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Tag Archives: writerly

Sex in YA books is ruining my generation: Part I

11 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by Elisabeth in readerly, writerly

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

paranormal romance, teen romance, writerly, ya, young adult

Okay, okay, so that’s a melodramatic title, but hear me out.

The genre of Young Adult is divided into two subgroups with lower YA falling in the 13-15 age range and upper YA aiming for the 16-18 zone. Many sources may have slightly different parameters or definitions, but that is the gist.

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It’s not that we can’t handle sex talk.

Before we go any further, I want to say yes, it’s true young people are capable of handling a lot more than their parents and teachers generally give them credit for. Even in my  early teens, I could follow and carry on conversations with my father’s friends which ranged from local politics to international business.My brother was no different and I have many friends who have handled huge levels of responsibility and maturity from a young age.

That being said, I do not think people in the 14-18 age range are incapable of making mature and responsible decisions. However, I frequently find the attitude toward sex in YA novels disturbing. Lately, I’ve started to wonder if most YA authors are just YA authors because they wanted to write about girls losing their virginity.

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There’s the first trope from Satan…

Girl has perfect sex with the school’s conveniently hot bad boy who has always been a jerk to every girl before her, but totally changes because she “silences his demons” and blah, blah, blah. 

Scenario No. 1 has a laundry list of things wrong with it. There’s the unrealistic expectations and the idea that you should go into a relationship hoping to change someone (and said idea should die a slow, painful death). Not to mention I’ve yet to encounter a bad boy love interest who wasn’t borderline or outright abusive.

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Abuse in all it’s forms has been normalized by the Romance genre for so long (remember when Romance heroines would be raped by the heroes so that it would be socially acceptable for them to have sex?) and we certainly don’t need that scum in the YA section.

…and the second trope from Satan.

Girl has awkward, disillusioning sex with a guy who turns out to be an ass, but on the rebound discovers that casual sex is awesome so long as they use protection and her partner is hot.

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First of all, I don’t really understand how casual sex can be healthy (go read a medical textbook) or safe (go watch Criminal Minds) for anyone, but we’re focusing on the YA genre here. Scenario No. 2 is most disgusting because it encourages the idea that everyone is having sex and if you don’t, you’re weird, sheltered, immature, prudish, puritanical, or whatever the enlightened (aka sexually active) people are calling it these days.

But clearly this is all acceptable because it’s completely realistic. I mean, who gets to college age without having sex? In this century? No, everyone has definitely done “the do” before they’re old enough to vote and it’s imperative that we cure all the virgins as quickly as possible because society might crumble and anarchy ensue if we don’t.

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To be continued.

 

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Writing Update: May 2014

14 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Elisabeth in anouncement, my books

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

argetallam saga, daindreth's assassin, fanged princess, my books, writerly

I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that I am in the process of having the covers for the Argetallam Saga redone and the magnificent designer, T.L. Shreffler, is doing an awesome job thus far. The lovely Eli Hinze has finished beta reading The Temple of Tarkoth and I am even now going through her feedback. And I have something special planned for The Key of Amatahns come June (as soon as the KDP Select expires) and I’ll probably do a giveaway to celebrate, so stay tuned!

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Now for the bad news. I am going to have to push back the release date for The Temple of Tarkoth. Why? The root off all evil—money. I don’t have a regular job and with my father deciding he no longer wants to be married, things are going to be a bit tight. I might even miss updating this blog from time to time, but you can be sure nothing can keep me away for long! Things should work out, but we’ll just have to see.

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I there’s really nothing new to report with the Fanged Princess series aside from a few Top Secret ideas that I came up with after watching Underworld. We’ll have to see how things turn out when I start drafting the fourth novella and editing the third. The third FP novella is still on track for a September publication, so at least that’s going according to the Grand Scheme.

Do you remember how I said I was going to work on the sixth Argetallam Saga book this spring? I lied. I lied so, so bad. I didn’t mean to, it’s just that I started working on drafting the second Daindreth’s Assassin thingy and 148,000+ words later, I realized I still hadn’t made any progress on my other WIP. Turns out I have no restraint when it comes to this series. It’s just that it has assassins and gypsies and demons and evil queens and pirates and rangers and knights and basically everything I love about fantasy. I am weak.

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Right now my priorities are to edit The Temple of Tarkoth and whip Daindreth’s Assassin into coherent condition so I can have it with beta readers while I work on the sixth Argetallam Saga book (for reals, this time). In it’s present state, DA is a disjointed mess of scenes that don’t make sense because I changed a bunch of things about the world/characters/storyline as I was writing. Meanwhile, The Temple of Tarkoth is basically the Adverb Apocalypse and, as my beta reader pointed out, I really need to go easy on the animal metaphors. Not to mention a bunch of thematic details that need to get smoothed out…

So that’s what going on in the writerly world of Elisabeth Wheatley. Sorry I don’t have more good news, but I’m working on it!

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