Another Wake-Up Call

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As I go through my resources again on how to find an agent and get published, one reality of publishing has jumped out and caught my attention. Most publishers want to publish one book a year per author, especially if the book is part of a series.

I have five books planned. They are futuristic. Right now, they are set within a six month period in 2013. At one per year, I will be past 2013 before I can get half of them published. That is, assuming all goes well. That will not work.

So, wake-up call! I need a "Plan B".

One of the key components of the book deals with the events happening during a solar cycle high. The peak for Solar Cycle 24 is estimated to take place May 2013. Since solar cycles are, on average, about eleven and a half years apart, the earliest the next solar cycle could be expected would be 2024.

Back to the drawing board -- or the research library and Internet search engines, in this case. Time to look into what technology the ultra-techies think will be available in the next 12-15 years.

I am not looking at hard-core science fiction like traveling to other galaxies a la Star Trek. I just need to know what my cell phone and computer will look like in fourteen years.

We know things will change. I look back fourteen years, and I seem to remember bulky cell phones that were strictly phones with no Internet access, no cameras and no full-color screens. Also, a lot of people carried pagers instead of cell phones. My camera still required film. Broadband, GPS and high definition T.V. were still something in the future. And, those cream-color Windows 95 computers with the big, bulky monitors were the latest thing.

Hubby thinks I should leave it as is rather than rewrite the whole thing. However, most of the novel will not need to change. Using "ctrl-F" to find words and phrases that I need to update is a cinch.

Now that I have had my wake-up call, my bedtime reading of choice is Popular Science.