Steph’s Take on Novel Novice’s One Year Anniversary

“But I don’t read YA. Twilight was the exception.”

That’s what I told Sara when she mentioned she was branching off from Twilight Novel Novice to start Novel Novice, a site that would embrace books beyond Stephenie Meyer’s series. I was on staff with NNT but didn’t really see where I could contribute to the new venture.

After all, I am an adult. I have an advanced English degree. I read adult books.

HAH!

Thank goodness I put all that pretentiousness aside and dove head-first into the amazing pool of popular YA! The books coming out of the YA genre are some of the best in all of current literature — all my preconceptions have proven false.

Thanks to Novel Novice (and Sara’s friendship and guidance) I’ve been able to reclaim my passions in life — reading, learning and pop culture — things that fell by the wayside after my husband and I started our family. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of a busy family, but Novel Novice helps me gain some balance.

It’s also helped me out of my comfort zone. When Sara extended the invitation to come to Portland for Wordstock to meet many of the authors we feature on Novel Novice, my first instinct was, “No, I couldn’t leave my kids and fly across the country. And I’d pass out if I met some of these authors!” But guess what? I got on that plane and made it happen. Something I never would have dreamed of a year ago.

Now? Now I can tell a funny story about losing Becca Fitzpatrick. About cracking lame jokes in a car with Kaleb Nation. Getting a necklace from L.K. Madigan. Chatting with Cassandra Clare about our mutual love of author Wilkie Collins.

I’ve even started writing a novel of my own.

For these reasons and many more, I am so, so grateful to Sara, Novel Novice and the supportive YA community. And if I’m really lucky, my kids will turn to me some day and say, “Mom, you’re pretty cool!”