What first got me into writing was my children’s
frustration at the choice of fantasy fiction in the local library. Looking back
on it, I realize my eldest child was fourteen at the time and number three was
only nine. Our local library put all fantasy in the kids’ section, so they
brought home some pretty unsuitable stuff. However, even the titillation of
sexy nymphomaniac warrior queens left them cold. Samey, they said. Predictable.
I decided to have a go at writing something that they could get their teeth
into, that would stimulate them intellectually, if that doesn’t sound too
pretentious.
The result was The
Green Woman series. Set in a brutal, misogynist, and repressive society
dominated by religious dogma, it tells the story of Deborah, a refusnik who
wants out, and ends up accepting her role as the catalyst who will destroy the
regime and help create something better. By the time the series was written, my
children were older and appreciated the utopian aspect of the story, where the
fighting was towards an end they approved of, not just to put some king on a
throne.
But since the release of the first volume of the
series, The Dark Citadel, I have
discovered that the exploration of right and wrong is not necessarily considered
suitable for the under eighteens. Moral reflection is not supposed to be part
of the package; teenagers should be presented with black or white situations.
They should be more interested in love triangles, working through their own
(often very banal) problems, and generally navel-gazing.
Frankly, I believe that young adults should be
presented with the same moral choices as old adults, and not allowed to cop out
of taking hard decisions. Deborah, the main character in The Dark Citadel, starts off as a typical self-absorbed
almost-sixteen-year-old, but she grows and matures into accepting that even
adolescents have responsibilities. Evil does not always have horns and cloven
hooves, it can be found in the most ordinary people. There is some black in the
story, and a very little white, but mostly, there are a lot of shades of grey.
I will go on writing with young people as my heroes
because they are more versatile than older adults, who have responsibilities of
family, jobs, paying for the house or the new car. Teens should be more
idealistic, simply because they aren’t burdened with these responsibilities,
and they should be heroic in a real sense. Some critics would say that The Green Woman series is a YA series
written for adults. While I am pleased that it appeals to adults, I hope the
younger people, for whom it was written, will enjoy it too.
Guest Blogger Bio
Jane
Dougherty is a product of the Irish diaspora. When she was a baby, her family
moved to Yorkshire where she was brought up. She was educated in Manchester and
London before moving to France to work in the wine trade. She has lived in
Paris, Picardy, and now lives in the warmer climes of Bordeaux with her family
of five children, a Spanish greyhound and a posse of cats.
Her
first book, The Dark Citadel, a dark, epic, dystopian fantasy was released on October 4, 2013 by Musa
Publishing. The second volume, The
Subtle Fiend, was released on January 29, 2014. In the Beginning, released in November 2013, is a collection of
three short stories set in the world of The Green Woman.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MJDougherty33
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