The Unknown: The Orange Line.
 
Corey: Yes—she’s one of the 4 or 5 SF writers considered ‘literary.’
Scott: ah the unknown again
Scott: William
Corey: Won the MacArthur genius grant a few years back.
Nancy: i havent got to the SF in our library yet. But am going there now to check out some other authors and will see what there is of her
William: good grant.
Corey: Definitely worth looking for.
Nancy: The MAcArthur sounds great!
William: yeah
Corey: It’s about a quarter million dollars, no strings.
Scott: it beats a sharp stick in the eye
William: yeah. good money.
William: yeah.
Nancy: or a sharp stick anywhere actually!
William: i’ve gotta get one of them grants!
Nancy: become a registered non pproffit and go for it!
Scott: you just have to start writing some good stuff then there william
William: yah
Corey: Actually, the MacArthur isn’t for writers.
William: no?
William: what? just geniuses?
Corey: It’s for anyone—the committee picks from all fields.
Corey: Geniuses, anyone who’s made a unique contribution.
William: so i better do some groundbreaking neurochemistry!
Corey: It’s paid out over five years or so, lets the people work without worrying about paying their rent.
Corey: That’ll do.
Nancy: But one must apply for it right? I wonder why she was surprised to get it..
Corey: Nope.
Corey: They are given.
Corey: No applications.
William: I don’t think you have to apply, you just have to be a genius.
Corey: Sort of like a prize patrol.
Nancy: Whoa!
Nancy: I am impressed!
William: Geniuses are rare, mind you.
Corey: The year she got it, they were pretty sure they were giving it to a SF writer.
Corey: Very. :grin:
Corey: All right, I need to get going. Feel free to hang out and chat—that’s what the room’s here for.
Corey: If you want more information of SF authors, let me plug my own site...
Scott: thanks Corey
Corey: http://fantasy.miningco.com
William: we’ll sweep the room out before we leave
Corey: Take care, Scott. Drop me an email if you want chat tips, I’ll see if I can write something up. Did a pretty good job.
Corey: And thanks again for inviting me.
Nancy: Corey, nice meeting you!
Scott: Glad you were here.
Corey: Nice to met you, too, Nancy! (And William)
William: Scott, thank you man, this was amazing!
Corey: Any time, just let me know in advance—even if it’s not SF. (grin) (poof)
William: I’ve always wanted to meet Octavia Butler.
Scott: I still got stomach jitters. Want to see something funny, Corey?
William:
Nancy: Corey is gone but we do
Scott: www.uc.edu/user/unknown/macarthur.htm
Scott: If you hit your surf button. That’s me and William, and Dirk.
William: Ah
Nancy: Will be checking that out. Thanx
Scott: unmasked
Scott: So Wm. you like the chat?
William: Yeah. I missed some key moments, though.
William: On the whole, it was a great pleasure for me.
Scott: We should do an unknown chat soon
William: What authors does she read? Miised that...
William: Missed, soory
William: sorry, sorry
Scott: Alvarez, ah, Philip K. Dick
William: Your job is way harder than I thought.
William: Nancy seems nice, though.
Scott: Yeah, I hope it was a good experience for her. Nancy, you are nice. William’s right.
William: I think you did good tonight. Let me know when the next chat is and this time I’ll read up.
Scott: Now I gotta get ready to interview T.C. Boyle Monday.
Scott: And I still don’t have his book.
William: In the meantime, I’ll be looking for some O. Butler tomorrow at the 3rd-best university library in the U.S.A.
William: I hope you wear a tie to interview Boyle.
William: Even online.
Scott: No way man.
William: C’mon.
Scott: In person. I’ll wear the tweed, open collar, no tie.
William: You’re the Beatles of online literary criticism. Wear a tie. And get the haircut.
Scott: I’m growing a beard, btw.
Kate: hello
William: hello
Kate: my dog is sleeping.
Kate: rejoice.
Scott: Kate, you’re back
Kate: quietly that is
William: shh
Scott: So you didn’t wanna hang with Octavia?
William: it got crowded
Kate: not when all of you were talking about things I had no frame of reference for.
Kate: “ooh sorry I didnt make it to your reading”
Kate: “we got lost in queens”
Kate: not interesting at all
Scott: That was just because I was embarassed I didn’t make it to her reading.
Kate: maybe she didnt miss you
Scott: not interesting? You missed all the good stuff. You’re probably right about her not missing me though
Scott: I’m crying now Kate
Kate: well i refuse to live in regret, so se la vie
Kate: i think i butchered that.
William: don’t cry
Kate: ah well.
William: French
Scott: Is that French?
William: French
Kate: i believe so
Kate: would you like a hanky?
Kate: tears are unbecoming.
William: It was a good interview. The writer seemed exhausted.
Scott: So Kate what do you normally chat about? Metafiction?
Kate: i chat about whatever I happen to think about
William: Could someone fax Scott a hanky?
Kate: i dont have a plan
Nancy: its on its way
Kate: is this ok with you? does it violate the laws of the warsaw pact?
Nancy: the hanky
Scott: I’m better now, they just finished the lobotomy.
Kate: In brazil......
William: what was the warsaw pact again kat[i]e, i forget...
Scott: So you’re in Brazil. Or are you talking about Terry Gilliam again?
Kate: well, seeing as kate really isnt my name, i think it violetes the geneva convention
Kate: again?
William: oh no
William: i’d just like to apologize
Kate: well you better, i have some blackshirts over here.
Scott: William’s real name is William.
William: yikes
Kate: i am channeling mussolini’s spirit tonight
Kate: all in the honor of facsist states
Scott: Internet nazis? I hate Internet nazis.
William: mussolini is an excellent dish
Kate: facsists and nazis are quite different
William: i like veal mussolini
Nancy: With white sauce
Kate: facists dont goosestep
William: yeah
Scott: Let’s not get into semantics
William: okay
Nancy: ok. gravy
Kate: oh, ok. back down sassuere
Scott: Just kidding, we can get into semantics if you want
William: how about phonetics?
Kate: i hate butchering the french language
Nancy: i am an anti semantic
Kate: but alas, i dont grasp its intricacies
William: yeah
Kate: nor do i grasp punctuation
Kate: but i blame nietszche for that.
Scott: discombobulated. I like that word discombobulated.
William: flabbergasted
Kate: he frowned upon structure in language. it colored my views
William: yeah
Kate: heay
William: uproarious
Kate: smashing
William: thrown for a loop
William: taken aback
William: stunned
Scott: We’re here with William Gillespie. He’s a famous Champaign poet and performance artist.
Kate: my mother was killed by being thrown for a loop
William: sorry
Kate: yes, it haunts me to this day
Kate: my father on the other hand, was kiled by vienna sausages.
William: i understand
William: asphyxiated?
Kate: im lying you know
William: yeah
William: or tourniqueted?
Kate: i wander if vienna sausages violate the warsaw pact?
William: i wander as i wonder
Nancy: not if they are kosher....
Kate: let me get my monkey boy to find out! Oscar! Look into this!
Nancy: and make it snappy bud!
Scott: snappy bud?
Kate: sigh. all he does is bang those cymbals together
Kate: useless monkey boy
Nancy: snappy comma bud, but we are not punctuating tonight
William: bang
Kate: yes, we have thrown punctutation to the wind
Kate: is that considered littering?
William: http://www.unknownhypertext.com/unknown.htm
Nancy: which by the way is really strting to kick up around here
William: yeah
Kate: sorry
Scott: Sometime we’ll have to have a real chat party and trash the room.
William: could you please fax me some booze?
Scott: Where’s your wind at there Nancy?
Nancy: That is headed that way with scotts hanky
Kate: my wind?
Kate: i think its headed east
William: good thing
Nancy: No sorry. The booze.
Nancy: Or panky......
William: hanky?
Kate: my monkey boy drank all of my boze
Scott: That would be technology
Kate: he’s now passed out with an empty bottle of chivas in his paw
William: is this nonlinear yet?
Nancy: Trashed his cymbals
William: yeah
Kate: they certainly dont make money boys the way they used to
Kate: monkey boys even
Nancy: Tuxedo Unicorn, under the bridge
William: yeah
Kate: dman these cursed typo demons
Kate: infesting my keyboard
Kate: heh
Kate: thats almost too perfect
William: they’re all over you
Kate: get it off me
William: argh!
Kate: heh
William: i love the miningco! thanks to scott!
Kate: how bizzare
Kate: explain
William: and kate!
Scott: What’s bizarre?
Kate: loving the miningco
William: and Nancy!
Nancy: certainly not this bunch
Scott: yeah that’s strange. But Nancy’s cool.
William: yeah
Kate: how can you love a place that mines the net? it violates the multilateral agreement on investment
Nancy: Nancy is in Alaska
Nancy: Of course she is cool!
William: I thought Scott’s boss was still here...
Scott: I’m in Chicago. She’s gone now.
William: whew!
Nancy: That is another NAancy
Nancy: Sorry!
William: No, Melissa.
William: No problem.
Kate: I think its wanda
Scott: That’s Melissa and she’s sweet.
Nancy: This is nancy with a little n but someone welse was using it i guessw
Scott: So Kate’s back after Kate left because she thought we were insular.
Kate: i’ve been sunk in my own dementia for years now.
Nancy: ankle deep
William: those twisted and sick—sorry to hear that Kate - people
William: like Z
William: who just wanted the author to reccomend a single fucking book
William: but she was elusive, yes
William: recommend, sorry
Scott: Yeah I thought maybe Z was not Z
Kate: demons spread
William: yeah. what tipped you off?
William: scott?
William: dmans
Scott: Tell Z I said hi when you’re in Cinci. Z doesn’t read books, that’s why.
William: yeah. he doesn’t have a computer either i’ll bet
Scott: that too
William: nor does he engage in online chats with novelists
William: i’ll bet
Scott: I doubt it. But he’s a good writer.
William: yeah. proof of that exists in my notebook.
William: or at least proof that he’s a writer.
William: and a good one at that.,
Scott: that he can write
Scott: did you want to add anything to the Markson page?
Nancy: Who is Z?
Kate: Zorro, nancy
Kate: zorro
William: yeah, i do
Nancy: I thought that
Scott: Z is a writer in Cincinnati
Nancy: but it seemed too simple for this bunch
William: yeah
Nancy: And what is he doing in cinci?
Scott: or a criminal. We’re not sure which
Kate: liar! he rides around on a horse
William: a horse?
Nancy: white horse?
Kate: and he keeps saying HEEE-YA for no apparents reason, and making a “z” with his rapier
William: he has 3 dalmations
Scott: Z has a very dramatic criminal lifestyle.
Nancy: and a trusty sidekick
William: they are named... (help me out here...)
Scott: It makes for good reading.
Kate: how do you know he doesnt just lie?
Nancy: monkey boy
Nancy: !
Nancy: nkey boy
Scott: Because we write about it. He lives it.
William: Nancy?
Kate: uh. i think that’s called multiple personalities, but hey,
Nancy: I’ve got it now!
William: oh?
Kate: i was looking for it
Kate: thank god you’ve found it
Scott: let’s see you got a URL on that William?
William: on what?
Scott: z
Scott: the dalmations
Kate: my pug is snoring
Kate: loudly
Nancy: im sorry to hear that
William: a url on z? i haven’t finished my chapter about him for the unknown, if that’s what you mean..?
Kate: im glad she’s sleeping.
Kate: shes a demon
William: pug?
Kate: pug.
William: yeah
Kate: exactly
William: Nancy, you should chack out the Unknown. You’d dig it to pieces, I know you would.
Scott: let’s see ah www.uc.edu/user/unknown/102798.htm
Kate: what are you talking about?
Kate: is this stuff you’ve written?
Nancy: i surfed there and found nothing but some broken words and typing which made no sense to me
Scott: we’re hypertext novelists
Nancy: was that it?
William: http://www.uc.edu/user/unknown/brownline.htm
William: bye
Kate: how elusive
Kate: maybe he’s batman
Nancy: ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY LEFT OUT PART OF IT THE FIRST TIME!
Kate: and they just flashed the batsignal
William: go to the URL i just suggested and enjoy the watercolors of a mysterious artist who might be Kate
Nancy: SORRY DIDNT MEAN TO SHOUT
Nancy: it just goes on and on
William: NO PROBLEM
Nancy: BRB
Kate: um, you cant fool me with your jedi mind tricks
William: www.uc.edu/user/unknown/brownline.htm
William: well, kate, BRB means be right back
William: i guess
William: scott?
Kate: i didnt mean that
William: which?
Scott: yeah I think the chat thing surf thing doesn’t work quite right
Kate: i meant the “enjoy the watercolors of a mysterious artsit who might be Kate”
Scott: there’s a button that says surf
Scott: Are you that Kate
William: which
Scott: Katie
Kate: Kate is not my name
William: shit
Scott: Oh that’s right
William: Kathryn?
Kate: NOOOOooo
Scott: how cloak and dagger. Nancy are you Nancy?
William: sorry
Kate: Must I condemn myself to redundancy?
William: agent X?
William: yes you must
William: you must
Kate: blast
William: condemn yourself to redundancy
William: redundancy
William: redundancy
Kate: no
Kate: stop
William: redundancy
William: okay i’ll stop
Kate: danke
Scott: See for a minute I thought you were Katie. She’s an artist. But you’re clearly a writer.
William: bitte
Kate: how d'you know?
William: Sterling said
Scott: verbiage. It’s all in the verbiage.
Kate: well, your quite mistaken
Kate: you’re!
Kate: damnit you’re!
William: demons
Kate: i hate grammar.
Kate: and it hates me back
William: yeah
Scott: beware of Wm. He’s a grammar junky
Kate: its been a long civil war
Kate: many dead on both sides.
William: yeah
Kate: you wouldnt believe how many innocent nouns Ive killed
Kate: not to mention prepositions and adverbs
Kate: bienvenidos
Scott: that means welcome, right?
Nancy: As before it says no such file or directory
Kate: if you want it to mean that, sure
Kate: lets pretend to be structuralists!
Scott: http://www.uc.edu/user/unknown/inthecar.htm —See if that works.
Nancy: it says ERROR 404 as if it is an upper division class
William: damn
Kate: elitists!
Scott: Are you in grad school, Kate?
Kate: the masses will revolt!
Kate: hardly.
Scott: we don’t speak of stucturalism in polite society
Kate: i dropped out of college.
William: yeah
Nancy: Are you guys just trying to get rid of me?
William: you did?
Nancy: Or is this a test of some kind?
William: no, Nancy, we really did write a hypertext novel
Kate: certainly did
William: no
Nancy: Thats it! and IQ test!
Nancy: Am i passing it?
Kate: no
William: we did, we’re proud of it
Kate: heh
Nancy: Well why cant we find it?
William: it will tell you more about us than we want you to know
Kate: is that an editorial we?
Scott: no. Nancy. hey take that last URL and paste it in a new window. Wait let me try something here.
William: i’ll try to see if it’s up
Nancy: yes an editorialwe stil lives in me tho i havent edited for many years
Kate: maybe you should find it a new home?
Nancy: it is looking on its own
Kate: hmm.
Nancy: but a bit fearful of being on its own
Kate: well, sure, its a brave new world
William: you’re right it doesn’t work
William: damn! blast!
Kate: curse it!
William: Rettberg!
Kate: cursing is fun!
Kate: curse
Kate: curse
Nancy: will it be fixed later?
William: I’m outraged!
William: curse!
William: Rettberg!!
William: swear!
Kate: for the love of god montressor!
Nancy: rats!
William: damn!
Nancy: and damn!
William: shinola!
William: hell’s bells!
Nancy: uFF DA!!!
Scott: hang on I’m trying something
Kate: cold cuts!
Nancy: Uff da!!!
William: Sorry, Nancy, we’re actually very quiet and literary.
Nancy: Fy da!
Nancy: me too
Kate: heh
Kate: fie
Kate: fie upon thee
William: I hardly ever use exclamation marks.
Nancy: in a couple of languages
William: Rettberg!!!
Nancy: hence the uffda
Nancy: and fy da
Nancy: I am a retired construction worker
Nancy: and so i know about swearing!
Kate: a thousand injuries of nancy I had borne, but when she ventured upon cursing i vowed revenge
Nancy: foiled again...
William: seriously, though, we’re very serious hypertext novelists, and we have written a hypertext (that’s Poe, right?) novel we think you’d dig.
Kate: but you would have gotten away with it, if ti werent for those meddling kids
William: As soon as Rettberg comes out from under the hood we can fire it up for you.
Nancy: I must have a novela round this place by now too
Nancy: on index cards
Nancy: stored in kleenex boxes
Kate: please dont do that.
William: really? What?
Kate: you and your jedi powers
William: oh there he goes
Nancy: but it is for my eyes onl
William: Kate, we may well be wasting your time...
Kate: i dont like being forced to visit web pages I have not consented on viewing
William: Nancy, we may well be wasting your time
Kate: damn facsist hypertext novelists
Kate: fie
Kate: fie
William: Damn! Blast!
William: Argh!
William: fascist
William: Ahoy!
Kate: okay
William: Avast!
Kate: i bookmarked it. i will view it at my leisure some otehr time
Kate: otter time
William: other
Kate: very different than most time
Scott: did that work?
Kate: no. i meant otter
William: otter, sorry
Kate: FACIST!!!!!
Kate: okay. I’m better now
Scott: yes faces
William: you’re the one who eats veal mussolini!
Kate: with white sauce!
Scott: so did that send browsers to sites
William: where’s our damn hypertext, man?
Kate: under my bed
Scott: http://www.soa.uc.edu/user/tomorrow.htm
Kate: im hoarding it
William: goodness
Scott: Kate kind of scares me.
Kate: heh
William: fax me another glass of cider
Kate: good. its working
Kate: another?
Scott: ah so it just needed the http
William: ah
Kate: ha
William: hear that, Nancy?
William: Nancy?
Kate: nancy’s dead
Kate: she drank the cider
William: Nancy... (or was it all a figment of my imagination?)
Kate: i hope you didnt
William: cider?
Scott: Listen I ignored my neighbor famous Chicago magazine publisher Adam Richer earlier
William: what do you mean ignored him?
Kate: oh, so you’re a name dropper huh?
Kate: fie fie
William: blah
Scott: he was knocking on the door and I was asking Octavia for advice for young writersso I should probably
Kate: pander to him
Scott: Oh yeah. Names like flies. William knows David Foster Krass-Mueller.
Kate: and?
Kate: i dont even know who that is
William: who?
Kate: nor do i know adam richer
Scott: Cormac MacCarthy makes him cry.
Kate: but its definately the thought that counts
William: Me? Or Adam?
Kate: dickens make me retch violently, but why compare notes?
Scott: He’s not famous, really.
William: Or Krass-Mueller?
William: Krass-Mueller don’t cry
Scott: no he’s famous
Scott: though he doesn’t cry
Kate: who cares?
Scott: Except in his sleep.
Kate: tears are unbecoming
William: me
Kate: ok
Scott: You’re a hard one Kate.
Kate: evidentally
William: yeah
Kate: i’m waiting for the stones
Scott: Well this was fun. We’re here talking with famous hypertext novelist William Gillespie about his new book Uke
Scott: ukile
William: the Rolling Stones?
Scott: how do you spell that, Wm. that instument?
Kate: no, stones, as in stoning to death
William: (nice try spelling ukelele)
William: As an underappreciated band once sang:
Scott: Ukeleles That Made Me Cry
Kate: a ukelele killed my sister
William: Men were executed/women bled/beads and fish changed hands and children stayed up late/uh-huh/soldiers crossed their hearts and died and pretty girls turned cold inside but now they’re gone/uh-huh/and only the stones remain...”
William: pretty gross, huh?
Kate: sounds real
William: yeah
Kate: which is better than sugar-coated lies
Scott: Adam’s happy now. He’s working on the cover.
William: “As darkness is the shore of light / the truth is framed with lies / and a girl can smile sweetly though her mouth is stuffed with flies...”
William: I’ll stop quoting bands now.
Scott: It’s got a cool dog on it wearing a flavor flav style clock.
Kate: fitting
William: yeah
William: bye
Scott: you taking off there Wm.?
William: no, Nancy was
Kate: i thought he was speaking to nancy
William: I was
Kate: you were!
William: I was1
William: I mean: I was!
Kate: !!!!! I’ve heard a nasty rumor that exclaimations denote ecitement
William: Whoo!!
Kate: not only that, but excitement as well
William: yeah!!!
Scott: denouement
William: resolution
Kate: its all down hill from here
Scott: vagary
William: whoosh!
Kate: sigh
William: vagrancy
Kate: do i scare you really?
William: oof!
William: nah
Kate: do i send chills up your spine?
William: okay, yeah
Kate: that scares me
Scott: That’s still my favorite line in the hypertext. Vagary? What is Vagary?
William: i’ll look it up. hold on.
Scott: You scare the shit out of me.
Kate: well, you as an adult you shouldhave better control of your bowels
Scott: But in a nice way.
William: An extravagant or erratic notion or action. See Synonyms at CAPRICE
Scott: vagary.
Kate: you and my puppy are in the same state of potty training, i guess
William: where in the hypertext is vagary?
Scott: no that’s scatology
William: where?
Kate: well in to use the parlance of our times
Scott: http://www.uc.edu/user/unknown/transcript1.htm
Kate: how long have you cats been hypertext novelists?
Scott: five and a half months. Before that we were just writers.
Kate: actually write something?
William: nah
Kate: thought so.
William: we just got degrees
Kate: heh
Scott: Or at least talk about writing it and then do a hypertext instead. Yeah.
William: yeah
Scott: And we got a book too. How are we gonna publish that btw Wm.
Kate: diy
Scott: 100% more or less.
Kate: te lack of ambition struck me early as a child
Kate: so i roam
Kate: i always find it interesting that people can set themselves upon a goal
Scott: uh goals
William: yeah
William: publish?
William: oh...
Scott: the uh book
William: we’ll just get...
William: wait...
William: um...
William: well...
Scott: yeah we gotta think on that
William: i’ve got it all figured out.
William: yeah.
Scott: I knew it
Kate: fascinating
William: yeah
Kate: haey
Scott: what? What has he figured out?
Kate: The square root of 49
William: we’ll just either send out a manuscript or print it ourselves or both or instead we’ll get an agent.
William: 7
William: or both
Kate: agents.
William: or we can wait to be discovered
Scott: did you look at universal publishing
William: like America
Kate: smarmy porcine bloodsuckers
William: porcine means piglike
Scott: porcine? What
Scott: piglike?
Kate: i mean, the discoverors of amerika
William: bloodsucker means bloodsucker
Scott: Amerika?
Kate: never ever read kafka?
William: smarmy means Hypocritically, complacently, or effusively earnest; unctuous.
Scott: smarmy what is smarmy
Kate: see above
Scott: Kafka is he french
William: nah
Kate: no
Kate: german i think
William: fuck Kafka
William: Polish
William: but he wrote German
Kate: wow. that’s a bold statement
William: thanks
William: which?
Scott: Isn’t he one of those bug doctors, uh, etymologist, no wait that’s a word doctor
William: entymologist
William: one who digs bugs
Kate: bug fetishist
William: yeah
William: fuck Beckett
Kate: no, i’d say he was a pessimist
Scott: That’s a bug doctor. He was a czech, a polish czech who wrote in German.
Scott: Don’t get on my Beckett man
William: yeah. like Gombrowicz.
Kate: sounds fruedian
Kate: i’m polish
Scott: what about Kate sounds Freudian.
William: is Gilli[g]an Polish?
Scott: Kate. Is that a Polish name?
Kate: IM NOT REALLY NAMED KATE
William: oh no
Kate: sheesh
Scott: She’s fuggin Irish
William: Kate you have played me for a fool
Scott: Katie Gilligan
William: Gilli[g]an
Kate: and?
William: uh
Kate: hu
William: man
Kate: namow
Scott: So who is she really? Is she even a she?
Scott: The mystery. Wm. Put this woman who may be Kate, who may be J. Edgar Hoover for all we know, put her in the hypertext
William: yes sir
Scott: With somebody famous, in a bookstore we haven’t visited yet
William: yes
Kate: who knows
Kate: not even my momma
Kate: sey
Scott: Where do you want to be Kate?
Kate: to the right
Scott: and with who
Kate: next to him
Scott: Somebody famous now, don’t be shy
Kate: shy?
Kate: i dislike celebrity
William: oh no
Kate: so I’d rather not be near anyone of that calibur
William: okay
Scott: Yeah me too. Fuggin fans.
Kate: why dont you just curse?
William: how about a scene where you are in the woods alone?
Kate: its a freeing experience.
Kate: curse
William: curse!
Kate: curse
Kate: curse
William: curse!
Scott: Her in the woods?
William: alone’
Kate: no. no woods.
William: no fame anywhere near
Scott: Are there any bookstores in the woods?
William: no woods?
Kate: how about a scene where I am marauding througha battlefield
William: a city, a dank anonymous city
William: a battlefield. which battle?
William: we have a time machine now
Scott: Ok, lots of famous people are trying to see her, but she won’t let them in.
Kate: hmmmm.
William: yeah
Scott: Do we really?
William: we can write it up, just give us specs
Kate: why does this have to involve famous people?
Scott: I think maybe we should take that to commitee
William: it doesn’t, thus I suggest the woods and anonymous cities
William: how about North Dakota?
Kate: ok. anonymous cities it is.
Kate: HA!!!
Scott: Ah, because of the society of the spectacle thing you know.
Kate: that’s so funny.
William: Sioux Falls, North Dakota
Kate: i lived there once
William: really??
Kate: sioux falls in south dakota, anyway
William: oh
Scott: Sioux City is perfect
Nancy: ickm b
William: nono Sioux Falls
Nancy: im back
William: hi
Kate: actualy, it is sioux falls.
Scott: Or Sioux Falls.
Nancy: hi
Kate: and no, i dotn want to be there.
Kate: i disliked it incredibly
William: did you find our novel?
William: where do you want to be?
Nancy: yes.
Scott: Hi we’re writing a scene with Kate in our hypertext novel. Would you like to be in it too?
William: good
Nancy: until my server bumped me
William: did you read the whole thing?
William: oh
Nancy: and then i spent wquite a while getiting back here
Kate: damn isp’s.
William: yeah
William: yeah
Nancy: will i be able to finish it another night?
Scott: Did you read the whole thing? Are you kidding?
William: how about Mississippi? Arkansas? Utah?
Nancy: ok
William: yeah
Nancy: tomorrow i am getting a new, and local, server
Kate: oh, put me wherever you want.
William: yeah
William: okay
Kate: howabout a dank coffeshop in sioux falls reading the paper
William: yeah
Nancy: no only to just past greenmill
William: yeah
Scott: Yeah, but you’ll probably get tired of it before you’re finished, and by then Wm. will have written five nd
Scott: new scenes.
Nancy: i will finish it unless it get bad
Scott: Maybe Dirk will even write something.
Kate: heh
Nancy: when do you guys have time to study?
Kate: that made me titter nancys
Nancy: or do you get paid to do this stuff
Nancy: yeah i know
Scott: We already did that.
Kate: titter?
Scott: study
Nancy: its the old work ethic coming out in me
Kate: same thing
Nancy: sorry
Scott: Now we’re educated, so we clearly needed to write a hypertext novel.
Nancy: for pay
Scott: hopefully.
Scott: Not yet.
Kate: education doesnt necessarily mean you had to study
Nancy: oh right
Kate: in a university that is
Nancy: thats twhere the macarthur foundation comes in!
William: pay? wow, you’re so naive it’s touching
Scott: exactly
William: yeah
Nancy: keep in mind i am from a different era
William: which?
Nancy: and area
William: era?
Scott: anything worth doing is worth getting paid for doing
William: and area?
Kate: tide?
Nancy: i flunked out of college in the early 60s
William: wow
Nancy: and went on from there
Scott: Drugs?
Kate: scott, how capitalistic of you
William: bad, you’re bad
William: Scott
Nancy: Yeah but not until much much later!
William: wow
Scott: Sorry
Nancy: missed the drugs of the 60s all together
William: me too
Scott: me too but I know Dirk
William: i’ve been trying to catch up
Nancy: But did your mother?
William: yeah
William: what?
Kate: avoid the drugs of the 60s
Nancy: did your mother miss the drugs of the 60s too?
William: I think she’s talking to you
Kate: no.
Nancy: i didnt necessarily avoid them.
Kate: im much to young
Nancy: just missed them
Scott: Yeah, they were off the drugs.
William: well
Kate: yeah, you were never good at catching
Nancy: but when i went to work on the pipeline i made up for lost time!
William: pipeline?
Nancy: oil pipe;line
Kate: in alaska
Nancy: Alaska
Kate: she worked in constrction.
Nancy: 70s
Kate: dont you remember.
Kate: thats why she curses so well
William: you mean pipeline = drugs?
William: uh oh
Scott: Okay, Wm. I say we put another scene somewhere near Alaska. Or both South Dakota and Alaska
Nancy: hey its writer vik!
William: yeah
Nancy: hi neil!
William: uh oh. neil?
Nancy: these guys are writers too!
Nancy: dont tell him about the 70s on the line
Scott: Or is that one of you with another name
Nancy: he knows me
Kate: oh, the possibilities
Scott: Hi Niel.
Kate: lieN iH
Nancy: neil they think i am doing two people on my little laptop
Kate: i dont
Kate: i dont think anything about this situation
Kate: I’m apathetic
writervik: Apaska, uhu, uhu, I like it.
writervik: Oh my God!
Nancy: it is because they are all the same personj!
Scott: So give us a little more to work with here Kate, sorry, I mean, well, whatever your name is
Nancy: but they are not us
Nancy: so they think we are me
William: yeah
Kate: what does it matter?
Kate: my name?
Scott: No not your name, your scene.
Kate: anyway, what do you want?
Kate: my scene.
Scott: a little plot
Scott: we can’t do this alone, you know
Nancy: the plot sickens.....
Kate: why not?you’re the writers.
Scott: I mean how do we get from South Dakota to a pipline in Alaska? What bookstores do we go to?
Nancy: but kate is the wit!
Kate: twit
Nancy: you skip the bookstore and go to a hiring hall and get dispatched
Nancy: as pipeliners!
Nancy: conjugate twit
Scott: Kate, an enormously witty but shy twit, was sitting in a smoky coffeeshop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. . .
Nancy: in french
Kate: where did shy come from?
Kate: i’d like to kil someone.
Scott: You don’t use your name. That’s shy.
Nancy: Virginia ‘woolf no doubt
Kate: its not shy.
Scott: Would you like to kill me, or William, or Dirk?
Kate: its just a handle.
Scott: Whatever, you’re the freudian.
Kate: evidentally
Kate: maybe in a fit of psychosis i use a butter knife to cut off my own hand because I felt I have done wrong?
Kate: that sounds fun.
Scott: Okay, so there could be some connection between— okay we could work on the pipeline after we get out of the prison
Nancy: that happened a lot
Kate: this is dumb. odnt use me.
Scott: We’re not using you. We’re using Kate
Scott: in Alaska (We already do time in Alaska)
Nancy: and even some who escaped from jail hid out there
Kate: nancy you lead a very odd life
Nancy: yes
Scott: William?
Scott: Niel?
Nancy: Neil
Kate: how about kate and nancy are alter egos in both sioux falls and in alaska
Kate: and everything that kate does, nancy also does...like in an episode of the twighlight zone
Scott: I like that.
Nancy: Neil!
Kate: and maybe you could work in a menace of some sort...
Nancy: chased him off
Kate: as someone hacks nancy (or kate) the other one is also being hacked.
Nancy: i will no doubt hear aboutit alter
Scott: He probably thinks these people are nuts
Nancy: unless he got bumped for being too quiet
Nancy: But why would he think that
Scott: I misspelled his name. Is he a poet in Iowa?
Nancy: no he is afledgling writer in Seattle but we grew up toether here in Petersburg
Nancy: works on a tug boat between Whitttier and Seattle
Scott: Excellent.
Kate: ok mr burns
Scott: Hey William. Work in tugboat.
Scott: Mr. Burns?
Kate: simpsons reference
Kate: mammon
Scott: aha.
Scott: So I bet Wm.s writing that scence right now. He’s like a machine.
Kate: superb.
Nancy: neil!
Kate: im writing a story about how a rapist is reincarnated into a guard dog, and the victim chooses this dog as a protection device ecause she is very fearful.
Scott: you are a writer. how duplicitous.
writervik: ...and stealthily, out of the primordial mist, er soup.
Nancy: has
Kate: i dont claim anthing.
Kate: i may write. but it doesnt make me a writer.
Kate: tis not my job.
Scott: It doesn’t make you a dancer, that’s fer dern shur.
writervik:Writers write. (period)
Kate: anyway, obviously the personna narrator is limited, he can only act like a dog, but his mind is realy that of a rapist...so the scenes where he jumping on the girl, as a dog, but yet as a rapist are nice and disturbing.
Scott: do you like Kafka’s dog story
Kate: i dont know if I’ve ever read it
Scott: its good.
Nancy: its doing it again
Nancy: wont let me write anything
Nancy: had to exit and enter again
Kate: anyway, i get so much dank, dark, glee out of the final scene, where the girl takes the dog to be neutered!
Kate: heheheheheheh
Scott: huh—tha’s gotta be the miningco. I hate java, don’t you?
Kate: if you have a windows machine, it may be purposely configured to be java-incompatible
Kate: microsolth’s little tricks
Scott: yer twisted Kate and so is Bill Gates
Nancy: i havea laptop with windows 95
Nancy: but it just started to do this last night
Scott: Okay. I gotta go be an editor downstairs. My publisher has promised a beer for some proofreading.
Kate: I also wrote a story where a poor woman visits her incredibly wealthy, acrimonious relative, and starts gagging on the rich oppulent cake.
Kate: and dies.
Kate: hee hee.
Kate: i loved that one to.
Scott: Are you Stacey Levine?
Kate: nah.
Kate: Im going to go. its late here in the city.
Scott: she writes lots of good stories
Kate: you dont know if my stories are god.
Kate: im biased
Kate: good
writervik:Who has a spare agent!
Kate: heh. either one
Kate: god or good
Nancy: your stories are god
Scott: Pleasure to chat with you all. So I think maybe we should do this regularly. I like chat again.
Nancy: yes but when
Kate: ok.
Scott: Ahm, how bout like Monday night
Kate: tell william ttfn
Scott: I’ll make that a regular authors.miningco.com thing.
Kate: farewell.
Nancy: is that monday or some night which is just LIKE monday?
Scott: goodnight all
Nancy: Monday night. What time?
Scott: Monday. I’ll post it on the events calendar.
Nancy: neil they still think we are one person
Nancy: Okey thanks
writervik: ]Scott works here, doesn’t he
Nancy: i get a new letter so it will be a reminder for me
Nancy: news letter
Nancy: yes he is the administrator of the authors room
Nancy: they are doing a hypertext novel
Nancy: which i had no clue what it is but they sent me there
Nancy: and i read some of it and will finish it later
writervik: I’ll agree with Scott. I tried chat a few times but it was endless drivel. At least drivel concerning writing has some value.
Nancy: i have an url but know not whether it works.
Nancy: they actually sent me there!
Nancy: Kate especially is funny
Nancy: and they work ewell together
Nancy: i have been here for hours!
Nancy: i caant believe it!
Nancy: Gotta get some sleep sometime
writervik: I have heard of hypertext novels for years since I found a BBS here is town, maybe 8 years ago. I don’t believe anyone is getting rich from it.
Nancy: no but they are having fun
 

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