Are Aliens the New Vampires?

I was just reading an online article that proposed that aliens might be the new vampire, the new "it" in movies.  Of course since writing is my passion, I ask what you all think is the new "it" in young adult / adult books?  What do you think will be the next hot topic?

By the time we see a book hit the shelves, around two years have went by since the author finished penning it.  Writers can't predict which way the publishing houses are going when they write their novels so even if they have an unpublished book, they probably should move on to their next project while still sending out query letters for the finished book.  (sounds like I'm giving myself advice.)

We all know vampires are hot and have been the the hot topic for at least 5 years now with the release of all the Twilight books and The Sookie Stackhouse novels and then the Twilight movies and True Blood TV series (I'm sure there are lots more if I think about it), but it would seem that the publishing of vampire books has slowed down.  I wonder if that is because publishing companies are ready for something new or that audiences are?

So what would I love to see more of in the YA section?  Well I'm probably biased but I do love the paranormal romance but I think I would really like to read another dystopian novel/series.  How about a hybrid - dystopian paranormal romance?  LOL!  That would be the icing on the cake for me!  Yum.
But honestly, I think I could see alien and fairy books on the rise over the next few years.  Well at least I would like to read them.

What would you like to read more of?  What do you think will be the new "it" in fiction books?

20 Years!

Wishing my husband a very happy 20th year wedding anniversary!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Wow!  I finished the trilogy Sunday morning around 3 am.  Yes, 3 am!  I absolutely loved the books even though at times they were disturbing.  Not really disturbing in an appalling way but more a disturbing that gets you to think about our reality.  Honestly I could see something like this actually happening.  As a country, we seem to love our reality shows, so is it really that much of a stretch to think that we would watch children fighting to death in a large arena?  The Romans watched gladiators fight to the death in arenas... I'm just saying.
At times while reading the books, I had to stop and ask myself what makes these books YA?  You got me. Nothing about the subject matter screams YA at me.
In a way that's one of the things that I love about the YA category...adults read those books too.  There are so many adult sci fi / fantasy books that it's almost easy for a book to get lost on the shelf and collect dust but it seems that YA books are the new "it" and adults are looking in that section at the bookstore too.  You know who we have to thank for that right?  You got it.  Thank you, Stephenie Meyer, for getting us adults to peruse the YA section at the bookstore.  I personally need to thank her for inspiring me to sit down and write.  She's the same age as me and has one more kid than me.  It was after reading two or three of her books that I decided that I have stories in me that I wanted to try and write.  So here I am 2 years later, with one book looking for an agent, and several more stories just trying to claw their way out of me.
One of my biggest wishes is that I had more time to read and write but you know how it is these days.  Bills don't pay themselves and kids don't get themselves to school.

Excerpt from Chapter 32 from Sage: Dance of the Marked

I've had a busy week this week with both girls starting school and trying to get back into the swing of things.  I didn't edit any on Sage over the last four days.  I know I probably should have or started writing more on Fairy High but I chose to spend what little free time I had reading Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games.  I loved it so much that I went out and bought the other two books in the trilogy.  I'm happily into book 2 now.   Reading her book inspires me to start working on End of Men again, my dystopian novel.  I'll see if I get any free time next week.  I'll be on call for 31 hours this weekend at work so basically I'll actually be going into work off and on over the whole weekend.  

Here's an excerpt from Sage.  Enjoy.

Chapter Thirty-two

Once in Motion

            “No Brian, without any intervention, I’m certain she won’t change tonight,” my dad told Brian.  I can’t believe my husband is having this conversation with my father.

            “But, look at her, she’s already starting to change.  She can barely control her hands.”  Brian was trying to be calm for me, but I could tell he was having his doubts about turning me tonight.

            “Open, Sage.  Let me see your teeth.”  His thumbs were pushing my lips over my sharp teeth before I could answer.

            “Dad, please, you don’t have to examine me.”  I swatted his hands away.  “How long would I have on my own without any intervention?”  My husband was pacing our small bedroom.  His anxiety was making me more nervous than I wanted to be.  He was emanating power throughout the room.  It was almost suffocating thick.

            “I’m not sure, but when Tristan got to this point, he had a few more days until he could make the full transformation.  Jason took another two weeks.”  He sighed and then continued, “If not me, then do you want me to get Tristan in here to look at you?”

            “Absolutely not.”  I shook my head and pulled my legs up against my chest wrapping my arms around them.  I didn’t want anyone examining me.

            “How long?” I looked over and asked Brian.  He knew I was asking him how long it took for him to change.

            “I didn’t fluctuate between forms, Sage.  Once I started to change, I did so within a half a day.  Maybe we should give you a few more hours to see if that’s what you’re going to do.”  His eyes were pleading with me.

            I shook my head.  “What’s the hang up, Brian?  You were going to bite me tonight anyway.”

            My dad gave Brian a surprised look.  “You were already planning on biting my daughter tonight, before any of this happened?  Why?  And more importantly didn’t you think you should have discussed that with me?”

            He raised his hand telling my dad to wait.  “First, Sage, yes I was going to ask you if you wanted to change on the full moon tonight.  I didn’t want you to have to be dealing with your first transformation right after the start of school.”  He gave me a comical look.  “You were going to say yes anyway.” 

I stifled a laugh.  He was right.  If he had put it off much longer I was planning on some way of getting him to sink his teeth into me, even if it was under coercion on my part.  I didn’t have a clear plan yet, but I honestly didn’t think I would have to resort to drastic measures.

Brian continued looking at my dad, “And second, David, I didn’t know that what my wife and I do in private has to be discussed with you.”

“Fine,” he gruffly said.  “What about Eric?  Don’t you think you should discuss this with Charlotte and me?  My son just turned 14 two days ago for God’s sake.  You can’t just force this upon him.  He’s too young.”

Brian was quiet for a minute.  I could hear some of his thoughts.  They were sharp and painfully clear.  Brian was starting to get annoyed with my father.  “David, I’m sorry that you feel like you’re losing your children.  You’re not.  Under different circumstances, if Eric came to me and asked me to bite him and rush his transformation, I would discuss this with you, Charlotte, and his partner Samantha thoroughly before consenting.”  My father raised his eyebrow at the mention of Samantha.  I think he already had the idea that they had bonded but this confirmed it.  Brian continued, “But we are about to be attacked, and this is my pack, my clan.  My decision!  Zoran says we need as many werewolves that we can muster and I believe him.  I will do everything in my power to protect this clan, to protect my wife.  Eric is one of mine and him consenting is enough for me.”

Prologue of "Sage: Dance of the Marked"

Please feel free to critique.  I would love constructive feedback.  Thanks!

Sage

Dance of the Marked

Prologue

            Dreams are captivating.  They seamlessly blend the realities of our conscious and subconscious minds, and often distort our ability to discern what is real from what is imagined.  In truth, our minds actually never sleep.  Perhaps what we see in our mind’s eye is closer to the truth than what we see with our physical sight alone. 

            My parents, like many of the elders from my clan, believed that a chosen name confers certain gifts upon its owner.  I don’t know if it’s true, but my parents, keeping with the old ways, gave me the name Sage in hopes that I would be wise and full of insight.  Sure, insight.  Right.  I wish I had insight into my recurring dream of late.  It leaves me feeling neither wise nor insightful but rather confused, for what I once thought wasn’t possible, might be.  I think I might know what it means, but I sure hope that I’m wrong.  I often replay this dream when I’m awake in hopes of finding that loophole that will prove that in fact dreams can’t come true, that they are only dreams.  I don’t think I want it to be true, or do I? 

            The dream is always the same.  Two silver wolves stand in a clearing amongst the tall pines.  A light fog is visible hovering over the dry earth.  It must be early morning, right before the sun rises over the mountains.  Then, I am running, running in the woods at the edge of my hometown.  I hear pine needles snapping all around me.  I can’t remember if I am running away from or toward something, but I know that I am not alone. 

It’s been almost a year since I left home and left my old life behind me.  Life had been preciously normal, even mundane here at college.  I routinely went for stretches of days or weeks in which I felt like any other 19-year-old college student; well that was until about 3 months ago when certain physical traits started to appear, along with bizarre dreams not fully tangible but memorable enough to leave me with a sense of foreboding.  I could feel the truth of the dreams press down on me as that thin veil between my subconscious and conscious minds slowly lifted.

I always had a secret to keep, a secret that really wasn’t mine alone.  I come from Julian, California, a far-flung mountain town outside the postcard perfect city of San Diego.  It’s the kind of place where everyone knows each other, but many that live there have a secret too, the same secret.  Everyone that harbors this secret seems to get pulled back to this small town as if by some mysterious black hole’s gravitational pull.  It may sound a bit melodramatic, but now I too am beginning to feel that pull, and I’m not sure that I’m going to escape it.  The real question is, do I want to?

"Blink" is already taken

Drat!  I went to the bookstore today and discovered that the title "Blink" is already taken.  So I guess my fairy book will remain "Fairy High" until a proper name occurs to me.  I'm going to laugh one day about this if "Fairy High" is the name that sticks.  I can't wait until next week when school is back in session for the kids and I can get back to a normal routine of working 3 days a week and writing all day on Thursdays and Fridays and some on the weekends.  I'm not going to attempt to edit on "Sage: Dance of the Marked" until next week at this point.  Probably just as well.  I managed to trim 2000 words out of the almost 127,000 word novel and I need a fresh set of eyes to trim even more.  It's such a shame that it's over the max words for a YA book because besides needing some editing, the story is complete and I really think it will find an audience if published.  Of course it's my baby and I might be biased.  Hahahaha!