Monday, March 18, 2013

Progress Report -- 3/18/13

Good news! A new agent has agreed to represent my book. We're going to reposition Dragon Waking as a middle grade book rather than YA and make a go at it!

So for those of you who don't know the fine distinction in play here, YA (Young Adult) in recent years has been defined by some pretty heavy stuff. Hunger Games is one example, plus the latter Harry Potter books, Twilight, etc. I would say that YA is now almost aggressively grim. Also, the convention now is that a romance is pretty much required.

Middle grade is a home to somewhat more innocent material, and my book fits in that zone. When I was growing up, there weren't all these fine calibrations between genres, but these days the publishing industry has gotten rather more precise (for better or for worse).

Anyway, that's the big news. Writing is going well for Three Shamans, which is definitely a straight-up adult book. What kind? Er... could be urban fantasy, paranormal mystery, possibly even some subdivision of horror. I'll finish it and figure out the genre later. They'll probably be different by that time anyway.