What Does "YA Fantasy" Really Mean?

I'm a writer of Young Adult (YA) Epic Fantasy. But the question might be asked, what does that mean? What makes the fantasy which I right Young Adult or New Adult, rather than simply Epic Fantasy?

There are a couple of key elements which I can point to. First, it should be pointed out that my teenage daughters have been and remain the first audience for whom I write. Their tastes and the kind of fiction which they read have left an indelible mark on the things I write.

As a writer of YA or NA fantasy, I tend to leave out some of the more sexually charged or violent scenes which appear to have become a core staple for many other writers. It's not that such things have no place in literature. It's just that they are unnecessary and distracting from the stories which I write. I therefore attempt to keep certain events "off-screen" or "off-page".

Writing YA Fantasy, however, does not mean that I intend to shield my audience from all the harsh lessons of the world in which they live. My novels are not aimed at an elementary school audience by any stretch of the imagination. Characters do die in my novels. Evil is real, and it isn't banished by hope or charm.

As YA Fantasy, my characters are also grappling with some very real world questions and doubts which are a part of YA or NA fiction. As emerging adults, they must face some of the same questions which my own daughters struggled with. It's not as simple as turning that magical age and suddenly everything makes sense. It doesn't make sense, which is why emerging adults have always struggled to understand who they are, and what their place in the world might be.

Facing the world as an emerging adult, means coming to terms with the good, and the bad in it. The reality that some people are mostly good with a little bit of bad, and others are mostly bad with a little bit of good. It's seldom black-and-white. Bigotry is real, and racism is real. As young adults they will be confronted with that - it's unavoidable. It's my hope that art and literature can help them come to terms with these realities, not avoid them. It also means coming to terms with their own identity, including their own sexual identity, in a world where many are still ignorant or unaccepting of those who are different from themselves - or from their own definition of what "normal" should be.

The world I write about, the questions which my characters must struggle with and face, are the same questions which I saw my own daughters struggle to understand and come to terms with. So if people wonder why my novels reflect some of the diverse issues which they do - that is why. The setting might be a world of fantasy. But the questions which these stories raise are ones which our emerging adults have been struggling to cope with for generations - some more openly than others.