Joy N. Hensley
Rites of Passage
*The Harder You Fall
Jodi Meadows
New Soul series: Incarnate, Asunder, Infinite, "Phoenix Overture"
The Orphan Queen series: *The Orphan Queen, *"The Hidden Prince," *"The Glowing Knight," *The Mirror King, *etc.
Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves (with several other authors)
*My Lady Jane (with Brodi Ashton and Cynthia Hand)
Lisa Maxwell
Sweet Unrest
*Gathering Deep
*The Stars Turned Away
Cristin Terrill
All Our Yesterdays series: All Our Yesterdays, *Tomorrow and Tomorrow, *etc.
* = not published
Our event:
Young Adult Author Panel @ Main Library
3/19/2015
Join a panel of young adult authors March 19 from 6-8pm for a discussion on their works and the YA genre. Authors include Joy N. Hensley (Rites of Passage), Jodi Meadows (Incarnate series, The Orphan Queen), Lisa Maxwell (Sweet Unrest), and Cristin Terrill (All Our Yesterdays). We will have copies of their books available for signing. If anyone age 11-17 signs up for L.O.L., they'll get a free copy of Sweet Unrest!
Location:
Main Library - downtown Harrisonburg
More about the authors:
Four YA Authors to Discuss YA Popularity, Their Books
2/23/2015
Massanutten Regional Library has noticed the popularity of young adult novels, and has invited four YA authors to visit its Main Library Thursday, March 19, 6-8 pm to discuss not only their published works, but the popularity of YA fiction. This event is free and open to youth and adults alike.It comes as no surprise that young adult novels are not just for teens anymore.
According to an ongoing biannual study of Bowker Market Research, fully 55 percent of buyers of YA novels are 18 years or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 34, a group that alone accounted for 28 per cent of YA sales. Typically YA books are written and published for kids aged 12-17. When asked about the intended recipient, 78 percent of the time consumers stated they were purchasing for themselves. These statistics are courtesy of Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age.
“Obviously dystopian YA fiction has become a booming genre,” says Emily Correa, Youth Services Assistant at Massanutten Regional Library. “Book series such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, and The Giver have only gotten more popular with the release of their film adaptations. Most of the books that were turned into movies and released last year (The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, The Giver, If I Stay, and The Fault in Our Stars) barely reached our shelves. As soon as one of these books got checked in, they were put on hold for another patron. Right now, these books are still getting checked out.”
Jodi Meadows, an Elkton resident, is the author of four dystopian YA fiction books and will return to MRL as a member of the YA panel and discuss her writing and publishing experiences on March 19. Her Incarnate novel, the very first novel in her Incarnate trilogy series, made the Top 10 Young Adult Fantasy Books in 2012 as recommended by Lisa Parkin, a columnist for The Huffington Post, along with such national favorites asDivergent, by Veronica Roth, and The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.
According to Meadows, fantasy comes naturally to her when writing. “Fantasy is where my heart is. I've always loved the idea of magic, how people might use it, and the ramifications of that,” says Meadows. “Every now and then I think I might have an idea for a more contemporary story -- but it never really seems like mine without an element of magic.”
A prolific reader, Meadows mainly focuses on YA material when reading since that is what she writes. She tries to keep up with what is popular and hitting the best seller lists. Meadows advises aspiring writers to be prepared for negativity.
“Writing is not an easy career to have. There’s a lot of heartbreak and rejection, and all of it feels personal, but if you love writing and telling stories, then there’s nothing else quite like it.”
Northern Virginia author Lisa Maxwell’s first book, Sweet Unrest, combines the present with the past and follows its main character through a paranormal adventure. The setting of the novel is New Orleans, a place she visited and did research for the YA novel. She also went to Oak Alley (the plantation that the fictional plantation LeCiel Doux is based on) and toured the house and grounds. Upon her last trip to Oak Alley, Maxwell wrote her last third of the book there. The book has a dark setting and eerie tone.
Maxwell will join the panel and discuss not only her novel, but what it is like to work as a college professor and write novels on the sideline. Her second book, Heartless Things, debuts in 2016.
Joy N. Hensley’s debut novel, Rites of Passage, creates a strong female student who enters a military school. Reviews of the novel describe it as “intense, hard-to-put-down, and a surprising” read.
The idea for the book came from a dare of one of her high school friends.
“After my freshman year in college, she dared me to go to military school for a year. If I survived, she’d give me $25. That was right after VMI started accepting females. I ended up being accepted to two military universities and decided on Norwich University in Vermont since they’d had females since the 70s. Rites of Passage comes from my experiences there.”
Hensley presently is writing another YA for HarperTeen. “I’m also working on a new adult book (a story where the main characters are college-age), and an adult romantic suspense,” says the young author.
Hensley will join the panel and discuss her experience of writing and publishing.
The last guest panelist, author Cristin Terrill, says her love of science fiction started when she was young and read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Her debut novel, All Our Yesterdays, is classified as science fiction and has been described by one reviewer as a “masterpiece.”
Terrill’s writing ritual is set with a daily word count she prescribes for herself daily. “Sometime I hit my goal in an hour and other times it takes me most of the day. On average, though, I spend about three hours writing per day,” states the young author. “I didn't really choose to write YA. It's just that the stories in my head all happen to be YA!”
