I must confess that I had no conscious intention of writing “Young Adult” fiction – I just wrote the story that came to me and my publishers popped the “YA” label on afterwards.
I am not sure if it was only because the book is “family friendly” and the main characters are teenaged, or whether it is also because my mentality is not terribly “grown up” in many ways.
In any case, there it is. I do not really feel that “I” write anyway. I feel as if the stories come through me. That is an interesting subject in itself, isn’t it? Traditional artists believed the muses gave them their inspiration – and properly the word “inspiration” indicates a coming in of a spirit and ultimately the Spirit Herself at least in an attenuated manner.
It is typical of the Promethean culture of the modern west Telluria that “inspiration” is now used as a purely individual and psychological concept.
And if the Spirit does infuse my work in even the most distant way, I wonder if the “Young Adult” thing has some connection with that too – for I do believe that much of what passes for “adult” in modern Telluria (and I don’t just mean the obviously lewd or cruel parts) is alien to the purity and innocence of the true Self in all of us.
As it is written:
“[C]ome to Me as little children in the pure simplicity of your hearts and the virgin innocence of your souls—for truly, all of you are children in the eyes of your Mother”.
What an interesting topic, Miss Matichei. Elphie doesn’t really write too much, but when she does, it usually comes from “imaginary” visions that play themselves out in her head. Even when playing pretend when she was a small child — her favorite game — she never felt that she made the stories up: she just told them. In this way, we seem to operate along the same lines as your honoured self, so to speak.