Yesterday, I was thinking about the Aud novels, about what it would take to republish them. (They’re all in print in some form or other in this country right now, but I like to plan ahead.) I’d have to tweak a lot of the phone/computer access stuff. It would be mild tweakage, though, because the information that really matters for Aud is based on the body, personal interaction.
Other writers, particularly screenwriters, aren’t so lucky. Here’s a nifty video imagining the connectivity of today affecting the movies of the past:
http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1942506&fullscreen=1
(via GalleyCat)
Note to writers: it’s easy for stories to become passé when the plot relies on information delivery (and its delays and mistakes). Information interpretation, however, because its about character, adds depth.
Nicola Griffith 
I think if the original publication date is clear, nothing needs to be updated. I read a book recently that was published in 2003 and in it a character fears her partner will be called up if there's a war. Hello? What about Afghanistan? No mention of 9/11? So it left me speculating that it had actually been written some time earlier and either republished or just delayed enough to confuse things. If a story doesn't mention when it takes place, and it's not obvious, I assume it's around publication.
I think it's dangerous to try to update a story. Another author tried and her book ended up with one character having a cell phone and everyone else locked to land lines. It just felt weird. Just tell me it's 1985 and I'm cool with that.
ElaineB, print publishing can take so long that a book can be conceived and first draft written one year (then rewritten, then submitted, then rewritten to editorial specification, then copyedited, etc.) and published three years after that.
Nicola — it's occurred to me that the ending of TBP falls apart if Aud and Julia are as hyperconnected as most people are these days. (Both would probably have a cell phone, and Julia would probably have a laptop as well.) Of course, Julia's phone might have been damaged in the breakin and there might not be reception in the country. If there's ever a film version, I'm sure you'll figure out how to rework the ending.
Yep, I'd have to spend some time figuring that out. Hmmm.
I don't see why you have to change anything. It took place in the past not the present time…
Well, movies are either definitely and obviously period, or they're present-day. Late nineties is neither/nor, really. But now I'm intrigued, thinking about TBP as a period piece: set in the sixties, maybe…
That sounds like fun. But give it a few more years, and the 90's will be obviously period…
I thought Julia had a cell phone but had turned it off. (That had bothered me.)
They rented one cell phone, and Julia wanted Aud to keep it so Aud could call Julia. That's how Aud placed all those calls after she was shot.
I do wonder whether even stories that are clearly set in a time before modern info-tech will be able to retain their dramatic urgency when plot-points rely on communication. For kids who grow up with omnipresent connectivity, does Romeo & Juliet seem tragic, or just kind of pointlessly pathetic?
I don't know.
On the other hand, I've just watched the new modern-day UK TV reboot, 'Sherlock', and it's brilliant. Smarphones everywhere. A delight. I can recommend it.