The title of this post comes from Fred (my subconscious mind/muse/internal voice). He's whining again. He prefers to write short stories, but I'm making him help me with another novel.
The only problem is that ol' Fred only wants me to write YA novels. I'm okay with that. No one (apart from Stephenie Meyer or J.K., maybe a handful of others) makes a living on YA, but I'm not banking on making a living at this anyway (that would be, how you say, a pipe dream--although a very attractive one).
I started working on The House Eaters (which will, no doubt, receive a title change). I tried to work the whole adult horror angle (3rd person, the whole nine yards), but when I hear a narrator's voice, it's a seventeen year old boy. Maybe Freud could help me with that...
So, my narrator moves from the city to a rural farmhouse just before his senior year because his mom has lost her job. Their new place is 1/2 mile from a run down house (haunted? not really). He is suspended on his first day (always bullies, aren't there?), and hears the House (as he calls it) talking to him (no, it's not haunted...not in the conventional sense) while spending the day at home. I'm trying to blend some Native American spirituality with "old dark house" sensibilities with a healthy dose of teenage angst and dissolving family dynamics. Whew.
Oh, and The Black Garden is available for pre-order from Corpulent Insanity Press. The book has received a few interesting pre-release reviews.
12 comments:
That sounds like an interesting premise for a book. (Talks but isn't haunted?) I knew what you mean, for some reason the younger protagonists appeal to me as well. So much conflict in their lives already, it is a built in subplot.
Jamie - maybe that's it: built in sub-plot. Don't tell anyone, but the voices aren't coming from the house...
Enjoy 'The House Eaters' and only let Fred out to play on a Sunday.
You can write an adult book from a younger perspective. Look at "IT," they were barely old enough to have pubes!
Ooh, a house that provides dialogue...I'm sold! I like the idea so far.
Cate - he does his most damage on Sundays...
Natalie - true...(although I'm not sure I needed the pube image...)
Barry - dialogue goes a long way in writing a novel (not that I've written a successful one, but it does burn a lot of pages).
I've had a couple of ideas where the protag, and sometimes even the narrator, was a young person...I guess I was always afraid the reader would have trouble identifying, since it wasn't YA. But, Natalie's right: King alone had some great stories with prepubescent leads. I keep relating my experience with Faulkner: I just can't keep up when the narrator is a five year old boy on a turn of the century plantation...makes my head hurt. On the other hand, there are far too many 40 year old white male protags in literature.
I love the book idea. Lock Fred in another room until it's his turn.
Dude, YA sells like HOTCAKES! I don't know where all the doom-and-gloom folks get their "kids aren't reading" info from, but kids are reading an awful lot, and buying an awful lot of books. So go for the YA if that's what the story feels like!
Also, The House Eaters sounds incredibly cool.
That DOES sound awesome-- is that the one you said last month (or some time...) was inspired by that photo you took out near a pond? Some rundown house that looked crazy cool?
Also, everyone else already said YA sells like hotcakes, so I won't bore you with that again. But man, I wish I had some ideas for that bracket!
Katey - same one. I'm starting to scare myself with it, too. That's a good thing.
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