I'm hosting the lovely Susan Kaye Quinn today. Her book, Open Minds releases today. I was fortunate to bump into her recently in cyberland. Besides a great trilogy, she writes a great blog and is a great person.
Inventing the Future: Technology
Sometimes I’m asked if I use my engineering background (Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, worked for NASA, studied global warming) in my stories. The answer is, of course, YES! But I also use my background as a wife and mother, bike rider and cake baker. I think writers put bits of themselves in their stories—it’s hard not to. But my techie background does come in handy when dreaming up gadgets and technology for the future.
In my paranormal/SF teen novel Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy), I fast forwarded the world nearly a hundred years, to give time for the evolution of mindreading (and mindjacking) to occur. But the world didn’t stand still in that time. We certainly wouldn’t have the same cars or computers or phones, but how can you know what the future will look like?
Sometimes I can barely figure out what tomorrow will bring.
I started out looking at the past. What had changed in the last 100 years? What did the world look like in the 1910’s? I could expect similarly large changes to happen going forward (probably more so). In the 1910’s, refrigerators were invented and Ford christened their moving assembly lines. We had tanks and machine guns that required 4-6 people to run them. We fought a war with U-boats (submarines) and aeroplanes (airplanes). Much was different, but much was the same.
I tried to keep a different but same flavor in the future world of Open Minds.
I envisioned phones would still be around—they’re handy—but they would get exponentially cooler. With the world becoming filled with mindreaders, I pictured an exodus of people from crowded cities for the suburbs and countryside, where they could spread out and escape each other’s thoughts. Range (thought-wave-range) ordinances would spring up to enforce the separation that would keep society civil. A sprawling metropolis of well-spaced dwellings would require extensive public transportation, something that could be reasonably accomplished in a hundred year time span.
The engineering came in handy for dreaming up taxicabs with programmable autopaths and mindware interfaces. But I feel like I’m running out of room as the world catches up with the e-readers I put into the story just two years ago! The risk of science fiction is always that science fact will show you up.
I’m currently writing Closed Hearts (Book Two of the Mindjack Trilogy) and having more fun with gadgets and technology. If you’ve read Open Minds, you know the changes are just beginning, and some of those Book Two changes will be in the technology as well. Time to study up on my neuroscience …
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When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.
Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.
Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy) by Susan Kaye Quinn is available in e-book (Amazon US (also UK, France and Germany), Barnes & Noble, Smashwords) and print (Amazon, Createspace, also autographed copies available from the author).
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PRIZES!
Susan Kaye Quinn is giving away an Open Books/Open Minds t-shirt, mug, and some fun wristbands to celebrate the Virtual Launch Party of Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy)! (Check out the prizes here.)
Three ways to enter (you can have multiple entries):
1) Leave a comment here or at the Virtual Launch Party post2) Tweet (with tag #keepingOPENMINDS)
Example: When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep. #keepingOPENMINDS @susankayequinn #SF #YA avail NOW http://bit.ly/SKQOpenMinds
Example: Celebrate the launch of OPEN MINDS by @susankayequinn #keepingOPENMINDS #SciFi #paranormal #YA avail NOW http://bit.ly/SKQOpenMinds
Example: Celebrate the launch of paranormal/SF novel OPEN MINDS by @AuthorSusanKayeQuinn for a chance to win Open Books/Open Minds prizes! http://bit.ly/SKQOpenMinds
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Bonus: Me and Kai Strand last Thursday at our local writers meeting with Susan's Open Minds on Kai's Kindle.
