Let's see here. There's something on TV. There's something on Jocelynn's TV. A guy is talking. Wait. "It's on the cutting edge," he says. "We're starting to hear more and more video game samples and video game sounds trickling into pop music. I think within the next three to five years, David, you're gonna hear most mainstream pop music sounding like video games." Cutting edge. Mainstream pop. Video games. Must be an infomercial for something. Software probably. Jocelynn is sleeping. She says she can't sleep but she's sleeping. Oh? I'm awake. Now I'm awake. Fookin' wide awake. Eyes slammed shut. Fook. Maybe I should eat something. Book. Read a book. How To Lose Your Mind With The Lights On? Here we go. Kevin Sampsell. I need to read some Kevin Sampsell. How To Lose Your Mind With The Lights On by Kevin Sampsell. Future Tense Publications, 1994. Kevin Sampsell. Who is Kevin Sampsell? a lot of people seem to wonder. You'd be surprised. Kevin Sampsell was born on Saint Patrick's Day 1967 in Kennewick, Washington. His middle name is Patrick. I am one of the world's most fastidious collectors of Kevin Sampselliana. That's what it's called. That's what I call it. What? Sampselliana. When I got into something, I got into it. I know I said that. I'd really get into it. I'd have to get all of it. You can't get enough. I felt like I had to. All I could. I felt like I needed to. I didn't want to miss anything. I couldn't afford to miss anything. That's a new one. I still can't afford to. But that happens. That always happens. I saw the book at Tower Records in 1995. What book? Oh. It's a black book. How To Lose Your Mind With The Lights On, Kevin Sampsell, Future Tense. I took it out and looked at it. What is the meaning of this? I had to get it. There was only one copy. Diary of a madman. I drove home to my Affordable Student Housing and started reading it. I kept reading. I read it. I couldn't help it. You madman. Poems? Cut and paste collage? Short stories? A story about a guy reading an excerpt from a novel titled "Excerpt from a Novel"? You lost me. I was losing my mind. Losing my mind. My mind with the lights on. [Kevin Sampsell: "This is an excerpt from a novel..."] Envelopes. I couldn't find my box of envelopes. I had a book of stamps. Who is this guy? I needed to write to this publisher. Mail order. Madman. I found them. They were on top of the fridge. I wrote a letter. It was very simple: "Future Tense, I would like to order all available titles by Kevin Sampsell. It's absolutely imperative for me. Thank you, Mick O'Grady" That started it. The O'Grady/Sampsell Letters: 1995-2001. Unpublished. Kevin Sampsell's first letter, dated 5-12-95--Jocelynn's talking in her sleep, the cats are awake and walking around, if you can believe it--says: "MICK - HEY - I WAS SURPRISED TO GET YOUR LETTER - IT WAS COSMIC! LET ME EXPLAIN - LAST MONTH I BOUGHT THE 'I CHECK THE MAIL...' BOOK AND SAW YR LETTERS (ODD, AGONIZING, YET BEAUTIFUL) AND I SAW STOVEPIPER AND THOUGHT - HEY THIS LOOKS TOO COOL - I WAS GONNA SEND YOU A SUBMISSION SOON WHEN - BAM! - YR LETTER COMES . . . I'M OUT OF '13 GIRLS' RIGHT NOW BUT WILL SEND SOON W/ MORE NEW WORK FOR SUBMISSION - ADDING TO THIS ENVELOPE THE BRAND NEW FUTURE TENSE COLLECTION (OF PORTLAND FOLKS) - I WOULD LOVE TO BE INVOLVED WITH STOVEPIPER - YOU COULD EVEN REPRINT STUFF FROM ANY OF MY BOOKS. I'LL CALL YOU SOON OR WRITE MORE . . . KEVIN S. P.S. SOME OF THESE CHAPS ARE IN MY BOOK - + SOME OTHER STUFF THAT ISN'T SO GREAT, BUT WE'RE YOUNG."

So here was another collection to start compiling. Mostly mail ordering. Bordering schizoid. The only problem with mail ordering things was that I could never forget I had mail ordered the things. Nice. Our correspondence was sporadic but he would send me whatever new books he had coming out. For free? New, new, new. They kept coming. And I kept writing. Here's the Beatles post card he must have sent me in November 1995. It says: "YOUR WORDS ARE ENDLESS IN MY HEART'S APPLE . . . THANK YOU. HERE'S ME LATELY: BUSY, TIRED, DAD, JUICED. THINKING ABOUT BUYING A NEW COMPUTER, WRITING AND RE-MIXING OTHER'S POEMS, ON ACID OPENING FOR JIM CARROLL IN FRONT OF 200 PEOPLE . . . 'CONNIE CHUNG! CONNIE CHUNG!!' FUCKIN' FREAKIN' AND PEAKIN' HAVIN' FUN JUGGLIN' MY WORDS W/ OTHER PEOPLE'S HEADS . . . I'VE SEEN LITTLE OF YOUR WORK - I'D LIKE TO SEE MORE - HOW'S SCHOOL. OR WORK. OR LIFE. DEATH? WHAT'S UP W/ STOVEPIPER?" STOVEPiPER was an anthology I published. It cost me four grand. Mostly poetry. Poetry cost me four grand. That's what interested me most about Kevin Sampsell: the poetry. The poetry of it. Even the short stories of Kevin Sampsell were poetry. I was interested. I was into it. So? LET'S START SOMETHING SPECIAL WORDS OF THE ETERNAL CON ARTIST HEAD 13 GIRLS ON FIRE ACID DENTAL WORK HAIKU YOU FAMILY VAL-U-PAK LITERARY SNOBS BEAUTIFUL TEEN-AGERS UNITE AWKWORD MAGICK TIMEBOMB All of the above is what I would call Kevin Sampsell American Poetry. All of the above is what I would call Kevin Sampsell American Poetry. All of the above is what I would call Kevin Sampsell American Poetry. Check! And all of it came out before 1995. Better check! Kevin Sampsell was new. It was new to me. He was new to me. I didn't know you could do what he did. And kept doing. Keep going! I didn't know you were allowed. Tell it! What was so interesting about the weird sex and the love. Weird sex? The love . . . I'm starting to feel the love! "YOU WANT BLOOD?" he wrote to me on 5-16-96. "AT WORK," he wrote under the date. He ran a coffee kiosk at the time. "YOU GOT IT..." He wrote this letter on the back of a solar yellow flyer listing titles that were then available from Future Tense Books. Fifteen titles were available. Looked like some weird shit that was available. Future Tense Books was also selling black and purple "Corporate Poetry Still Sucks" t-shirts for ten bucks. And Country Music Haiku posters--18 haiku by Kevin Sampsell, each named after a different country music singer. The posters were two bucks each or free with a book order. I got mine with a book order. Signed. The poster said he was a disk jockey on a country music radio station in Spokane, Washington, and his chapbook 13 Girls on Fire was banned in Eugene, Oregon, and all across Canada. His letter says: "YOU WANT BLOOD? YOU GOT IT. YOU WANT SEX? YOU GOT IT. YOU WANT FOOD? YOU GOT IT. YOU WANT A LARGE RUBBER SHIMMERING BLUE SLIGHTLY LEAKING... UH. EXCUSE ME... HELLO MIK(E) - I WAS JUST BRUSHING UP ON MY SHOCK POETRY THERAPY. WHEN I GOT YOUR POSTCARD LAST WEEK I DIDN'T KNOW WETHER (MOSTLY CLOUDY) TO LAUGH OR CRY - I ENDED UP DRIVING INTO A PET STORE FOR THE SHEER THRILL OF IT, JUST BECAUSE. I'M WRITING A DECENT AMOUNT AND JUST PUBLISHED THIS STRANGE RED THING - ALSO RUNNING A READING SERIES - GETTING READY TO PUBLISH LOADS OF PRODUCT - SEND YOU MY NEW CHAP IN A MONTH WHEN IT IS BORN. SOMEBODY TOLD ME THAT RICHARD SPECK WAS IN A DRUG-ENHANCED PORNO SHOT SOMEWHERE IN HIS PRISON - I HEAR HIS BREASTS ARE BIG LIKE AN OLD LADY. HORMONES. NOW I WANT TO GO TO PRISON! ANXIOUS TO HEAR WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING - WILL YOU CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY EVER AGAIN? PIPE STOVIN'? DRUNK VIGILANTE? POP SINGER MASK? COUNTRY SINGER FOOTBALL UNIFORM? I SPEND COUNTLESS MINUTES TALKING TO YOU IN MY HEAD - LT. CHIEF, KEVIN SAMPSELL" Cut to a commercial!