Reinventing myself

Right now, I'm rewriting a novel which I originally wrote as a young adult story.  It's over fifteen years  old, and I managed to get one of the big publishers interested enough in the young adult version to request the full off the slushpile.  Discussions with that editor eventually didn't go anywhere, and the novel has languished on my shelves and on my hard drive ever since.  But I've always loved the premise of the novel, so I'm reinventing it as an adult SF novel.

I spent a decade or so writing young adult SF, and reading it.  I went that route because, for a long time, the only adult SF I saw on the booksellers' shelves was by males. And  YA SF had strong female characters in it.  This was before the big growth in the use of social media.  I wasn't an early adopter, and it's taken me a while to plug into the worldwide network of authors, editors, and agents.  Which meant that, for many years, I wasn't being reminded that women have always written - and always published - SF.

So I spent a decade producing books which didn't go anywhere, before I accepted that my strength is as an adult writer.  Then I switched back to writing adult SF.  One of the reasons for that was the insistence of nearly every editor and agent I met that my YA lead characters should be in a romantic relationship.  I've never done that.  I'm neither a romance writer or reader.  There are relationships in my books, but they're of supporting characters.  It just doesn't interest me writing that stuff.

Fast forward to 2020, where the SF scene for women writers is very different. A woman of colour won the Hugo Best Novel award three years in a row.  Other women, both white and of colour, have also won awards for novellas and shorter works.  Those stories reflect their diversity,

Now the big publishers are very into declaring their commitment to diversity.  So I'm hopeful that when I make my main characters aromantic asexuals in the future no-one will suggest they should be in sexual relationships. 

I've also reinvented myself as a writer by putting conservation matters front and centre of my work.  I have a lot of novels about characters defending unspoiled wildworlds from destruction.  This goes back to my YA days too, but I didn't bring the conservation issues out in those books.  Now I'm expanding their parts to include conservation messages.

I'm busily re-inventing my work and my brand, and I'm loving every minute of it.