Page "Katherine MacLean" Paragraph 17

:: A few years after the publication of my first written story, " Incommunicado ," written 1947 and published 1950, I was taking a break from two weeks of typing, walking down Fifth Avenue, noticing vaguely that there were no coffee shops, and the storefronts were closed and it was dark.

Passed a white granite entrance with signs announcing a convention of electronic engineers, and turned in hoping to find coffee, and a demo of hi-fi advances, and found a deserted desk, with signs announcing that one must sign in with name, industry and invitation number.

A bit unwelcoming to a stray writer with no credentials in heavily funded industrial research and no formal invitation.

Being stubborn and not wanting to return to the typewriter so early, I hastily looked around for a door to a lecture hall where I could sneak some listening time and get a line on current research, and be out of sight before the desk was reoccupied by the guardian of the gate.