Bad Technology Makes Good Stories

Meatworks - Dark Sci Fi - Coming This Summer

Dear <<First Name>>,

Technology is changing at a rapid clip. Sometimes it seems like the minute you get used to something, it’s obsolete. I keep one of my computers on an older operating system because if I updated, I’d lose the ability to play Diablo II. (Yeah, that game is like 15 years old. And no, I’ve never won it…but my current barbarian Harw stands a really good chance.)

I got a smartphone (finally) when I moved back in from the countryside last year. I don’t know how long the “I used to live in a dead zone” excuse will work to explain my ineptitude with it, but I plan to keep on milking it until someone calls me out.

It’s not that I’m some kind of technophobe. I really like my computer. I like it enough that I wrote custom scripts to turn my Skype on and off at preset times so no one can call me in the middle of the night. Which is probably another reason to not upgrade the OS, since I don’t know if my scripts will still work if I do.

Desmond Poole, the star of my upcoming novel, Meatworks, really is a technophobe. There are no cell phones to master or computers to tinker with in Meatworks. None of that technology ever developed. Instead, robotics was the main tech that rocked the world at the end of the twentieth century.

While cell phones and computers are geared toward communication, creation and collaboration, robotic tech is different. It’s geared toward passivity. The robotics in Desmond’s reality are there to tweak the temperature, stereo system and even the strength of the coffee. Robots handle the pesky details, so you don’t have to.

But what if you can’t deal with having decisions made for you?

And what if your prosthetic arm is robotic?

Meatworks is a very dark, intense story, which you may have deduced by the fact that it’s about amputees with robotic limbs—but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its funny moments. I couldn’t resist painting a picture of robotics gone wrong…like the robotic post office that gives Desmond a laundry list of unwanted choices, then parks him in the waiting room for an entire afternoon.

I suppose it’s funny because some version of it has probably happened to most of us. Like recently when my internet went down for the better part of a week, and every time I called in to report it, the freaking cable company’s voice system took me through ten minutes’ worth of menu options that got my hopes up…then told me to go reboot my modem and hung up!

Imagine my delight when I figured out how to use my smartphone as a wireless 3G hotspot in a pinch :D

Here’s to navigating your technological problems with grace and ease, and a smidgeon of luck.

Love,
Jordan

Various and sundry disclaimers: Meatworks is coming this summer—I’ll announce a specific release date when I’ve settled on one. This cover is not final, so please don’t post it to Goodreads. The last Saturday Snippet contains a sneak peek at chapter one.