YA Author Stacey Kade

I had two YA panels on Thursday last week and learned about all kinds of new books that I can’t wait to buy. Lucienne Diver’s new book, Vamped, looks like a lot of fun. I picked up a copy yesterday! Rachel Vincent and Caitlin Kittredge also have upcoming novels that will go on my must-buy list. On our panels, Melissa Marr talked about Fragile Eternity, and I grabbed one of those at the book fair! Signed to me and everything. Yes, be very, very jealous.

I also bought Marianne Mancusi’s Razor Girl, which has a post-apocolyptic setting. Can I tell you how much I love post-apocolyptic stories? *happy sigh*

The downside is now I have to wait to read them all, even the ones I was able to buy right away. I’m working on revising my proposal for a possible sequel to The Ghost and the Goth. And with being out of the loop in Orlando, but having tons of fun, for over a week, I’m now behind! Eek!

Okay, bear with me as I’m learning a new blogging program. I’m SO excited to see StaceyKade.com up and running.

At the moment, I’m in Orlando, FL, attending the Romantic Times BookLovers pre-convention. Official convention starts on Wednesday. I love this convention! So much fun!

Linnea Sinclair and I taught writing seminars today on Point of View, Conflict, Grammar, and Sensuality. The sensuality panel is always a hot one, both in terms of content and differing view points. Some people are surprised and dismayed to discover that there are “adult themes” in many YA novels.

When I was younger, many of the books in the YA section (back then, it was just the Kids Section) read like After School Specials on paper. You know, “do this bad thing [disrespect your parents, have sex, drink alcohol, etc.] and BIG BAD SCARY consequences will occur, from which you will learn a valuable lesson and never make a mistake again.” Blah.

Yes, life is about learning, but it’s rarely so cut and dried. And I hate preaching, of any variety, through a story. The story should be about the people in it and their issues, not scaring you, the reader, into or out of particular behavior. This, by the way, is my opinion for ALL books, not just YA.

Must run for dinner now!