I write fantasy and science fiction, both for adults and for young adults. My agent is currently marketing my novels.  I update this site quarterly, with information about me, my fiction, and writing in general.  Posts on specific topics are available on the link in the left column.  I update my blog two or three times a week with my thoughts on publishing, life in general, and speculative fiction in particular.

I've posted a short story on this site, a prequel to my YA novel Bag of Tricks. The short story is called "Aveline's Price", and it is available under the Free Sample link to the left.

Why YA?

YA stands for "young adult," an interesting label because it's often used as if it were a genre. But when you think about it, the term YA refers to the reader, not the work. Agents and editors speak of the mystery market, the science fiction market, the mainstream market, but within the YA section of a bookstore you can find mainstream stories, science fiction novels, fantasy stories, romances, mysteries, and all the other genres. So in a way, when you write for younger readers, it frees you from the need to label yourself with a specific genre. This can be a liberating thing for a writer.

Of course there are also rules. When you write for young people, you generally need to write about young people. A friend of mine defines a YA novel as one in which the protagonist is young and the story is about the most important event in his or her life. There's also the need not to make the story too violent or too sex-laden, but I don't find that at all limiting. It doesn't have to be unrealistically upbeat or (God forbid) bland, it just has to be sensitive to the reader's needs.

Speculation in fiction

Another reason I like YA is that younger readers seem more receptive to speculative fiction. Partly this is because they haven't learned to be snobbish about what they read. Some people maintain the attitude that if they like a book, it can't be science fiction or fantasy. This implies that all genre works are garbage, an idea I categorically reject. Some of these folks will admit to liking fantasy but not science fiction, and a few are the other way round, but all of them are missing the boat. If you refuse to read a book because it has a space ship in it, or fairies, vampires, or some other form of the not real world, you will miss a lot of good stories .

Classic Stories

And after all, good stories are what fiction is all about! We still read Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Heinlein, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and other long dead writers because they wrote good stories. A good story needs an interesting plot, strong characterizations with well developed relationships between the characters, enough description to set the scene, and enough style to entertain the reader without getting in the way of the story.

And if they have all that, YA books can appeal to older readers as well as younger. I have seen plenty of commuters on the subway reading Harry Potter books. I have grown children but I still like to reread Captains Courageous every now and then, or even The Secret Garden.

Every writer wants readers. I personally don't care how old (or young) they are!