I just realized that as I bring out the old manuscripts, the ones that weren't quite ready just a few short years (No, I'm not going to define few and short) ago, that they not only need to be quality improved but technology improved.
What brought this on?
Well, Saturday my little family was driving home from a day spend exploring the great outdoors. We were up near Sunflower, Arizona, riding our quads in the middle of nowhere for the whole day. It's something we do more and more. Pack up, head out, and play. This day was nostalgic. See last time we rode there was the day I found out I was pregnant with Mikey. So, I was in happy Mommy land remembering how careful I drove, where we stopped and I told the aunts and uncles etc. It wasn't that easy because since that day there's been a fire or two. Instead of riding amidst pines, we were riding amidst charred trees reaching their brittle bones to the sky. Instead of greens, there were browns.
But I digress.
On the way home, my sleepy four-year-old asks for his new Scooby Doo DVD. I plug it in, shut my eyes, and listen for the "Scooby Doo, Where Are Youuuuuu?" It comes, and pretty soon so does Fred in the Mystery Machine. Scene one: Fred is looking at the GPS in the Mystery Machine. Egads. My eyes open. Fred is forever trapped in a cartoon and will never age. The Fred I remember wore flares! He shouldn't have a GPS system in the van.
Woe is me.
As I dust out the manuscripts from the days before the web, I realize that all my heroines and heroes need to acquire cell phones. Guess that will add a page or two, eh?
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Oh, Pamela, I feel your pain! I recently realized that one of my favorite old manuscripts can never be published now, because a large part of the plot hinged on people using film cameras (and in one case, specifically a Polaroid, which are now officially extinct!) There were very specific reasons why it HAD to be film, so there was no way I could revise it to use digital or cellphone cams. Too bad, because it was one of my best plotlines!
ReplyDeleteEC,
ReplyDeleteI just bought Miss Match by Sara Mills. It's set in 1940. Maybe if we wait long enough we can call the manuscripts under our beds, gasp, historicals.
Pamela,
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about having to update the technology in manuscripts. Sometimes I even have to update my own technology. I don't own a Blackberry. So, before my agent sent in my most recent proposal, she pointed out that my hero and heroine might want to get out their Blackberries rather than saying they would check their calendars at home. LOL
Merrillee, in my critique group, I'm the only one who doesn't bring my phone out to schedule our next meeting. I have to see my schedule by looking at the month. I've had to Palms and neither worked for me because at a glance, I couldn't see what was coming. I missed important things!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I kinda want a Blackberry hehehehe
LOL, Pamela!! So true! :)
ReplyDelete