A famous phrase used by President Ronald Reagan to describe Malvern has inspired the new novel Silicon Valley East, writes Holly Quinn for Technical.ly.
In the 1980s, the stretch of Route 202 from West Chester through King of Prussia was known as a mid-Atlantic parallel to California’s Silicon Valley, with many high technology companies based in the region.
In a 1985 speech given during a visit to the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern, President Ronald Reagan famously dubbed the region the “Silicon Valley of the East,” a descriptor that inspired author Gina Wilson decades later.
Wilson worked as a software engineer in Malvern during the 1980s. Her career and the time period inspired her to write Silicon Valley East, a new historical fiction novel following a young female health tech developer as she works in the Philadelphia region in the early 1980s.
Wilson, who now lives in Delaware, later received a graduate degree in cognitive psychology and began working as a coach for tech professionals. Following her passion for creative writing, Wilson published Silicon Valley East, her first novel, with the goal of showing how technology has changed over time.
With her writing, Wilson aimed to authentically represent the experience of women in tech, something she hopes will continue to inspire anyone with a passion for writing.
Read more about Silicon Valley East and how the novel was inspired by Malvern’s history with the tech industry in Technical.ly.
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