Next month marks the release of Say Yes, the first Sons of the People novel, and I think y’all are really going to enjoy it. Not only is it a great romance, there’s a lot of information packed into it about the People, from the perspectives of a male who grew up in that culture and a woman learning about it for the first time. (Petey, too. Y’all are gonna love him.)
There are a couple of things I think might give readers pause, though, including Levi’s early start on his businesses. Most people today, when they hear about go-getters like Levi, shake their heads and mutter something like, “Impossible! Kids don’t care about starting businesses, not at that age. Besides, it’s not legal for a kid to start a business.”
I’ve actually witnessed such comments and consider them all to be nonsense. While it’s true that minors can’t legally contract with others, there’s nothing else really standing in the way of them forming their own business. How many kids do you know that mow yards or babysit? Uh-huh, that’s what I thought. Lots of kids work for themselves. We, as a society, simply don’t acknowledge it as such.
Oddly enough, since child labor laws were enacted, we’ve become a nation of coddlers, forcing youngsters into a weird sort of perpetual childhood, dismissing the idea of them exhibiting initiative, discipline, and the entrepreneurial spirit, completely contrary to the attitudes of our 19th century ancestors. What used to be the rule is now the exception, but it still happens. Two outstanding examples in my own community come to mind. One was repeatedly pulled over by the police for driving without a license. He was twelve, owned his own landscaping business (and the truck he was driving, mind you), and his response was usually, “How’s a man supposed to make a living if he don’t drive?”
True story.
The other I remember from my days working with my parents in their insurance office. He was about twelve or thirteen when he came in and discussed insuring commercial vehicles with my dad for a business he was starting, and yes, he became a successful businessman.
Like most writers, I draw heavily on what I know of the world around me when creating characters and so on. Did I deliberately give Levi an early start for the sake of story or controversy or whatever? Absolutely not. He came to me fully-formed, already possessed of that background, and yes, he’s a go-getter, though he slows down a lot once he meets Sera. You’ll have to read Say Yes to understand the hows and whys, but trust me. Nothing he does in that story, business-wise, is any different from anything anyone else has done. He does put his own, unique spin on it, something I think will endear him to regular readers of books set in the world of the People. Well, that and he’s sexy as all get-out.
Speaking of, I’ll have more sneak previews of Say Yes over the next month or so, including a scene narrated by Petey. Until then, happy reading!