
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991                   TAG: 9103160092
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN JOSE, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Medium

MICROCHIP MIMIC MAKES WORD-PROCESSED PULP

A free-lance author used a computer program to mimic the late Jacqueline Susann's writing, producing a Silicon Valley of the Dolls novel that's caught attention in publication circles.

Scott French, who lives about 20 miles south of San Francisco in Foster City, is touting his novel "Just This Once" as "the next novel [Susann] would have written had she been alive."

French's 350-page, computer-assisted book is about several young women who become successful in the rock music industry and movies and then are destroyed by drugs and fast living during the 1980s. Sound familiar?

Susann's 1966 "Valley of the Dolls" is set in the 1940s to 1960s and tells of drug abuse among the rich and powerful in Hollywood. It's the best-selling novel of all time with 26 million copies in print.

On Tuesday, French signed with a New York literary agent who hopes to find a publisher for the book after seeking legal advice about whether they can link Susann's name to the novel.

French's book was written without permission from the estate of Susann, who died of cancer in 1974 at age 56.

French, 40, normally a non-fiction writer, said he started thinking of creating a computer-generated book in 1982 while reading a "trashy, novel" and reasoning that a computer could do better. He picked Susann because "she was the best at what she did."

After years of studying computer science, "artificial intelligence," expert systems and natural language processing, French used a computer program to dissect Susann's novels. He then asked it to create hundreds of formulas dictating how a character would react while mimicking Susann's writing style.

French said he had to suggest some material to the computer and had to eliminate irrational dialogue and action. He estimates he wrote about 10 percent of the book, the computer wrote 25 percent and the remainder was a joint venture in revision.

French also told the computer to spice up Susann's already steamy sex scenes because today's standards call for more explicit material.

by CNB