Congrats to the winners of the Inkys.
James Moloney is a great writer. Way back in 1996 when my first book came out, James was well established, with real classics such as "The Bridge to Wiseman's Cove", "Swashbuckler" and "Buzzard Breath and Brains", as well as at least one of the Dougy/Gracey books. Since then he's gone on to write more wonderful books, such as "Black Taxi", "Lost Property", "Touch Me" and the rather dark and menacing "Kill the Possum". I haven't yet read the Golden Inky winner, but I have no doubt that it will be an absolute cracker.
As for Cassandra Clare, well we all know how good (and popular) her books are, so it was no surprise to learn that she'd won the Silver Inky.
Now, I haven't been back here for a few days, despite ky promise to twk about Yung Adult through the ages, but I'm about to rectify that. Right now.
Young Adult. We seem to think that YA first emerged as a genre with "Catcher in the Rye" and "The Outsiders", but of course if we're honest about it, we'd have to admit that it began long before that. In fact, I believe that many of the books that are now considered great classics of the Western canon would, if published today, be published as YA. "Pride and Prejudice", "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Great Expectations", "Oliver Twist", and even some of Shakespeare's works, such as "Romeo and Juliet" would fit the YA mold very comfortably.
"Hamlet" is the ultimate YA novel, when you think about it. Hamlet is an emo. Seriously. That whole "To be or not to be" speech is basically a suicide note. And why doesn't he want to live? Because his life is crap, or so he thinks. Let's tick of the reasons his life is crap...
1. His dad is dead. Crap.
2. His mum is sleeping with his uncle. Crap.
3. His girlfriend is so freakin' crazy she ends up face-down in a pond. Crapitty crap.
4. His best friend is so cool it hurts. Just plain annoying.
And to top it all off and give it the ultimate YA twist...
5. Everyone dies!
See what I mean? Young adult all the way. It's a bit - and I mean no disrespect to him at all when I say this - quite a bit like a John Green novel.
So YA isn't new - not by a long shot.
Tomorrow, why I chose to write YA.
Out,
J
Let's think about Hal
