I recently read an interview with Howard Lovy from Alli who confirmed what I had been feeling and thinking for sometime. As I have got older, I find my wanting to read books by authors who write realistically about people my age. Well, maybe a bit younger. After all I am now close to 71. When I was a lot younger, like Howard I too probably found it funny to see older people depicted as ‘comedy characters,’ but not anymore. Those sort of story lines have long since worn thin. And let’s be honest who wants to be the constant butt of the joke??

These days I prefer to read books which tells the truth about us how older people. The reality of how we, the experienced workers always appear to be the first to face redundancy because it’s cheaper to pay the young. And how we cope with life after work. Or I want to see how older people begin new lives, have new adventures and tell their children to ‘sling it’ as the bank of Mom and Dad is now permanently closed as they are off on a world cruise. Selfish I know but what the heck we’ve earned it so why shouldn’t we be able to spend it on ourselves?

Books and authors, I once enjoyed no longer appear to be mature enough. Dialogue that sounded witty when I was younger now irritates me as if it has been written by, and for, youngsters. It just seems that characters coming up to my age and above seem to be written as if they are stereotyped into not thinking or acting with any kind of nuance or maturity.

So, I ask you authors out there? Where are the books for people my age? For grown-ups, ‘cause that’s what I am? For those who really know what it’s like to live amongst the ageist stereotypes?

Listening to a 2018 episode of the IndieVoices podcast from Howard Lovy recorded for the Alliance of Independent Authors, Howard talked to Claire Baldry. At the time she was aged a mere sixty-three years old and was an indie author who also advocated for older authors. He also spoke to Maggie Christensen, who was then seventy-three years old, and who writes about mature women facing life-changing situations. What an interesting interview.

Check it out by clicking here: