I don't know how I feel about this, honestly. I mean, yay- we have a month in which we are probably going to get more air time and more coverage, but we're really not. I did some research for another blog I am doing this month (over at The YALSA Hub, and it's not up yet or I'd link to it), and I learned that there isn't a large number of teen books with diabetic characters in it. This wasn't a complete surprise to me, since there weren't many when I was a teenager. What was surprising to me was that since I was a teenager there haven't been any NEW ones. More people get diabetes now than ever before and the literary world seems to have dropped it like a bad habit. Millions of people have diabetes and there aren't diabetics in our literature? 250,000 people get leukemia a year and there are at least four books that have come out in the last two years for teens that have characters with leukemia in them. The numbers seem skewed, though I admit that my interest has been limited to the young adult novel and for all I know there's a series written by Danielle Steel all about a woman who is a diabetic...not that I'd know, because I don't read Danielle Steel.
But this got me thinking...November is also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). Maybe I should just write a young adult novel about a teen with diabetes myself. How hard can that be? I've been a diabetic for *mumble mumble* years now. I'm pretty sure if it came down to it, I'd be able to accurately write about how it is to live with it, as a teenager even. Hell, that's what I'm doing here isn't it?
Get it?
Alas, if only it were that easy. If I were just writing about diabetes it would be. If I were just writing about living with diabetes it would be, too. But writing a young adult novel that talks about diabetes, and is entertaining, has some plot, and doesn't sound preachy? Some of the worst YA lit I've read has come across as preachy. And some of the worst YA lit I've read has been about a disease. In fact, there's one author in particular that has built a career on writing about teens with cancer or some other fatal ailment, and got two books about diabetes in there, too....and all of it is schmaltzy, predictable....
It's not Nicholas Sparks, but this also applies to him, too, I guess.
Honestly even if it were easy, I'm not that motivated to write it, either. Writing a book is hard, and writing a good book is improbable, and writing a good book for teens is a total shot in the dark (kind of like booking a trip on Expedia- sometimes you get a great deal, some times you don't.) The big thing in literary circles, especially ones dealing with those under 18, is that you need to be able to see yourself in the literature you read. Kids who live in the suburbs tend to lean toward books that take place there, just as kids who are of a certain culture/religion need to see kids of their culture/religion in the books they read. It's a reaffirming thing- "Hey, this person is just like me!" even though we're all supposed to be ourselves and not be like other people, which I sometimes take to the extreme.
For instance, I'd wear this...in public.
But the idea has planted itself into my head, and I can't seem to let go of it. In fact, I jotted down some notes and ideas the other day that I think could really work. Now I just need to find the time to sit down and do it, and then get a publisher, and hopefully write it well enough that I can squeeze a few sequels out of it....
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