Why I write YA

WHY I WRITE YA

As an
avid reader, I will pretty much read any genre that comes my way. I don't discriminate against genres.



When I started reading as
a child, I was obsessed with R.L. Stine. My parents had a clothing store at the
mall and I would spend hours at the bookstore, sprawled all over the floor reading Goosebumps. Whenever I
came across any kind of money at all, it would go toward a book, which at that age felt like such a mature thing to do. As I started
growing up, and although I kept reading Stine's books, my taste became a little
bit broader. Now, however, whenever I had money I spent it on clothes or going out with
my friends, and that is why I began reading my Mom's books. She, like I, has to
go to sleep with a book in hand. And so there were plenty for me to choose from,
however her genre was a little different that mine, she loved romance novels.
Think Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele. And so I began daydreaming of handsome and
romantic men that would come sweep me off my feet; that's when the romantic in me was
born. I went on, for years reading anything my mom purchased. The DaVinci code
drove me
wild!



But it wasn't until I was told about Twilight that I became a DIE HARD reader. I
was working at the hospital at the time. I had taken a very lunch break and so I
was completely alone in our break room. On the table was a paperback of
Twilight. The TV wasn't working and so I picked it up, after all, I had half an
hour to kill. OH MY GOD, the half an hour disappeared. I don't know how it is
possible, but time fast forwarded! I had gotten so into the story that by the
time I came up for air it had been an hour! I was so busted. Reluctantly I put
it down and headed back to work. I couldn't concentrate, I had Meyer's story
engraved in my mind. 7pm came around and I bolted to my car. I didn't go home, I
told my Mom I would pick up the kids a little bit later and drove like a maniac
to the bookstore. By then, the first three were already out, so I bought them
all. It might have taken me a week before I had read them all. I was ADDICTED.
Since then I have read all four about 10 times each, and every time, it's like
the very first.




It was because of the Twilight saga that I decided to become a writer. I wanted
readers to feel the way Meyers had made me feel. To become the character and
have a break from our everyday lives. I wanted to create an escape that readers
would want to escape to.


And so my genre of choice was easy, Young Adult. It is the genre I like reading
most.

How many of you were told by a parent, aunt, grandmother how we would
one day miss our teenage years? How we would one day want to turn back time and
be in high school again? Everything my Mom has ever said to me and was brushed
off as "Yeah, right. Whatever" has come true. And so, what better way to re-live
those days than by creating my
own?



The Young Adult genre is not just for teenagers, it is for everybody that misses
those days and wants to, even if for a few hours a day, go back and reminisce.
YA is also for the teenagers dealing with the realistic issues sometimes mingled
in the stories, in the case of Feathermore, bullying. I was bullied when I was
younger and I completely stand against it. It breaks people and scars them for
life in one way or another. For adults, as I said before, YA is a getaway to
times already
passed.



What is your genre and why?