, that we could successfully publish this novel in addition to the others. I’m sorry! I’m sure you will find a good home for it and wish you and Tahlia well. That’s the nicest rejection I’ve ever had. What do you think?
Submission news & are demons finished?
My agent has finally sent email proposals to contacts at Allen & Unwin, HarperCollins and a letter submission to Harlequin Teen in New York . In the email telling me this, Debbie said, ‘Harlequin Teen looks like as good a possibility as any. It is very tough at the moment and demon stories seem to be out of fashion.’ Out of fashion! Sheesh, what a reason to be rejected. I replied to this by saying .. ‘It might be good to point out, if anyone gives you the chance, that the demons in my story are not based on a western idea of demons with heaven & hell & angel mythology, as other demon stories are. My demons are based on the eastern view of demons as a metaphor for negative emotions. To a reader, the world in the book looks quite different to the world in other demon books.’ Will any of the publishers get so far…
What is it like to be seventeen? And why that’s the age of my heroine.
Seventeen is a wonderful age, so is eighteen. Why? Because you’re ready and rearing for action. You have the freshness of youth but you’re mature enough to know you’re alive and make your own decisions, (if your parents let you). You have the security of a home and money, (unless you’ve already left home) but should have enough freedom to go forth from that base and try new adult-type things. You’re about to leave school (which most of you are over by then), have your whole life ahead of you (provided you don’t crash your car tomorrow) and almost everything is possible, at least in your mind. Even if you don’t have the grades to be a rocket scientist, you can visualize what it might be like. In your mind, you can try your options out for size to help you decide which direction you want to go in. Once…
Splash into Summer Giveaway Winner
Congratulations to Mariska, the winner of the first two books in Leanna Renee Heiber’s Strangely Beautiful series. Happy reading. I hope you love this series as much as I do.
Blogiversary & book give away coming up
On the 25th May, I will have been running this blog for one year. Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun. To celebrate, I have two books to give away to anyone in the world. They’re the first two books in Leanna Renee Heiber’s Strangely Beautiful series. She’s one of my favourite writers. So I hope to see you here to celebrate my first year of blogging and for your chance to win these terrific books.
Young Adult??? Diving into the ‘what’s appropriate’ debate
A while ago, I bought a book from a YA shelf and found two fairly explicit and incredibly cruel and demeaning rape scenes where pain was inflicted as part of the act. The scenes really disturbed me. I took it back to the shop and complained – I don’t even want to read that sort of things in adult books.