Uh-oh. What's the PROTOCOL for THAT?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Debut author day! And what fun to find a brand new author with a brand new book—not only the reading-of-it part, but the idea that there’s a person who now knows the joys and the delights, the terrors and the fears. The hugely satisfying moment when that new box of books arrives—and your dream has come true.

And you also know that inevitably, someone will ask: where did you get your idea? But ha! Kathleen Valenti has a terrific and tantalizing (and terrifying!) answer. Whoa. What would you do if this happened to you?

(There’s more about her book PROTOCOL below. And an ARC to one lucky commenter!)
(And yesterday's winners below!)

Technobabbling

By Kathleen Valenti

My husband and I recently watched Apollo 13 with our two children. The film’s a favorite of ours and was a natural inclusion in our self-designed list of Films the Kids Must See. (Last month’s showing: The Princess Bride.)

Our pre-teen son is a movie mimic, so I knew he’d love the zippy one-liners. His favorite line wasn’t the iconic real-life utterance, “Houston, we have a problem,” but rather the reference to technological advances “like a computer that can fit into a single room.”

Forget space travel and rockets and astronauts stranded in a flying life raft. The idea of

a room-sized computer was what captured his imagination.

It made me think of how far technology has come.

That computer that guided the astronauts’ journey? It can now fit inside a cell phone. And that cell phone? In a recent survey, eighty-four percent of Americans said they couldn’t go a day without it.

It also called to mind the genesis of one of my book’s primary storylines.

Technology has a starring role in my debut novel, Protocol, not because I’m super-techy (understatement alert), but because its omnipresence, with all of its attendant risks, gave me an idea for a murder mystery after I had my own technology puzzle to solve.

Several years ago, I sent my laptop to the manufacturer for repair. It came back with someone else’s hard drive, complete with all its digital contents. Turned out the computer snafu went both ways. My hard drive had been swapped into the computer that once housed the stranger’s hard drive I now possessed.

The mix-up left both of us vulnerable and me with the seed of an idea for a hook for the book I always wanted to write.

Houston, I have an idea.

Ideas, as they say, can come from anywhere. Evidently that includes computer problems.

I have a love-hate relationship with technology, and I think many of us can relate. After all, it’s responsible for both important advancements in science and medicine (and cute cat videos) and a crack through which danger can crawl, whether by hacking, identity theft or something much more nefarious.

So what is technology for you? Blessing? Curse? The font of awesome BuzzFeed quizzes? (I just learned that if I were a sandwich, I’d be a PB&J.)

And what real-life events have inspired you creatively? We may not be astronauts stranded in space, but we all have moments—big, small, happy and tragic—that inform the stories we tell.

 HANK: Wait wait wait! What happened about the hard drive? 

(I admit I always take those tests, too. Except for the ones that make it clear they’re swiping your entire email list. Plus, it’s fun to take them twice and see how you can make them come out the way you want, right?)

And you know every one of the inciting moments of my books is a version of something that really happened to me.

But technobabble! The things that come out of  our mouths—the two years ago we’d have no idea what meant! (How many gigs of ram? I store it all in the cloud?)  

What have you said recently, Reds and readers, that surprised you with your techno-knowledge?

Or else: what's on your list of must-see movies for kids?

 (And see below for yesterday's winners!)

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Kathleen Valenti is the author of Protocol, the story of freshly minted college graduate Maggie O’Malley who embarks on a pharmaceutical career fueled by professional ambition and a desire to escape the past. Yet on her very first day of work, Maggie’s pulled into a world of uncertainty as reminders appear on her phone for meetings she’s never scheduled with people she’s never met. People who end up dead.

When Kathleen isn’t writing page-turning mysteries that combine humor and suspense, she works as a nationally award-winning copywriter. She lives in Oregon with her family where she pretends to enjoy running. Protocol is her debut novel and the first of the Maggie O’Malley mystery series.

Pre-order Protocol here:

Amazon: amzn.to/2su4eq0

Barnes & Noble: bit.ly/2sUHKvQ

iTunes: apple.co/2skdTPw

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Kobo: bit.ly/2s6ZnIJ


(Winners from yesterday--tell us your addresses via our websites or Facebook! Hurray--and thank you!)
!

Lucy's winner   Idteacher 14

Ingrid's winner  Hulamom

Hank's winner   Karen M from Kentucky

Rhys' winner .  Raquel Muniz 

Hallie's winner .Sally from PA. 

Jenn's winner  Coralee 

Debs' winner: Marni