Morality and Glorifying

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a Gleek.  Meaning that I watch the show GLEE every Tuesday and then sit and discuss it with my friends afterwards and giggle like a teenage girl...usually.

If you didn't watch last night's episode, it was all about the school's Alcohol Awareness week and to become "aware" the Glee kids spent a Saturday night partying it up at Rachel Berry's (and for some reason had a two day hangover) and then continued to spend their time drinking until one of them puked in public.  (Was that a spoiler?  If so I just gave the whole episode away in two sentences).

So what's wrong with this picture?  If you said underage drinking, you are partially correct.  The problem is, how can you condemn something when you did it yourself? Well one way is to NOT glorify it.

This is the age old discussion that we have all been having with YA literature and YA television.  YES teens are having sex and YES they are drinking, but do you really need to glorify it?  I'm not saying that teens need to see a moral in everything, but to not show the dark and the light side of it is kind of  like leaving out the sugar when you make a pumpkin pie...something just doesn't feel right.  (Note:  I use this analogy because I actually did do that...)

Does this mean that every teen in a YA book who drinks or has sex should suffer some kind of a consequence?  No, but in all the books I've read I don't really see it being exactly glorified.  In half of the YA books I read there usually is some sort of a sexual undertone and there is definitely drinking, but the author never actually makes their life better because of all of the sex and drinking.

Take for example Sarah Dessen's JUST LISTEN (I'm going to TRY not to give away spoilers).  Annabel does go to parties, she does drink at these parties, but it's NOT what the whole story is about.  There may be a chapter in which she talks about being at a party (something bad does actually happen at a party), but she doesn't sit there and talk about how awesome it was to be wasted or have her continuously doing it.  It's mentioned, but it's not the focal point of the story.  Does that make sense?

This is a topic that I could actually go on AND ON AND ON about, but really I want YOUR opinion.  What do you think about morality and the glorification of teenage drinking on television, movies and literature?  I will try and respond to EVERY comment on here instead of by email.  I want to know if I'm just being old and out of touch, or if this is something that bothered other people.

Monday Musings-Teenage Dream

You make me feel like I’m living a teenage dream.  The way you turn me on, I can’t sleep.

The fact that I write YA makes me have to think back to what I was like as a teenager…then I realize that it has been six years since I graduated high school and all of a sudden I feel like an old woman…an old immature woman that still giggles at the word ‘felatio.’

Originally when I started thinking of writing this post I wanted to talk about my celebrity crushes from high school, the guys I longed after my junior/senior year and really show my age.  But then…the funny part was…I couldn’t think of any celebrity crushes that I had.  (I guess that only comes after being married and longing after American Idol contestants…)  So I started to think, what was I like junior year of high school? WHO was I lusting after?

That’s where the above picture comes in.  That band is called The Color Morale and the leader singer is Garret Rapp- originally from my hometown of Winnebago, IL.  So do I know him?  *giggleteenagegirlblush*  Of course I know him and have spent hours staring at him while he worked behind the counter at the local skate park!  I mean…what?  Okay, yeah it’s true I did used to have the biggest crush on him.  He always had that shaggy skater boy look and was the lead singer in various local bands which equals immediate eye candy for every screaming girl in the area.

Just thinking about that brought out my inner most teenage girl crush-ridden gushiness.  The way my friends and I would spend our Saturday nights getting ready—lacing up our converse sneakers and zipping up our patch covered hoodies—trying to act like we weren’t trying too hard, but we were totally hoping that Garret would talk to us after the show or even show up at Perkins where we would hang out after the show.  (Okay this was actually before it was cool to do this.  I was NOT a scene kid, scene kids didn’t even exist when we were in high school.  I had a few friends that actually went to shows and we got made fun of for painting our nails black and wearing converse.)

So today’s musings (besides the fact that now my teenage crush has a record deal and is opening for bands like The Used—awesome), is to get back to that teenage girl feeling.  To remember what it was like to wait all day just for them to look at you and then smile and giggle when they did.  The feeling you got when the boy you dreamed of asking you out, did just that.  (Note:  Teenage girls…do they still call it “going out”?  That’s what it always was when I was in high school you were “going out with him,” not dating or “seeing each other,” but “going out.”  Am I not with the times?)  I’ve been writing a practice manuscript while the last bit of critique notes come in from my partners on HOW TO DATE AN ALIEN and it’s the perfect place to get in all my teenage girl gushiness and then later add them into my manuscript.  It’s actually quite fun and even though my husband thinks it’s crazy that his pregnant wife sometimes acts like a teenage girl…he still loves me and all my weirdness.

Who was your teenage dream?  What do you do to inspire that inner teenager?  Do they still call it “going out”?

Interview with Aussie Teen Author: Steph Bowe.

Magan: As a published author how does your life differ from the typical
teenager? Or doesn't it?

Steph: My life's different in that there's a lot of work I have to do - writing and the business aspect of being an author. So I spend a lot more time on my own than other people my age do.


Magan: I know you got to school by correspondence right now, but has that been something that you've always done or why did you leave a regular school?

Steph: I started doing school by correspondence about four years ago, because regular school environment didn't suit me - it wasn't flexible enough for me to pursue my dreams as a writer.


Magan: Has the experience that you had in school helped your writing at all. If so, how? Or if not what did help your writing?

Every single part of my life has helped and continues to help me as a writer... Everything inpires me, and even negative experiences help.

Magan: As the non-typical australiann teenager (and one of my favorite little magical writer stories) do you find that people treat you differently now
that you're a published author or have things not changed?

I meet a lot of people who are a bit resentful I've gotten published so young, and a lot of people who are really happy for me. But my life is mostly the same as before.


Magan: What is writing to you? Is it your escape, just a fun hobby, or
something that a vampire from beyond made you do or he'd kill you and your family?

Now, writing feels like a job more than anything! But I like to think of it as a vice... Something that's done under the cover of darkness, something non-writers don't get. It feels slightly illegal, making something out of nothing. It's like stealing reality.


Magan: Besides writing is there anything else that you like to do that is unique or may be perceived as weird by anyone not as cool as you?

Honestly, I barely have time for anything else!


Magan: How would you tell other girls your age (or even us insecure twenty somethings) to deal with all the pressure and drama that gets thrown their way?

Know that everyone else is just as insecure and experiencing self-doubt as much as you are. Stay true to yourself, be your own person, ignore their crap!

Magan: Famous last words?

My own or someone else's? I don't mine yet. It's funny you ask that, because one of the characters in Girl Saves Boy is obsessed with last words...

Magan: And just for fun a fab five: Favorite book, movie, food, TV show, and music artist?
Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell. Hot Fuzz. Cake. Supernatural. The Killers.

Steph Bowe is a sixteen-year-old YA author represented by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. Her debut novel, Girl Saves Boy, will be published by Text Publishing in Australia & New Zealand in September 2010 and by Egmont USA in America in 2011. She blogs about reading & writing YA fiction at Hey! Teenager of the Year and lives in Victoria, Australia.

Check her out at

http://heyteenager.blogspot.com/

Follow me...I'm the pied piper

So if you're not following me yet you really should be.

Found out from an editor that my book is not YA it is actually adult fiction. WHAT? Yeah I thought nineteen was young adult, but clearly I am wrong. Way to go waste of thirty queries. (But I have gotten told via twitter ,by my own personal Barbara Streisand, Deidre Knight that I am awesome! Yes I am that much of a nerd that I squealed because of it).

So once the MS of "My Paper Heart" (working title, Mandy Hubbard told me that publishers will change it anyways) is back from my editor then it goes out to be queried again, SHIZAM.

In other news I do have a new WIP. I am being VERY secretive about it though. Let's just say it involves a dad's lay off and emo boys.

Okay, okay I'll give you a sneak peak *Drum roll* The very first line is:

When life hands you lemons sometimes you just have to saw screw the lemons and bail.

Are you excited? Because I sure am. My BFFF is helping me write it...yes don't ask how it works, but usually it goes like this.
Me: Kelly is this something a teenager would say? Is this funny? Is this too provactive?
Kelly: You whine like a little girl and shouldn't you be working?

This is the most random post in the world, so here is my fun facts of the day:

1.) I realized that I have atleast another three years where I can still dress trendy and people won't make fun of me too bad since I'm young.
2.) I watched the movie "Keith," and absolutely adored it.
3.) I just want to stay home all day and lay in bed and watch Law and Order: SVU, but I literally don't have a free weekend until the end of June.
4.) I applied for a job in the state of Washington and I'm hoping for atleast an interview.
5.) I'm too cheap to buy books in hardcover, so I have my mother-in-law buy and read them then I borrow them from her.

Sometimes I feel like I'm writing to myself...

I never ever thought that I would say this, not in a million years. Thank you Stephenie Meyer.

That’s right I said it. On my constant theme of reading, writing, and all things geeky I thought I would discuss my love of reading. One of my best friends still lives back in my tiny hometown and we probably talk every day. She recently just finished up reading the Twilight books and it’s sparked a lot of conversation between the two of us about what is appropriate and inappropriate for young adults and of course what we read when we were in middle school.

Here’s the biggest kicker: I think Kelly and I were just about one of maybe ten kids in our class of 120 that actually read for pleasure. I know you think that sounds crazy, but it’s completely true. Harry Potter did come out when I was in about 6th or 7th grade, which a few kids did read, but mostly reading still was reserved for the B-list and below. Why Kelly and I were discussing the latest VC Andrews books we had read the other kids were talking about the latest episode of something mundane on MTV or whatever else the popular kids talked about. Don’t ask me what they actually did talk about because I was never cool enough to get within ear shot.

In high school you would think more kids would read, but no they didn’t even read the assigned readings in class they just spark noted them. My interest was sparked even more by reading in high school. I took a creative writing class and my teacher had said, “All good writers must read,” so at the beginning of every class we would have to read, and it had to be a book for fun no required class reading. Now if you go back to the previous paragraph you would see that I was the girl in middle school reading VC Andrews, so you can only imagine how much my reading progressed into high school. Let’s just say it wasn’t until the past few years that I actually read young adult books and enjoyed them. In middle school it was VC Andrews and in high school it was a lot of Nicholas Sparks and other romance novels. The first book that could be considered young adult that I read was “Sloppy Firsts,” By Megan Mccaferty. Now sometimes this is labeled as Young Adult and sometimes it’s in the fiction section, but either way it’s a great book and you should check it out.

The point of all of this is the fact that I don’t think I ever saw as many people reading until “Twilight” came out. Then all of a sudden it was cool. Every girl I’ve met whether she is a fourteen year old cheerleader or a fifty year old mom has read and enjoyed the books. These books were also the ones that sparked my joy for reading again. Being in college I didn’t get a big chance to read a lot for fun, so on my final spring break I finally read the Twilight books and about 100 books later I can say that my love of reading has been re-kindled. Within a year’s time I had also wrote my own Young Adult book (which I will classify as Contemporary Teen Fiction because if VC Andrews and Gossip Girl is on the Young Adult book shelf then I think mine qualifies).

So Thank You Stephenie Meyer for making vampires and reading cool again. I still am a bit mad that now teenage girls think that vampires sparkle, but hey at least now less girls will get mad

The thin line of adulthood

In The Sims 3: you are a teenager for 14 days then you become a Young adult for 21 days, then you are an adult for 21 days before you become an elder. As a teenager you cannot get pregnant, but as a young adult you’re pretty fertile and can keep having babies from young adult to adult.

Okay now really what did my description of The Sims 3 and pregnancy have to do with anything? Well I’ve been thinking a lot about adolescence and adulthood recently. Okay more so since I started trying to write Young Adult novels and finally graduated from the juniors section at the department stores. So my big question is, “Where is the line of young adulthood and adulthood drawn?”

In The Sims 3 it’s by a couple of days (or hours if you are sitting on your couch playing like me). The only thing that really defines the difference between teenagers and adults is the ability to have children and not go to school. In the literary world I really feel like this line is even more discreet. JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer introduced a lot of adults to books that were aimed at a younger audience and could keep mom and teenager both entertained. When I was a teenager/ middle schooler I was actually reading VC Andrews and Charles Dickens and now I read Mandy Hubbard and Meg Cabot, so it was kind of like a role reversal there.

But I really question this line the more I write. Some people say that in Young Adult books there should be sex or profanity. Well let me tell you I read “Forever” by Judy Blume and “Perfect Chemistry” by Simone Elkeles and neither of those books (that are both YA) were nothing short on the sex or swearing. The main difference that I do see in these novels is the age and that’s it. Honestly I think the main character in a Young Adult novel in the book store can be anywhere from twelve to nineteen and be the same book as one written about a fifty year old in the fiction section. Do you agree?

These questions go through my head as I go on my journey from teenager to young adult and as I decide where I want to play in my own role as a writer.

Mentoring

Mentoring, what is it?

men·tor   /ˈmɛntɔr, -tər/ Show Spelled[men-tawr, -ter] Show IPA
–noun
1.a wise and trusted counselor or teacher.
2.an influential senior sponsor or supporter.
–verb (used without object)
3.to act as a mentor: She spent years mentoring to junior employees.
–verb (used with object)
4.to act as a mentor to: The brash young executive did not wish to be mentored by

—Related forms
men·tor·ship, noun


—Synonyms
1. adviser, master, guide, preceptor.

So what does mentoring have to do with anything? In my job I have a mentor, but I think mentors are something everyone needs in their life; not just on the job. I am currently talking to a mentor about my manuscript and started realling thinking how important those mentors are in life.

One of my friends was telling me about her little cousin who is in middle school. Now by definition her cousin is one of those girls that would have been throwing stuff at me in middle school, so needless to say it was an interesting topic. But my friend was sitting at dinner with her cousin and her cousin was being an angsty teenager and pouting. But when Kelly took interest and just talked to her, her little cousin fully paid attention and actually headed her advice.

What does this mean?

I don't know about the rest of you, but from my experience in middle school, if your older cousin/sibling or even someone else at school was willing to help you out...you took that advice. I mean there can be amillion books about 'peer pressure' or 'helping teens,' and kid's parents can tell them whatever they want, but the truth it; they're not going to listen to most of it. But if a mentor takes them under their wing that's going to mean more to them than anything.

Who are your mentors? What are some profound words of wisdom that you have received?