Thanks for all the feedback, y'all-- and keep 'em coming. Even though this isn't for anything more than my own edification. I've wondered, ever since the Carmen book was canceled by the publisher, if one of the reasons wasn't that it was too "old" for that particular imprint. Judging by the rest of the books in the line, I suspect that it was at least part of the reason. My three main leads were 18, 18, and 20, mostly because in order for me to feel comfortable in playing out the thread of the Carmen story, I wanted them all to be legal adults. The female lead, in particular, was sexually experienced and comfortable in her own sexual skin without it falling into ABC Afterschool Special territory. She was just pretty much a normal 18 year-old girl. However, I had no fewer than three editors point out to me how hot they thought the love scenes were and one, in particular, said she had to close the door in order to read them because she kept fanning herself. (Jeez, they should only read my adult stuff...)
At any rate, I just can't see this story playing out with young teenagers, so that's not something I'm going to be changing-- the question then becomes do we try to resubmit it as a young adult or as mainstream fiction? Things to ponder.
Barb, the Sloppy Firsts books are shelved both in YA and in the normal lit section at Vromans, if that helps you understand. I see her both in YA and regular sections all over.
Born Confused is wonderful.
A few of Ellen Wittlinger's books are in that age/time period. I forget which one I'm thinking of, but one of her more recent ones is sort of a sequel/follow up (focusing on different characters) and the main character is taking a year off after high school/before college.
so,
if homer's odyssey were written on twitter:
[link]
Can y'all give me titles of young adult novels where the lead character is either just out of high school or in college proper?
I thought of "A Five-Color Buick and a Blue-Eyed Cat" by Phyllis Wood but the Amazon blurb sounds like they're still in high school. I remembered them as being pre-college but I haven't read the book in 20 years.
Barb - there's also the Morganville Vampire series - that's set at college. I rather like them.
I just realized one of the books that floats around in my head is set during Freshman year at college. Maybe I should reframe it as YA and get cracking.
I just read Ellen Klages' White Sands, Red Menace, which is the sequel to Green Glass Sea. It's a very evocative look at life just after WWII, in a family of scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project and now are working on the V-2 rockets with Von Braun. The two girl leads have to deal with the inherent sexism of the time (one wants to be an engineer, the other is an artist in mixed media), racism, and the political stress of the beginning of the cold war.
Highly recommended, anyway.
I just got Lawrence Block's newsletter, and he's offering a box of random stuff -- 12 books! -- for $50. [link] They say:
No telling what you'll find, but we guarantee a hardcover first edition of Telling Lies for Fun & Profit, and at least two other LB hardcovers. There'll be foreign editions, anthologies, UK paperbacks, and other odds and ends, all at a tiny fraction of our regular retail prices.
So tempting!
