Market Research

I recently vowed to myself that I would become more attuned to the YA market. I mean, if I want to write for young adults, I need to know what they want. Right? Granted, I'm not starting completely clueless. I was an _avid_ reader when I was a kid -- I loved (heck, LOVE -- because I still do) Christopher Pike books. Man, there's nothing better than CHAIN LETTER, FINAL FRIENDS, WEEKEND...I mean, come on. That's some good stuff! Heck, I even got into R.L. Stine's Fear Street series.

Anyway, with this vow in mind, I headed on over to my friendly B&N today. (Quick sidenote -- The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson was finally taking up some space on the shelves. Did you hear it made the USA Today Bestseller list, debuting at #82?? Go Vicki! I'm about halfway through it, and will post a review when I finish.) I (much to my surprise) couldn't find any YA about werewolves.. I found that interesting. Maybe I missed them? LOL. Or maybe they're waiting for MY book. Okay, so I probably missed 'em.

I perused, I hemmed and hawed... yeah, there are _a lot_ of YA's on the market. Unfortunately, some of the books I was interested in getting weren't in stock. They'd have book 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. but they wouldn't have the first. I simply can't start in the middle of something that way. I'll have to see if I can order them online.

I ended up with two books I'm excited to read. Neither deal with werewolves, but they're definitely on the darker side of things, seem to have older MC's, and are geared toward older teens.

TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer -- which is about vampires and involves the words "deeply seductive" and "a love story with bite" as described on the back cover. Yowsa. Sounds good.

WICKED by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie -- About witches (if the title didn't give it away). Oh...too cool. I just realized it's a double book. Heh. It's the first two books in a 4 part series -- WITCH and CURSE. How's that for a double whammy? Love that. Looks to be about three friends who find themselves thrown into a circle of witchcrafty intrigue. (g) I made that word up -- witchcrafty.

For good measure, I picked up an adult mystery:

CANDY APPLE RED by Nancy Bush -- About a private investigator. Looks fun and light -- and since it was finally in paperback, I figured, why not?

OKAY...she STOLE my cover blurb. It reads -- "Move over Stephanie Plum, Jane Kelly has arrived!" (per Lisa Jackson)

HELLO...MY book is supposed to read, "Move over Stephanie Plum, Madison Krauss has arrived!" Hrm. (And if you haven't suspected yet, YES... I'm currently sipping on a venti (large) caramel frappaccino with extra whipped cream. I'm a tad bit caffeinated right now.)