plus...

When your books are published as YA, there's the whole issue of audience. I tend not to think about audience very specifically, but it looks to me like--in general--the younger the reader, the shorter the attention span (and the less ability to make inferences). I'm 46 years old and pretty cynical, and what holds my attention may bore the cr*p out of a ninth grader. I've also noticed that many of the books that enthralled me when I was a teen don't quite do the job now. Of course, some of that may be because writing has ruined me for reading and it's hard to get caught up in fiction at all anymore.

Anyway, this is all something to keep in the back of my mind as I work on this ms.