Barbados, Bolivia, Mauritania
Barbados' flag has blue stripes, Bolivia's has a red stripe, and Mauritania added a pair of red stripes to their national flag in 2017.
Lybia
Not until 2011 after Gaddafi was overthrown. Their new national flag has a red stripe and a white cresent-and-star symbol on it.
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RIP good sir... I feel like crying looking at this photo.
Taco Bell, I've come to bargain!
When did you graduate from high school? I perfectly know how you feel, because I crushed on a good few girls in high school myself and never could win any of their hearts- or anyone's acceptance for that matter because almost everyone I knew in high school was a narrow-minded prick. Not a fun time in my life; I prefer to not look back at my high school years.
I was born in 1991, so my youth bridged both the 90s and the 2000s. Having experienced both decades and having a solid memory of what both decades were like, I can say with confidence that I much, much prefer the 90s over the present day and even the 2000s. And I have plenty of reasons to say so:
-After Communism fell apart in the 90s and the Cold War came to an end, the West reached this rare period of peace and stability. The Communists were gone, the Nazis were gone, and Islamic terrorism hadn't risen to prominence yet. Not to mention the economy was booming. As a result of this rare peacetime, people were a lot happier with no great enemy to fear. Life was so much happier when there wasn't an al-Qaeda or ISIS to be scared of.
-The Internet was in its infancy stages, but that meant people were still able to live in the real world enough instead of being isolated from each other due to the distractions of smartphones and social media. People were a lot more social, hanging out at places like the mall and the video store. That type of socialization isn't as common sadly because people are so glued to their phones and social media accounts. Now people are trying to live fake lives in the digital world and trying desperately to craft an impossibly perfect social media image, which has gotten themselves disconnected from the real world on many occasions.
-Due to the lack of social media- which IMO has ruined the world in so many ways and whose negatives outweigh its positives- people didn't get upset as easily over the littlest things. We weren't constantly having our lives recorded, and thus we were able to get away with saying a lot of things and doing a lot of activities that wouldn't be acceptable today. I miss those days when we had more freedom to speak our minds.
-So what if video game graphics sucked back then? The games we had, from Super Mario 64 to Sonic to Pokemon, were very special, near and dear to our hearts. We didn't care about the graphics of those games; we loved those games like crazy. And sure, movie technology has developed over the years to create more dazzling special effects, but in the 90s they were still very fucking good and even revolutionary. See: Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, The Matrix.
-Having Netflix and Redbox today doesn't hold a candle to having Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and other video stores in the 90s. I didn't go to those places that much as a kid, but I still remember the exact locations of where the nearest Blockbuster and Hollywood Video stores to my house stood, so they still hold a happy place in my memory. People who grew up in the 90s loved these stores because they provided people an opportunity to find all sorts of cool movies and video games in person. Video stores also provided a social aspect of discussing movies that is now lost in the era of streaming. Again, the social aspect is lost here.
-Let's not forget about Toys R Us. Shopping at that store for toys as a kid was a very special experience. Now that it's out of business, I'm sad that kids and teens today will no longer be able to experience browsing the shelves of those stores and video stores looking for toys or movies we really wanted. Those experiences truly were something special, and it's sad that they've now been lost to history.
As much as I hate to say it, you missed out on some very good times. Had you gotten to experience more of the 90s, I think you would be more able to get a sense of what made the 90s so special for folks like us and why we miss those simpler times so badly.
I’ve been advised to write 55,000 words for a teen book and 90,000 words for an adult book. Since I would like to include both teens and adults as part of my target audience, would you say I should shoot for somewhere in between that range- say, 70,000-73,000 words? Or should I stick to a 55,000-60,000 word target?
I work with a lot of young women (high school graduates/college students) so maybe write your characters during that transitional phase where you're at the end of your teen years, are an adult and can do whatever you want.
A lot of young people I work with come from all different backgrounds but the most common thing I hear from young women moving out on their own is, "I'm going to miss my mom."
I never had a good relationship with my mother so I didn't have that experience but it might be a small enough detail to hook the audience you are trying to reach.
maybe write your characters during that transitional phase where you're at the end of your teen years, are an adult and can do whatever you want.
That's exactly my plan, as my cast of characters are graduating high school seniors who are thinking heavily about both their upcoming futures in college and how to make the most of their final year in high school.
That said, I'd like to target my story more towards the teen audience than the adult audience. I certainly do want to make it marketable towards adults, but since it's a high school story I'm planning to write at a PG-13 level, I'd like to target the 13-18 age range more. At the same time, though, young adults will really enjoy this story as it'll remind them of what it was like to go through their final days of high school.
YA crossover novels are extremely popular and publishers are actively looking for YA novels with adult crossover appeal. My publisher made me change my series to appeal more to adults and wird count has zero to do with it. I had to age up my characters to 18-19, make the situations more mature, etc. I'd worry about that more than word count. As long as your book isnt too short or too long, it doesnt matter
Ah okay, cool! I greatly appreciate the tips.
So what tips do you have for me on how to make my story somewhat more appealing to adults to give it the feel of a YA crossover novel? I do plan to involve them in typical high school troubles and take my characters through the coming-of-age journey as they're about to graduate from high school, with some drinking and smoking involved along the way. My plan is to make my characters high school seniors who start the story aged 17 and turn 18 by the end of the story. Do you think that's a good age group to encompass in my novel if I want to make it a YA crossover novel?
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Lol, there’s no such thing as logic in SpongeBob.
