There you have it. Today, “Blue Flame Burns the Hottest” goes live at Saturday Night Reader. It’s a soft and sweet near-future SF flash tale about families, and tech, and growing together instead of apart. It deals with a woman growing actually wiser as she grows older, even though it’s hard.
The working title was the none-too-pleasant “Grannie’s VR.” Still, it encapsulated the dichotomy of the story I wanted to tell–Grandma: old-fashioned and supposedly out of touch, with VR: modern, shiny, & futuristic.
Some of this comes from the sense I have, as I grow older, of feeling out-of-date to my lively, pre- and early-teen great-nieces and great-nephews. (Hey, no judging here! I’ve been a great-aunt since college! It just means I’m great!) How much more so will this be when home tech takes another momentous leap forward, and I’m not on that wave? When, like my mother-in-law with the TV remote (or my own long-gone grandmother with the automobile), I’ll need help figuring out all this new-fangled stuff? And what great things will come along with it?
I’m all for a virtual immersive experience–how cool would that be? It could change so much: gaming, work, study and research, even travel. But as with Caroline in the story, I would still want some in-person face time to keep familial connections strong, and actual in a world going virtual. Old-fashioned? Maybe. But I think it makes a neat story, too.
Edited to add: Well, that’s a little embarrassing! I set this post to automatically post itself at 8:30 this morning, and didn’t get around to checking my email/online life until nearly noon. (Yes, I’m keeping holiday hours today!) Only then did I discover that my story isn’t up yet. Perhaps SNR forgot about the holiday they scheduled my story? Or it’ll post later in the day? Well, whatever the case, I’m leaving this post for when it does go live. As they say, better early than late…???
Further edited to add: Weee! Now it’s up! Go forth and read…please?
Everyday Magic | M. E. Garber 
Perhaps the next step will be that we won’t have to learn how to operate the hardware, it will be pre-programed to recoginse what we want, or everything will be voice activated.
I can’t see what the next leap forward will be though. All we experimenting with at the moment is how to do make what we already have faster, smaller, etc. Even quantum computers (at their most simplistic) are still computers that go very fast.
I think about this too. Technology and culture moving on without my being immersed in and informed about it.
I like that in your story there is a place and use for the technology for both the grandmother and the grandchild. Technology isn’t just “what the kids are doing with it these days”, it’s what anyone is using it for… it’s how we use it together.