Full Disclosure

I have been slamming computer technology and writing together for a long time.

In the 1980s I ran two BBSes, first the Outworld Catsend/Cat-fur and later Starbase 209. (I actually wrote "Starbase 209" into a Star Trek script I wrote in college with my friend Greg.)

Yes, this does imply that I was a teen Apple II pirate. And so I was. (I have my old disks in a closet and one of these days I'll finally transfer them over to my Mac...)

Anyway, on those BBSes I would do things like post quotes from songs or stories or novels on the login screen, so you had to read the lyrics from, say, "Murder by Numbers" by The Police, before you entered in your user name and password. I would also post stories, some by me, some by friends, some ripped off from magazines and re-typed. At least I created some of them. Sigh.

In college I discovered the Internet and started InterText because -- get this -- there was no other place on the Internet that I knew of that was publishing non-sci-fi short fiction. I ended up doing InterText for 13 years and 57 issues.

Anyway, I have a lot of the text files I picked up from various sources back in the BBS days. Crazy stuff. I should post them sometime. Not all of them have made it to textfiles.com, though I'm amazed at how many random pieces from that era are out there. Of course, I have my old fiction from back then, too. It gives me chills just thinking about how bad it was.