Ballast Books to Publish Digital Odyssey, a Memoir of Invention, Motherhood, and Survival at the Dawn of the Internet

On September 30, 2025, Ballast Books will publish Digital Odyssey by SE Quinn, a frontline account of invention, motherhood, and survival in the 1990s internet revolution.

Quinn was a pregnant young mom in San Francisco when she founded Wordcasters and built TextCast, the first real-time text streaming platform—technology that enabled live, interactive communication years before Zoom, YouTube, or Twitter. Her work drew attention from the tech elite, but without power or backing, the costs fell squarely on her.

Digital Odyssey goes beyond the familiar story of tech innovation. It is an unvarnished narrative of what it took to create something original while raising children, facing professional stereotypes, and navigating cycles of abuse at home. Quinn exposes the price of being early, the compromises demanded for visibility, and the work of reclaiming authorship of her own life.

Set against the backdrop of San Francisco in the 1990s, the book restores a missing chapter of internet history and reframes what it means to invent, to mother, and to have the courage to become your true self.

Digital Odyssey will be released September 30, 2025, in hardcover, paperback, and e-book editions wherever books are sold.

Publishing Details:
Publisher: Ballast Books
Release Date: September 30, 2025
Language: English
Page Count: 244 pages
ISBN (Hardcover): 978-1-966786-51-1
ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-966786-49-8
ISBN (Ebook): 978-1-966786-52-8
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
For review copies, interviews, or media inquiries, please contact:
Lauren Green
Ballast Books
Email: lauren@ballastbooks.com

About the Author:

Susan Quinn makes her home in the jungle on the Yucatan peninsula. She began her career pioneering real-time text streaming and later created one of the first multi-camera platforms for live streaming interactive video. Part of the founding circle of San Francisco’s women-in-tech movement, Quinn is a mother of three. Digital Odyssey is her first memoir.