Monthly Archives: August 2013

Amazon Reviews For To The Survivors

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4.0 out of 5 stars An Unexpected Pleasure, July 5, 2013
By
zoomreader –
Despite the uneven pacing, this book delivers on its initial promise and tells the story of how survivors of an unimaginable plague might endeavor to continue the human race. When our eventual protagonist is introduced, Gary doesn’t seem like much, but under the tutalage of the older and tougher Hannah, he grows into the role of community leader. The early scenes with Hannah echo through the rest of the book, and the horror of millions of deaths can be related to in the individual losses Gary suffers as the disease takes its toll. This book will bring you close to tears at times but the end is ultimately satisfying.

4.0 out of 5 stars ~~ “A Day”~~, July 25, 2013
By
A Navy Vet…VT town
A virus is spreading quickly by contact and respiratory ingestion. This is a global event and despite the best efforts of governments, survivors will be minimum. At least the “powers to be” had the foresight to set up a few secure storage areas in their countries.

“A Day” stands for Announcement Day and it is the one that the survivors will remember a long, long time.

Gary Tolman is one of these lucky (?) survivors. His parents have just finished a house that is set up exactly for this type of scenario.

One has to be in the mindset of a survivor when reading this story. There are some moral as well as ethical challenges that must be taken into account. I kept asking myself, ” what would I do if in a similar situation?”…..

Interesting mix of characters and naturally individual as well as group problems occur.

And, I found myself cheering for the survivors right to the end. Well written and highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Sorry To See It End, July 19, 2013
By
Pat Patterson
This is an excellent book that kept my attention from the start. The only gripe I might have is that by the end, there were enough characters that I was having trouble remembering who a few of them were.
Like everyone else, I’m hoping the author doesn’t stop with this book. I’d like to know what the future holds for the survivors.

I highly recommend this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, July 2, 2013
By
dgrotz
I really enjoyed this book. It took you from the beginning to 20+ years. Very well written and a bargain.

5.0 out of 5 stars I hope the author has another novel in the pipeline, July 24, 2013
By
myrthlemaye
The beginning was so dark and depressing and very possible. The rest of the novel I could hardly put down. One irritating aspect was the author’s use of “wonder” when I think he meant “wander”. Maybe this is a British usage LOL.

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect balance of disaster and hope, June 18, 2013
By
Pixel Huggs
One of the best ever books I’ve ever read in the post-apocalyptic genre! I really hope the author is planning a sequel – the book ended with renewed fears for the human race but with a huge spark of hope – I hope the author continues the story.

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch, July 31, 2013
By
Jeffrey Bromley “Jeff Bromley” (Oregon)
Loved this story! Such bleak darkness with a very fervent optimistic streak. Can’t recommend this one highly enough. Lots of good info with a British twist 🙂

4.0 out of 5 stars good read, realistic, July 30, 2013
By
Robert Comerford (Australia)
While the writing is a bit clunky in places and there seems to be a cut and paste went wrong with chapter heading replacing some words later in the book, this is a well thought out novel.
If you are into reading books about authors dreaming about all the weapons they can have and how they can become another Rambo and save the world look elsewhere. This is about a realistic situation with people whose characters have good and bad sides as per normal.
Good value for money.

What The Hell Is YA?

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What the hell is YA as Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young-adult_fiction) defines YA as the following:

“Young-adult fiction or young adult literature (often abbreviated as YA),[1] also juvenile fiction, is fiction written, published, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, although recent studies show that 55% of young-adult fiction is purchased by readers over 18 years of age.[2] The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Library Association (ALA) defines a young adult as someone between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Authors and readers of young adult (YA) novels often define the genre as literature as traditionally written for ages ranging from twelve years up to the age of eighteen, while some publishers may market young adult literature to as low as age ten or as high as age twenty-five.[3] The terms young-adult novel, juvenile novel, young-adult book, etc. refer to the works in the YA category”

So what exactly is YA? Should I be writing for this market, which seems to dominate many categories or other genres or is this just a marketing gimmick? What distinguishes this genre from other categories? When I was in this age category I read grown up fiction to prove I was an adult. Children’s books consisted of Enid Blyton and the classics of Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island and Kidnapped. I also read The Hobbit. I have of course read as an adult the Harry Potter series with my own children but also for myself. Being from the Neolithic age pre-Internet, I regard all these stories as children’s books. Classic books were what we studied at school in English classes, I love Shakespeare, I have read Jane Austin, some Dickens, are these YA? Do I have to reclassify Romeo and Juliet as a YA targeted story? So maybe it’s my upbringing and age that causes my confusion and I am back to what exactly is this genre. I browsed the list of books on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/young-adult and I am none the wiser. There were 549 group discussions tagged as YA on Goodreads, but the definition still escapes me. I certainly do not wish to offend any of the clearly millions of YA readers or the thousands of YA Authors. So what is it that distinguishes this category?

Adult themes appear such as abuse, despair, and the struggles of modern or historical life. There are fantasy and Sci Fi stories, YA Romance, thrillers, short and long books. So is it the content I should look at or the language used. There may be non-explicit sex and violence, but many traditional genre books hold back from one or more of these. Relationships may not be consummated in YA, but Romance genre has lots of looking and gazing and very little actual sex. Is it the literary complexity of the language that dictates a YA novel or just the absence of swearing? One forum discussed the use of YA lead characters in the story as a guide, but that doesn’t seem to hold true for all the stories. If I read a Sci Fi novel about teenagers fighting off werewolves is it YA, Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, or a romance because one character dreams of kissing another?

My books tend to have fairly robust, some would say explicit, sex and violence and some swearing, does that mean they cannot be considered as YA? My second book To The Survivors has several YA age group characters. Is Lord of the Flies a YA novel? Who decided that this category even exists?

I turn to the marketing industry for guidance, and I am even more lost by tweens, teens, YA. They separate the three as individual target audiences. As adulthood is a cultural and legal definition, is a sixteen year old, a YA, a teenager, or a child? As a sixteen year old I positively avoided reading anything labelled as for a teenager, or a child. I wanted to be treated and saw myself as an adult, I read newspapers and adult fiction. I read Heinlein, Asimov, Silverberg and Clarke in Sci Fi. I read Heller and Updike, but added Le Carre and Deighton, whilst at school we had more Shakespeare to name just a few. I also read Lady Chatterley’s Lover and other D H Lawrence books and I sneaked in to watch the 18 rated films until they came on TV. I craved adult content that dealt with sex and violence not some pastiche of a 1950’s Hollywood movie where Rock Hudson and Doris Day are married but sleep in separate beds wearing more clothes than the did in the day time for fear of falling foul of the censors.

So is YA another form of censorship? The US TV market (excluding cable), gives us a guide, no sex, no swearing but endless violence is fine. Twilight the books and movies have chaste kisses and dreamy looks whilst violence and death surround the protagonists. Is this YA? If it is, then no thanks. If I ever write a children’s story it will not have sex, violence or swearing. My other fiction will be written for…. Well I suppose I am writing for me. I have blogged previously on this subject so I’ll try not to repeat myself. For the YA market, I think if you are a YA then you will like my books because they feature adult themes, but they are not in YA.

I’m not in YA, I don’t understand the category maybe someone else can explain the definition of this alleged genre to me.