Jay Bell Books

Young Adults VS. Dumb Adults

I entered The Cat in the Cradle in the Lambda Literary Awards this weekend and am excited to see if anything good comes of it. Fingers crossed! One hurdle during the entry process was choosing a single category to enter under. It was a toss up between Debut Author, Fantasy/Sci-fi/Horror, and Young Adult fiction. In the end I opted for Fantasy. People often ask me if The Cat in the Cradle is Young Adult, or will occasionally call it such in a review. I don’t really mind, but I never considered the YA genre when first penning the story.

In fact, I’m not really a believer in the distinction between adult fiction and that for young adults. I’m reading Terry Pratchett’s latest novel, I Shall Wear Midnight, which is billed as being for young readers. In the story, a thirteen-year-old girl is beaten so hard by her father that she miscarriages. This is by no means the main plot, but it’s pretty dire stuff for any age group, and more serious than I recall any “adult” Discworld novel being. Mention is also made of an event in a previous “young reader” Discworld book where an old woman, suspected of being a witch, has her home burnt down and her cat stoned to death. Eventually she dies from exposure to the winter. Cheerful stuff for the kiddies.

Mr. Pratchett isn’t alone. Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials series,” (The Golden Compass and two other volumes) deals with hard hitting issues such as political and religious corruption, death, and separation. There are some truly disturbing scenes in those books that shook me as an adult. Bridge to Terabithia is pretty heavy too, since the death of a friend isn’t easy for anyone to handle, regardless of age. Some aren’t at all disturbing, but are simply great stories. What isn’t there for an adult to appreciate in A Wrinkle in Time? Are you ever too old for a fantastic adventure?

I’m not complaining about any of these books. I honestly love them all. I just find the category of Young Adult to be condescending to young people. Adults tend to forget just how aware they were when they were younger and how much they could really handle. Sex isn’t something that can truly be kept from younger people these days, and good ol’ Hollywood has been spoon feeding us violence for generations. Not even book length can be taken into account for why this category exists. Just look at the tomes the last couples of Harry Potter books became.

I’ll admit that I’m a big kid at heart, so maybe the truth is that my tastes are just immature, but sales and specialized versions (such as those silly Harry Potter covers for adults) suggest that I’m not alone. More likely is that adults have forgotten just how wonderful and wise young people can be, and how many lessons can be learned by revisiting the experiences and viewpoints of our younger selves.

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Kio Revealed

Art created in Photoshop can have many layers depending on how the artist prepares the image. Technical details aside, I was looking at the art for the 12th chapter of The Cat in the Cradle and wondering if I could take Kio out of the wagon’s shade to get a better look at him. Sure enough, Andreas had placed the shadows on a separate layer. There’s obviously still some drawn shading detail on Kio, but it looks cool, sort of like that old A-Ha video. “Take on me, take me ooooon!”

This is a happy discovery for me since this image of Kio is spot on. I suppose it would be a rare moment that the cat would be so lost in thought and not more expressive, but this is how Kio appears in my mind. Great job, Andreas!

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Boys that go bump in the night.

This handsome fellow is Gaueko, spirit of the night. If he finds you wandering his domain, he’ll warn you to return indoors until the sun rises. Any that doesn’t heed this advice is subject to Gaueko’s fury. The people of Basque Country, Spain, where Gaueko’s legend originates, say that he takes the form of a black wolfhound that walks upright. Naturally this harkens back to tales of werewolves, my favorite monster. I would love to write a werewolf novel, and have a story fleshed out in my mind, but first there’s editing to do.

I guess some writers might edit alongside writing new material, but I’m too eager to get the books I’ve already finished out there. Any hour that I’m writing could be used toward that goal, and so that’s what I do. I can’t wait to get caught up though. Getting back into my old habits after being gone so long isn’t easy, but I’m sure I’ll slide into soon. Speaking of creative enterprises, the art above is the work of Brian Shepp, who has done an entire series of deities and spirits. He even painted my man Manannan, which is how I found his site. You can check out Brian’s stunning work here and buy something if you’re rich. I know I would. Anyway, I love stuff like this. I’ve always had a fascination with the old gods, if not a ongoing relationship, and they feature heavily in my third novel. That one seems a million miles away, but some of these gods also make an appearance in The Cat in the Cradle, albeit in different guises. I wonder if anyone will recognize who they are?

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Can Fantasy Be Sexy?

The fantasy genre has always been somewhat neutered romantically. Maybe it was just the authors I read growing up, but plots rarely culminated in the hero locking lips and dragging his girl of choice off into the sunset. The ease of small publishing has allowed all sorts of niche markets to thrive in modern times, but there is something to be said for puritan days gone by. Sexy is never sexier than when it’s unintentional, and in the past there have been a number of characters that oozed sex appeal, even if they were never intended to. Take Allanon from Terry Brooks’ Shannara series for instance, who was described as having an “imposing figure” with “strong hands” and a “dark face” with “deep-set eyes.” I don’t think Brooks was groping himself while writing Allanon, but he created a character that, underneath all those druid robes, was a brawny, hairy-chested bear of a man well suited for any magazine centerfold.

No doubt such romantically barren fantasy novels helped to usher in the era of slash fiction. Without every character being paired up with a wife, child, and white picket fence, readers were left free to imagine what couples they would most like to see. I suspect this is also the reason why Doctor Who has such a large gay following. Until recent years, the Doctor wasn’t tongue wrestling with anyone. Picturing a neutral hero in the sort of relationships you enjoy is much easier to do than with a flamboyantly heterosexual hero. Maybe that’s why fantasy novels held such sway over me when I was young.

Really though, I like it better these days. I prefer openly gay characters in books and no longer having to make up hot guy-on-guy romances. Besides those for my own stories of course. Speaking of which, I stumbled upon a rough sketch Andreas did of Tyjinn that didn’t make it in the novel or the art book. I’m not sure whose idea it was that Tyjinn should be wearing so little, but I approve. And speaking of sexy fantasy figures, if you name your favorite over on Reviews by Jessewave in the next couple of days, you can win a free print copy of The Cat in the Cradle. How sexy is that?

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The Cat in the Cradle Sketchbook

Update! All eBook versions now include the illustrations!

The eBook version of The Cat in the Cradle doesn’t come with the illustrations. Rather than spend another night crying in sympathy for those who are missing out, Andreas and I put together a free art book containing all of the missing illustrations. That’s right, free! Not only does it include all the missing illustrations, but it comes with a slew of never before seen concept art and commentary from yours truly.

While digging through his sketchbooks, Andreas came up with some real gems. My favorite can be seen here. Click it and it grows! This is a watercolor of Dylan, the main character of the story, and I’m absolutely enamored with it. This, along with more than fifty other wonderful images, is available from Smashwords in all eBook formats for zero dollars and zeroty-zero cents. All I ask in return is that you tell others about it, and maybe give my novel a mention as well. Enjoy!

Update 2! The Sketchbook is currently unpublished but will be released again in another format sometime in the future.

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Final Cover Art Revealed!

Andreas finished up the cover art for The Cat in the Cradle this weekend, expanding it so it wraps around the spine to the back of the book. I think he did an exceptional job. Here’s your chance to see it without all the title and synopsis text that be present in the printed version. Clicky-clicky for a bigger version!

The empty white box is for the bar code, of course. Andreas came up with a lot of rough images before we settled on a final concept, and it’s amazing to see how the art evolved when looking through them in sequence. The earliest and roughest sketch, seen to the left, was later used as the basis for the art on the opening chapter. All together, there are about five unique images that came before the final art.

I’m very, very lucky to be married to an artist willing to take time out of his busy schedule to fulfill my silly whims. Andreas spent an ungoldy amount of time creating the twenty-five interior illustrations in addition to the cover, each with their own concepts and alterations. Believe you me, this is going to cost me a ridiculous amount of foot massages.

Despite being advised not to, we all judge a book by its cover, so it’s very important they look their best. What’s the best cover art you’ve ever seen? (Aside from mine naturally. Heh.) It could be anything from books, DVDs, album covers, anything. What’s your favorite?

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