By Kristy Hesom
As with many book launches, the evening started off with wine, canapés and the usual book-related chatter. The crowd included fans, fellow authors and even Snyckers’ optometrist.
Makholwa welcomed Snyckers and the audience, divulging that, in person, Snyckers may seem quiet and demure, but that she “is a giant in the digital space.”
Snyckers’ kicked off the conversation by introducing us to the book’s protagonist Jamie Burchell; Jamie is a social media junkie, with accounts on every social platform there is, from Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, to Bing, Keek and Posterous. She is also an aspiring, but unpublished, author, says Snyckers.
“Her strategy is to publish her novel in instalments on a blog, in the hope of attracting a big following and, ultimately, attracting the attention of a publisher who will make an offer,” says Snyckers. Think
The Martian.
“By the beginning of the novel, she has already attracted the attention of a stalker,” says Snyckers “He has started following her online. He has used all of her check-ins to triangulate her position in real life and has found out where she lives.”
Now, the stalker is not only following Jamie online, he is following her in real life too. As he gets closer, Snyckers explains, Jamie is faced with a choice; does she reduce her online presence out of fear, or does she refuse to let him affect her life?
As Jamie blogs and tweets about her stalker, her readers have never been so captivated. And Jamie is closer than ever before to reaching her dream. But at what cost?
In order to find out more, the audience was encouraged to buy the book which was for sale at the event, with an intimate book signing afterwards where readers were given the opportunity to chat to the quiet but charismatic author.
For more information, visit
www.fionasnyckers.com. Alternatively, connect with her on
Twitter with the #NowFollowingYou hashtag.