I hadn’t heard this story before and thought I’d share it with you. Apparently, Ian Rankin, Scottish crime writer, became a suspect in a serial killer investigation…if he can be relied upon to be telling the truth. Check out the (short) story, here:
http://stuff.co.nz/4283469a1860.html
Which brings me to the whole big brother thing and how freely available information is over the internet. I remember, some time ago, reading a story in a Romance Writers Report about a romance author whose home was virtually ransacked by a Government agency who suspected she was involved in some form of terrorism. Screeds of notes she had been compiling on her work/s in progress (romantic suspense) were confiscated, her home and her privacy were invaded and her computer taken, and while she was eventually cleared she didn’t receive back all of her possessions. Worst of all, she lost her sense of security and her sense of freedom to research at will for upcoming manuscripts. She, and her family and even her pets, ended up being terrorised by the investigation.
Now, of course, had she been bent on terrorism or criminal behaviour we’d all be feeling alot more secure that whatever nefarious schemes she’d been cooking had been thwarted, but in her case she ended up being the victim and firmly advised writers that if you’re researching something which could be classified as sensitive to be very, very careful how you go about it. She now advocates the use internet cafe computers or library computers and rather than taking volumes of information out at the library under your library card, photocopy the information you want while you’re there instead, etc. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, the books she’d been taking out of her local library were flagged by the Government and this is what brought her to their attention in the first place. Basically, she recommends you do all the sorts of things a ‘person of interest’, who really does have something to hide, might actually do!
And reading Ian Rankin’s story, and remembering the romance author’s experience, reminded me of how easy it is to trace what we do on a daily basis, through all the things we do and take for granted in our every day lives–cell phone use, eftpos transactions, internet use, electronic time cards at work, images caught on CCTV or security footage, etc. And it makes me wonder just how closely we are being watched in what we believe are our private lives. Paranoia? Maybe. Is there some sense of security in this for us? Yes, I believe so, but at the same time it’s still kind of invasive too.
What do you think?
I try not to think about how much can be tracked — definitely the way of paranoia! — so I’m going to go off on a slight tangent to something I think about WAY too much. The huge leaps in technology which make it really tricky for a writer. Example: how do we know what phones and computers and other communication devices our characters should be using in contemporary novels published in 12-18 months time? Will everything be wireless? Then there are the little things. I constantly find myself typing “dialled” for someone making a phone call. (How long is it since anyone actually “dialled” a phone number?) And I talk about typing when it should be keying (keyboarding?) They’re just really simple things that paint me of my generation, and I have to think carefully about what toys/gadgets my contemporary characters would have. I’m ALWAYS questioning why a character hadn’t just googled and found out everything they wanted to know about another character (usually that would result in a completely different scenario.) So, yeah, technology. I think about it a lot. Maybe I need to start writing historicals!
Comment by bronwynjameson — 26 November, 2007 @ 7:23 am
Ahhhh, yes, Google. I watched an old episode of Bones last night and the totally nerdy non-emotional lead character was astounding her law enforcement co-lead with her knowledge of rap music and lyrics. When he queried how she knew so much, when it was obviously completely out of character for her, she said she’d googled it of course!
Actually, Bron, a character googling a character could be very interesting (I actually usually ’search’ the names of my characters and company names in my books so I won’t be inadvertently using something real) because what would happen if the character googled someone and found misleading and incorrect information about that person. The flip side of the coin. Hmmm, the mind is boggling…
Oh, and if you ever start writing historicals I’ll be first in line to buy one
Comment by yvonnelindsay — 26 November, 2007 @ 7:12 pm
Ooh, story starters galore there. Just from good old google.
The historical, hmm. Does it count if I’m writing a contemporary which includes some homage to the Regency house party (even if only in my own mind)?
Comment by bronwynjameson — 26 November, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
Of course it does!
Why wouldn’t it? 
Comment by yvonnelindsay — 27 November, 2007 @ 3:36 am