I did my first ever podcast last week. Thrilling? Breathtaking? Terrifying? It turned out to be just like 
talking to my editor on the phone. Because I was talking to her on the phone. That’s how these things are done, apparently. She asked questions, I rambled on about my Blaze historical Make Me Yours, and, voilà, I podcasted!
Don’t even ask me what I said.
A writer friend asked me the same day if I had trouble in my first contemporary Blaze with using modern day technology in the story. What – as a historical writer, I’d be like a fish out of water with 21st century technology? Hello. I LIVE in the 21st century. Just because my imagination often “dallies” (forsooth!) in the old days doesn’t mean that’s the only place it is comfortable. I have plenty of current-day daydreams. I mean, I see every Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Gerard Butler movie that comes along. (“The Ugly Truth” with Gerard and Kathryn Heigl. July 24th. Mark your calendars.)
Anyway, my first impulse was to say I didn’t use modern technology in it. Then I realized: I ended the danged story with a text message! Whoa. I’m a contemporary girl after all. Which started me thinking.
Technology changes, but human nature doesn’t. Well, not much. Which means we use today’s technology to help satisfy the same basic needs we’ve always had: feeding ourselves (online pizza ordering!), clothing and housing ourselves (online clothes ordering & apartment hunting!), communicating 
(e-mail, Facebook, texting, photo messaging, Skyp-ing, calling, & voice-mailing) and meeting our needs for (ahem) Community and Companionship (Chemistry.com, e-Harmony, Match.com. . . chats dedicated to bringing together like minded people. . . as well as “dating” and “escort” services and more hardcore connections.).
This started me wondering who made the first sexy telephone call. Who had the nerve to pick up a new-fangled telephone (one that was probably a party line) to pose a sexy come-on? Phones have been around since the 1880’s, you know. Yeah, that long. And people being people, I bet somebody in a bustle was getting her padding warmed via telephone waaaaay before 1899 became 1900. Who arranged the first assignation or affair via phone? Who made the first phone sex call? Some horny college boy to an obliging finishing school miss across town? Some philandering rich guy telling his light-o-love the coast was clear? When and where was the first “What are you wearing?” uttered?
Sigh. Lost in the mists of time, I’m afraid. But it just goes to show you that the good old days weren’t quite as up-tight and “Victorian” as we might think. When you think about it, phone calls are a very intimate kind of talk—the receiver pressed against you, the voice whispering in your ear.
(Note to self: include sexy telephone call in next historical!)
Much has been said about e-mails and texting and how intimate and personal they feel. People fall in love texting and IM-ing, meet and get married after a courtship of just e-mails. Know anybody who has met 
their “match” on the internet? Ever gone on to a dating site to check out the offerings? Hmmm?
Sooooo, when will that next historical be out? Next July. Working title Sin and Sensibility. (Yeah, that’ll change.) But my first contemporary Blaze will be out in February—a novella in the Valentine “Manhunting” anthology, with Joanne Rock and Lori Borrill.
So what do you think? Does technology help or hurt romance? What’s more your romantic techno-medium: telephone or an e-mail?
Let’s ratchet it up a notch. . . how does phone sex compare with the real thing? Do you think the intimacy and ease of using cell phone cameras makes for better romance or worse?
And do you remember hearing about “sex-ting” for the first time? Were you scandalized by the thought of teenagers sending each other provocative or nude pictures of themselves? Did you ever play slumber party “phone games” yourself? Do you remember flirting and experimenting with the phone the way kids do today with cell phones?
Talk to me—inquiring minds want to know!
Entries (RSS)
Hi Betina!
Remember Bells Are Ringing with Judy Holliday and Dean Martin? From IMDB:
Ella Peterson is a Brooklyn telephone answering service operator who tries to improve the lives of her clients by passing along bits of information she hears from other clients. She falls in love with one of her clients, the playwright Jeffrey Moss, and is determined to meet him. The trouble is, on the phone to him, she always pretends to be an old woman whom he calls “Mom.”
Fun stuff!
Oh, Heather– I do remember that golden oldie! It was wonderful! Very early Hollywood and innocent. I first saw it on the Afternoon Movie when I was home from school as a kid– sick but recovering. Always reminds me of soda crackers and ginger ale!
Hey Betina! Love that cover! What a fantastic entry into Blaze.
As I met my husband online, I am a HUGE fan of technology, and it’s sure been a helpful factor in my life, both personally and professionally. I just love it.
Any new technology always has potential for misuse, and we’re just learning the ones for internet, etc, but they haven’t found a way to stop people from abusing their cars yet, either, huh?
Human nature, it’s just what it is.
Although the sexting thing to me is disturbing in the application of the law and that kids’ lives can be ruined by being placed on sexual predator lists, etc, for having a nude picture of their gf etc on their phone — ridiculous. It’s not something we want teens doing, ideally, but it’s also not something that the law should treat that severely. Frankly I don’t think the law should be involved at all unless there’s an actual crime.
Which is the downside of technology at the moment — the law has a lot of catching up to do with how things are used/abused.
Anyway, welcome to Blaze.
Sam
I think technology always goes through those awkward growing phases of what is and isn’t acceptable and – like my mother always says – somebody’s gotta ruin it for everybody by going just a wee bit too far. LOL. The easier the technology, the easier it is to adapt to the more… ahem… “sexy” side. Sex and love and lust are huge driving forces for people, so I don’t think it came as a shock to anyone that cell phones and digital cameras and texting would swing toward the slightly scandalous.
What I find interesting is my reaction to the technology when it infringes into the story I’m reading — chat or texting exchanges in my book as “dialogue.” I love online. I adore chat and I think texting is pretty nifty. But for some reason, when I see it in the course of a story and actually have to read it? My mind rebels. I wonder why that is. :-S
Julie
Sam, I’m with you! Technology is wonderful– I met my dearly beloved online some years back. We went from e-mails to phone calls to meeting in person. . . and romance. sigh. We would never have met otherwise!
And I’m with you on the sexting thing, too. It seems like the law and the rest of society have a lot of catching up to do in the area of Internet effects. We also need a lot of clear thinking when it comes to publishing and intellectual property on the net. Deb Dixon did a fabulous blog yesterday on “Do we still need publishers?”. . . at http://www.ridingwiththetopdown.blogspot.com. Her point is that some trends show authors bypassing traditional publishing to disseminate their work themselves, directly on the web. And from the sound of things there are plenty of readers who would agree. . . because they’ve taken to publishing OUR BOOKS on the web themselves. . . without bothering with pesky little things like permissions, contracts, and copyrights.
We have a lot of development work to do and need some clear thinking about how valuable intellectual property is to society.
And thanks for the Blazing welcome! What a great bunch of authors!
Interesting, Julie that you’re not a big fan of texting and e-mails presented as “dialogue” in books. I hadn’t thought about that. Is it the shorthand that people use that you find objectionable? It’s hard to interpret sometimes and certainly carries fewer “cues” than traditional dialogue.
It’s so strange, isn’t it? I text all the time. I use the shorthand for it and I usually have no problem reading it — though there are some cases where it’s like Wha!?!?! I don’t know what it is that turns me off it. Maybe it’s the informal nature? Maybe it’s the fact that it’s (at best in real life) “just type” and there is, in my mind at least, a mental distance between you and the typer already so when it’s in a book there’s even more? I don’t know. I just know when I hit it in any book I’ve always paused and sighed and been annoyed. Technology overload? I’m going to have to think about this.
Julie
Oh. Or maybe it’s the idea that, essentially, I’m reading a book about watching people typing on the AIM or clicking away at a small texting keyboard. It’s like watching someone else play a video game. LOL. Or watching a movie about a guy watching a movie about people texting each other. *G* Maybe that’s it.
Julie
I enjoyed reading Make Me Yours. Great job on it!
I think some technology won’t hurt romance because I think it would be romantic to send little texts throughout the day. And some people have found their special someone online. But I do think that technology takes away from face to face communication.
I agree Nicole! I do like getting unobtrusive little texts through the day from the pool boy. He’s much more tech-forward than I am. He usually leads (goads) me into making the changes. . . blazes a trail for me to follow.
but it’s the face-to-face that really makes a love come to fruition.
Oh I agree technology does not hurt… my sister met her boyfriend in a chat room… they have been together for about 8months now. They wrote to each other for months before they actually met… and they text and call each other everyday….
Colleen, I have a son whose wife in in LA while he’s in Minneapolis for the next year or so. The economy caused lay offs and she accepted a goodjob in LA, but he couldn’t go with her immediately because of is project. So they decided to do a long-distance marriage for a year. Technology is saving their lives. They skype once or twice a week for the evening. . . share streaming video while they go about their usual evening activities. Just share time togther. They also text and talk and send each other phone pics. I’m a long way from my son’s kids and he sends me photos caught with his cell phone to keep me in the loop!
Sheesh, I sound like a commercial for Sprint or something!
What a great post! I met my husband in highschool (yeah, yeah, just yesterday, it seems
) and texting wasn’t even a concept back then. We had to do our flirting the old fashioned way LOL. I don’t know how I feel about sexting- I mean, I’d prefer not to think my teenage daughter is doing it, but at the same time, like Sam said, legislating morality is a slippery slope and one I honestly think needs to start a little closer to home. Its sort of like the Poloroid from days of yore *g* A chance to take sexy pictures without having to face the guy in the kiosk who developed the film? I’d have to guess TONS of people jumped on that sexy bandwagon.
I do like the ease and fun of texting little notes to hubby from time to time. He’s not a big techno fan, so its always sweet to get a text back from him.
Tawny– great to see you here! Thanks for your invitation and for the help in making this blog day possible! And I, too, am wary of that slippery slope. I’d rather err on the side of letting people learn for themselves. Most people satisfy their curiosity and move on to something else. . . older and wiser. With a little guidance, teens will do the same thing.
Yes, I remember the time when the ubiquitous nude baby pics sometimes failed to “develop” properly. Polaroids! My Mom was a fiend with her camera. We have millions of the things to remember her and our lives by. I can’t imagine she ever thought of the potentially naughty possibilities. . . lol!
Welcome, Betina! As a huge fan of your ST historicals, I was majorly psyched when Brenda shared the fantastic news that you were going to be writing a Blaze or two or three, or as many as she could talk you into writing. (Fwiw, the foam dolphin used to promo The Mermaid *still* sits on my desk, up front and center. Aside from serving as a reminder of a wonderful book, it does double duty when I lob it at Tony whenever he says anything particularly off color. Which is often.)
Can’t wait to read Make Me Yours! It’s at the top of my personal TBR pile.
I hate that I can’t read when I’m writing. Well, novels, at any rate. During that time, I rely heavily on newspapers and magazines to feed my need to read (yes, I guess I’m one of the few that prefers reading the printed variety while sitting on the back deck enjoying my morning or afternoon cuppa). Times Magazine’s Virginia Heffernan’s The Medium focused on the same topic your blog does this past Sunday. Thought you’d and other fellow reluctant techies would get a kick out of Love, Virtually:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12FOB-medium-t.html?_r=1
Again, welcome, sweetie! We love that you’re here.
xoxo
Lori & Tony
(H)
Lori and Tony! How cool to meet such legends here! I love your books– even if I do have to hold them with oven mits.
Oh, the dolphins! You know, I remember when the things were delivered to my home. . . I opened the boxes and my foyer looked like a bait shop! It was weird! Interestingly, the one or two I’ve kept are still in great shape. . . ten-plus years later. And Hey, Tony. . . flying dolphin. . . you know when she’s serious, huh?
Thanks so much for the link– I’m heading over there right now!