Monday, October 31, 2011

Angels, vampires, werewolves, what next?

Finding myself with a little spare time this afternoon I caught up on a few of my fav blogs. In the good books - see my Inspiring Blogs List - talked about how covers can be deceiving and how many of us get caught up in the romance, graphic genius and super-coolness of newly released novels. Now, you all realise I'm talking Young Adult here, right?

The fabulously dark and artsy Lauren Kate 'Fallen' series, the mysteriously sensual Becca Fitzpatrick Hush Hush trilogy, the gothically lush Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - all these novels made my heart pund in the shop. I wanted to pick them up, take them home and display them on my shelf. But were they any good? I enjoyed them all different levels, though Beautiful Creatures more than others. And I did get slightly frustrated with the plot by the time I had purchased and read books three of both Fallen and Hush Hush. But, I digress.


What my little foray into the world of new YA novels really got me thinking about was what all these lavishly designed covers were touting. Vampire love, werewolf lust, dark angel angst etc. What else? Oh yes, post-apocolyptic survival, Greek myth in the modern world and zombies. Actually, zombies, in my humble opinion, has not been done quite to death (sorry - had to do that!) yet and I wonder if this is perhaps because loving zombies isn't quite stomach-able - it's my made-up-word and I'm sticking with it! 


So what's next? What will the next big thing be? And how do you know if what you're writing is going to be 'in' or 'old news'? 


I believe it doesn't matter what's 'hip'. To me a writer should write the story in their hearts. So what if a dear and rather knowledgeable writer friend told me an agent had mentioned in a blog that she was totally over Mermaids? What's my novel about? Mermaids and Aliens. Well, not really! It's about true love, evolution and the end of the world - but yeah, ok, there's kind of mermaids in there - with legs. Does that mean I should abandon submitting it? Polishing it? Loving it? 


Or should we just realise that YA fiction has bloomed and blossomed because teens love the formula. They, in general, want the girl to meet the boy, for there to be some terrible reason they can't be together, then get it on in the end. Am I being too basic? It's like middle-grade fiction like Harry Potter. The archetypal storyline here has been done to death - underdog triumphs over all-powerful evil - see Star Wars. But what did we all do? Hung on JK Rowlings every word, queued for hours to get the next installment. 


So where am I going in this? Hmm, your guess is as good as mine! What would I like to read more of? Mermaids of course! Haven't read a really good mermaid book since Hans Christian Anderson. Maybe Ingo, but I didn't absolutely love it. What do you think? What should be the next 'thing'? Should there be a 'thing'?

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Getting out there in the cyber-verse


It’s official – I have a live website. And a blog. What is the world coming to?

When an inveterate techno-phobe such as myself dabbles and achieves relative success online you know the times they are a’changin’.

I’m not going to woffle on in this post, just wanted to let you all know I’m here...gulp. Feels weird, honestly never thought I’d become a blogger!

What I will do is let you know what’s going on in the wacky and wonderful life of me. At this stage I am editing The Nereid, working on my second novel, awaiting the release of my latest work in Discover New Zealand Luxury Collector’s Edition Magazine and building my copy, content and creative writing career.

Do check out my new website – there’s a sneak peek of The Nereid on there and other interesting things I get up to in all my spare time – says the mother of four!


Ciao!