10 Things You Should Be More Ashamed of Reading Than YA

In the publishing world's furor du jour, some lady at some internet blowhard site has opined that adults who read YA should be ashamed of themselves because YA books have immature baby cooties. Earlier this week, I think (it happens all the weeks), there was someone opining that romance was what gave you the cooties, and also romance writers were fat awful women who mooched off of and mistreated their husbands with their obsessive hobbies and bad writing.

Today, I thought I'd share 10 things you should be more ashamed of reading than YA (or romance, come to think of it).

1) Internet blog comments sections (except for this blog, heh)

2) Your negative reviews (if you're an author) (and even if you're NOT ashmed of reading them, it's still slightly more shameful--meaning not very--than reading YA)

3) Diatribes about how much cats are horrible animals, unless it's meant in jest

4) Someone else's mail

5) The entire book in the bookstore, while breaking the spine, so you don't have to pay for it

6) Your ex's FB feed

7) The answers to the test you pried out of the teacher's locked drawer (or hacked computer account) before the test itself

8) Purchased term papers you intend to submit as your own or plagiarized books or internet content you intend to publish as your own. Though I guess it would be worse if you DIDN'T read them?? I don't know, but you should feel a lot more shame when you read these things than when you read YA, genre fiction, etc.

9) The crochet pattern, or other how-to instructions, after you have completely fubar'd the item you're trying to make. Granted, the shame here comes from not reading the how-to FIRST...but still.

10) Blogs, Twitter, FB, Wikipedia, Tumblr, random websites, and so on when you're supposed to be working on your damned novel or being otherwise productive! (except for this blog, heh)

Join in, everyone. List some more in the comments!!! (The comments you do not have to be ashamed to read because I said it was okay.)

Jody Wallace
Author, Cat Person, Amigurumist of the Apocalypse
http://www.jodywallace.com  * http://www.meankitty.com  

Writing the Female POV in Fantasy

Lately I’m back into writing fantasy and it feels good to be back in that “brain.”

Because it IS a very different writing brain. I’m not exactly sure why. But I’ve been working hard lately on my erotic romances (Five Golden Rings for the Carina Press Erotic Holiday Anthology and Master of the Opera for Kensington). Now I’ve turned my attention to Book 2 of my adult fantasy Twelve Kingdoms trilogy. Book 1 releases in trade paperback from Kensington next June. I’d tell you the titles, but they’re still in flux.

Suffice to say these are my “princess” books – about the three daughters of the High King, each more beautiful than the last. At the start of Book 2, there are sad events. It begins in a bad place, with strong emotions and physical illness.

Just so not where I’d open an erotic romance.

And, though there’s love possibly in this princess’s future, right now her life is about other things. She has a long road ahead of her and it’s fascinating to walk it with her. Especially because she’s pregnant and I’ve never been.

(For those of you who know I have grandchildren, I acquired 5- and 7-year-old stepchildren when I was 24. They always seemed like plenty!)

It occurs to me that this is something particularly female, to write about civil wars and the concerns of ruling a troubled kingdom, while the heroine is struggling with morning sickness. Sometimes I see criticisms of the work of women writers along the lines that we focus on “small scale” events, rather than sweeping ones. (Maybe “criticism” is the wrong word – I’ve seen that offered as a reason for why books by women don’t tend to win the Big Awards, because they’re not about Big Topics.)

So, in that paradigm, the war and so forth are Big Topics and morning sickness is a small scale event. But, for me as a writer, they’re intertwined. It’s also to deal with the issue within the constraints of what is essentially a (fictional) medieval-style society. Amusingly, when I asked on Twitter about morning sickness – what foods set women off and which helped – I got an avalanche of useful feedback. I also had to keep reminding people that foods like Saltines and tech like Zofroth pumps wouldn’t be available to my character.

It was a great discussion. I Storified it here.

Still, it’s making me think – are there many fantasies with pregnant heroines? And I mean, ones with close POV on the trials of it, not the beatific Madonna glowing nearby.

I’d be interested to hear suggestions!