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First-time novelist focuses on photo overload

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Surrounded by a press of humanity around Rome’s Trevi fountain, all of whom seemed to be wielding digital cameras and selfie-sticks, Port Dover’s Chris Keast had a single thought that inspired a novel.

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“I thought ‘What if all this disappeared?’ meaning all these famous landmarks where people line up to take pictures of themselves. If these things disappeared, would they regret not looking at them with their eyes instead of their cameras?”

The thought turned into discussions with his wife, Sarah Sibthorpe, and friends and then a challenge when one friend told him to write a book about the idea.

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“I didn’t even know if I could or couldn’t write at the time,” says the engineering consultant, “but I thought the idea was important and relevant and I realized I liked writing. I finished in nine months.”

The book, Datapocalypse, was launched earlier this month at Port Dover’s new coffee, fudge and chocolate shop, Cocoa Cabana on Walker St. with about 40 people turning out to pick up a signed copy and hear Keast read from the novel.

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“It was really great, especially considering that I’m relatively new to Port Dover. Most of my family and friends are in Sudbury.”

Keast, his wife and their four-year-old daughter, Stella, came to Dover from San Diego in order to be closer to family and ended up owning a house in the lakefront community.

Although Datapocalypse is Keast’s first effort, he’s been a long-time musician and “closet poet”. Once finished the first draft, he hired an editor to help him polish the final product and spent lots of time reading other books on writing rules.

He says Datapocalypse is disparaging of excessive photo taking but he draws a distinction between those who snap every meal and possible selfie and professional photographers.

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“I was thinking about how data from all our pictures is just bits and bytes and, although it’s virtual, it actually does reside somewhere. There’s got to be a threshold at some point that we cross.”

Described as a cross-over action, romance, sci-fi, dystopian mystery novel, Datapocalypse expands Keast’s idea about the world’s most famously photographed landmarks disappearing.

“There’s a bit of a love story in there, which I poached some of from my life, and my wife designed the book cover and added some drawings for the book.”

The couple developed a short trailer for the project, which can be found at bit.ly/DatapocalypseTrailer.

Datapocalypse can be purchased on Amazon.ca and Keast is happy to meet up to offer signed copies. He’ll be setting dates for future readings in Simcoe, Sudbury and Toronto.

SGamble@postmedia.com

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