Why the world needs New Adult - guest post by author Matthew Turner

Today i am taking part in a campaign to further spread the word of New Adult books, show that it can be a broad genre and to also show that male authors can write NA too. This week long campaign is being run by debut author Matthew Turner whose NA novel Beyond Parallel is currently free. I will introduce you to Beyond Parallel then let Matthew tell you why he thinks the world needs New Adult books.

Beyond Parallel

Synopsis

One boy. One girl. One insignificant moment that changes their lives forever.

Bella and Clark are two young twenty-somethings, finding themselves in a chaotic and crazy world. One craves love; the other avoids it. Will they find one another, or will a single what-if moment send them down different paths?

In the same mould as Sliding Doors, Uncertainty, and Smoking/No-Smoking, Beyond Parallel flips between two parallel tales. One follows Bella and Clark as a couple, the other as if they never meet.

Friendships, careers, dreams, fantasies...their lives are no different to yours or mine.

Follow their journey over a fast paced, mazy two-years. Highflying careers, book tours, teaching teenagers, hipster warehouses, coffee shop hangouts, a despicable salesman...they're all confronted.

It's incredible how a small, everyday decision can affect how you look, where you live, the people you love, and who you become. We could all live a billion lives, but we’re only given one. Is it all a game of chance, or are Bella and Clark meant to be?

Guest post by Matthew Turner

This week I've embarked on a campaign going by the name: A New Adult Man

 

Part of this is to celebrate my debut novel, Beyond Parallel being FREE all week (between 18/03/2013 - 22/03/2013), the other is to spread the New Adult word and show that it isn't all steamy, erotic sex scenes.

My name is Matthew Turner and I'm a New Adult Man who's excited about what this new genre holds. At present it seems to be getting pigeon holed in a very particular way, but that doesn't mean this will remain the case - after all, Leonardo DiCaprio began life as a pre-teen idol, whereas these days he's one of the world's most talented actors.

You may not know about New Adult (there's a great description HERE) or you may have heard about it being smut for teenagers or erotic young adult. It's true, some New Adult Books fit into this view, but many don't, and if there's one thing I hope you leave here with it's the willingness to go and form your own opinion.

Why The World Needs New Adult

As I wrote  Beyond Parallel I struggled with where it fit into the world. It isn't quite Young Adult, but it is Coming-of-Age and focusses on people who have just left college. They're not teenagers, but they're far from grown up, therefore when I found the New Adult genre I did a little dance.

These are some reasons I think you should dance, too:

We Grow Up Fast But Take An Age To Grow Up

These days teenagers are growing up fast - knowing more about the world at thirteen than my parents did at thirty. However, with the economy being what it is and the ever changing views toward marriage, mortgages and careers, it's taking a very long time for us to grow up.

Where my parents left home and were married by twenty-three years old, my generation still live at home at thirty with marriage reserved for later. As such the modern day reader is changing. He or she doesn't necessary look for a young adult book that focusses on teenage angst, but they are looking for stories that they can relate to - aka, stories about careers, university, and commitment.

New Adult focusses on characters between 18-25 years-of-age, and although this group draws comparisons to teenagers, they far from fit in to it. Readers don't always fit this age range, either, rather they're individuals living a young life. They like to travel, are still figuring life out, and are searching for answers each day.

New Adult books are for these lost and lovely folk

Harry Potter, The Hungers Games & Twilight

In the last decade reading has become cool again. When I was thirteen years old there wasn't a book or author that grabbed the attention of EVERYONE, but then JK Rowling came along and what followed was an entire generation living to read.

Series like Harry Potter and Twilight have changed the act of reading. They're fast paced and focus on characters the same age as those who are reading them, which is fine, but once these readers grow up they expect books to grow up, too.

This is why New Adult is relevant at the moment, and I suspect for a long time to come. If executed properly it can help edge people away from Young Adult and into Adult Life, but it's important not to rush people and force them into aspects they're not ready for. New Adult might not have all the answers, but it certainly holds some.

Attention Is Falling

I love literary books that take a while to get going and word things in a very particular way, but the more TV and Hollywood takes hold of our brains and mashes it up, the more we require fast-flowing activities that impact us in an instant.

Writers like Colleen Hoover and Tammara Webber are great at achieving this, and overall the New Adult Genre is full of authors crafting fast, free-flowing narratives that are hard to put down. It's not to say that other styles are doomed, but with attention spans across the globe falling, New Adult has an opportunity to fill a void.

Time To Form Your Own Opinion

At the moment New Adult is geared toward female writers, female readers, and those who focus on romance and the slightly steamy side of life. What I hope the New Adult Man Campaign achieves is to help you see that there's so much more.

When I read Hopeless by Colleen Hoover I didn't see romance, rather a story about young people going through young life (relationships, of course, being part of this). If New Adult is going to develop into a genuine genre for years to come it needs to bring in new styles of writing, and yes, more male authors :)

Please JOIN THIS JOURNEY and share the campaign this week. Above all else, go and search for some New Adult books, have a  read, and form your own opinion. You may find outlets like ABC News are rather wrong in their initial conclusions.

Thanks for reading and have a most wonderful day

Matthew Turner - author of Beyond Parallel

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Matthew Turner is a Male New Adult Writer who's debut novel, BEYOND PARALLEL is FREE all week (18/03/2013 - 22/03/2013). 

The New Adult Man Campaign is geared toward exposing this great new genre and showing that men can play a part too. JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT and help spread the word, discovering some great New Adult reads along the way. 

Also as a little side note how lovely is the promotional button/badge for this campaign? Matthew created it himself, it seems he is multi-talented - author, skilled marketer and a good designer. I think he is definately an author with the potential to do very well. The reason i mention this is that Matthew had a little play around and created a button for supporters of New Adult books and the New Adult book club. This is what he has come up with at the moment. Do you like it?

I would love for all bloggers and authors that support NA to be able to have a button that we all share and could put in our blog side bars to show how much we love this still growing catagory.