Is he a writer, editor, avid cook, or photographer? Maybe. I didn’t ask him those questions. I interviewed him because I have a theory that anyone who loves his or her job utilizes creativity, and I wasn’t sure how that might be involved with his particular professions.

So, Uncle Jed. Do you love your job?

I wonder if anyone completely loves their job?? I, for the most part, love what I do, both jobs, that is. But it hasn’t always been that way. My main job is being a policeman, copper, pig, the law, whatever your favorite euphemism is for a cop. I’m also a chiropractor.

What do you do in a typical day as a police officer?

Define typical? That’s the allure for me. I never know what I will see in any given day. It ranges from talking to grade-school kids about crosswalk safety, to herding loose cows, to kicking in a door on a drug house. On most days I am a patrol officer, so I answer calls for service and drive around doing traffic enforcement.

What do you love about your job?

I love the sound of a door being smashed in and the smell of a flash bang as we storm into a drug house and arrest some sh*heads.

I also love the humor in the job. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be finding humor in the depravity and suffering that I see on a daily basis, but it is a strange thing that emergency workers deal with. It’s not always black humor, but sometimes just strange things that happen. I once had a man get angry with me because I wouldn’t stop people from feeding ducks in the park. He felt that the ducks pooping on the pathways represented trespassing and that it was my job to stop people from feeding them. And this was important enough for him to call the police.

Being able to take care of tragedy is in its own way satisfying too. Just yesterday I was called on to take charge of the children from a house where the father shot the mother and then himself. Doing what is needed in a crisis is in a strange way fulfilling.

What parts of your job do you put up with so you can do the parts you like?

Contrary to what you may believe, most patrol cops don’t like writing tickets, so if you have received a lot of tickets in your life, it’s probably ’cause you are a really bad driver.

Putting up with the civil calls, the child custody calls or the “He has my stuff and I want you to get it back” calls are the worst. There is criminal law, for which the police have authority and were conceived, and there is civil law, which is a morass of bickering attorneys and judges’ opinions, for which the police have limited authority and no desire.

My personal favorites are when you have a mother scream at you to make her twelve-year-old boy clean up his room. Yes, society abdicates its responsibilities to anyone but themselves, so the police usually end up being called.

To be blunt, why do some police officers seem like jerks and how have you avoided that?

Hmmm, not sure I’ve avoided being a jerk. I’m sure many people think I am. I became a cop at age 40, so I had life experience going into the job. Becoming a cop is like having the curtain pulled back in the Wizard of Oz. We live our lives in a bubble of ignorance that is not all bad, but when you become a cop, that bubble is burst and you get to see behind the curtain the horrible things that people do. The amount of negative crap that the typical cop deals with will over time jade them into thinking that all people are hiding some dark secret. For me, the humorous nature of the job keeps me from taking my job or myself too seriously.

You’re also a chiropractor. Tell me about that. What do you do in a typical day?

That’s easy. I treat headaches and low back pain.

How did you go from being a full-time chiropractor to a full-time policeman?

Changing careers is a task not unlike sticking a fork in your eyeball. Here I spent money and time to become a chiropractor, and after 14 years of practice, I decided that I needed to do something else. I detest insurance companies (they are of the devil), so when I turned my practice into a cash practice, it cut my practice by 80 percent. So I reasoned it was time to get a job. What I found was that I was trapped by my education. So many interviews began by, “You’re a chiropractor? Well, you are too educated for this job.” I was instantly pigeon-holed by the fact that I had received my education in a certain field.

Friends suggested that I should become a cop. I thought to myself, “A cop? I am way too smart to be a cop.” Needless to say, I had misjudged a profession because of certain preconceptions. What I found was a job that I was well suited to doing. Being a cop requires an extensive set of a variety of skills, none of which I had any idea of before taking the leap. It was like starting from scratch. But don’t we all love learning and growing? Sure, it’s scary and painful, yet the end result is something that we can be proud of. Change is inevitable; our only choice is whether we will make the changes needed as a positive choice or be dragged kicking and screaming into them. One way or another, change will affect our lives.

How does creativity play into your job satisfaction?

My chiropractic practice was something that I didn’t enjoy when I was trying to do it the way everyone else does it. I found that I loathed insurance companies and attorneys that are involved in a high number of people seeking care. So the answer for me was smaller practice, no insurance, and an affordable fee. Now I love being a chiropractor.

So in any profession, maybe the secret to satisfaction is being creative enough to find how to do it your way. How do you bring creativity to being a cop?

For me, it is the humor. I love making people laugh on traffic stops and then giving them a warning so they can learn about their bad driving habits in a positive yet memorable way.

For my bookish readers, what are your top five favorite books?

Ah, books. I love books, and as a cop, I have lots of time to read. Weird, huh? For example, when someone wants to harm themselves or others, we lock them up in a mental institution for evaluation for 72 hours, but first we have to have them medically cleared for liability reasons, so we sit around for hours because hospitals operate on some other basis of time not known in the rest of the world. So I learned early on to have a book handy. Even on really boring SWAT calls.

Why didn’t you tell me more stuff about being a SWAT sniper?

‘Cause my editor complained about me being too wordy.

Sorry. Back to your top five reads.

Not in order, they are probably Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, The Stand by Steven King, The Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. By making the list, though, I am torn because I didn’t include books by George Martin, C.S. Lewis, Isaac Asimov, or Jordan, or Niven, or . . . yeah, it goes on and on. I read a lot. And, no, Twilight is not on my list. I did love The Hunger Games, though.  Aarrggh!! Don’t get me started. So many books, so little time.

You read Twilight?

I have a really good friend who is a big tough SWAT cop, and we share similar interests in books. He told me that Twilight was a good read . . . so on his recommendation, I read it. I have this problem that if I start a book, I have to finish it. It was painful.

What do you do when you’re not at work reading a book?

I have varied interests when not at work. I love flying planes, though I haven’t done so for a few years. I am an avid outdoors person. I like fishing, hunting birds, white-water kayaking, cycling, and hiking. I guess my most recent passion as far as a hobby goes is taking long rides on twisty roads on my motorcycle.

Any final thoughts for my dear creative readers?

If you do not like what you do for a living, then change, and change now. You don’t have to love what you do every minute, but you do have to find fulfillment and have overall enjoyment of your job. It’s got to be something that you look forward to doing, something that allows you to put yourself into the work. It was a surprise for me going from being a chiropractor to being a cop that I would find such enjoyment in police work. It suits me. I think that is the key for enjoyment of any job. Does it suit you?

Being a writer suits me because I can wear pajamas or yoga pants every day. But I guess you were talking about things I do for a living. Hmm. I’ll have to think about this advice some more.

Thanks, Uncle Jed!

Readers, any questions for the copper?

Have any of you been through a dramatic career change?

Is there anyone you want me to interview next—maybe you?

In a similar vein, I remember a friend telling me that Holly Black taught a session at SCBWI a few years ago about deciding the kind of writing career you want and planning for it. (Forgive me, Holly, if I’m getting it wrong—I wasn’t there.) The gist of what my friend got out of that class is that it’s okay to want to be a billionaire bestselling author if you are willing to plan well and work for it and pay the price, and it’s also totally fine to plan to be a quiet, part-time, midlist kind of author if that’s what you want. But you have to evaluate the pros and cons, select a path, and go for it. What follows may not be exactly what you planned for, but it’s more likely to at least partly match your vision if you have a vision.

The idea of planning for a writing career had never occurred to me. I figured I would write a few books, send them out into the world, and how they sold would determine the trajectory of my career without any thought on my part. True, there is a *lot* in this business that is beyond our control, and evaluating the business side of things is rarely fun for the creative writer type. But I’ve come to believe it’s good to make an effort to write by design and not by default.

My new year resolution is to be more realistic and purposeful in what I’m pursuing. 2011 was spent pressuring myself to write better, faster, more, and make it big before the baby came. The result, as you know, was time spent stressing and a wrong-headed first draft that may never go anywhere.

That’s why I recently made the really tough decision to leave my awesome agent and take some time to figure out what role I want writing to have in my new family-oriented life and prove to myself that I can really do this consistently before I get anyone else on board. It may have been an extreme move, but I know that pressuring myself to publish before I’m ready has not helped.

For 2012, I would like writing to be my “jobby.” (Thanks, Larry Hiller, for coining the phrase when he asked if I still had a job and I told him it had become more like a hobby.) That means I’ll be taking writing more seriously than a hobby, always carving out time for it even when I may not feel like it, but I won’t allow myself to think of it as my job—I already have a few of those. I don’t want to be seduced by hopes of book deals, dollar signs, or sky-high blog reader stats. This year, it’s all about the craft—finishing what I start and finishing it well. And my method for doing that this year involves . . . outlining. *Gasp.* Successful and efficient Dean Hughes convinced me of the need for outlining when you’re writing in an environment of constant interruptions.

So. Outlining. Writing a solid four hours a week. That’s how 2012 is looking for me. After I’ve consistently written books I’m proud of, maybe I’ll start drafting my plan for becoming a bestselling billionaire author in 2013. Mwa ha ha!

What are your writing goals this year?

Luckily I know a lot of creative people who can help me broaden my perspective. Their talents inspire me. I wondered how they learned how to do what they do and how they decided which skills, talents, and interests they wanted to hone. Since I’m pretty dull lately, I decided to let them take over the blog for a while. And I hope that by meeting a bunch of creative types over the next few months, we can all feel like we’re cool because we’re all creative, whether we are into traditional arts or not.

We’ll start with my friend Jenny.

Jenny does lots of things well: she travels to Italy and helps me not get lost. She plays the piano. She writes and edits. She photographs. She cooks and gardens and wears pretty clothes.

There are so many questions I had for Jenny. But before you find out what they were, check out her photography. Seriously, click the link. You don’t want to miss these pictures.

Okay, first photography.

When did you get into taking photos?

I’ve always liked taking photos. Back in the day of having to get film developed, I’m sure my parents hated paying for the rolls of film I took of my dolls in different poses. One of my older brothers was into photography, and some must have rubbed off on me. In college I took a photography class where we had to develop our own film, and I loved going into the darkroom and getting my hands all chemically and actually creating something. (You know, a few years ago this answer wouldn’t have made me sound old. Now I’m using phrases like, “back in the day.” Yikes!)

What appeals to you about photography? Why did you get into it?

The best clichéd answer I can give you is that I hate to see perfect life moments not recorded. Whether it’s the way the sun hits a leaf or the way raindrops cling to a flower petal, I don’t want to keep those fleeting moments only in my memory. I can’t.

What has helped you grow the most as a photographer?

I know my answer should be practice, practice, practice! But it’s a combination of things. I learn a lot from following photography blogs, and also just from doing my own research if I can’t figure out how to do something. Trial and error play a big part in my photography. And just the simple thing of someone complimenting a photo I took goes a long way in helping me grow as a photographer. To be honest, I feel that photography is something that is difficult for me. I’ll spend a long time setting up the “perfect” shot with my fancypants camera, and then I’ll see a photo I love that someone took in two seconds with their phone. I want to be more like that.

What are your favorite subjects to photograph?

I mostly photograph nature, I try to photograph food, and I especially love close-up shots (or macro). You might notice that my blog is devoid of human life in the photos department. There’s a reason for that. I don’t feel very comfortable taking photos of people. This might be one of the reasons why I decided to stay away from newspaper journalism. I don’t have it in me to get in someone’s face and record some of their most intimate, tragic, and emotional moments.

What do you have to say to purists who are against digitally altering photos?

I used to be one of them. I wanted my photos to be “untouched.” Now I look back at so many of them and think, “Wow, what an awful photo!” That being said, I don’t want to change the reality of my photos when I edit them. I’ll fix the lighting and color, and that’s about it. When I want to do something dramatic to a photo—like add a texture or make it look aged—it is obviously Photoshopped in the end. I’m OK with that. But when I see photographers charging proud parents a bundle for photos of their glowing-skinned, laser-eyed children, I know those photos have been over-edited and passed off as real life. That bothers me.

Next, writing and editing.

What do you see as your greatest creative writing feat so far? Because I think it’s your “I need to pee” song (which, by the way, needs a new title: “Song for pregnancy AND postpartum.”)

One is the first story I had accepted by Highlights. It isn’t my favorite work, but they let me revise it four or five times before acceptance. I was sure as heck proud of it when I finally held a check in my hand. And, Kim, just for you I will include my “Song for Being Pregnant” in my list of greatest creative writing feats. The inspiration just flowed on that one. Almost literally.

When did you start a blog and what do you use it for?

I started my blog on [checking blog] April 23, 2009. I wanted to share funny stories. And get random thoughts out of my head. (Because, as my husband can tell you, I have plenty of those.) Over the past two and a half years the blog has slowly evolved to include photography and cooking aspects. But from the beginning, I didn’t want it to be a “mommy blog.” I don’t use it to give the world detailed information about my family’s personal life. You won’t find personal pictures on there. Now that I’m going to have my first child next year, I’m still going to try to stick to my guns about that self-imposed rule. I know that no one besides me is interested in how many times my baby poops in one day.

What are your top three blog posts I can showcase to the world (or in other words, my five readers)?

“In Praise of Man” is close to my heart because it’s something I feel strongly about. My husband recommended my photo essay-esque 4th of July post. And I always enjoy going back and looking at my first attempt at a step-by-step kitchen adventure.

You’re an editor too. How is editing a creative career? So many writers see the copy editors as creativity killers.

There is copy editing and there is substantive editing. I cannot separate the two in my work. I think about the big picture as I go about marking commas and apostrophes. When I edit a manuscript, my goal is to make it the best it can be, not the most boring. If that means deleting a character or a few paragraphs, I don’t see that as killing the author’s creativity, but rather, focusing the creativity so it can flow unhindered. When I have to whittle an author’s 1,200-word story down to 600, I practically burst with pride at the outcome. Suddenly a rambling, overloaded story is in sharp focus. The point doesn’t get lost underneath clunky, unrealistic dialogue. It’s just as much a creative process for me as it is for the author. I’m sure there are some authors who see me as a creativity killer, but I prefer to see myself as a creativity focuser.

And now let’s talk music.

Were you forced to take piano lessons?

Taking piano lessons wasn’t a choice for my brothers and me. Even if we decided to quit at some point and learn another instrument, Mom’s rule was that we had to start piano first. I took lessons from age 8 to around 13. After that I improved my skills just by continuing to play. I wish I had some advice about sticking with something you hate and having it turn out well in the end, but I don’t. I have always loved playing. I read an article once about how professional golfers have less mental activity when they play than amateurs do. Amateurs are constantly thinking about position, technique, and, uh, whatever else golfers have to think about. But for the professionals, it just comes naturally and they don’t have to think about it. I am by no means a professional pianist, but I know how this feels. Often I will get to the end of a piece and not remember how I got there. My mind is calm, almost empty. All I know is the music, and if I start “thinking” about it, I’ll mess up.

I’m a pretty good sight-reader, but I don’t compose, improvise, or play by ear. I don’t even see the point of making students memorize a recital piece. I considered majoring in piano performance in college, but I knew what it entailed, and I knew that kind of almost fanatical focus would make me stop loving the skill that I have been blessed with. Now with my own piano students, I want to be the exact opposite of the stereotypical old lady who whacks kids’ wrists with a ruler. I hope to guide my students to love playing, not dread it.

A few more random tidbits.

What’s your greatest gardening accomplishment?

Zucchini Monster. Hands down.

Though it wasn’t so much a feat on my part as it was a few good seeds that succeeded on their own. Which reminds me, does anyone need any zucchini? Because I’ve got some. I’ve got lots.

What do you see as your greatest creative feat in the kitchen?

I’ve tried many recipes that I have been proud of. But I think my greatest feat would be learning how to make yeast bread. A few years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to make bread for the year because I hated spending so much money buying it. I went through a bunch of recipes until I found a whole-wheat winner. I knead it and everything. It makes me feel so domestic. I still make it! I need to give credit to my husband. He is a great cook, and he’s made me braver in my culinary attempts.

Do you purposely dress creatively too? Because you have style!

Ha! At 5′10″ my style is basically finding pieces long enough for my arms and legs and then hoping they go together. Where I do like to express some uniqueness is in my jewelry. I love getting jewelry at arts festivals, farmers markets, etc., because I love having one-of-a-kind pieces straight from the artist. Though because I work in a conservative office environment, I don’t get to pull out some of my more flashy pieces as much as I’d like to.

What’s your favorite book?

I’m cheating by naming a series and not just one book. I adore The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper. It combines Arthurian legend with modern-day fantasy (the closest I’ll come to reading fantasy genre). And Cooper’s writing is sublime. I used to read the series once a year, and then Harry Potter came along and took up all my time. I need to get back to reading some high-quality children’s writing!

What do you watch on TV between all your writing, editing, photographing, piano playing, and cooking endeavors?

An eclectic mix of Pawn Stars, What Not to Wear, The Office, Man v. Food, America’s Test Kitchen, and, this time of year, college football.

And finally, the deep stuff: your philosophy on creativity.

What feeds your ability to be creative?

Being happy. If I’m angry, frustrated, or stressed out, a wall goes up in my mind. I can’t do anything well during that “wall time.” I can’t play the piano, I can’t write anything, I can’t take a good photo to save my life. And my carrot cake slumps. Some people create amazing things out of their anger or sadness. My creativity doesn’t function that way. I need to wait until the wall comes down. Sometimes it takes only a few minutes, but other times it stays up for days.

How do you find time to balance all the creative hobbies you want to pursue?

I don’t. The end.

Oh, shall I explain? When I focus on one, the others suffer to some extent. My creativity comes in waves. I’ll go two or three weeks without blogging because I don’t have anything to write about. (A bad blog habit, I know.) But then something will get stuck in my head and I know I need to write about it. If life gets busy, I won’t work on my photography. I’m obviously not a good balancing act. But cooking is a different story. I mean, I need to eat, right?

How do you judge your own success in your creative hobbies?

If I base my success on a worldly view of success—such as winning a photo contest or having a manuscript accepted—then I’d be living a depressing life full of failure. I judge my “success” on how I feel about the final outcome of a project, not how anyone else feels. I hang my favorite photos on my walls at home and smile when I walk by them, knowing that something I created brought that smile. I’ve had a couple of photos featured on a photography blog. That’s great, but it doesn’t make me feel better about a photo I already love. Sometimes I play a piano piece just okay, and I know I can do better. When I do, the music brings tears to my eyes. I don’t do it for a hall full of people. I do it—in the best selfish sense—for my own joy. If I try to reach for a certain skill level in my hobbies I will constantly feel like I’ve failed. Of course it’s good to have goals. But if I try to reach for something seemingly unattainable from my current standing, I won’t see the point in continuing. I don’t get graded on my hobbies; I don’t do them on a professional level. I meander along at a pace that makes me feel fulfilled.

What motivates you to be creative?

I have one rather large motivator: if I didn’t have creative hobbies I would spend all my time sitting on the couch watching sitcom reruns, probably with a bag of chips nearby. (If you eat the smaller chips it doesn’t feel like you’re eating as much. Just fyi.) Some of my hobbies have always been a part of me. Music and writing, for example. I know it’s cliché to say that I couldn’t survive without them, but it’s true. After I got married and moved out of my parents’ house I didn’t have 24-7 access to a piano. I felt like there was a piece missing from me. It wasn’t until I inherited my grandma’s piano last year that that hole was snugly plugged up. Photography, on the other hand, is a comparatively new hobby. I’m not yet to the point where I carry a camera everywhere. But learning the ins and outs of an art form gives me a feeling of self-worth and accomplishment, with just a little bit of thrill thrown in to keep things interesting.

Thank you for stopping by the blog, Jenny. Readers, do you have any questions I forgot to ask her?

So watch out, readers. I’m going to use this forum to write about whatever the heck I want.

And today the thing I want to get the word out about is . . . this. The Beauty Redefined movement. It’s something I feel strongly about. I feel sad that our culture is so interested in selling beauty products and surgeries that we tolerate a media that endlessly promotes both body hatred among women and dissatisfaction with *real* women among men.

Check out the Photoshopping done to this already skinny model in an Ann Taylor ad.

Something that got me thinking about this issue lately is that I’ve read a lot of fiction books and manuscripts that shall remain nameless featuring drop-dead gorgeous protagonists, the kind of girls who all the guys fall in love with and fight for. But—surprise—the protagonist still feels confused about love and insecure and unattractive. I’m having a hard time understanding why the authors chose to make these characters so beautiful since I can’t pinpoint how it affects their emotional issues or the plot in general.

Though I don’t approve, I understand the emphasis on physical beauty in TV, movies, advertising, magazines, and other visual arenas. Designers are artists, and I know they feel driven to present the most visually appealing image possible. But why books? Are you more inclined to buy a book about Hottt characters than average people?

Okay, so I guess I’m still talking about writing and publishing and reading. What good books can you think of where the character’s appearance is central to the plot?

Here are mine:

Category A – Characters who are so dumb that I can see they shouldn’t be making the choices they are making, but they do anyway. (How did this end up in MY book, then?) I hate them because I waste my time reading to the end in hopes that I am wrong about where this plot is headed, and then when I am not wrong, I throw the book against the wall.

Category B – Characters I can’t connect with. Distant voice. Unclear motivation. (How did this end up in my book too, then?)

I’m thinking of making a change in my life and writing the kinds of books my new cute daughter likes. Her favorite book is THE HUNGRY CATERPILLAR, board version. But she only likes one page—the title page, with its rows of colored dots. I think I can handle that kind of writing.

Thanks for reading my totally inconsistent blog and dealing with my whinery. It’s good to be back! Again.

I

1. Didn’t read blogs.

2. Didn’t write blog posts.

3. Wrote a book.

4. Edited a 4oo-page book. Twice.

5. Incubated a baby.

6. Moved.

7. Watched lots of rainstorms and sunsets from my patio while looking up at this:

(No, this isn’t my actual view, but almost. I’m too lazy to go down to the garage and get the camera out of the hospital overnight bag that has been sitting in my trunk for a WEEK.)

8. Read Protecting the Gift by Gavin de Becker.

9. Read Entwined by Heather Dixon.

10. Read Matched by Ally Condie.

11. Dreamed about food almost every night and spent almost every day on a quest for that particular food.

12. Attended WIFYR.

13. Checked my alternate email account and deleted 1,200 emails without reading them. Hopefully that’s not the email account you use to reach me.

14. Compiled a five-page list of baby names and scrapped it and started over.

15. Tasted artisan cheeses at Heber Valley Milk. Good stuff.

All in all, it was a satisfying summer, but I missed you.

I know that summer isn’t quite over, but August has never felt like summer to me—it’s kind of a rip-off. I mean, Mr. R starts school in two weeks. School and summer do not belong in the same month.

At least it’s fun to be shopping for cheap pens and highlighters again.

In the comments, please tell me what you’ve been up to, what your favorite summer reads were, and what your favorite school supplies are to buy when the fall sales start. And also, do you ever dream about mashed potatoes and move heaven and earth the next day to have some? Or is that a pregnant lady thing?

I’m hoping my readers are going on slightly more exciting vacations than my sorry excuse for a holiday. Any cool trips coming up? If not, what are the best vacations you’ve been on? Let us bask in the memories together. Here are my top five:

1. Germany/Austria for my one-year anniversary
2. Cross-country American/Church history tour when I was 17
3. Road trip to Oregon coast
4. Too many Southern Utah hiking trips to count
5. Boston/Maine trip with pals

Any places on your list I should add to my must-see? Then I can write a novel set there and call my trip “book research.” I think I may have lost some of the notes I took in Germany for my future Swan Lake retelling project. Guess I’ll have to go back.

and make a total idiot of myself with these:

Yes, there will be singing, but no promises of dancing.

Sorry for my inability to keep to a blog schedule. You don’t miss me that much, right? I’ve just been busy being pregnant, packing, looking for a place to live, looking for someone to live in my house, and all that basic stuff. My husband thought it might be fun if we decided to have our first baby, move, and go back to school all at the same time. I couldn’t agree more.

I haven’t had time to read or write much, so I haven’t had much on my mind worth blogging about, but when you get a chance, let me know in the comments some of your favorite recent reads so I can start a nice, long list to dive into when the boxes are unpacked.

IN A FIGHT, WHO WOULD WIN?

Disregard things like supernatural powers or whether or not the contender actually has hands. Just think of the two in a fistfight and see what you come up with.

Bono or John Lennon?

Crunchy Cheetos or Puffs?

Baby-sitters Club or Saddle Club?

Mr. Miyagi and the original Karate Kid or Luke and Obi Wan?

Strawberry Shortcake or Rainbow Brite?

Debbie Gibson or Tiffany?

Garbage Pail Kids or Sour Patch Kids?

Nessie or Bigfoot?

George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan?

RC Cola or Tab?

The Genie or Max Headroom?

The Boggy Creek Monster or The Incredible Melting Man?

I’m having a hard time coming up with a worthy foe for these:

The oracles, from NEVERENDING STORY. Aaack! They scare the crap out of me.

Add your celebrity death match candidates in the comments, if you like. And also, when do you think Bigfoot is going to take off as the next popular paranormal creature in YA fiction?

The other day I responded to a discussion on Facebook that Michelle Argyle started. The question was: “For you, what makes a book YA instead of adult?” I think it got something like 70 responses—obviously something writers have an opinion on.

I think it’s a fascinating question, no matter how many times it’s been dissected. Agent Regina Brooks says in her book WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS, “Judging from the manuscripts that cross my desk . . . 90 percent of writers seem confused about what young adult fiction is.”

She defines it by what it is not: It is not the YA people in their 30s, 40s, or older enjoyed reading when they were teens. LITTLE WOMEN might still be classic, and Judy Blume is great, but mimic those works and you won’t be writing what’s new and fresh in YA these days. The second is that it is not about a young adult told by an adult narrator looking back.

Good points. But what about all the other rules that seem to make up YA? On Michelle’s Facebook discussion I wrote, “Absolutely no getting inside the adult’s head.”

Except . . . what about THE BOOK THIEF?

Regina Griffin also talks in her book about how YA editors are often more experimental than others, and if your manuscript has a unique format—like Death narrating with droll asides throughout—it may appeal to a young adult editor more than other editors. Is this how THE BOOK THIEF ended up being marketed as YA first even though I can’t pinpoint any YA conventions here? Markus Zusak says he didn’t set out to write for a particular audience. He set out to write someone’s favorite book. Mission accomplished, if you ask me.

I also wrote on Michelle’s Facebook wall that in YA the characters care about issues that are important to teens, and they solve their own problems. And, oh yeah, the characters are teens themselves.

Someone asked me at the Florida symposium if YA characters can ever be in their early 20s, and I said, “Sure. LOOKING FOR ALASKA takes place in college.” But I’ve had to rethink my answer. The characters are still only 18 and 19 at the time the story takes place, even if they aren’t in high school anymore. (*Correction* – I just remembered that the characters are 16 and in boarding school, so there you go. Not in college. Any YA books taking place in college, people?)

I’d like to ask three questions:

1.) This is the one that Michelle already asked—In your opinion, what absolutely makes a book YA and not adult?

2.) What excellent young adult books seem to break the “rules” of what makes a YA book YA? Have you read any recent young adult books with characters in their 20s? Where the adults in the story have an important voice? Where there are four poverty-stricken sisters living with their mother during the Civil War in Concord, Massachussetts?

3.) Do YOU ignore conventions when you write? Or do you feel an author has to have a certain reputation or level of experience before he or she starts breaking rules with wild abandon?