Hello, Hungry Readers,

I used to read a lot of writing contest entries. And one thing I would see a lot was writers trying to get rid of cell phones. They would set books in 2001, for no reason at all. They would have their characters go on a cell phone cleanse, or go to some tiny enclave where there’s no cell access. I’m not saying there aren’t places where cell phones suck or even that no one goes on a cell phone cleanse. But if you plot could be undone by fully functioning cell phones, maybe your plot sucks?

I was thinking about this as I read close together two books that featured characters being without their cell phones, yet took place in the now, and seemed totally believable.

Book shop links included.

Celeste Dador’s Stars Stripes and Summer Nights is about the first daughter of a female Filipino President of the US. After a small social gaffe scuttles her trip to Hawai’i, she and her sister are sent to stay a month with their aunt in a small town in Virginia where there is limited cell service. Now of course, limited is not none. And of course, the first daughter doesn’t really get to have an unvetted, unexamined social media existence. So the moral of the story isn’t about how limited internet made them talk to the people in front of them. And of course, other people all still want to take selfies and maybe upload things. The internet doesn’t go away.

In Edward Schmit’s The Open Era, Austin the first openly gay active pro tennis player goes on a social media cleanse, to attempt to treat his anxiety. The internet continues to exist. And he still has friends and family monitoring his accounts and the internet. And his coach is passing along DM’s from the hot superstar player he has befriended and crushed upon. He knows the internet carries on though. In fact he sometimes even wonders if the internet is saying mean things about him and if it’s worse if they say it when he can’t even see. Yes this book is like 10 percent sports (very well informed sports) and 90 percent angst. I adored it.

Hope the internet and phones are treating you well, even when you put them away to read. Happy reading!