YA again? Or grow up?

Xena Knox being herself @ YALC

Photo copyright XENA KNOX LTD

I’ve not been authoring for a wee while now. Mostly because of ALL the ‘other’ things that I have going on (by my own creation). Most recently, the last two months, I’ve been full on peony farming. I’m a peony farmer - for cut flowers. I grow them on our farm in the Scottish Borders. You can follow that part of me @flouerflowers or www.flouerflowers.com And because I do all the harvesting and selling and promoting and packaging and posting and floristry myself then there hasn’t been much time to think of words. Words on a page.

But I think there’s something else brewing in the back of my head now. That itch to tell a story again. Only, I can’t decide whether to leave YA fiction behind and go towards women’s fiction…

I find the children & teen writing community very difficult to keep up with. I have so many commitments on the farm and personally at home with very little help, and I have my health issues - not just my lack of bowel and all that (read my novel Sh!t Bag) but I also have a rare tremor called orthostatic tremor which can be very debilitating in social settings. Try standing at a networking event or at a fellow author’s book launch while the fibres in your leg muscles are beating like a helicopter blade. I have to keep moving instead. And reading? Well, I find it quite difficult. Always have. That’s weird for an author, isn’t it. But that’s me. Always a slow reader. I enjoy reading. But I’m not quick. I like to analyse and pore over the details. Which is difficult when you have other things with a deadline. That’s why I love audiobooks. At least I can multitask while listening to a story. Yes, I have ADHD too. That’s probably obvious. So, I struggle to read and keep up with everyone. To support them. So I can’t really ask for support back. That makes me uncomfortable. Then there’s my characters. They’re different. Often outspoken. Abrasive. Blunt. Honest, certainly. Painfully real. It’s quite draining exposing them with all their flaws. Exposing myself. And I’m not sure whether the YA market is the right place for my characters any more. Because some people just didn’t get what I was doing with Buzz Club. And I can’t decide whether it’s a good use of my limited energy to put words back into that genre and sphere. Especially when you’re expected to write a sob-story reveal-all PR piece to promote your novel. Some sort of sordid thing from your past that isn’t really to do with the novel and everything to do with the whims of a newspaper or magazine editor’s salacious tick list.

I digress… Always.

Anyway (why do I litter my writing with Anyway and So at practically every paragraph?), I’m thinking of writing a New Adult novel. Maybe that’s not the right title for the genre. Young Women’s Fiction… That’s probably more it. Maybe I’m growing up a bit. I think I have a plan for it. Let me know what you think. To YA again? Or onwards to an older crowd? You can message my in the Contact page. Or DM on my Instagram.

Xena Xx