Maybe This Time won the 2019 Raven Award for Best Contemporary Romance, The 2019 Reader's Favorite Gold Medal for Time Travel, and was runner up for the RONE Best Audiobook General Award.
When writing time travel, it’s important to know what existed when. My characters in Maybe This Time jump forward to 2006 hoping to mend a glitch in time. I choose 2006 because computer technology leapt forward in the five years between 2001 and 2006.
When I researched December 2006, I found a few things I thought existed then hadn't happened yet, and a few did exist that surprised me.
Here are ten things I can’t imagine life without today that began their existance in 2006 and 2007.
1. 1. LCD Flat Screen TV Technically these were “around” before 2006. But that was the year they were made affordable for people to buy commercially, and now they’re everywhere.
2. 2. Facebook While it was available to college students in 2004 Facebook opened its doors to everyone aged 13 and older with a valid e-mail address on September 26, 2006.
3. 3. Twitter Twitter launched in July 2006. The world embraced the service which allowed only short bursts of information of 140 characters or less. Twitter grew from 400,000 tweets posted per quarter in 2007 to 500 million tweets per day.
4. 4.YouTube YouTube was launched in 2005. Every day people watch some of the hundreds of millions of hours worth of content, generating billions of views. It’s physically impossible to watch every video uploaded to the site as it would take over 1,000 years. I have a YouTube channel for videos of some of my acting roles. Not all of them, because shows like American Horror Story do not allow you to post scenes.
5. 5. The iPhone It released in March 2007. I thought it was earlier. But in 2006 the most advanced phone was the Blackberry Pearl. Jen, my heroine can’t understand why anyone would name a phone after a piece of fruit.
6. 6. The Selfie. Obviously we couldn’t take selfies until someone invented the reversible camera. Selfies as a sport, didn’t become popular until the invention of the iPhone. This selfie, taken at the 2014 Oscars, momentarily broke Twitter.
7. 7. E-READERS The first Amazon kindle was launched in 2007 priced at $400 and was immensely popular, selling out within five and a half hours and remaining out of stock for months.
8. 8. SMALL INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS AND SELF PUBLISHING The demand for content for new e-reader opened up new avenues for authors. Not only did a host of independent publishers spring up, I am grateful that Soul Mate Publishing was one of them. New options for self publishing proliferated. I haven’t tried this yet because I am too chicken, but I’ve discovered wonderful books by self-published Authors.
9. Amazon Prime. I have had Amazon Prime since it started in 2005. For a flat fee of $79.00 I could have free two-day shipping. I added up what I had been paying in shipping for my bookaholic habits and decided it was worth it. Amazon Prime wasn’t launched in the UK where my heroine lives until 2007.
10. AirBnB. This alternative to traditional hotels for short term stays and vacation rentals started in 2007. I’ve used it several times and I love it. I now rent a room in my home through AirBnB.
Back in 2006 when Jen needed to find a short term apartment rental in Los Angeles I had her ask her waiter. (I always got my best apartment tips from waiters.)
Computer guru, Lance Davies is more comfortable with machines than people. He never knew how to handle his beloved, mercurial Jen. But now her future-self is here in front of him and he wants another chance.
Jen's traitorous body insists that home is in Lance's arms, but her heart has trust issues.
When Lance follows Jen into the future, time tangles. And, according to the computer they both died on September, 2001. Their only hope of a future is changing their past. But how?
10. AirBnB. This alternative to traditional hotels for short term stays and vacation rentals started in 2007. I’ve used it several times and I love it. I now rent a room in my home through AirBnB.
Back in 2006 when Jen needed to find a short term apartment rental in Los Angeles I had her ask her waiter. (I always got my best apartment tips from waiters.)
BLURB
Happy Ever After? Not unless they change time
Popular London stage actress Jennifer Knight just turned forty-nine and she's fine with her life, thank you very much. Or she was until her beloved niece accidentally time travels them both to 1988 bringing her face to face with her first husband.Computer guru, Lance Davies is more comfortable with machines than people. He never knew how to handle his beloved, mercurial Jen. But now her future-self is here in front of him and he wants another chance.
Jen's traitorous body insists that home is in Lance's arms, but her heart has trust issues.
When Lance follows Jen into the future, time tangles. And, according to the computer they both died on September, 2001. Their only hope of a future is changing their past. But how?
We still have COVID to contend with so I hesitate to ask anyone to buy the book
The audiobook is available from your library via Hoopla
Or I can give you an audiobook code through Findaway books.
If you want a free PDF ARC or an audiobook code, please contact me through my Website. Or you can leave a comment with your email here.
I wish you a week of small joys in an unprecedented time. Stay Panic Free. Watch News only once a day. Laugh at least three times.
