Focus Fiction

New Adult

if you haven't guessed from me having this blog--I fancy myself a writer of sorts. I primarily write prose and have always focused on young adult novels--mostly due to the lack of good gay young adult fiction outside of authors like Julie Peters and David Levithan. (you should read these people--they're great) And one of the best things about writing in the age of kindle and nook is the rise of self-publishing.

Side Note: My prose writing is not like my blog writing. I'm not saying that one is better than the other but thought it was worth putting out there. No judgments please.

And one of the more interesting developments of in the rise of self publishing has been the invention of new genres--always a bonus. There's Amish romance (something I will write about in depth later), the legitimising of fan fiction and explosion  of the ghetto novel. But my favorite new genre is that of New Adult.

                 And yes-unfortunately this is both New Adult and Fan Fiction Revised

The idea of New Adult is that it is the life experiences that come between Young Adult fiction and traditional Adult fiction. It focuses on life right after high school and into the adult world--books set in college, about starting families and marriages or first jobs and career stories. It's an interesting combination of the innocence of the young adult characters but allows for the sexuality and interpersonal complications that comes from that transition in life. And while it has sub genres like any other major literary subset--it is a market that has been ignored because publishers thought people wouldn't want to read about the trials of being on your own for the first time in life, the difference between adult and teenage romantic relationships and the transition and owning of one's own identity.

And while there are a handful of famous books out there that could fall easily into this genre--"The Graduate", "Peyton Place", "The Secret History" among others-it is interesting to see what kind of stories come out of the strange world between being a teenage and a fully functioning adult. In today's society we have created a new timetable for our lives--most people now at least consider college which has become a type of emotional finishing school, are waiting longer for the traditional goals of marriage and family and this has created a new period of time in the average human lifespan. It's one to be richly mined and I cannot wait to see what stories come out of this new world.

                Though if it become a million versions of this claptrap I will eat a gun