Hosted by Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer

Thank you for visiting "The Navigator – Live." Today's chat ended at 3 p.m.

Nan McCarthy, who has written a trilogy of novellas about an online romance: Chat :-), Connect }:-) and Crash ;-). They are published by Pocket Books. Nan, 37, lives in Illinois. We discussed online fiction, online romance and the perils of online life. Her home in cyber space is www.rainwater.com.

"The Navigator – Live" appears each Thursday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time. It's a live, moderated discussion offering washingtonpost.com users the chance to talk directly to intriguing and sometimes unusual guests who are shaping the digital world. "The Navigator" appears in The Washington Post print edition every Thursday. You can read past columns by following this link.

Linton Weeks: Hello everyone and welcome to Nan. Let's get right to it.

Linton Weeks: Tell us a little bit about yourself. You don't need to get as personal as BevJ does with Max.

Nan McCarthy: Before I wrote CHAT in 1995 I worked as a computer journalist, writing books and magazine articles about publishing, design, and Internet technology. I'm 37 years old and have been married for 15 1/2 years. My husband and I have two boys, ages 8 and 5. We also have a dog, five cats, and a goldfish named Elvis. My first kiss was a little bit like Bev's. Although the guy hadn't recently thrown up as happened to Bev, the guy who gave me my first kiss did have Dorito breath. I think they were the taco-flavored kind.

Linton Weeks: Why did you write your trilogy of Novellas?

Nan McCarthy: I had always wanted to try my hand at fiction. I'd written my first book, a non-fiction account of the three years my husband and I lived in Japan, in 1986, but I couldn't get it published. Even though I went on to a successful career as a computer journalist after that, I never lost my desire to write books. I had just finished writing Quark Design, one of my computer books, and I was getting burned out on the deadlines and information overload associated with the computer industry. This was in 1995. I was making enough money to set aside about three months' time to try writing fiction, so I just decided to go for it. Writing a novel told entirely through e-mail messages was a perfect segue for me, from computer book writing to fiction.

Linton Weeks: Did you plan three books all along? Why didn't you write it as one?

Nan McCarthy: From the beginning I envisioned the books as a trilogy. I don't know why. I had no idea what the length of each book would be, but I did have strong ideas about what would happen in each book from the outset. I wrote the trilogy over a three-year period--CHAT in 1995, CONNECT in 1996, and CRASH in 1997--because I was still working as a computer journalist in order to keep the money coming in. So spreading it out into three books over a three-year period enabled me to keep my day job, so to speak.

Linton Weeks: Would you say that your trilogy is in the tradition of epistolary novels such as "84 Charing Cross Road" and "The Screwtape Letters" or is it really a new form?

Nan McCarthy: I think CHAT, CONNECT, and CRASH are definitely in the tradition of the epistolary novels you mention. The love story of Bev and Max is actually a very old-fashioned sort of love story. The fact that the story unfolds entirely through e-mail and online chats simply gives the books a newer, more modern twist, but I would still consider them epistolary novels. Before I sat down to write CHAT in 1995 I was greatly inspired by Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine trilogy, which is a love story that unfolds entirely through postcards and letter correspondence.

Rockville, MD: Does your husband look like Max? Long curly black hair, green eyes, strong nose, etc.?

Nan McCarthy: No, my husband doesn't look like Max at all. My husband has brown hair and big brown eyes. But he is a smart-ass with a sense of humor, just like Max. So I guess you could say Max's personality is modeled after my husband's.

Linton Weeks: Which writers have influenced you the most?

Nan McCarthy: In writing the trilogy I was directly inspired by Nick Bantock as I just mentioned, as well as Nicholson Baker's VOX which is the story of two people who meet on a phone sex line with the story unfolding as one continuous phone conversation. Throughout my life I've been inspired by a variety of writers--William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Chekhov, O'Henry. I also enjoy modern-day writers such as Michael Crichton, James Clavell, Anne Rice, Frank Conroy. I'm probably leaving out some others. I read a lot of biographies and autobiographies, too.

Linton Weeks: Is e-mail different from traditional letters?

Nan McCarthy: Yes. I think e-mail is a cross between dialog and the written word. I've caught some flak for the use of emoticons in CHAT, CONNECT, and CRASH, with people saying that the use of symbols such as the sideways smiley face is a writing crutch. Although it is possible to depend on emoticons too much, I think the trilogy would not have been realistic without them. Emoticons are part of the dialect of online conversation.

Linton Weeks: One thing I noticed in your books that is quite unrealistic: the e-mails are well-crafted and devoid of spelling mistakes. E-mail, message boards and especially chat rooms are lousy with bad spelling and grammar. Did you consider including some mistakes in your novellas?

Nan McCarthy: Yes, actually I envisioned Max as a bad speller from the start, and when I first began writing CHAT, there were a lot of typos and misspellings in his messages. But ultimately I found that they were too distracting, that they took away from the characters and the story. So I cleaned up his spelling. Also, I find that I personally am turned off by bad spellers. You can find quite a lot of good spellers--literate people--online. I don't think we should lower our standards just because we are communicating via e-mail.

Linton Weeks: Yuck, Dorito kisses. That's something you wouldn't get online. My grandfather met my grandmother when he dialed the wrong telephone number circa 1910, but he didn't fall in love, he said, until they met. Do you think people can really get to know each other without meeting face to face?

Nan McCarthy: Yes, Linton, I do think in most cases people can get to know each other quite well via e-mail. This is assuming that both people are being honest. It *is* easier to misrepresent one's self online, but you can meet dishonest jerks offline, too. I think in many cases, conversing via e-mail is a great way to get to the heart of a person.

Linton Weeks: You have written that you interviewed online lovers. What are some common threads you found?

Nan McCarthy: All of the people I interviewed said that the relationship progressed very quickly--in other words, they quickly developed a chemistry and the messages went from flirtatious to provocative to intimate in a very short period of time. Also, both men and women agreed that, compared to F2F meetings, men were more forthcoming when talking via e-mail. They were more willing to talk about personal things such as their hopes and dreams for the future, in addition to the sexual conversation. This was a real plus for both the men and the women. I tried to portray both of these discoveries via Bev and Max's relationship.

Linton Weeks: I was struck by how quaint and tame the online conversations in your first installment, Chat :-) seem today. When you began the story, the Internet was in its infancy. Were you ever concerned that the fast-pace change of technology might render your stories obsolete before you finished them?

Nan McCarthy: There are two parts to that question. One of the reasons I wanted to write CHAT was that at the time, in 1995, the media had just begun globbing on to the Internet phenomenon, and what they were globbing onto were the fringe aspects of the net, such as pedophiles preying on children, pornography, S&M, stuff like that. Since I had been online since 1987, I knew that that sort of stuff was really only a small fraction of what goes on online. I wanted to portray what I knew to be much more common--that a lot of very normal, professional people were getting involved in online affairs that were actually very traditional, very romantic, even though they were taking place online. There was a lot of courtship going on. It wasn't all live cybersex as people who had never been online imagined. So I purposely toned down Bev and Max's relationship, gave them time to court each other and be romantic.

The other part of that question is that yes, I did worry that there was a limited window of opportunity for an e-mail love story to be published and be successful. That is one of the reasons I originally self-published CHAT--I was anxious to get the story out there in front of people. Now, three years later, my trilogy has been published by Pocket Books, and Tom Hanks' movie about e-mail romance, YOU HAVE MAIL, is coming out in just a few days. So e-mail love stories have gone Hollywood, and I'm very glad about that. I guess all of my worrying back in 1995 was premature. :-)

Linton Weeks: Have you ever conducted an online romance? For fun or for research?

Nan McCarthy: When I was researching CHAT I did hang out in a lot of sexually oriented chat rooms, which, even though I'd been online since 1987, I hadn't done before. I had mostly been using e-mail and the net for exchanging files, turning in stories, networking with colleagues, stuff like that. So I did lurk in these chat rooms, and answered some Instant Messages on AOL--you know the kind where people ask you what your bra size is. But beyond that (I'm a 36B), I didn't feel right letting the conversations get any more intimate than that, because I'm happily married and it just didn't feel right to me.

Washington DC: What is your moral view of online romance?

Nan McCarthy: There is nothing wrong with online romance in itself. The moral dilemma comes in when one or both of the people are already committed to someone else. I do believe that if you are married and you begin having sexual or even romantic conversations online, you are cheating on your spouse. Bev and Max explore these exact issues in the second book in the trilogy, CONNECT. If they are not actually physically near one another, are they still committing adultery? There is a warm body at the end of each cold computer connection, and time spent on your computer answering messages from a lover is time spent away from your spouse of your family. Online love affairs are no different from real life love affairs in that they take up real space in your heart. I tried to portray Bev and Max's relationship in a non-judgmental way, however, so that we could explore these issues. They are flawed characters and that's what makes them interesting.

Linton Weeks: Nan, the chronological aspect of the trilogy and the clever use of the Subject field work well, but I found the repitition of header information jarring. Have other readers made the same observation?

Nan McCarthy: Linton, a lot of people skip over the header information the first time they read the books, then they go back and read the headers after they've finished each book. People seem to have a lot of fun with the headers, looking for clues to Bev and Max's state of mind. I put a lot of time and thought into the headers, thinking about how quickly each person would respond depending on what they were feeling at the time. But I can see where you might want to skip over them at first.

Linton Weeks: We're about half-way through the hour and I'm reaching for the old iced tea. Things are just beginning to get interesting.

Bethesda, MD: Do you find it hard to write ironically or emotionally online?

Nan McCarthy: No, I don't have a hard time conveying emotion when conversing online, but I'm a writer and I therefore feel quite comfortable in this mode of communication. I do worry about misunderstandings via online conversation, so I probably don't joke around as much online as I would in real life.

Washington DC: Why didn't you publish your books online? Have you thought about writing a downloadable novel?

Nan McCarthy: When I first wrote CHAT in 1995, online commerce was still in its infancy. There was no practical proven way to publish a book online and charge people for it. So I just published the books conventionally and used my Web site to promote and sell the books. The Web really helped me in getting the word out about CHAT. I haven't written a novel specifically for downloading, but I did just sign an agreement with Pocket Books that will allow them to sell the electronic version of CHAT CONNECT CRASH.

Linton Weeks: Do your kids use the Internet? If so, are you concerned about people who might strike up a romance with them online?

Nan McCarthy: Our boys are 8 and 5 so they only go online while I'm sitting right there with them. So, no, I don't worry about what or whom they might come across online, because at this age their online activities are pretty strictly supervised. The best parental control is for the parent to be sitting right there with the child, whether you're online or watching television or whatever. Nothing can replace the immediacy of being present, being involved and interested in what your kids are doing.

Linton Weeks: Have you read other fiction about online life that you admire?

Nan McCarthy: Actually, no. I've resisted reading any other e-mail related novels so that I wouldn't be influenced while writing CHAT CONNECT and CRASH. I have read quite a lot of non-fiction related to the Internet, however, and one of my favorites is Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, which includes a detailed history of how the Internet began.

Linton Weeks: Have you read any interactive fiction?

Nan McCarthy: Not yet. I have a hard enough time managing the TBR pile on my nightstand, which is continually on the verge of toppling over.

Linton Weeks: What sites do you have bookmarked?

Nan McCarthy: Amazon.com, my own Web site of course (www.rainwater.com), SALON, my publisher's Web site, my agent's Web site, and a few others. I don't surf the Web as much as I used to.

Linton Weeks: I believe it's in the Writer's Forum on Aug. 29, 1995, in Chat :-) that Max learns Beverly Johnson's name and title and place of employment. When he decided to call her, why didn't he just find the publisher's address in Books in Print, pick up the phone and dial information?

Nan McCarthy: That's a great question, Linton. But how many people do you know not involved in the publishing industry who even know what Books in Print is? Max is an ad copywriter so he's never heard of Books in Print. But you do raise a good point in that if he really wanted to find her, he probably could have found some way to do it. I think with e-mail relationships there's sort of an unspoken protocol in which the relationship doesn't progress offline (phone calls, letters, F2F visits) without first being discussed and agreed to by both parties via e-mail. So maybe it is something he's considered but he never had the courage to do so before that particular point.

Linton Weeks: What is the most gratifying response you've received from your books?

Nan McCarthy: Oh gosh, I receive a lot of great e-mail from readers because my Web site and e-mail address are listed in the back of each book. The best things my readers say is that I've given them a few hours' worth of pleasure and enjoyment and that the story of Bev and Max reminded them of their own online love affairs. I love this direct feedback from my readers; it's something I value quite highly.

Linton Weeks: Will your next novel be written in a different form?

Nan McCarthy: Yes, my next book is a blues novel that takes place on the South Side of Chicago, not far from where I was born. It's called ELECTRIC BLUE and is written in the traditional novel format with narrative and internal and external dialog. It's about a retired, down-on-his luck blues pianist named Riley 'Bullet' Brown, and a woman named Lil, a wife and mother and classically trained pianist who comes to Riley and asks him to teach her to play blues piano. The novel unfolds within the framework of their weekly piano lessons and is all about Riley and Lil's unlikely friendship. It was a little scary for me to begin writing ELECTRIC BLUE after CHAT CONNECT and CRASH, because I had no idea if I could write a novel in the traditional format. My agent has give the thumbs up to the first draft, so I'm feeling pretty hopeful and excited about it at this point.

Bethesda, MD: In what ways do you think expressing a story entirely through conversations (e-mail or otherwise) is more or less challenging than writing a traditional novel? Is characterization more or less difficult in this way? BTW, I think you did a super job of characterizing in your novellas - they definitely seemed like real people, not just characters.

Nan McCarthy: Another good question. A lot of other writers comment that it must have been awfully challenging for me to tell a story and portray my characters entirely through the e-mail format, without narrative and traditional dialog. Thing was, I had never written a novel in the traditional format before so I didn't know what I was missing. :-) And after writing computer books, writing CHAT CONNECT and CRASH was incredibly fun and liberating for me. Also, since I had been online since 1987, writing novels told through e-mail felt very natural. Thanks very much for your nice comments about the books.

Linton Weeks: Without giving away the surprise ending of your trilogy, what have readers said to you about it? Did some find it satisfying? Were some disappointed?

Nan McCarthy: The ending to CRASH tends to hit readers right in the gut. Most people love it but there are a few who were upset about it. It's not the traditional ending that you would find in a romance novel--in fact CHAT CONNECT CRASH break all the rules of that genre, that is why they're categorized in the general fiction section.

Linton Weeks: Have you considered that there might be a slight opening for a sequel?

Nan McCarthy: Yes, I definitely think there are some loose ends that could be tied up in a sequel, either in one book or another trilogy. But I'm going to finish ELECTRIC BLUE before I get started on any sequels to CHAT CONNECT CRASH. I would like to follow-up with Bev and Max and answer any lingering questions.

Linton Weeks: Do you think if Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky had found each other online instead of offline, the country might have been saved from this whole tragic episode?

Nan McCarthy: You know, I actually sent a copy of CHAT to the White House when it was a self-published book, back in '96, long before Monicagate. I don't think whether Bill and Monica had met online or off would have made any difference. If the nature of their conversations were sexual and/or romantic, he still would have been cheating on his wife and not keeping his promise he made to Hillary and to the country back when the Gennifer Flowers thing blew up, that he would never do that sort of thing again.

Herndon, Virginia: Granted, that online romance by marrieds has the unmistakable whiff of adultery, but what about online friendships between a man and intelligent women to whom he feels free to unburden the most intimate details of his soul, without it turning into a romance between the correspondents, but just sympathetic discussion. I have done this several times because my wife doesn't care to listen to some of my feelings, and philosophical connecting with a feminine soul is the very elixir of life to me. I have never cheated on my wife, nor have I cybersexed anyone. I just like to share the most intimate soul feelings with a sympathetic intelligent woman. My correspondents & I have been able to keep it from getting out of hand.

Nan McCarthy: I think a good litmus test for any online relationship is to envision your spouse peaking over your shoulder as you type. If you feel that you would be embarrassed or that your spouse would be pissed, then you probably shouldn't be having the conversation you are having.

Virginny: I don't agree with you about the spelling issue. Although I have never read your books, I have encountered several bad spellers in a well educated circle of emailers. I really think that this is an important and clearly recognizable part of this medium. The more speed we gain in this digital world the more understanding we should be about about human error? Did i misspell anything on this message?

Nan McCarthy: There's a difference between making the occasional typo and being a chronic misspeller. I'm sorry, but a person who doesn't know how to spell is not well-educated. The fact that the medium is digital has nothing to do with it. Let's not allow technology to dumb us down. Let's use the technology to promote good spelling and keep our standards high.

Linton Weeks: Well. That wraps up another show. Thanks to my guest, Nan McCarthy. We'll be looking for your next novel. Thanks also to J Weis, Vic Sussman and all the smart folks at washingtonpost.com and to all of you who sent in great questions. Next week my guest will be Esther Dyson, author, organizer, publisher and all around digital guru. Until then...

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