Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
E-Businesswoman Encourages Girls to Tackle Technology
Tappahannock, VA (May 16, 2001) -- Successful author and e-business entrepreneur Anna Murray says that as a result of attending a girls' high school, "I have a confidence I probably never would have developed. I would never say I could never do something."
Author and e-business entrepreneur Anna Murray (r.) was a featured speaker at St. Margaret's Spring Family Weekend. She is shown here with parent Chris Cormack, mother of sophomore Cassy (background).
The creator of the popular teen book and companion web site, Sarah's Page, took her message to St. Margaret's School recently as part of Spring Family Weekend. The book was required reading for SMS eighth through tenth graders last summer.
Murray explained that she wrote Sarah's Page in an e-mail format to encourage girls to overcome what she views as an artificial barrier between technology and the humanities. Fans of her book can e-mail characters from the Sarah's Page web site and receive personalized responses. Visitors to the site also can find more information about horses, which feature prominently in the plot, as well as about Long Island and Michigan, where much of the action takes place.
Sarah's Page also proves Murray's point about the different expectations that young people bring to the relationship between electronic and printed media. The best web sites for popular novels were created not by publishers, but by 13-year-olds, she said.
"It wouldn't occur to an adult to look up Huck Finn on the Internet," Murray explained. "But teenagers expect to find him, and when they can't, they just assume his ISP is down."
As a result, Sarah's Page 2 (currently in production) is even more interactive. Book purchasers will receive a PIN that they can use to access an enhanced online version of the text. In addition to "ride along" supplementary content, electronic readers also will be able to receive part of the book's dialogue via instant messenger. Parts of the new book, Murray added, were suggested by Sarah's Page fans that e-mailed her suggestions for future stories.
"It's a real dialogue -- the ultimate relationship between an author and his or her readers," she said.
Murray attended Yale and Columbia Universities. She taught at independent girls' and co-ed schools until she founded her Internet business in 1994. Murray's company, E-Media, designs web sites for such major brands as Keebler Cookies and Bayer Aspirin.
