#LoveOzYA April Update with Kaz Delaney

To support the #LoveOzYA initiative, each month Kids' Book Review will ask an Australian YA author to share their favourite Australian young adult titles - what they are reading, what they've read and what books are on their TBR pile. We'll also include a list of Australian author YA new releases for the month. Our guest author for April is Kaz Delaney, author of books for children and teens. Her YA titles include Dead, Actually, Almost Dead and her latest release, The Reluctant Jillaroo (Allen & Unwin).

What are you currently reading?
The Midnight Promise – Crime Debut by Zane Lovitt, a young Melbourne guy.  Interesting style.

What are your recent OzYA favourites?
Risk by Fleur Ferris – amazing!

What 5 OzYA titles are currently in your TBR pile?

• Summer Skin (Kirsty Eagar)
• The Stars at Oktober Bend (Glenda Millard)
• The Sidekicks (Will Kostakis)
• Iris and the Tiger (Leanne Hall) 
• The Yearbook  Committee (Sarah Ayoub)  

What advice would you give to aspiring YA authors?
Know your genre, respect your audience, love your audience.

Ensure your character’s decisions make emotional sense.  The teenage years are the greatest and most fertile learning period in our entire lives.  Just ensure, for your story’s sake, that those decisions at least make emotional sense.  Even if the decision he/she makes seems illogical, it must be able to be rationalised through her emotional viewpoint; gel with her situation, her character and personality. It may seem foolhardy to the reader, but if you play it right, the reader will understand WHY she’s made that decision.

Can you tell us a little bit about your current writing project?
The follow up to The Reluctant Jillaroo. Another Rural Romance YA. (YARURO?) We wanted to see how Jillaroo was accepted before we dived back in, and it seems to be doing well, so it’s back to horses, cows and scary, slimy other creatures. And oh, cute boys! This time it’s Harper’s ‘real’  turn to experience falling for a guy when you’re least expecting it and when romance is so not on your radar.

Visit Kaz Delaney's website for more information about her books and author events.

April YA New Releases

Dreaming the Enemy by David Metzenthen (Allen & Unwin)

Frankie by Shivaun Plozza (Penguin)

The Special Ones by Em Bailey (Hardie Grant Egmont)

Read more of our LoveOzYA updates here.