Several of my friends, family, a few teachers, and a handful of strangers in Minnesota have purchased the first edition of The J. and S. Adventure books. i.e. book one and two. I am also aware that there have been available copies of those particular novels online available through sites that have, without my permission, acquired the pdfs and made available to the public. This August the second edition of J. and S. Adventures#1 A New Beginning will be released. I want to explain why I am rebooting the series and making drastic changes to the plots and characters. This blog post is mostly dedicated to the individuals that have read or stumbled upon the first editions. However, if you haven't heard of the series but follow my blog this post will give insight to what lies ahead so I suggest you stay tuned.
I openly admit the first editions were terrible.
I'm not deprecating myself as a writer but admitting to how ashamed I am of the way the messages in the novels were delivered at the time. Let me break it down.
How NOT to cope with a fresh break-up
In the first adventure Jayne reads a letter from her ex-boyfriend who was a part of the J. and S. Detective agency for several years. The letter states that he went to fight in the military in the United States. It's year 3011, there's no explanation of what's happening in the U. S. at the time but it's implied that he won't be coming back. Two sentences later she calls Aaron, who she just met less than several hours ago. She fawns over his good looks and has him take the entrance exam which all (Two) of her past boyfriends had to take to become a member of the J. and S. Agency. The next day. Bare in mind she knows nothing about him except that he has known her for a long time, for some unexplained reason, and he has weird magic powers. He takes the test and passes with flying colors and suddenly he and Jayne are romantically interested in each other, we never hear of Dragon again for the rest of the series and the romantic chemistry between Jayne and Aaron is forced.
I essentially romanticized one of the most disastrous ways to get over the termination of a long term, serious relationship. No human would adjust to someone new the way Jayne did even with someone as fierce, fabulous, and loving as Aaron. I know it's fiction but personally through fiction I would rather spread a message that would do the world good. Such as an accurate representation of why Jayne's actions would lead to a trainwreck of a relationship or how to cope with a break-up in a healthy way.
How NOT to celebrate LGBTQ diversity in a detective agency
Aaron identifies as bisexual and non-binary. I don't know how to even begin explaining how poorly he was represented and how cringey it was that I had the characters have little to no idea how to react to having "a gay detective on the team" The dialogue came from a place of ignorance and right now in a time of serious progress for the LGBTQ community we need less ignorance and more empowerment. When I was younger (Bare in mind the first editions were published in 2013) I did not know what I do now about myself as a queer individual, the community, the value of pronouns and all the different terms, etc. I've come a long way and I aim to write for people who have fought battles similar to my own.
Those were my two biggest problems with the first editions. There were other minor issues such as formatting and lack of justification for character actions, next level un-realism, spelling and grammar, and the evolution of my artistic skill.
What makes the new editions better?
For starters there will actually be multiple queer characters. I have worked hard to go in depth about not only the adventure aspect of the series but also each character's individual, emotional journey. Jayne's mental health fluctuates throughout the days in the story and she has to choose between swallowing her insecurities or facing them head on. Samantha fights to understand her identity along with the rollercoaster of highs and lows that come with puberty. Aaron has a full understanding of his gender identity and sexuality but is still trying to comprehend the rationality or lack thereof behind his actions.
The relationships between the characters will have much more depth and be overall healthier. They will also have friendships outside of the Agency. I don't know why but in the original drafts from 2006 (The series used to be fragments of short stories I wrote for fun) the characters were only friends with each other and had little to no interaction with the outside world. I cannot emphasize how toxic that is.
The format and illustrations will be significantly better now that I have experience with graphic design.
Glad that's finally out of my system. If you'd like to know more about J. and S. Adventure series click here to like the facebook page.
-JustJane
"Artistry is important. Skill, hard work, rewriting, editing, and careful, careful craft: All of these are necessary. These are what separate the beginners from experienced artists."
-Sarah Kay
I openly admit the first editions were terrible.
I'm not deprecating myself as a writer but admitting to how ashamed I am of the way the messages in the novels were delivered at the time. Let me break it down.
How NOT to cope with a fresh break-up
In the first adventure Jayne reads a letter from her ex-boyfriend who was a part of the J. and S. Detective agency for several years. The letter states that he went to fight in the military in the United States. It's year 3011, there's no explanation of what's happening in the U. S. at the time but it's implied that he won't be coming back. Two sentences later she calls Aaron, who she just met less than several hours ago. She fawns over his good looks and has him take the entrance exam which all (Two) of her past boyfriends had to take to become a member of the J. and S. Agency. The next day. Bare in mind she knows nothing about him except that he has known her for a long time, for some unexplained reason, and he has weird magic powers. He takes the test and passes with flying colors and suddenly he and Jayne are romantically interested in each other, we never hear of Dragon again for the rest of the series and the romantic chemistry between Jayne and Aaron is forced.
I essentially romanticized one of the most disastrous ways to get over the termination of a long term, serious relationship. No human would adjust to someone new the way Jayne did even with someone as fierce, fabulous, and loving as Aaron. I know it's fiction but personally through fiction I would rather spread a message that would do the world good. Such as an accurate representation of why Jayne's actions would lead to a trainwreck of a relationship or how to cope with a break-up in a healthy way.
How NOT to celebrate LGBTQ diversity in a detective agency
Aaron identifies as bisexual and non-binary. I don't know how to even begin explaining how poorly he was represented and how cringey it was that I had the characters have little to no idea how to react to having "a gay detective on the team" The dialogue came from a place of ignorance and right now in a time of serious progress for the LGBTQ community we need less ignorance and more empowerment. When I was younger (Bare in mind the first editions were published in 2013) I did not know what I do now about myself as a queer individual, the community, the value of pronouns and all the different terms, etc. I've come a long way and I aim to write for people who have fought battles similar to my own.
Those were my two biggest problems with the first editions. There were other minor issues such as formatting and lack of justification for character actions, next level un-realism, spelling and grammar, and the evolution of my artistic skill.
What makes the new editions better?
For starters there will actually be multiple queer characters. I have worked hard to go in depth about not only the adventure aspect of the series but also each character's individual, emotional journey. Jayne's mental health fluctuates throughout the days in the story and she has to choose between swallowing her insecurities or facing them head on. Samantha fights to understand her identity along with the rollercoaster of highs and lows that come with puberty. Aaron has a full understanding of his gender identity and sexuality but is still trying to comprehend the rationality or lack thereof behind his actions.
The relationships between the characters will have much more depth and be overall healthier. They will also have friendships outside of the Agency. I don't know why but in the original drafts from 2006 (The series used to be fragments of short stories I wrote for fun) the characters were only friends with each other and had little to no interaction with the outside world. I cannot emphasize how toxic that is.
The format and illustrations will be significantly better now that I have experience with graphic design.
Glad that's finally out of my system. If you'd like to know more about J. and S. Adventure series click here to like the facebook page.
-JustJane
"Artistry is important. Skill, hard work, rewriting, editing, and careful, careful craft: All of these are necessary. These are what separate the beginners from experienced artists."
-Sarah Kay
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