To promote the release of  Genesis by Lara Morgan, the first book in the Rosie Black Chronicles, yaReads is very proud to be part of the Lara Morgan blog tour.

Heroines in Young Adult Fiction

When I was in my early teens one of my favourite heroines was a girl called Trixie Belden. She was a teenage sleuth who had short strawberry blonde hair and lived in America where it always seemed to be sunny and people played a lot of tennis. Trixie was always investigating something. She was constantly involved in mysteries which she had to solve with the help of her family and friends. Many times they were dangerous, but she was smart and intrepid and even though she did sometimes mess up, she usually managed to get herself out of trouble and save the day. To me Trixie was the coolest girl on the planet. She wasn’t perfect, she didn’t always get it right but she had guts and I loved that about her. I read as many of her books as I could get my hands on.

That was the early 80s. Of course there still was an element of sexism around; Trixie’s brothers sometimes behaved like 1960s ad men who knew everything, but Trixie herself was still a go-getter. She didn’t wait to be rescued, she could rescue herself.

It’s been said that that type of heroine isn’t around enough anymore. I’ve heard complaints that there are too many books with heroines whose sole purpose seems to be achieving/keeping the love of a boy, but I’m wondering if that’s actually true or if it’s just a perception that’s arisen due to the success of Twilight.

Debates rages over Bella and her boys. We love her. We despise her. We compare her with characters in more recent novels, such as The Hunger Games, and find her lacking and we worry she’s a bad role model for girls today who will start believing a boy creeping into your room to watch you sleep is romantic not creepy.

I think this is a mistake and that we are all a bit smarter than that. I also think that Twilight, along with similar forbidden love romances that have been inspired by it, is a fantasy that plenty of people like to get lost in but not necessarily believe in.

And I don’t think there aren’t enough alternatives for those who want to read about girls doing something other than falling in love. I think it is actually in film, tv and music videos where the positive representation of young women is lacking. That medium is littered with girls as gossip hungry, vacuous boy hungry air heads or overly sexualized gyrating dancers clinging to male singers. Heroines in books are providing some of the better role models really when you look at it that way.

I’ve read plenty of books recently with a female lead who faces desperate situations and overcomes them. Yes there is often a boy and romance involved and there is a focus on gaining his love, but there is also a heavy focus on the girl’s own journey.  The Guardian of the Dead, The Hunger Games, Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tales, The Mortal Instruments, and Claudia Gray’s Evernight series just to name a few are some of the more recent heroine driven works which feature girls who make their own choices, good and bad, despite the love interest of the storyline. So I don’t think we can say there aren’t enough good heroines in books. They’re not perfect, but they are there and it is those types of books, as well as the formative influence of those Trixie Beldens that have inspired me during the creation of Rosie Black.

I wanted a character who was independent, smart and courageous but one who was also flawed, a girl who doesn’t always make the right choices and who can love a boy but still follow her own path. A character who is real. That, I think, is the crux of what we want to see more of in our heroines and I think we are getting there.

A big thank you to Lara! Genesis is available in store in Australia and online for international readers.

Next stop on the tour: ‘The Boy in this story; creating male characters in heroine driven YA.’ @ The Phantom Paragrapher

When it comes to being a celebrity, there are certain things that come standard. A stellar music or movie career, legions of adoring fans, maybe a rockstar boyfriend or two and the hottest stars on your speed dial because you’re BFFs.

It seems these days to be a star there are certain extras you need to have in your repertoire to achieve true celebrity status. Usually it’s a clothing line, perfume or beauty range. The latest addition to that list is a book deal. The one thing they each have in common is that though these items have the celebrity’s well known name attached, behind the scenes they’re created by a team of  regular people. The same applies to books, and everyone from Hilary Duff to Snooki are using ghostwriters.

What is a ghostwriter? A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts (in this case, fiction) that are officially credited to another person.

Books “written” by celebrities have been a hot topic that has divided the book blogging community. I personally am not a fan of the concept. I haven’t yet read any of these kinds of books but my issue isn’t with the book itself, I’m sure plenty some of them are quite good. It’s to do with something Hilary Duff said at a recent signing for her book Elixir, “I wrote a book, so it goes to show you that anyone can write a book if they have an idea”.

What irks me is who the credit goes to. Yes, she came up with the idea for the book but she, and other celebrity “writers”, did not write the book. I’ve got plenty of good ideas for a books but if I were to pen them myself they’d be the most boring, unreadable stories you’d ever read. That’s if I managed to finish writing one.

It takes time, dedication, skill and talent to write a good novel. Which I don’t doubt the ghostwriters have, but that skill, should come with the credit. As a fashion designer, I hate hate hate seeing a celebrity say ‘I’m bringing out a clothing line!’ as if it’s that easy. Whether it’s writing a book, designing clothes, or anything creative, it’s hard work. Because of that, I don’t feel a celebrity should be able to stand next to someone like Richelle Mead or Cassandra Clare and call all three of them authors.

But that’s one opinion.

I sat down with a former ghostwriter, with many years experience to get their perspective.
How do you in general feel about celebrities ‘writing’ books?

I’ve definitely scoffed at some of the books I’ve seen by celebrities. But overall, the industry has enough room for us all. And if a celebrity can help turn someone who may not be a reader into someone who purchases books more often, than that’s amazing. I’m of the mindset that any kind of reading is good reading — and that reading itself is a gateway to more, and better, reading. So I don’t have any issues with celebrities writing books.

To your knowledge, how involved do celebrities (or person who comes up with the concept) get in the writing process?

I’m afraid I don’t have much insight into this. But I do think it’s important to remember that the process of publishing a book involves a lot of people, and a lot of input. Any book I pick up off a shelf has been read by multiple beta readers, at least one agent, several editors, copyeditors, and more — all of whom make changes to the work. So if a celebrity who writes a book has more (or less) editorial help than a non-celebrity author, I don’t have a problem with that.

Do you ever feel cheated that someone else’s name is on the book? Or that ghostwriters don’t get enough credit?

I can see why someone would think that, but the answer is honestly no. In my experience, the ghostwriter doesn’t handle the plotting — which, in this ghostwriter’s opinion, is the hardest part of writing a book. We don’t come up with the concept, the characters, the conflict — all of that is taken care of by the author. In some cases, even the jokes are created by the author, not the ghostwriter. So I don’t feel cheated at all. I get fairly compensated!

Do you get annoyed that many good stories by writers are being passed up for publishing yet books with a celebrity’s name attached gets picked up straight away?

If someone has an amazing manuscript, it will get sold, whether it’s by a famous person or not. That said, it’s probably true that celebrities have an easier time selling their manuscripts — but that’s because the public buys them more often than they buy debuts from unknown authors. Publishing’s a business. If the buying public stopped buying celebrity fiction, publishing houses would stop buying (and marketing) celebrity manuscripts. They’re just catering to the market.

Do you think having celebrities like Hilary Duff and Lauren Conrad ‘writing’ books makes book seem more accesible to that younger age bracket or it’s just a way for publishers to make more money?

It’s not mutually exclusive. Yes, Lauren Conrad’s books can make reading feel more accessible to audiences. And yes, it makes publishers — as well as bookstores — money. I view it as a win/win situation. (I have no idea whether ghostwriters were/are used in those books, by the way, but to be honest, I find Lauren Conrad’s books infinitely more readable than some other recent bestsellers-turned-blockbuster-movies — which helps demonstrate, as I said above, that there’s room in the market for all of us.)

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Thank you to our ghostwriter, it definitely gives you something to think about, maybe even change your mind?

How do you feel about ghostwriting? Don’t mind? Don’t care? Share your thoughts.

You should never judge a book by it’s cover.

Sure….but they never said we couldn’t admire them. Cover of the Week pays homage to the beautiful and eye catching graphics that grace the covers of our young adult titles.

This week’s cover of the week goes to Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: March 2011