WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PIG LATIN?

While visiting recently in my mother's kitchen, my brother mentioned that he hadn't received my monthly newsletter in a while.

"Could it be the spam filter?" I asked him "Maybe you need to whitelist the email addy."

I caught a glimpse of my mother's bewildered face. "You have no idea what I just said, do you?" She definitely had the I don't know what you're talking about but I'll be supportive and pretend it's fascinating look.


Trooper that she is, she shook her head and cheerfully said, "No, but that's okay."

Albeit a little late in the game, I understood at that moment what a completely new language technology has spawned, a language that grows with each new fad. It started with "IM-ing" and has evolved into "texting" (now a verb in its own right) abbreviations: BFF, OMG, TTFN, ROTFL, and the ever-important one I thankfully have no reason to remember that warns of parents looking over the kid's shoulder. But abbreviations were just the beginning. Then came Facebook, largely responsible for the metamorphosis of the noun friend into a verb, as in "If you friend my ex-boyfriend after what he did, you are no longer my BFF."

Along came Twitter and its appropriate lingo: tweeting, re-tweeting, tweets, twits, etc. Now there are terms that combine English words with the Twitter diphthong (go look it up in the dictionary, like a big boy or girl). Think of the possibilities, some of which already exist: tweeple, mistweet (mistwake?), tweblog ... we may all start sounding like Elmer Fudd ("When I catch that wascally wabbit, I'll give him such a Tweet...").

Perhaps the not-too-distant future will offer foreign language classes for various tech dialects. Don't laugh; remember COBOL and BASIC? In the early days of computer science, proficiency in these acronymic computer "languages" was important. Today's tech talk isn't nearly that esoteric, but I predict it will flourish like toenail fungus, so prepare yourselves. Your grandchild may graduate college with a double-major in Tweetish and Textese.

p.s. (how many kids know what that abbreviation stands for?) If you need translations of any of the tech terms used, visit Dictionary.com. They're probably already integrated into the vernacular.

www.cynthiapolansky.com

Gimme an E...book

It's been ten years (really five, in technology years) since the eBook first appeared on the scene to change reading life as we know it. I'm talking way back, before Facebook and Twitter, when DOS was still a viable part of our techno-reality. I was still hunting for a publisher for Far Above Rubies when my then-agent hooked introduced me to a man with a vision: treat eBooks with the same respect as we do print books, and the industry will sit up and take notice. He started an e-publishing house that considered only agented submissions. Their eBooks were inexpensive downloads available in eReader-friendly formats. eBooks were, as they say, the wave of the future.



Many predicted it wouldn't last, this newfangled eBook nonsense. eReaders were strange, pricey, cumbersome gadgets that didn't work well in bright sunlight's glare. PDF downloads were cheap and easy, but reading an entire book on your PC monitor? Besides, nothing would supplant a real book, the way a hefty hardcover felt in your hands, the convenience of reading a paperback at the beach or in the tub, the beautifully designed dust jacket or parchment pages converting your particle-board bookshelves into a dignified library.



eBooks kept a small cult following but faded into relative obscurity. All but the strongest e-publishers folded, and the print publishing industry -- whether they'll admit it today or not -- breathed a collective sigh of relief.



But the times, they are a-changin' and Americans were bitten by the "green" bug. Suddenly eReaders became the perfect alternative to pulp, and along came a little device called Kindle. So what's different now? Certainly an endorsement by Amazon doesn't hurt. Perhaps it's just that the eReader's time has come. eBook Week is a good indication. But don't be surprised when the next generation of cell phones boast an e-Book application. You won't even need to use the built-in GPS to find a physical book store.





Celebrate eBook Week with paranormal women's novel Remote Control, available electronically from Echelon Press, Fictionwise, and of course from Amazon Kindle. Visit www.cynthiapolansky.com