Today, I should be on my way back home from a fun, hopefully relaxing, weekend at the beach (Isle of Palms, near Charleston). My wonderful parents took the children for my husband and me and we headed off with friends.
In preparation for the car ride to the point where my husband and I were handing off the kids to my folks, I went to the Blockbuster movie rental place and got several videos for them to watch on their little DVD players in the car.
This means the most relaxing car ride for the adults.
My sister and I got along extremely well in the car when we were kids. But we did get bored on the long drive to Macon, Georgia to see our grandmother. We’d play the license plate game, look for VW bugs (beetles, we called them), etc.
When I suggested the cow counting game to my son, he looked at me in disbelief. I explained, “No, it’s fun! You count as many cows as you can and if you pass a graveyard, you lose all your cows.”
“And Nana came up with this game?” he asked, stunned. Then, of course, I realized that the number of farms in the South had greatly decreased. And there aren’t too many cemeteries lining the interstate highways.
Mom had dated herself once more.
I’ve touched on this before, but I’m trying not to date my books. I have high hopes that they’ll live on for a few years in libraries, and I don’t want to draw people out of the story.
I did mention Twitter in passing for the Memphis book. I had to think about it, but decided it’s a strong enough pop culture reference that it’s going to stay on for a little while. It’s star is still rising. But that was the only thing I can really think of that will place my story in a particular place and time.
How about you? Do your characters ever Facebook? Tweet? Do you refrain from making social media references at all?