Monday 17 May 2010

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Blog Tour: Keris Stainton on Technology and Fiction

Today I am delighted to share with you a guest post from Keris Stainton, debut author of Della Says: OMG! for the 22nd stop in her blog tour. Thank you, Keris, for stopping by!

keris staintonYears ago, when I started going out with the man who is now my husband, we arranged to meet at Green Park tube station. It was on the day that the clocks changed, so when he didn't arrive, I assumed he'd forgotten to adjust the time and would be an hour late. I sat on a wall and read a book and tried not to look like I'd been stood up. After an hour, when he still hadn't arrived, I assumed the worst, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for about 15 minutes (I know, but I really liked him). At pretty much the exact moment I'd decided to leave, he appeared. Green Park tube has two exits on opposite sides of the road. He'd been waiting - for, yes, an hour and 15 minutes - at the other exit, but INSIDE the station, which is why we couldn't see each other. This is the kind of thing that happened before mobile phones.

It is also the kind of thing that happened a lot in novels, but these days authors have to find other ways of keeping their characters apart until they're ready for them to get together! So while technology has thrown a spanner in the works for some books - are you ever reading a book when someone's wondering where someone else has got to and you think to yourself "Just text them!"? - it's actually created opportunities for plots. Like the mobile phone photo that causes a scandal in Laura Ruby's Good Girls or the secret blog in Susie Day's Big Woo!

Della Says: OMG! by Keris StaintonIn fact, technology was one of the inspirations for my book. When I was a teenager, my diary went missing and I worried that someone had taken it and would be reading it with a plan to humiliate me by revealing my most embarrassing secrets (I was a particularly paranoid teenager... and my secrets weren't even that embarrassing). I worried that they'd read out bits of my diaries at school or even a party. What they couldn't have done was post it on Facebook, or email or text the juicy bits to their friends, which is what could happen now. And that's what happens to poor Della.

Funnily enough, as I was writing this post my husband came in to tell me he'd just heard an interview with Stephen Fry and he mentioned tube stations with more than one exit and how there's now an app that will show you the one to aim for. So if iPhones had existed when me and my husband were first dating we wouldn't have been stuck waiting for each other for over an hour. But we also wouldn't have the story to tell, would we.


Thanks for such a great post, Keris! And that's such a sweet story! Be sure to check out Keris' website. Stop by Girls Without a Bookcase tomorrow for Keris' next stop, and check out Keris' tour blog to visit all the other stops!

You can buy Della Says: OMG! on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

5 comments:

  1. Great post - I had similar experiences of waiting for friends in the wrong places before we all had mobile phones. Technology does make life easier doesn't it LOL

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  2. I love your story of waiting so long for each other. Aww! I really enjoyed this post! Thanks, Keris and Jo.

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  3. Awww, this post is so sweet :)

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  4. What an absolutely sweet story! I love it.

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  5. Sarah - I'm glad you enjoyed the post! :) I have to say, for teenagers now-a-days, I got my first mobile quite late - around 16, I think. Everyone else had one before I did, but I didn't really go out much before then, so I didn't have much of a problem. And I didn't discover social networks until I was about 18. I had sheltered teen years! Lol.

    Luisa - Isn't it really sweet?! I loved it! I'm glad you enjoyed the post!

    Jesse & Clover - Isn't it? Really lovely.

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