YA LGBT Books discussion

I promised Byron I wouldn't do too much book pimpage, but since this is also a chance for you all to get to know me better, I did want to mention some of my other books.

My YA urban fantasy series The Dark Lines was previously being published by Jupiter Gardens Press (books 1 and 2), but beginning with book 3 later this month will be published by Featherweight.

Topher James and Blake Walker both unintentionally become involved in the universal war between the forces of light and darkness. Both boys, and most of their friends, have psychic abilities, and both boys feel drawn to "fight for the light".

This was the first series I wrote; the first book, The Black Bridge, was originally written in 2004. It wasn't supposed to become a series, but the characters kind of took over, and now there are 30 books...

Topher and Blake aren't your typical heroes. Topher's mother was only seventeen when he was born. She didn't know how to care for him, and the circumstances surrounding his conception and birth left her traumatized. Since age five, Topher's pretty much been raising himself and his mother. He hasn't always made good choices in his life, but he tries to do the right thing.

Blake was physically abused by his birth mother when he started demonstrating his psychic abilities, and when he was five, she turned him over to Child Protective Services, telling them that she didn't want him anymore. Fortunately, he was adopted by his first foster mother, who loves him and treats him very well, but by age 14 (when the reader first meets him), he's learned to shut himself away from others, and he tends to blame himself when things go wrong.

These two guys are one of the prime examples of my tagline, "Anyone can be a hero."

If you have any questions or comments about this series, feel free to post them here. I'm going to shut up now, because I love these books and characters and could talk about them forever.

By the way, in The Black Bridge, there's a character who is gay, though he isn't "out" yet in that book. In the second book, When Darkness Falls, a character is introduced who's bisexual. Because of the weirdness of being an author, I did NOT know that character was bisexual until I was talking to my 16-year-old and to a friend of mine who's read most of the first drafts of the series. I said, "There really should be more GLBT characters in this series. What would you think if I made (this character) bisexual?"

Both of them, independently of each other, said, "(This character) already IS bisexual. It's obvious. Didn't you know that?"

(Ralph, if you want to know which characters I'm talking about, ask... Anyone else, you'll have to either figure it out or wait till the characters come out later in the series. LOL)

You do know I don't need more books on my TBR pile, right? *stalks off to add these to my TBR pile*

Kaje, I know, but I'm difficult that way. LOL. At least there are only two books available in the series so far...

"So far" =P

Well, that'll give Kaje time to catch up... LOL

Kaje wrote: "You do know I don't need more books on my TBR pile, right? *stalks off to add these to my TBR pile*"

I share your pain Kaje... I REALLY do NOT need more books in my TBR pile...

Thanks JO...

You're welcome, Byron. LOL

Here's something I've been pondering: When I originally wrote The Black Bridge, it was supposed to be a one-shot book. It grew into a 10-book series. Then I got ideas for an additional 10 books; the first one starts about two years after the original book ten leaves off.

Meanwhile, my best friend/beta reader (at the time; we've long since lost touch) said, "You know, some of the adults in those ten books have more to them than meets the eye. You should write their stories too."

I disagreed at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right.

I wrote the adults' stories, going "back in time" to their teenage years. There are ten books in that segment of the series as well.

So in The Dark Lines, there are 30 books total. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I have one 30-book series, three 10-book series, or one 20-book series and one 10-book.

Books 1-10 are about Topher James and Blake Walker and their friends. When I was thinking of this as three 10-book series, I called this segment Dark Portals (not realizing there's a game by that name...). According to the completely arbitrary timeline I developed to keep track of all this, Dark Portals takes place from October 2007-April 2010, though they actually take place in "the present day", whenever that might be; I just needed to assign years so I could keep track of things.

Books 11-20 are the books "back in time", the ones about the adults from Dark Portals. I can't decide whether giving their names here would be spoilers or not... These ten books, I lumped under the series title Dark Path, and they take place (timeline-wise) from August 1989-December 1992.

Books 21-30, which I put under the series title Dark Incarnation, take place from June 2012-June 2015. Blake Walker's back as one of the main/narrator characters, but this time the other one is a boy named Matthew James (who's Topher's cousin, but they don't know that at first). Book 21 picks up fairly clearly after book 10 left off.

So, if you've read this whole insanely long post, do you think having those ten books in the middle, going "back in time", is confusing? Does it detract from the storyline? I will say that the adults in the Dark Incarnation segment play a larger role fighting the forces of darkness than they did in Dark Portals, so the Dark Path segment does contribute to the overall plot arc, but still... Does it make sense to have it there, or is it just way too many books?

What do you think of doing Book 1-10, then Books 21-30, and then going and doing the prequel books 11-20?

That would be a possibility. Or doing 1-10 and 21-30 as "The Dark Lines" and 11-20 as a separate series under "Dark Path." In that scenario, books 11-20 and 21-30 could be released concurrently-ish.

On the other hand, that would add a whole nother series to my Featherweight line-up, which is already pretty series-heavy. (Let's see... The Dark Lines, Reality Shift, the Cluing In series that still needs a name, Growing Up Shifter... is that it or did I miss one? LOL)

I would do it as three series. maybe use names for the series that show the relationships - "Before Dark Lines" or something for the prequels. But I think when you get over about 10, people start expecting formula, and being intimidated or considering it less likely to be good. Although maybe that's not true for YA - I remember being pulled out the door on the day of release to buy Fruits basket, Volume 23.

I love series books... but I hate it when they jump around to much... I like reading in the timeline stream... BUT I know that's not a common thing...

Fruits Basket is manga, though... I thought once about having The Dark Lines made into graphic novels, but decided that would just complicate matters.

(Incidentally, "The Dark Lines" is the umbrella term my former best friend/beta reader came up with for the three series collectively, which is why I use it now.)

Kaje, I get what you're saying about the "formula" series. Most series that are really long are like Goosebumps or Babysitter's Club, and those are definitely formulaic (especially Babysitters Club). They're also for younger readers, though... Then there are YA series like Gossip Girl or The Vampire Diaries; I haven't read those, so I don't know how formulaic they'd be.

Byron, reading in timeline makes sense. The jump back to the 1990s for the middle ten books might be jolting for some readers.

Maybe having "Dark Portals" and "Dark Incarnation" as a single series (still 20 books, but at least they're linear time-wise) and then "Dark Path" as a separate series? I definitely don't want to lose Dark Path, but I don't want readers to be put off. My own daughter refuses to read the Dark Path books because they're darker (no pun intended) in tone than the rest, so it might make sense to do those as a separate but related series.

Update: The Dark Lines book 3, Jet Black, should be out before the end of the month. It's in line edits now, and I have draft cover art (which I can't share because it's a draft, but it looks really cool).

It's definitely an awesome book! =P

Thanks :) Hopefully readers will think so!