The Beginning

I grew up reading young adult novels, well before the current boom.  Over fifteen years ago, teen books were separated into a teen and a teen thriller section at the local B. Dalton where I used to shop in Minnesota.  Things are obviously much different now and young adult books now get much more respect than before.  But since I read that first teen book, Weekend by Christopher Pike (as part of a boxed set that included Diane Hoh's The Accident, that I brought with me on vacation), I was hooked.  Things are very different now, teen thrillers no longer segregated, and in fact, all the rage since Stephenie Meyer came onto the scene.  I read young adult books well into college, until I began to put them away for classic literature and adult books.  But now that I work in a bookstore, I find myself returning to teen fiction.  I still read classics and adult titles (and graphic novels by the dozen), but Young Adult titles still hold a special place in my heart.  Some of my favorite authors growing up were Christopher Pike, Nicole Davidson and L.J.Smith.  My favorite books back then were actually L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries (which I admitted during an interview to work in a bookstore to the confused look of the interviewer).  I'm glad to see a renewed interest in some of these older titles, especially L.J. Smith's Night World and Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire (being reprinted as Thirst).  And I also appreciate the high-quality new books we're seeing like Catherine Fisher's Incarceron and Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games.  It's an exciting time for young adult fiction, and as I've been writing teen fiction since I read my first couple of books, I hope to one day be among the scores of books in the booming category.