Why I Write New Adult

 

If you look around the blogging communities – from author to blogger – you’ll find a wide range of opinions on New Adult as a category. Some are very excited about it, and some aren’t. Some view New Adult as a wonderful addition to existing categories, and as a bridge from Young Adult to Adult, while others thing it’s not necessary. Some consider New Adult nothing more than “sexier YA” or “erotica YA,” and so forth. Not me.

To me, New Adult is all about that time in your life when you’re straddling two worlds: the teenage world, and the adult world. The way you see the world is changing. The way you see YOURSELF is changing. Your safety net is thinner than it was when you were a teenager, and there are so many choices to make. Chances to take.

Can these choices and opportunities involve sex and romance? Yes. Does there have to be both? No. New Adult is about so much more than sex to me. It’s about finding out who you are, what you want to do with your life, and sometimes, who you want to spend that life with.

When I started AS YOU TURN AWAY, I considered the story from several angles. I wondered if Jonah and Quinn could be 17 or 18, and I could consider it upper YA. Then I pondered writing AYTA in more of an adult age range, but that felt off. Finally I realized they were both 22, and I realized I was writing a New Adult story. I wanted AS YOU TURN AWAY to be about several things. I want the same for all my New Adult books.

I wanted to write a story about two characters at very different points in their lives, who came back together over one summer.

I wanted to write a story about forgiveness.

I wanted to write a story about two people who weren’t okay, and I wanted my readers to know that is OKAY. I wanted to write about two people who were healing, but not depending ON each other to heal themselves.

I wanted to write a story about simple, good things: Sunday dinners with your family, how the crack of a baseball bat sounds when you just KNOW it’s a home run, playing with the little cousins or nieces/nephews in your family, spending time with your siblings, a second first kiss, holding hands with someone you love, driving down a country road with the windows down and the wind in your hair.

I wanted to write a story about two people who know the future is hurtling toward them, and who DON’T have it all together, and who, with help, start figuring out where they’re headed.

I wanted to write a story about learning to love yourself before you try to love someone romantically.

I wanted to write a story about coming home, about friendship, and about letting go of the past.

I wanted to write a story about how family isn’t always kin by blood.

I hope you will see at least some of these things in AS YOU TURN AWAY!