Michael J. Bowler

The Writings of Michael J. Bowler

  • Home
  • Books
  • Screenplays
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Media

2016 Fall YA Scavenger Hunt

September 24, 2016 By Michael J. Bowler 4 Comments

ya_scavengerhunt_webbannerhalloween team-purple

purple-team-yash-fall-20168

NOTE: This is NOT the official Hunt Post – the Official post about Jennifer Jenkins is dated October 4th.

Michael J. Bowler and SPINNER are part of Team Purple. I’m so excited to be part of my first scavenger hunt. Yay for purple! Hunt runs from October 4-9. Keep reading so you can play the game. Have fun and good hunting!

(Content that follows borrowed from YA Scavenger Hunt website.)

If you have never participated in a YA Scavenger Hunt before than this post is for you.

We are so glad that you have joined us! Hunting is so much fun and I always discover new authors and their books. It’s also fun to get to know each author and have access to exclusive content that each author offers. Oh, and I can’t neglect to mention all the amazing chances at prizes!

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE? WHAT DO I DO? I’M A NEWBIE! HELP!!!

The YA Scavenger Hunt is run twice a year. Once in April and once in October. It runs from Thursday to Sunday. So you have just three full days to participate.

We open author registration 6-8 weeks before each hunt. If you have a favorite YA author, this is the best time to reach out to them through twitter or Facebook or email and encourage them to sign up.

Author registration closes and teams are announced 1-2 weeks before the hunt begins. This gives everyone enough time to get their posts together and we can hopefully work out any kinks beforehand.

On Thursday at noon (pacific time) all authors posts go live and the hunt can begin. Then this is the part where you come in.

  1. Pick a team or a specific author. Start there. Go to their site (we link to each author’s sites here at YA Scavenger Hunt).
  2. Find their YA Scavenger Hunt post. It should be super easy to tell which one it is because it will have our graphic on it.
  3. Read their post which will include an author bio, book info, exclusive content, (not always but in most cases) a giveaway, and a link to another author’s webpage.
  4. Look for a number on the post. This could be big and colored. It could be “you need to know…” It should be pretty easy to figure out which number you need to know. Write this number down.
  5. Click the link at the bottom of the post so you can continue the hunt within that same team.
  6. Repeat steps 2-5 until you have visited all the authors for one team.
  7. Add up the numbers that you collected from all the authors of one team. Visit our ENTER HERE page, find the appropriate Rafflecopter, and submit your entry.
  8. Repeat for every team that you want.
  9. Optionally, watch your TO BE READ list grow and grow.

Need just a bit more help? Here’s a sample scenario. Do not use these numbers for the actual hunt as they are just a sample.

Let’s say Colleen Houck, Tera Lynn Childs, and Beth Revis are all on Team Yellow. I choose to start with Colleen Houck and go to her page. Colleen Houck is hosting Tera Lynn Childs so on Colleen’s page I will find information about Tera Lynn Childs, her book, and her exclusive content. The number I find is 7. The giveaway I will find is hosted by Colleen Houck though so if I enter the giveaway here, I’m entering to win a book from Colleen Houck.

Colleen Houck links to Tera Lynn Childs so I head there next. Tera Lynn Childs is hosting Beth Revis so I get to read about Beth Revis, her book, and her exclusive content. The number I see is 23. If I see a giveaway, this is for something from Tera Lynn Childs.

Tera Lynn Childs links to Beth Revis who is hosting Colleen Houck. I’ll read about Colleen Houck, her book, and her exclusive content with a giveaway by Beth Revis. The number here is 3. The link at the end of the post will go back to Colleen Houck at which point I know I am done with Team Yellow.

I take the three numbers I have collected (7, 23, and 3) and add them together (33). I head to the ENTER HERE page on YA Scavenger Hunt, find the Rafflecopter for Team Yellow and enter the number 33 to be entered to win a book from all three authors on that team.

Last tips and hints!
Not all authors are going to host personal giveaways.
If you can’t find where you should be going, you can always visit our STUCK page for help.
If you need help, you can leave a comment on this site, post on the YA Scavenger Hunt Facebook page, or tweet @YAScavengerHunt on twitter.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: scavenger hunt, Spinner, Team Purple, Teen Lit, YA, YASH

Why the Genre Term “Young Adult Literature” is Dangerous

September 15, 2015 By Michael J. Bowler 4 Comments

Young Adult

I hate the term “Young Adult Literature.” Teens and children are NOT young adults and they never will be young adults. Twelve and under are children or kids. Thirteen to eighteen are teens or adolescents. Eighteen years old is the beginning of young adulthood in America, and the adult brain isn’t fully formed until age twenty-one plus. That’s real science, not my opinion.

I point this out because it’s a major theme in my writing. America seems bound and determined to rob children of their childhood. Even on such supposedly safe channels as Nickelodeon and Disney, shows often depict kids as young as ten or eleven pursuing romantic relationships.

These storylines put ideas into the heads of kids at home that there must be something wrong with them if they don’t want a boyfriend or girlfriend in elementary or middle school. Kids that age should NOT be pursuing such complicated and stressful relationships. They should be building friendships that are strong and binding. Developmentally, they are figuring out who they are as individuals and don’t need the pressures of a “relationship” they can’t fully understand and don’t actually want. I talked to an eleven-year-old recently who said he wanted a girlfriend. When I asked why, he didn’t have an answer. I know the answer – it’s because the media keeps pushing that idea and kids always want to “fit in” with whatever is the current trend. Why the media pushes romantic, and by extension sexual, relationships on children is a disturbing question to ponder. No good can come of such poisoning of children’s minds and souls in this fashion, and yet we as a society allow it to happen. That’s scary.

There’s another, even more insidious aspect to labeling kids “young adults.” Children today are exposed to more and more adult behaviors, usually bad ones, and when they copy those behaviors they are expelled from school or arrested. If the behaviors are really serious and somebody gets hurt, these children are put into adult court and sentenced to prison. I know a large number of them personally. I’ve spent time with seven and eight year olds in juvenile hall. Children reflect the society in which they grow up, and America is teaching them how to be self-absorbed consumers with little regard for others. Maybe that’s the plan – keep them self-absorbed with “me” centered behaviors and they won’t challenge the status quo. If kids, i.e. the next generation, don’t challenge the status quo, corruption and greed win every time.

Young children can be tried as adults in many states and the media always labels these kids “young men” or “young women.” Why? Because readers or viewers won’t feel sorry for them and think of them as the damaged children they actually are. Even when children do something positive, they are still referred to with those factually and morally misleading terms “young men” and “young women.” It’s clearly an agenda designed to benefit adults. There’s no other explanation. If society decides children are “little adults,” then anything goes with those kids, right? They can be put into prison, used sexually, or forced to work so parents or guardians can make money off of them.

My Children of the Knight series explores these themes in depth. My young characters rebel against societal brainwashing and use social media to galvanize their peers across the country to do the same. A revolution ensues that continues in the latest installment, Warrior Kids: A Tale of New Camelot. Children and teens are the only ones who can make society better because they will run it some day. Brainwashing them to obsess over themselves – as though kids don’t do this enough already – is the easiest way to ensure that those in power across the board won’t be challenged. Sadly, the tactic seems to be working. It’s my hope that kids who read my books will come to the same awareness as my characters about what is really going on and feel empowered to rise up and stop it.

Vigilant parents keep their kids away from media, and screen everything, within reason, that kids watch or read. And allow their children to grow developmentally along natural milestones. Rushing children to “behave” like adults is a net negative. Far too many adults are poor role models. These adults don’t want to make the world better for kids because they personally benefit from how it is now. I don’t want my children copying the behaviors of most “famous” people, or even characters in so much of what passes for children’s entertainment these days, because then my kids will become part of the problem, not the solution.

So yes, I decry the term “Young Adult” applied to children and teen lit. It’s just an excuse to distract kids by putting more adult material into their books, mostly sexual material, and get away with it because the books are for “young adults.” No, they’re not. These books are for kids who are still developing and are not young adults and never will be young adults until they actually grow into young adults. I write books for teens and tweens that can be enjoyed by adults of all ages. Now I just have to convince the rest of the industry to call teen lit what it is – teen lit. If more parents complained on a grass roots level and emailed publishers and Amazon to replace that “Young Adult” moniker, we could seriously challenge the status quo. Or we could just succumb to the brainwashing and do nothing. I prefer to challenge. And then go after Disney and Nickelodeon.

Anyone with me?

WarriorKids-Facebook V2

Michael J. Bowler

Michael J. Bowler Amazon Page

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Raising Healthy Kids Tagged With: "little adults", activism, adultification, agenda, books, brainwashing, brainwashing kids, children, consumers, current-events, kids, labeling, me-centered behaviors, media, politics, punishment, relationships, self-absorbed, sexualization, society, status quo, teen brain, teens, writing, YA, Young Adult

Email Sign Up

Connect with Me

  • View michaeljbowlerauthor’s profile on Facebook
  • View michaeljbowler’s profile on Twitter
  • View michaeljbowler’s profile on Instagram
  • View michaelbowler’s profile on Pinterest
  • View UC2NXCPry4DDgJZOVDUxVtMw’s profile on YouTube
  • RSS - Posts

© 2023 Michael J. Bowler · All rights reserved · Privacy Policy · Cookie Policy

 

Loading Comments...