Having Second Thoughts

[larryhammer]

For those of you following the saga from home, in the two weeks since my last post, this poet wrote a novel, or at least a 53k-word first draft.

*bangs head*

It's YA erotica — an explicit teen lesbian romance. High school students screwing around, screwing up, and picking up the pieces. Everyone is firmly under 18. Which, commercially, is a problem.

*bangs head*

Unless I figure out how dial back the explicit sex. Which looks hard, given half the emotional shifts happen during (and responding to) the sex. But then, I'm still half living in their lives, so it's not like I can see clearly. Maybe as I revise in descriptions (it's like 80% dialog) and trim the plot threads that went nowhere, I'll wrap my brain around how.

*bangs head*

Oh, and "Second Thoughts" is the title.

---L the headbanger.

Comments

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I quite understand the publishing qualms, but congratulations just the same. Any chance you could rewrite them just slightly as 18yos? ::sigh::

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Maybe in the current climate of hip hop, it will sell. Certainly a certain group of people (probably not the target audience of teenagers) will buy it. But libraries may not want it.

Hey, bet it will sell in Europe. Try selling to a British press instead. I met "a famous writer" who is three lawyers who decided they wanted a tax deductible trip to England, so they wrote a book, flew over, tried to sell it there, and (gasp) it sold.

But George W.'s US? Probably not.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Have you read Melvin Burgess' books? They're full of explicit sex, from what I hear.

[larryhammer]

I'm sqinting at it. But ... the main characters are in spring of junior year; they feel trapped, by their age, by living in a small town, by parents, by being stuck in high school for another year (not to mention by closets). That oppressive sense of confinement, the frustration, is what drives Protagonist & Co. It'd be easier to tone down the sex and aim for the edge of YA. Or so it looks from here. But as I said, not objective right now.

---L.

[larryhammer]

Would a book set deep in a Western small town sell in the UK?

---L.

[larryhammer]

No, I haven't. <makes note>

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Good luck! It don't think it's impossible, you just have to find the right editor who doesn't fear what librarians and parents =might= say.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

BITCH is about a girl who turns into a dog. Doggie-style follows, apparently. DOING IT is about boys and sex, but I think more talk than action.

You might read them, then try Anne Hoppe at Harper Tempest.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

It's exotic, remember.

It's worth the try.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Good for you for writing it. It sounds fascinating.

[randimason.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's so much the librarians who would be looking at it askew due to content as to looking to see whether or not it's worth the battles to keep it.
But that's just my .02

[janni.livejournal.com]

IOW, it needs to be good enough for them to decide it's worth taking a chance on. That's reasonable.

[ursula]

I wish!

See for example the School Library Journal review of my my mother's scandalous YA novel (which did sell, but hasn't gone into paperback, due to the librarians & parents problem.)

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Julie Burchill has a lesbian teen romance YA coming out very soon. See interview here (http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,1288191,00.html).

And here's a quote from the interview which about sums it up:

"'Oh, there was far more sex before, before the publishers cleaned it up. I was glad they did because I'm very against paedophiles myself and I didn't want people accusing me at any point of finding underage girls sexy, so I was delighted when they said they were taking all the sex out.' Taking all the sex out? But it's still dripping with sex - 'She pulled my head down and kissed me hard on the lips. Fireworks exploded inside me.' But Julie says that's nothing: 'You want to read a bloke called Melvin Burgess - every page is blowjob this, buggery that. Mine is the Ann Widdecombe of teenage novels.'"

[larryhammer]

I'm not quite sure a lit'ry celebrity doing it quite helps me, but it's comforting nonetheless. Thanks for the pointer.

I'm still thinking about what to do with this one. To keep my mind off it, I'm writing another, less-steamy YA.

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Julie Burchill is not to be equalled, but, judging from what I have read of her writing, surpassing her work would not be difficult. There is certainly a market for YA that explores sex and (possibly) what it does to one, unrepentant messy sex at that.

On the other hand, there's this (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/books/review/22MILLERL.html). The world is a minefield...

Good luck!

[larryhammer]

Feh! on problem novels (though, of course, I loved Little Women when I was a boy). Feh!, I say. Romantic comedies rule.

---L.