Question about your books

[BookStop]

I've seen you mention younger readers a few times in your posts. What ages do you think (or others who've read 'em) your books are appropriate for? I'd love to see a rundown if you don't mind. My oldest is 14 and a fantasy/sci-fi fanatic, but she's running out of good books to read. She reads at a level where she can comprehend, pretty much, everything she reads, but I'm not ready for her to read a lot of foul language ( d*mn, cr*p ok) or sex.

[Mark Robson]

My target audience is 11 to 16, so your daughter is right in the middle of my intended range. I generally steer clear of bad language, as I'm not a fan of foul-mouthed teenagers and don't want to encourage them. That said, I believe I may have used the words 'd*mn' and 'h*ll' a couple of times when the context called for it. There is nothing worse than this.

Whilst my stories nearly always involve close relationships, I have never allowed the issue of sex to enter the plot line in a way that would ever cause a parent to censor my work. Again this is deliberate. I try to tread carefully around such issues without totally ignoring them.

It might be better for others who have read my work to vouch for those areas. I hope this helps.

[BookStop]

Indeed it does. Thanks, I just popped over to Amazon and bought the first one

[BookStop]

Well Mark, she's picked up the book. Now, I know you are thinking, What's so amazing about that? But if you've got kids, or neices and nephews, or just seen some teenagers milling about in general, you know how hard it is for adults (especially their mothers) to suggest reading material to them. They are a whole other species you know. But I put the book on her bookshelf, slightly cockeyed so she'd notice it, and it worked! She's read the first 1/3 or so. That is a glowing recommendation. I'm just wondering if, when she's done, she'll ask for the next one or wait for it to magically appear.

[dwndrgn]

Originally Posted by BookStop

Well Mark, she's picked up the book. Now, I know you are thinking, What's so amazing about that? But if you've got kids, or neices and nephews, or just seen some teenagers milling about in general, you know how hard it is for adults (especially their mothers) to suggest reading material to them. They are a whole other species you know. But I put the book on her bookshelf, slightly cockeyed so she'd notice it, and it worked! She's read the first 1/3 or so. That is a glowing recommendation. I'm just wondering if, when she's done, she'll ask for the next one or wait for it to magically appear.

I wish I had magically appearing books on my bookshelves! The only magic I had in my younger reading years was surviving the trip through the chaos of the attic in search of books

[Mark Robson]

Originally Posted by BookStop

Well Mark, she's picked up the book. Now, I know you are thinking, What's so amazing about that? But if you've got kids, or neices and nephews, or just seen some teenagers milling about in general, you know how hard it is for adults (especially their mothers) to suggest reading material to them. They are a whole other species you know. But I put the book on her bookshelf, slightly cockeyed so she'd notice it, and it worked! She's read the first 1/3 or so. That is a glowing recommendation. I'm just wondering if, when she's done, she'll ask for the next one or wait for it to magically appear.

If she's got that far, then she will be well past my worst writing! I would like to think that she will not stop now, but I await with interest to hear what the final verdict is. Thanks for the feedback.