Hello, me again, Steve.
A question kids have asked on visiting their schools was where I got the idea for the book from.
Well, a few things are going on in the story, so it depends on what particular aspect of the plot we’re talking about.
The main theme is the use of technology. That’s easy to say where my influences come from because for over 40 years I’ve been working in Electronics as an Engineer. Only recently did I retire and launch my career as an author.
There’s also a mini detective theme running throughout the book. Two bungling crooks are kidnapping people’s pampered pooches, and then offering them back to the owners who offer rewards, or worse still, selling the dogs.
I’ve always loved crime thrillers (adult fiction) and I love a good crime TV drama too, but here is the shocking revelation that most people don’t know about me. For a very short time (1 year) I was a serving Police Officer. So I draw a little bit on that experience, but it was many years ago and was my first full-time job as a younger man. Truth be told I didn’t suit the job, or the job didn’t suit me, so I quit and retrained to have a more successful career in electronics.
I’ve always loved gadgets too, and TV programmes or movies about technology. I think most Engineers if they are any good, are particularly ‘turned on’ by how things work and how engineering helps us. I love to hear and read about new gizmos that automate or somehow make easier our day-to-day life. No surprise that I include a lot of stuff in “Pet Talk” about electronic hardware and circuits, as this is my own expertise- building and testing them. But throughout my other daytime job, I have worked with many people who I would consider to be modest and understated geniuses. People who can create complex software routines that turn those circuits into useful products that humans can interact with. I think this is why I made the lead hero of my story (Emily) all about writing machine code and designing apps for phones. This is something I have only a very simplistic and crude understanding of, and yet other Engineers can manipulate complex algorithms and mathematical code with gobbledygook syntax and equations and yet I struggle with mental arithmetic and mathematics.
The last theme I can relate to you, is where the concept of kids who themselves feel a bit awkward, not trendy and who are rather a little bit geeky, decide to form a ‘gang’ and end up calling themselves “The Gang of Geeks”.
As a child of 8 until about 11yrs old, I had lots of friends, but I think I saw myself as the geeky one amongst them. There were 2 of my male friends who were particularly good footballers. Well, I was alright, but these particular lads looked as though the ball was glued to their boots as they sped at great pace up the football pitch and frequently scored goals. Meanwhile, I would be hanging around at our end, not nearly as nimble or fast on my feet. I would be positioned near the goals in defence. Ready to hack down any opponent that dared to try and score in our half.
My female friends were all into pop music, pop stars, fashion and girlie things that I just didn’t understand (I did love music though), but when we all got together, boys and girls, I just remember us all laughing and having fun. Sometimes the boys would show off and the girls would roll their eyes at our stupidity. They were my gang, and I have the fondest of memories of them. So no great shakes that I would incorporate a theme throughout the book that extols the virtues of friendship and camaraderie where nobody cared if I was geeky or cool, I was just accepted.
Be more Geek, we all could be more tech enthusiastic and savvy.
Original artwork by John Mills. This is our hero, Emily who has got stuck on some partularly difficult code that she is writing that will become an app on iPhone called “Pet Talk”.
Imagine if you had an app that could somehow translate the thoughts of your pet into understandable English!
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