Guest Post by Emerald Barnes
Today, the lovely Emerald Barnes is stopping by as a part of her blog tour for her new novel, Read Me Dead. She's a sweetheart, so I'm sure you'll love her. Enjoy!
First of all, thank you, S.M., for hosting me today! Secondly, let's talk about YA fiction!
YA literature has taken the world by storm lately, which makes me happy being a YA author, you know. Back when I began writing, YA wasn't as big as it is now. I remember thinking that I wanted to write for young adults, but when I started my first book, the genre wasn't as popular. I honestly didn't believe that people would read about my young characters and their stories.
But that didn't stop me from writing them. I've been working on my upcoming novel, Read Me Dead, for years. It started as a dream, as so many of my novels do. A dream about this young girl having revealed a secret at a football game with her friends that was overheard and then someone trying to kill her for revealing that secret.
I spent many years trying to get the right story out. To tell the right story with the right characters. (Trust me when I say, no one wants to read those first drafts!) Finally, two years ago, I sat down and plotted out The Article as it was wittily called then. I wanted there to be a suspense/thriller with some romance dabbled into it. But, the romance took a big turn and become a lot of the focus of the story. I was surprised at that actually. It wasn't supposed to be that way originally because I'm a suspense/thriller author (or so I thought at the time). But, as it turns out, you can write both. Duh, you say.
Which isn't all that bad. Most YA novels do have romance aspects in them. There are a lot of love triangles and wanting that guy or girl you just can't have. Think about it, isn't that what we think of during out adolescent years? We love the idea of love triangles or that guy or girl we've crushed on and can't have finally falling in love with us.
Think about some of the more popular YA books out there. Take The Hunger Games for instance. If you've read the trilogy, you know that although the main focus is on Katniss and the Capitol, you also know that the undercurrent is of who she will choose, Peeta or Gale.
In Divergent by Veronica Roth, the main focus isn't just on the factions and Tris. It's about Tris and Four as well.
The examples could go on for miles, but I'll stop now.
I love the romance aspect of a YA book! I love yelling at the characters for making some stupid mistake when it comes to love. I love the whole feeling of first love from the eyes of another character! That's why when I wrote Read Me Dead I put in a love triangle! I wanted to put my character, Alexia, through the ringer of having to choose between to dudes she really cares about. I wanted her to suffer! (Come on, it makes for good reading and you know it!) Okay, maybe I didn't want her to suffer, but I wanted her to make a huge decision, and trust me, it was hard for us all!
Do you write YA fiction? Are you an avid YA reader? How do you feel about the romantic aspect in YA literature?
Leave me a comment about it, and two of you could win a free advanced digital copy of my novel, Read Me Dead!
Follow Emerald:
Like her Facebook page for a chance to win a prize pack giveaway! More details to come.
Blog
Win Your Copy
<a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js"&am... need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.
