imogen

Hey, Sarah! Immi x

Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster. The main portion of Anne of Windy Willows by LM Montgomery. Black Maria and The Spellcoats by Diana Wynne Jones are kind of written in journal form. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot (lol--obviously). I Capture the Castle is written in journal form--very effectively, IMO.

I've read lots of these, but I've just added more to my Amazon wish list! Janet, it's funny--I love Little Women and often re-read it, I think I Capture the Castle is one of the best books ever written (the last page gives me shivers), but I loathed Carrie's War. I used to re-read it hoping somehow I'd missed some kind of happy ending that would make it less depressing. I agree with you re. the Alice books and To Kill a Mockingbird, though. :-) Oh, and this made me laugh!

lol, well I don't think bookshops/ libraries were great at marketing directly to YA customers. Our local library had a children's section, and a much bigger adults' section, and a shelf for 'teenage' books. So the stuff that was written for YA probably got shoved into either the kids' or adults' section. Apart from those few examples in my above post, I mostly, like you, went from children's fiction to adult fiction. In my case, from the age of about 9, some very inappropriate racy romances. My mother used to get them from the library for me cos they were historical, so I think she thought they were educational!

These are helpful thoughts, thank you! Doctor-Who-Mad-Gal, His Dark Materials is a great example, I think, of a successful crossover series. And I don't think Philip Pullman's narrative voice is very young-adult-sounding--I mean, he just wrote the story and it ended up being popular with all ages. Which is my ideal scenario. lol But bunches of other useful comments, thank you everyone! Michelle, I don't know how old you are. I'm 34, and when I was 11 and older, I remember there was quite a lot of teen romance in bookshops--Sweet Valley High and others. There was also Judy Blume. Um, Diana Wynne Jones. Madleine L'Engle. They all wrote children's books, but they also wrote books aimed at an older age group. I don't think they were particularly called YA, though. I remember an imprint called Teen Tracks, I think?

This is a nosy question for young adults, or adults who can remember being young adults! What do you prefer when you're looking for good books to read? A specific kind of 'young adult voice' (like Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries, for instance)? Or does that not matter to you--are you just looking for a good story? I suppose another way of looking at it is do you prefer books where the author or narrator sounds as if they're a young adult, too, or do you not care either way? I'm interested because I write--well, I call it crossover fiction. It tends to be suitable for young adults (my publisher defines that as having a main character in their late teens and no explicit sex), but I like to think it's enjoyed by young adults and adults. I don't want to put on some kind of fake 'teen voice' to write (and not that all young adults talk the same anyway...) but I've come across some opinions that state to write YA successfully you need to sound YA. Tell me what you think! Um, please.

Thank you everyone! And hi Jen! *blows kisses*

*is shy* Thank you for reading my stories! And thank you, Michelle, for recommending them! Immi x

Oh, DWJ is fabulous. She's got it all: she has amazing, original, completely off-the-wall idaes, and then she executes them impeccably--and funnily.

The Kindle is too expensive for me, although I have to say I do like the way it looks. How can you lose--book and cool gadgety-thing in one! Now, when they fix it so it makes coffee too... I read ebooks, using Mobipocket, on a little handheld PDA (Jornada 545, £35 from Ebay). The thing I love best about it is, as someone else said, the fact that it's backlit so you can read in bed without disturbing your partner. I have shelves full of print books, but for preference, now, I choose to read ebooks in bed. I also love that, with ebooks, it's instant gratification. I've sometimes felt like a new book to read at 11 o'clock at night, so I've logged onto Fictionwise or the Mobipocket site, or an epublisher, bought a book, paid for it with Paypal, downloaded it--and voila, a new book to read right that minute! I won't ever stop reading print books, but I really enjoy having the option of either. I bought a Jennifer Crusie ebook recently, just because I wanted to read it right then. As a writer of short stories, too, I appreciate the market that ebooks give me. It's hard to get short stories published, aside from magazine markets (which only have a certain number of slots each issue). With epublishers, I can have a short story published, given its own cover, and it sells for about a pound. And distribution is no problem. Well, so long as people have net access, that is.

You guys are so friendly! Thanks for the welcome! Immi x

Favourite authors or genres, hm... In bookshops I tend to wander towards the fantasy/sf section first, then the young adults. I haven't been a young adult for quite some time, but one of my favourite authors ever, Diana Wynne Jones, writes YA and children's books, so that's where I end up. I love well-written fantasy. And sf--as long as it doesn't fall into what I call the 'incest and cockroaches' category. And my favourite books combine fantasy/ sf with romance--I like a happy ending!

Hi! I found this forum through Michelle (who bought one of my books and said nice things about it so I love her already). This looks like a great place--I'll look forward to joining in the discussions. Immi x