Review of a Gallery for Nick

Quote from The Review of Disability Studies:

"This is an excellent book to explore feelings about death and disability. James does a good job in exploring the feelings of someone whose friend is deteriorating quickly. I would especially recommend this book for high school students."

Steven E. Brown Assistant Professor at the Center of Disability Studies at the University of Hawai'i. Editor at Review of Disability Studies.   

Tidying Up, Letting Go, Moving On, Getting There

Why I’ve tided up my office

I’ve taken a week off from my day-job and used quite a bit of it to give my study a thorough sort-out. I’m probably going to be moving into a shared office at work shortly. There’ll be less space for books so I’m making space here so that I can bring back all of my books form the office.

I find quite often that anyway if I’m in the office the books I want are at home and if I’m at home the books I want are in the office. So this is a good strategy anyway. Besides, we’re going to have more contact hours with students so that the office becomes a space that we use for small snatches of time between lectures. We’ll all be located quite closely together so some of that spare time will be used for meetings, both formal and informal. There’ll only be time and brain space for quick bursts of admin work. The studious desk-work will be completed in my study at home.

Can writers live without the internet?

Well, I’m pretty taken with it but others seem even more attached. I’m not one of those people that are forever checking the phone for Tweets, emails and Facebook messages. If I’m out and about or teaching, the world can wait. However, at my desk or alone in a hotel or on a journey I’ll look at it all at regular intervals and both my mobile and my laptop alert me when a new email comes in – and my emails tell me if I have new Tweets or Facebook messages.

New demographic? The New Adult

Thinking about this may have actually started four or five years ago. When I met my final year student for the first time then one of my students declared “I want to write for people our age. No one seems to write specifically for us.” She meant people in their early twenties. She managed it, in fact.

This particular student had been on my Writing Novels for Young People course. She’d actually done very well and I had rather hoped she would carry on with it. But no, she wanted to start on this new venture. She did very well with this as well.

What might be the features of this new genre and what is a “new adult”?

I would say “new adults” are more comfortable with their adult status than the “young adults”. All of the shenanigans in the brain are over. They would be living away from home in their first jobs or nearing the end of higher education.

In stories written for them there may be a little less about identity but much about further progression in the world. There may be more outward –looking scenes. There will still be much about sex and relationships. What will be the main types of stories told here? Perhaps amongst others there will be stories of early career development. I watch the emergence of this new genre with interest.