Sometimes I'm genuinely embarrassed by my lack of tech/gear knowledge. "Your phone can actually tell you to pick up milk on the way home?" "What do you mean you can change the beats per minute of a song with a swipe of your finger?" "Bluetooth?" My facial expression and verbal "Woah" are akin to Keanu every time a friend shows me a new app on their phone.
That's not to say I don't know how to work a computer or don't own a cell phone (mine just isn't smart). For those who know me and my hatred towards e-readers, even I was surprised at my reaction to a recent online discovery.
I just finished a new release called The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Yes, another vampire tale with a twist. It was entertaining and fun and if you had a rainy day and comfy chair you could easily be immersed. When I get into a book I sometimes nerd out afterwards, especially if it leaves me waiting for a sequel. I'll google the author, look at photos, bios, and the book's website, scan blogs/chat rooms for any news of the completion of book two to sate my need for more plot.
I admit to fully doing this the other day with The Dark Heroine. My mind was blown to find out author Abigail Gibbs is an eighteen-year-old student studying at Oxford and that her story was found on a site called Wattpad.com. By the time HarperCollins snatched it up for a six-figure sum, her story had 17 million hits online. Liking the 'Twilight' series but finding it not edgy or bloody enough, she started writing and submitting her own story at fourteen. This online fan fiction success story can be compared to E.L. James and her Fifty Shades of Grey success, but with better writing and minus the world domination.
The interesting thing about Wattpad is that it's free for readers and writers. You can search fiction by theme then sort by hotness, newness, completed, undiscovered, and random. As a member you are encouraged to build your niche and can offer advice or demand writers to post faster or change direction if you feel the plot lacking. Wattpad has over 8 million visitors a month and growing. It boasts of being the "YouTube for ebooks," and yes, there's an app for it. How cool is that!
I guess for someone who hates e-anythings, I was surprised how much I loved how accessible the site is to anyone, anywhere.
I prefer my nest of books, leaning towers piled on the floor, on top of the night stand, and crammed behind pillows, and although you'll never catch me curled up in bed with an e-reader, I am all for undiscovered stories being found and loved. I'll just take mine in paper format please.
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