Coming of Age NovelsLife-changing books with heart and soul

I’m not writing about vampires. There. I’ve said it.

Crazy considering everyone seems to want to read about vampires these days.

While I’m at it, I may as well admit I’m not writing romance novels with girls as the main characters either.  Nothing against romances with girls in them.  Lots against vampires. But the main the thing is, I’ve never let what other people want influence my writing. If I had, I’d have given up years ago.

"Boys don’t read," the publishers told me. "Too small a market." And then they told me I was a great writer and asked for a ‘different ‘ proposal. But I didn’t want to write anything else. I wanted to write books about teenage boys.

After all, I’d taught high school and been a camp counselor. I knew lots of boys who read. And, uh, did I mention I had four sons?

Another point in my favour was that most girls will read books about boys. The opposite isn’t often true. So wouldn’t it make more sense to have fewer books with girls as the main characters and more books with boys as the main characters? At least those boys who did read would have something to read!

I’d heard how Ken Taylor started a publishing company because no one would publish the Living Bible, so I went ahead and wrote the books I wanted to write, and then my husband and I formed a publishing company to publish them.

And do you know what we discovered? Boys will read books if you give them something they want to read.  And girls will read the books, too. Honest.

So if you’re looking for books about realistic teens dealing with real-life problems concerning school and parents and dating and best friends and illness and love and pain and why God allows suffering and if he really cares about us – look no further.

As for vampires, I won’t be including them any time soon. Not too high on my "realism meter".