Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author
Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 24th, I will be interviewed on Tron Talk, with host Tron Simpson, on KCMN AM 1530/KCBR-AM 1040. Try this link for online streaming audio. I’m scheduled for a call-in interview (a “phoner”) about 1:15 Mountain Time in the afternoon. We’re going to give away a couple free e-books on-air.
Hope to hear you there!
Here is the press release for ERO (click here). I used PRLog. The PR should be visible on their main page for a little bit today.
I’m releasing the book on July 20th, tomorrow, to time it with the 44th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. Just for fun. I’m sure somehow I’ll be tagged as part of the conspiracy theory and treatises will be written about my involvement in promulgating the hoax of our lunar landings through the highest levels of government….
At least, a writer-selling-novels can only hope!
Take everything with a block of salt, readers.
Only real thing I realized after submitting I could have done better, is including a larger image of the book I attached to the PR. Dang it. Well, the PR does give an expanded view of the cover.
Can you all keep a secret? I might begin uploading files late tonight, so it might actually go live slightly early, Mountain Time, though it’ll be July 20th, Eastern Time. Shsssh. This is on a strict, need-to-know basis….
Join the confusion. Question everything. Nothing is as it seems.
Unlike writing The Uninvited, where I listened to a lot of one particular band, while writing ERO, I listened to a variety of music. But even though I listened to a variety of bands (Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, etc), I did gravitate toward one in particular Alice in Chains. “A Chains,” as they are also called (here’s their website), is turning out to be one of my favorite bands, though I’ve listened to them for years. They have a dark, metal, grunge, alternative feel to their music. I got back into them after hearing one of their coolest hits, “Nutshell,” while working on another project I’ve since backburnered. “Nutshell” is an emotional, acoustic piece with dark lyrics dealing with loneliness, death, and despair. Click here for “Nutshell” lyrics. This song, like it did for my backburnered project, fits the tone of ERO.
I also listened to a lot of Tool. I’ve also loved and listened to this band for years. They’re known for their trippy, long and complex tunes, described as “style-transcending” and part of progressive rock, psychedelic and art rock. Dark. Experimental. Love em.
I also listened to a lot of science fiction movie soundtracks, including the X-Files soundtrack, “Songs in the Key of X.”
I didn’t always listen to music while writing the manuscript, but when inputting my redlines or doing something that didn’t require intense focus, I’d put on an “album.” It’s amazing the frame of mind music can put you into.
Whatever music each of you enjoy, I hope you also enjoy ERO, which is still set to go on sale, this Saturday, July 20th, coinciding with the 44th anniversary of the Apollo 11th moon landing.
Question everything.
ERO is about how one lieutenant’s life had changed after having become part of the UFO conspiracy machine.
It’s fiction.
I made it all up.
There are aspects of my real life embedded within the story…but not in any of the fantastical, conspiracy theory laden aspects. I have an active imagination, is all. I began the story with a single premise I can’t say, because it actually gives away the story, and added to it from a host of material. Most of the scenes just flowed into the writing as it happened, but, occasionally, I added material I’d read about and thought would make for some cool scenes. One of the continued scenes I added was from a book I found, called Above Black, by Dan Sherman. It blew me away, and I thought, huh, that’d be neat to include. So, I contacted the author and asked him if I could incorporate it into my novel. We did a short Q&A exchange, and he said I could. So, once I incorporated it, I’d sent him a copy of it to review. Never heard back from him one way or the other, but appreciated him letting me incorporate it. Thanks, Mr. Sherman, hope I did it justice and hope you are faring well.
Another instance of incorporation involved using the Communion books, by Whitley Strieber. Though I did not contact Mr. Strieber (or did and had no response, I can no longer remember), I borrowed certain aspects from his work. Those who have read his work will recognize where I have done so. Again, I’m not going to give away the scenes, but when I read Mr. Strieber’s work, again, I was blown away by what I read. If half of what I’d read was true, life truly is more fantastical than many of us realize. And, if you read other works, more frightening. If you are to believe some of this material (see bibliography, below), people have died talking about some of this stuff. And, if you believe some of this material, our lives are not our own, and never have been. That’s the problem with conspiratorial writing. Over the years I have read tons of books on UFOs and extraterrestrials, especially as a kid. As an adult, I scaled back quite a bit…until I wrote ERO. To be honest, some of this material scared me. One book in particular put me into a particular “funk” after having read it (and, it’s the only book I’ve read that actually had a disclaimer up front, almost trying to keep you from reading it!). Other books appalled me. Others, amused.
Are our lives our own?
Is there another, shadow government out there quietly running the world?
Is the Truth obfuscated for dark, nefarious purposes?
Do UFOs and extraterrestrials exist?
These kinds of questions plagued me the more I read about conspiracy theories as I wrote ERO, and tugged and tore at my belief systems. Eventually, I’ve made peace with it. Whatever is going on out there is and has been going on out there with or without my direct knowledge of it and will continue t do so. Do I believe in everything I’ve read? No, I don’t. And it doesn’t matter, because it really has little impact on my life on a daily basis.
You know, short of ETs coming “out.”
We all live our lives as we do, trying to get by, doing the right thing (most of us). All have our belief systems. And what if these conspiracy theories are just another alternate reality that intersects with all our individual realities, in that, it’s not really real…just an alternate present/past/future we touch on when we “go there.” That life is really all sunshine and rainbows and ice cream…but when we start talking “dark,” then this other reality “Venn diagrams” its way into our reality, our consciousness? And, if that is the case, then we can just as easily not allow it into our consciousness by not believing in it.
I know, a bunch of hooey, to most. But, it’s the perfect “conspiracy machine.” This whole world obfuscates everything. And it doesn’t cost those who may be control a dime.
Isn’t that perfect?
Because, those who may be running things…the secret societies, the shadow governments…get what they need. Confusion. What is real, and what is imagined?
If people really had died in talking about any of this stuff, how did others survive while talking about it? To help put your minds at ease, from what I’d read, those who had theoretically died from “talking” had actually, theoretically taken part in the dark, hidden worlds of UFO/extraterrestrial operations (or had actually “known something”)…had been pledged to eternal silence…then spoke out once they “left” the organization. Now, if anyone is any kind of familiar with the science fiction world, you well know, once you enter any kind of weird Secret Society, you never, really leave. At least that’s what we’re told from the like of the SyFy channel and similar ilk. Yet…one or two still claim to do it and survive, and reasons are given, usually they’re smaller players, or not big enough names making big enough splashes, with important enough wave-making…or because the do muddy the waters just enough to be of benefit to the whole obfuscation process.
Or, it could all be fake.
It’s a weird world out there, Horatio
So, all that said, I’m just a know-nothing guy who had a cool idea in his head for several years and finally wrote it down. I have zero experience with any kinds of UFOs (uh, as far as I know…) nor any kind of experience in any kind of “dark operations.” This entire plot came solely from my imagination and into which I incorporated elements of publicly available material, to which I freely attribute my sources and acknowledgement of their efforts. I am grateful to everyone who wrote their books, and, in some cases, were brave enough to do so.
Don’t take anything for granted. Your life is yours…make the best of it and do not let anyone take away any of your rights to it. And, like a favorite television show used to say every week:
The Truth is Out There.
My ERO research material:
ABOVE BLACK, OneTeam Publishing, 1997, 2006, by Dan Sherman, ISBN 0-9660978-0-7
ALIEN AGENDA, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1997, by Jim Marrs, ISBN 0-06-109686-5
Body Of Secrets, Anchor Books, 2002, by James Bamford, ISBN 0-385-49908-6
BREAKTHROUGH, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1995, by Whitley Strieber, ISBN 0-06-017653-9
Communion, Beech Tree Books, 1987, by Whitley Strieber, ISBN 0-688-07086-8
CRASH AT CORONA, Paraview Special Editions, 2004, by Don Berliner and Stanton Friedman, ISBN 1-931044-89-9
DARK MISSION: THE SECRET HISTORY OF NASA, BY Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara, Feral House, ISBN 978-1-932595-26-0
Deep Black, Berkley Books, 1988, by William Burrows, ISBN 0-425-10879-1
Dreamland, Villard, 1998, by Phil Patton, ISBN 0-375-75385-0
Leap Of Faith, Harper Torch, 2002, by Gordon Cooper, ISBN 0-06-109877-9
Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will To Believe, Prometheus Books, 2001, Carl T. Pflock, ISBN 1-57392-894-1
Rule by Secrecy, Perennial, 2001, by Jim Marrs, ISBN 978-0-06-093184-1
Sky Walking, Collins/Smithsonian Books, 2006, Tom Jones, ISBN 978-0-06-088436-9
That Crazy Lady Down The Road, Earth Star Publications, 2005, by Judy Messoline, ISBN 0-944851-14-2
THE DAY AFTER ROSWELL, Pocket Books, 1997, by Colonel Philip J. Corso (Ret.) and William J. Birnes, ISBN 0-671-01756-X
The Right Stuff, Bantam Books/Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1979/2001, Tom Wolfe, ISBN 0-553-38135-0
The Roswell Legacy, New Page Books, 2009, Jesse and Linda Marcel, Jr., ISBN 978-1-60163-026-1
The works of Seth, Jane Roberts, and Rob Butts
The Zeta Reticuli Incident (and Commentary), AstroMedia Corporation, 1976, Terence Dickinson
Top Secret, The Dictionary of Espionage and Intelligence, Citadel Press, 2005, by Bob Burton, ISBN 0-8065-2650-5
TOP SECRET/MAJIC, Marlowe & Company, 2005, by Stanton T. Friedman. MSc, ISBN 1-56924-342-5
TRANSFORMATION, Avon Books, 1988, by Whitley Strieber, ISBN 0-380-70535-4
UFOs AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2002, by Richard M. Dolan, ISBN 1-57174-317-0
Do you know someone with a bitchy face?
So begins the fake PSA that started out as a joke and gathered more than 2 million hits on the comedy site Funny or Die and YouTube. And there was the True Blood actress Anna Paquin who took some heat from a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where she displayed, what has come to be called “Bitchy Resting Face.” She says, and I love this response: “it’s not my responsibility to be everyone’s sunshine.”
Incidentally, Resting Asshole Face (RAF) is the male equivalent to the female’s Bitchy Resting Face (BRF).
I find this whole phenomenon so funny…but understand it. Not only have I witnessed it frequently throughout my life, and even commented on it to my wife, but my wife had also once told me that when I work out at the gym…I look mean. Like I’m gonna kill someone. So, one day, while working out, I did look at myself in the mirror…and, yeah, I did look like that! How funny, I thought, as I laughed to myself. Okay. Well, thing is—from my point of view—when I’m working out, I get very focused. I don’t spend time talking to people in the gym, I’m there for one reason, and one reason only—to work out. Sure, I smile and say “hello” to people along the way, and do even trade a short (key word: SHORT) conversation or two, if it happens, but I’m there to move weight and exercise, not socialize. But that doesn’t mean someone can’t say “hello” to me, or something.
Well, needles to say, since that little epiphany, I’ve actually made an effort to try to “relax” the “angry gym face” (AGF), I’ll label it. Sure, sometimes it’ll get away from me, but I try to reset it. I’m not an angry person. Not in the least. I’m actually quite the annoyingly happy guy you meet out on the street, always greeting “hellos” and smiling to those I meet. I actually have the opposite of Bitchy Resting Face, called Happy Resting Face (HRF). But when I’m in the gym, I blow through my workouts, taking only seconds of rest between sets, making an Olympic event of it all. But, I seem to do that with everything…writing…walks/hikes. Day job work. I seem to plow through most things I take on, like a frigging bulldozer. It’s just how I am, I suppose. When I’m on top of my game, around the house, doing chores, my wife actually has to set bear-sized leg-hold traps to slow me down. And I usually have to step into two of them to get any results.
So, funny as BRF is, I see it. It exists. Just like RAF. But you know, I still do my best to smile and say “hello” when I can to those BRFs and RAFs out there. Especially at work. And I know I’m probably hated for it, but what the hell, it’s who I am and what I do. I have my own AGF, so I do understand all your plights. Just keep smiling on the inside, and maybe… just maybe…that smile will eventually shine through…one day….