For the month of September, All the Blog’s a Page (AtBaP) is looking at authors who have been put into the genre “young adult fiction.” To kick off the month, I feature author Matt de la Peña, who’s not only a great writer but also a great interviewee, offering up good thoughts on the YA field.

About We Were Here:

The story of one boy and his journey to find himself.

When it happened, Miguel was sent to Juvi. The judge gave him a year in a group home—said he had to write in a journal so some counselor could try to figure out how he thinks. The judge had no idea that he actually did Miguel a favor. Ever since it happened, his mom can’t even look at him in the face. Any home besides his would be a better place to live.

But Miguel didn’t bet on meeting Rondell or Mong or on any of what happened after they broke out. He only thought about Mexico and getting to the border to where he could start over. Forget his mom. Forget his brother. Forget himself.

Life usually doesn’t work out how you think it will, though. And most of the time, running away is the quickest path right back to what you’re running from.

When asked Why write teen fiction, Peña replied, “My first novel, Ball Don’t Lie, was pitched to both adult and YA editors, and when my agent came back to me and said, “Hey, Matt, congratulations, your novel sold to a YA publisher at Random House,” I pumped my fist and sprinted around my neighborhood – really. It wasn’t until a week later that I asked him what YA stood for. I had no idea. When he told me YA stood for “young adult” I said, “Dude, you’re gonna have to be a little specific.” He said the book would be marketed to teens and that I might have to take out some of the swearing (there was a lot) and maybe tame the most graphic of the sex scenes (it was pretty graphic). But that’s how ignorant I was about the genre I had entered.

“Now I understand YA a little better. I suppose I’m really drawn to the “coming of age” story. Everything is new, exciting, alive, dramatic. It’s such a big part of our lives. Personally, I think we experience about a dozen “coming of age” stages over the course of our lives. But around high school age we go through that first one, and the first of anything usually leaves a pretty big impression. I love following teen characters, watching them make sense of their lives.”

Come by AtBaP to continue reading Peña’s thoughts on YA fiction and to read an excerpt of his forthcoming novel, We Were Here.

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