The New Adult
Genre
New Adult. Just a
few years ago, you would have said those two words and everyone would have
gone, "huh?" But now you can't drop by twitter, or read a book blog
without seeing it everywhere. Even the mainstream media has picked up on it. We
hear it talked and speculated about, but what is it?
Here are a few
things New Adult is not: Erotica, sexed up Young Adult, or smut.
New Adult is a
category. You can have a book in any genre that also fits that category. You
can have New Adult Contemporary Romance, which is what I write. You can also
have New Adult Fantasy, Dystopian, Sci fi. New Adult literature encompasses
that tricky age between youth and adulthood. It's a middle ground for ages
17-26(ish). Those ages can change depending on the location of the story. In
some countries, kids go to college at younger ages, so they would be in the New
Adult age range sooner than in the United States. It's more about the stage of
life than your age.
New Adult is that
first time you are really out on your own. You're away from your parents and
allowed to make adult decisions that have adult consequences and usually,
you're not equipped to deal with them. Add in some of the angst of adolescence
and you have a perfect storm for writing fiction.
For me, my
college years were some of the best of my life. It was like a sleepover every
night. We could do what we wanted and our parents would never find out (unless
we got arrested, of course). We were responsible for ourselves, and that was an
intoxicating feeling.
I'd been wanting,
ever since I decided to make writing books my career, to write a story that
would recapture those feelings I had in college. But I had only written young
adult paranormal books up until that point and I thought contemporary was out
of my wheelhouse. I couldn't imagine writing a story where I couldn't just make
someone a vampire out of the blue to get myself out of a situation. I'd tried
to write a contemporary young adult novel, but gave up because it was just a
bunch of angst-ing and nothing happened. Then I had an idea one night last
June, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I ended up turning on the light and
filling notebook pages with the start of what would become My Favorite Mistake.
From that point on, it was like I'd opened the flood gates and at least once a
week, sometimes more, I get an idea for a New Adult title.
There is so much
freedom, for me as a writer, with New Adult. I don't' have to worry about if my
characters are cursing too much, or that the sexiness is going too far. I can
throw them into insane situations and watch them try and dig themselves out of
it. I can put them through things that a younger teen would never be able to
reasonably handle. It's a writer's dream, and I don't see myself running out of
ideas anytime soon.
AUTHOR BIO
Chelsea M. Cameron
Chelsea M. Cameron is a YA/NA New York
Times and USA Today Best-Selling author from Maine. Lover of things random and
ridiculous, Jane Austen/Charlotte and Emily Bronte Fangirl, red velvet cake
enthusiast, obsessive tea drinker, vegetarian, former cheerleader and world's
worst video gamer. When not writing, she enjoys watching infomercials, singing
in the car and tweeting. She has a degree in journalism from the University of
Maine, Orono that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own
head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is.
About the Books:
Deeper We Fall by Chelsea M. Cameron
(Deeper We Fall #1)
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Publication date: January 24th 2013
Synopsis:
Two years after her best friend was involved
in a car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury, Lottie Anders is ready
to start her freshman year of college. Ready to move on. Ready to start
forgetting the night that ripped her life apart.
Her plans come to a screeching halt when
not one, but both brothers responsible for the accident end up back in her life
again.
Zack is cruel, selfish and constantly
rubbing what happened to her friend in Lottie's face.
Zan is different. He listens to her
awkward ramblings. He loves "To Kill a Mockingbird" as much as she
does, and his dark eyes are irresistible. His words are few and far between,
but when he does speak, she can't help but listen.
The trouble is, Zan was the driver in the
accident, and now Lottie's discovered he lied to her about what happened that
night. Now she must decide if trusting him again will lead to real forgiveness,
or deeper heartache.
Links:
Faster We Burn by Chelsea M. Cameron
(Deeper We Fall #2)
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Publication date: April 20th, 2013
Synopsis
The last thing Katie Hallman needs is
another guy in her life, but Stryker Grant is there anyway. What starts out as
just an escape from her previous relationship disaster soon turns into
something more. Stryker gets under her skin the way no one has before, and soon
she realizes she can't shake him, even if she wanted to. But is Katie ready to
trust her already-battered heart to the guy who could shatter it into a million
pieces?
Links:
GIVEAWAYS!
Individual Tour Giveaway:
- 1 Winner will get both ebooks in the series, Deeper We Fall and Faster We Burn
- International
- Ends May 22nd at 11:59 PM (MST)
- Winner will be chosen with Rafflecopter and will be contacted via email
TO ENTER FILL OUT THE RAFFLECOPTER BELOW:
----------------------------------
Tour Grand Prize:
A Kindle Paperwhite OR a Nook Simple Touch Glowlight (INTL)
TO ENTER FILL OUT THE RAFFLECOPTER BELOW:
Good luck in the giveaways! And what an awesome guest post! :D
What did you think of it?
What do you think of the New Adult genre?
