From the ’80s to the ’90s: The World Around The OS Trilogy
There’s something readers may notice as they move through the trilogy.
Time moves.
The first Opposite Sex story takes place in the mid-1980s. By the time we get to Opposite Again and Opposite Still, the story has shifted into the 1990s.
That wasn’t an accident.
Changing the Background Without Changing the Story
When I returned to the characters, I liked the idea of moving them into another era. It gave me a different visual playground and, frankly, a creative challenge.
But I never wanted the decade to become the story.
OS isn’t intended to be a museum exhibit where every scene stops so I can point out an old piece of technology and say, “Remember this?”
The period details are there because that’s the world these characters inhabit.
Sometimes that means a radio instead of a streaming playlist. Sometimes it’s MTV or VH1 playing somewhere in the background. Sometimes it’s a beeper, a bulky cell phone or another object that instantly dates the scene for anyone who lived through the period.
The characters don’t think those things are retro.
To them, they’re just things.
Before Everybody Was Reachable
One thing I particularly enjoy about setting the story before smartphones is how much it changes storytelling.
People can actually lose track of each other.
You can’t immediately text the entire group. You can’t pull up somebody’s location. You can’t settle an argument with a ten-second Google search. If somebody leaves, you may genuinely have no idea where they went.
That’s incredibly useful when you’re trying to get fictional teenagers into trouble.
Nostalgia Without the Wink
There are definitely moments older readers will recognize.
Some may remember the clothes. Others will recognize the music references, hairstyles, technology or general atmosphere. Younger readers may simply see a world that operates a little differently from theirs.
Both reactions are fine with me.
The period isn’t supposed to exclude anyone.
It’s simply where the characters live.
And for those of us who were actually around?
Yes, some of that stuff really was as big and awkward as it looks.
