SL_Spotlight_Megan_Angelo_0420_Spotlight 4 / 23 / 20 11 : 47 AM Page 1 s S P O T L I G H T Follow Her Megan Angelo’s novel imagines a not - too - distant future in which the evolution of social media erases the thin line between privacy and celebrity . BY BILL DONAHUE that reality is quickly catching up to the futuristic world she Smartphones and social media have imagined . changed daily life in ways we couldn’t A graduate of Villanova University who grew up in Quakertown , have imagined 10 years ago . While Angelo started her career as a journalist ; her byline has appeared such technology has made certain tasks in tremendously convenient , not all of the re - The New York Times , Glamour , and Elle , among others . She’s working sulting changes have made life better . on a follow - up novel about two friends who come of age at the turn This fact informed Megan Angelo as she of the century , at the dawn of the so - called Internet age . She refers penned her first novel , Followers , published to the novel as “ part coming - of - age story , part love letter to those by Graydon House Books in January . Described clunky technologies ” that enabled people to connect online . by readers as both “ thoughtful ” and “ terrifying , ” We spoke with Angelo about her novel , her uneasy relationship the book envisions a future in which technology with technology , and the delicate balance required to manage her has in many ways erased the line between privacy and celebrity . dual roles as a full - time mother of three young children and a Although much of the story is set 30 years hence , Angelo admits successful writer of novels and TV screenplays . Instagram rabbit hole as easy as the next so it was a huge experiment for me . I made Why did you want person , but sometimes , even in a waiting revision after revision , revising the story to write Followers ? room , I don’t want to have my neck bent upwards of a dozen times . … I wasn’t sure I had a 2 - year - old Q & A over my phone . I walked into an exercise it was going to work until I started taking it and a baby at the class this morning , and it was an eerie out to trusted readers . time , so writing it gave me a reason to go in image ; all along the other room and do something else ; it the ballet barre , six to seven was a diversion , essentially . I love my kids , Tell me about the pains of writing a novel women were staring into rectangles of light . I but I think every parent has these moments really find myself thinking about the chance with the demands of family and the other from time to time . … Looking back , what I connections we used to make simply by commitments life puts in a writer’s way . see in the pages is that I feel deeply ambiva - being out in the world , and I wonder if we Before I had kids I was trying to write these lent about the role of social media , so in that will ever see them again . [ TV ] scripts and cross over to someone who way the book really reflects how I feel . I’m writes creatively for 10 hours a day . Of course 35 , so I’ve lived half my life before smart - that To me , Followers is a book about the didn’t work out , and now I have three phones , and I don’t necessarily like all of kids — ages five , three , and one — and that desire for human connection , but this the changes they have brought about . makes it really difficult , because I am book would qualify as sci - fi . Did you someone who likes to write and write . Now read much sci - fi as you were writing ? I’m a full - time caretaker , which leaves me Do you think , now that we’ve let the I really didn’t . I took a course in sci - fi at Vil - with nights , weekends , and mornings . In lanova , so it was probably more of osmosis genie out of the bottle , humanity is other ways , the demands on my time have and muscle memory . I intentionally stayed destined for the kind of future you’ve been great for me as a writer ; they’ve made away from diving into that stuff . I really imagined in the book ? me lean and mean . I haven’t had writer’s wanted to write the book as something like It’s not as outrageous today as we would block in five years , because my schedule has historical fiction in reverse . … The draft I have considered it years ago , and we’ve made me more organized , less indulgent , used to get my agent was very different definitely moved in the direction of the book . and I do think it has given me a different per - … I hope we’re not headed for the 2051 I rom the book you have there . I had never f spective . Also , motherhood runs throughout imagined in the book , not as severe , but I written a novel before ; I don’t have an MFA . [ Followers ] in a way that it couldn’t have don’t know we will be able to step back I spent many years writing TV and movie before I had that experience . from where we are now . I can fall down an scripts , and I conceived of this as a feature , ? SUBURBANLIFEMAGAZINE.COM APRIL 2020 64 |