Jillian Cantor’s first novel, The September Sisters, was called “memorable” and “startlingly real” by Publishers Weekly, and was nominated as a YALSA Best Book For Young Adults. She’s just out with a new debut novel of sorts, The Transformation of Things — this one for adults. Enjoy her post about the process of moving between these two worlds. – Meg
The Transformation of Things is my third book, but since it is my first book for adults I’ve been heard it called a “debut” more times than I can count. My first two novels were young adult novels, so I’ve also already been asked a lot why I felt I wanted to switch from being a teen author to an adult author, and I’ve noticed myself being referred to as a “teen author” or “YA author” in reviews of The Transformation of Things.
Perhaps because of where I started, these all feel like strange labels and questions to me. When I wrote my first book, The September Sisters, I had no idea what a young adult novel even was. In my defense, this was a pre-Twilight era, so YA books were not quite as present in bookstores as they are now. At the time, I was fresh out of an MFA program with an already failed (i.e. un-publishable, and I’ll admit now, rather boring,) novel under my belt, and I finally felt myself able to break out of the character driven confines of the MFA program and discover some plot! I didn’t stop to consider the fact that the narrator of my new book was a 13-year-old girl and that this might make a difference in how the book would sell. I had, after all, read plenty of adult books with child narrators.
But very smart people who understand the publishing market much better than I do, namely my agent and then my future editor, saw The September Sisters as a YA book. And the book sold this way, in a two-book deal, which meant I was then charged with the task of writing a second YA book. This was the point where I started to freak out a little bit and went to the library and checked out every possible YA book I could find, because I felt I had no idea what I was doing. How could I write a YA book when I didn’t even know what one was; when I’d never even read one? What I found was, YA books and adult books are not that different, or at least, they don’t have to be. For me, the difference only lies in the age of the narrator, but we were all teenagers once. There’s something just a little thrilling about being able to relive all that teenage angst through a book – as both a writer and a reader.
So anyway, this brings me to The Transformation of Things, my third “debut” book. I got asked in an interview the other day, why I wanted to make the transition from being a YA author to an adult author, would I write more YA books, more adult books? The truth is, I love writing. I love narrators of all ages. I love that The Transformation of Things centers around a woman who is my age with issues similar to the ones I see in my life in the lives of my friends. I also love that YA books take me back to a different time in my life. I think it would be interesting to narrate a book from the perspective of someone much older than me, too, to imagine the way life might look different at this stage.
I guess my point is, that I don’t feel an author should have to choose, or be one thing or another. I hope people will just come to think of me as an author (hopefully, one they enjoy reading!) – no matter what the ages of my characters are.
All that being said, there’s something very unique, special, and exciting about being a “debut” author, and how many people get to live this feeling twice? For that, I feel very lucky! – Jillian
