Catching Miranda - An Interview with Miranda Kenneally about Catching Jordan

Everyone! Say hello to my friend and agent-mate Miranda Kenneally. THAT'S AN ORDER! Miranda hunted me down on Twitter after I signed with SuperAgent Sara Megibow and Uber-Agency Nelson Literary. Although I wrote BDSM Erotic Women's Fiction and she wrote YA, we found common ground with our shared love of hot, younger men. I fell in love with one of her characters. She fell in love with one of mine. And someday, I will slash the hell out of those two boys for the enjoyment of all our readers. Miranda was nice enough to give me some blog content in the form of an Interview about her new book CATCHING JORDAN.

I love it when people do all my work for me. And now...Miranda Kenneally! *applause*

1-First tell, introduce us to Catching Jordan.

Catching Jordan is the story of a 17-year-old girl who is captain and quarterback of the high school football team. She’s always been one of the guys because she’s afraid if she acts like a girl, all the guys will realize she’s a girl and won’t take her seriously anymore. Then this hot guy Ty moves to town, and he wants her position as quarterback, and he might want her too.

2-The original title of the book was called SCORE but you had to change that. Why is that?

It was thought that SCORE was too racy. But I’m okay with the name change. I like it more, actually!

3-There seems to be quite a bit of controversy over the portrayal of teenagers having sex in YA novels – what’s your stance?

My stance is that teenagers do it. They do it in real life, they do it in movies, they do it in books. And that’s fine as long as they know to use protection and understand the emotional implications of doing it. Parents should talk with their kids early on about sex and give them information, not shield them from it. As for sex being in books, I’m okay with it because I think books should tell the truth, not hide it.

4-Do you think it’s a moral decision to show sex or not? Or just a literary decision?

It’s a literary decision. If showing sex is important to the story, you need to show the sex. If it’s not important to the story, don’t describe it fully – just say the characters did it and move on. I think sex should only be in a story to strengthen it.

5-Have you had any experience with editors/publishers trying to either heighten or tone down the sexual content in your books? Or do they tend to leave it to the judgment of the author?

So far, this has not been an issue for me. But I wouldn’t be surprised if my editor asked me to tone down my next book. Haha!

6-Do you worry at all about parents or schools? Or do you care only about the opinion of your target audience?

I write books for teenagers, and I try to tell the stories they want to hear. If it ends up in libraries – great. If parents are okay with my stuff – great. But I’m not going out of my way to cater to anybody except for my target audience. I want to write realistic fiction, and sometimes realistic fiction gets banned and I understand that and am willing to take that risk in order to tell the truth.

7-Books for children and teenagers seem to be judged by different criteria than books for adults. On top of being entertaining and enlightening, YA novels seemingly also have to carry a moral to their stories. Do you agree with this?

No. A story is a story. It doesn’t have to have a moral. But it does have to have relatable characters and a relatable scenario. People learn and grow by watching other people fail and try again, not by being told some generic moral.

8-What’s next for Miranda Kenneally after Catching Jordan?

Two companion novels to Catching Jordan – both of which will probably be renamed, both of which will be highly scandalous! Also, I’m editing a book of letters from authors to their teen selves called Dear Teen Me.

9-Last question – do you think I could make it as a writer of YA Erotica?

If anyone could, it’s you!

Check it out, Miranda! I already made you a new fan. Maybe your book will finally cheer Honeytoast up. 

Miranda Kenneally is the author of CATCHING JORDAN, a contemporary YA novel about football and femininity, coming in December 2011. Other books include PLAYING PARKER (fall 2012) and BAD, BAD THING (spring 2013). Miranda is the co-creator of Dear Teen Me. The Dear Teen Me Anthology will be published by Zest Books (distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) in late 2012. She enjoys reading and writing young adult literature, and loves Star Trek, music, sports, Mexican food, Twitter, coffee, and her husband. Miranda is represented by Sara Megibow at Nelson Literary Agency.