*Egypt, The Book of Going Forth by Day* - is my second long narrative work.  The title comes from the literal translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead.  The story takes place in Egypt:  Egypt in the present, the past, and in infinity - a weaving of ancient Egyptian mythology and texts, burial practices in the historic Middle Kingdom, and a contemporary story of loss and re-discovery.

The piece was ultimately published as an artist’s book in 2006.  In the hand-made First Editions, each copy was individually recorded and is unique. Each version had a specially selected “Papyrus Spell” for the owner.  This is a virtual "book of the dead" to guide the reader through the journey through the underworld.  Now, of course, those first 100 copies are a catalogue of many of the people who were participants in e-literature at the time.

The present-day story begins when Jeanette, a middle-aged college professor, receives a letter from her long-estranged brother, Ross, inviting her to Egypt for a visit.  She arrives in Egypt to find that her brother is engaged in some shady dealings in antiquities – and, before long, Ross disappears.  Like Isis before her, Jeanette spends the month following her brother’s mysterious trail down the Nile.  On the journey, secrets are revealed, and a reunification takes place during the days on the river, in the tombs of the past beneath the earth, and in the spells encoded in the skies. 

I began the narrative in Toolbook and later moved to Director as the authoring program.  Director is a time-based program; essentially attuned to video; every element is incorporated as a movie time frame.  Within these constraints, I endeavored to interweave time, mythology, history, and individual narrative points of view into a mapped, navigable world space, but experienced as “infinite” slices of time.  I thought of these units as ‘infinite manuscripts’ – but manuscripts that had run-time loop. 

Each screen is organized with the same features - and each of these features has a timed appearance as the narrative progresses.

The narrative is told in three voices (representing various versions of the ancient Egyptian ideas of the soul), the Ba voice of Jeanette – the Ka voice, which consists of Jeanette’s letters to her sister, Nancy (Nepthys – the night, the tomb, the truth), and the Akh voice, which is the spiritual guide/voice of the eternal heavenly cycles and the spells of the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Each of these voices is represented in "registers" on the screen (registers like this are common in ancient tomb paintings). 

Thus, Jeanette's narrative runs in the scrolling frame in the center with the little walking foot.  She tells the contemporary story of her journey down the Nile tracking her brother, Ross. 

 In the course of her travels down the Nile, Jeanette also writes to her sister, Nancy.  This narrative is revealed by clicking on the Ka figure (with hands up) - and appears in the register across the middle-top.  Jeanette's missals to Nancy relate to events in the present - but they also recap the historic relationship between Jeanette and Ross (and Isis and Osiris, as well).

In the third regisyter that runs down the middle-left side of the screen, we follow the Ack voice.  This tracks Osiris (or the deceased) through the night journey toward the dawn – a journey using the spells of “The Egyptian Book of the Dead.”