RWA changes are afoot…
What are some of those changes?
Carrie Lofty posts at Unusual Historicals about the proposed changes in the history categories. I have to say I agree with tossing the Traditional Regency category. And the whole word count thing has always seemed dumb to me at least how it is structured.
They want to cut the Novel with Strong Romantic Elements from the Golden Heart. I completely agree with this idea unlike Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. I can see her side of it but as a romance reader why should the Romance Writers Association spend time and resources promoting non romance novels? I can somewhat understand it for the RITA’s as romance authors either branching out or trying something different but honestly I think it should be dropped from there as well.
Barbara Ferrer talks about the suggested changes in the Young Adult category and she makes a lot of sense.
BEST YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE – Novels with a strong romantic theme geared toward young adult readers and in which the level of sexuality may range from sweet to extremely hot.
I like the changes they want in the category but do think they need to fix the wording. Because as Barbara sez, I can already hear the click click click of the keyboards as people write in going OMG! Extremely HAWT YA? Are you nuts?
I do question, Novels with a strong romantic theme, I understand we need new blood. I get we want younger readers but mining them from YA novels so we may warp their lil minds later into romance readers doesn’t work for me. (yes that was sarcastic) I think they should drop theme. Should be a strong Romance that fits the age of the characters. Are there not enough YA novels that do that? I tend to think there are… correct me if I am wrong.
And I can see why they are adding the verbiage, may range from sweet to extremely hot, but really I tend to think it shouldn’t matter and it shouldn’t be included period. Unless you are talking about an award for Erotica or Erotic Romance.
This is something I had sitting in draft that should have been posted five years ago. Oops. What other changes are being suggested? What do you guys think? I really don’t see this or really any changes to the contests meaning much to readers or changing what people are writing. But it is fun to talk about.
um, I do feel uncomfortable with YA books being extremely hot. Maybe it’s my puritan upbringing . . . Wendy, you are the librarian. Are there alot of extremely hot YA books?
BEST YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE – Novels with a strong romantic theme geared toward young adult readers and in which the level of sexuality may range from sweet to extremely hot.
Are they fricking nuts????
Young adult… that means some kids in the 12 or so age range, or in my case, younger, will be reading these. THAT is who the book are targeted for.
Sorry, but anything above a sweet level targeted at MY kids? I’m taking the book back and complaining on a very loud, very vocal level. Young Adult isn’t high school or college level… those kids (the readers anyway) are already reading adult level books, Stephen King, Lori Foster, Nora Roberts & LKH. The YA crowd is the middle school or freshman age range and no responsible person can honestly (and logically) expect people to believe it’s okay to market super sexy books to young adults.
If my daughter decides she wants to try romance when she hits 7th, 8th grade, we’ll talk about it. I’ll decide what’s okay for her or not. My stuff… NOT okay. Super sexy or extremely hot…NOT okay.
If she’s talking 18-20 year old group, she needs to rethink her wording because the way it reads… she condoning super hot stuff for tweens and early teens.
I’ve been a children’s and YA librarian (including middle school) for eight years or so, and while I have read some books with some sexuality in them, I can’t think of anything that could be described as extremely hot. Maybe, some second base action, but actual sex is usually only implied or mentioned. I can’t think of any detailed sex scenes.
Poor choice of wording, IMO. I could see how it would freak folks out. I would be a little nervous about purchasing something described as extemely hot. OTOH, how many years have young, impressionable girls been having their minds blown by VC Andrews books? She had a new release in Target the other day BTW. She’s like the Tupac of literature, I think she’s been dead for 20 years, but books keep coming out.
When I first read about the changes, I was going to post about the fact that Young Adult books could now be super sexy.
I truly hope we don’t start seeing a flurry of Buffy-type characters, giving blow jobs to vampires and wolfies.
I’m sorry, but any YA with extremely hot sex is NOT A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL!!
I cringe to think that any child from around 8 and up could read something with too much sex or even violence. UGH
Maybe there should be age ranges on new YA novels. I didn’t start reading more adult books till I was around high school age. before that it was Babysitter’s Club and Nancy Drew for me!
What types of stuff do the Gossip Girls and books of that ilk have in there? I haven’t read any of them. Aren’t there some YA books being written right now with grittier depictions of sex acts? Note: I do not know, I barely have time to read Winnie the Pooh to my kids at night *heh*
While you can see by their wording that they are trying to make it not matter what the sexual content is in any of the categories – it frustrates me that they still refuse to see that Erotic Romance deserves a category of it’s own.
Personally, my reasoning for it deserving a category of it’s own is not just the sexual content. (And I posted part of my own letter to RWA on my own blog)
As for the YA thing – I tend to think what the hell is YA doing in a ROMANCE Writing compition anyway? Then again, I did read Sweet Valley High when I was younger…lol But I do agree, the whole sexual thing in YA confuses me…But maybe I’m just too old? I knwo the 16 and 17 year olds I work with are much more knowledgable than I was at their age.