Blog Post #3 – Okay, I’m breaking cover. Let’s talk UFOs

Yes, I’m prepared to believe in the existence of UFOs. Or rather ‘UAP’ as the phenomena is known in modern ufology parlance. This stands for ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’. We can get into the nomenclature, and the history of the vernacular, but that’s not what I want to discuss today. Perhaps another time.

UFOs, and I include, rightly or wrongly, the idea of associated non-human intelligence (NHI), has, along with writing, been a huge part of my life for the last ten years. I’d always had a vague interest, but this became fascination on steroids following the now fabled New York Times article of December 2017, Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program. For those of you who haven’t read the piece, it’s well worth a read. In many ways, it’s where modern UAP lore started, so beginning a creeping tide of news and information that has seeped into the public’s consciousness in subsequent years. I include myself. To put it another way, I fell down the rabbit hole.

If you haven’t followed the gathering momentum of the UAP narrative since 2017, it would take more than a few posts and supporting materials to get you to appreciate the basics. I’ll therefore pass the opportunity on this occasion. I suggest you go away and study some of the bountiful information now available online. I can point you in the direction.

The present UFO topic, sitting as it does in the shadow of notorious, dare I say ‘historic’ past events, such as Roswell, Rendlesham, Kecksburg, the Hudson Valley and Belgian flaps, for example, is so complicated, vast and wide, you cannot see the edges. The nuances to it are infinite, the topics limitless, the opinions endless and the politics ruthless and unforgiving for any unwary congressman or senator. But above all, as I came to discover, the preponderance of supporting evidence is immeasurable. We can debate the legitimacy of the data, the material, the sightings and so on, but it doesn’t stack up that millions of people are cranks, confused, or have poor eyesight. It only takes one report to be accurate, and true, and everything changes. If it hasn’t already.

I’ll leave it there for now. Why did I bring this subject up? Because the phenomena has been the key inspiration for at least two aborted novels and my first completed book (to be published), thus why I have this blog and website. The Otero County Disclosure doesn’t only explore UFOs, there’s much else besides. And this is the point. In researching and writing the novel, I found the subject far stranger and deeper than I would ever have imagined. I want to try and help others look at the subject through a wider aperture, to bring the subject to a more mainstream audience, perhaps those with no current appreciation of the topic. Because, as one of the characters in the book notes, ‘everything is connected’.

I’ll be writing regularly on the subject, so please keep an eye out.

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Blog post #2 – So, where do ideas come from?

Ideas are like buses for me – I wait an age and a dozen come along at once. I used to keep a notepad for all the story seeds knocking around in my head, lest I should forget them. And then I read a quote. I think it was from the redoubtable Stephen King, who dismissed the notion of documenting most ideas. His argument being the best ones are want to stick around anyway. He’s right of course. But only to some degree.

I still commit plenty of thoughts to paper, or a computer. I can’t take the risk something will escape me, especially if I’m having a busy day, or there’s lots going on generally. That being said, great ideas seem to break through all the noise. This is where Mr King is definitely correct. And what do I know that he doesn’t? Only what works best for me.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my writing career, both in journalism and in fiction, it’s that all writers approach ideas and stories differently, and process information in their own unique ways. I suspect part of this is honed by experience as we develop our craft, whether as a journalist or a fiction writer. But I also suppose it has much to do with personality. Our sympathies, empathies, interests and prejudices. I’m naturally curious about the inner life. Other folks are all about action.

I attended a magistrate’s court in 1998 as part of my journalism training; to hear the committal proceedings for an active US serviceman arrested on a flight to Gatwick from America. He was alleged to have been drunk, and assaulting a member of the cabin crew. I don’t remember how it went for him, but I do recall his defence lawyer putting forward mitigating factors, and describing the harm to the defendant’s career if he was to be prosecuted. The young man looked pitiful, and the lawyer’s words full of remorse on his behalf. We cub reporters had to follow with a news story for assessment. Being me, I wrote an article about the human aspect, and the likelihood the soldier’s career was over. All because of his overexuberance, mixed with what we’d now term PTSD. I was the only one who took that slant. Others majored on the attack itself – airborne acts of violence were a seemingly commonplace occurrence at the time.

No one way is right, or better. Only different.

I’ve finetuned my inspiration radar over the years. I’m always listening for the curious, the interesting, the rare, the funny, the harrowing, the sad, the coincidental, the downright farfetched real-life stories happening every second of every minute on this beautiful blue and green planet of ours. The news is a great place to start, whatever your views on mainstream or legacy media.

Like acorns from a tree, these ideas, or inspirations, might fall to the ground and lodge in your head. If it’s a strong idea, in time a new trunk will grow. And if it’s a really, really strong idea, it should develop branches – or every aspect of that tree. Your job is to inspect each and every one of these limbs, ensuring all are sturdy and healthy. A great tree has plenty of fast-growing branches. I always know when I’ve found a suitable one. It stands there tall and wide but neatly shaped. It’s vibrant and isolated. I can walk all the way around it. There are no other trees close by. All I can see is this one single tree. I get excited standing in its shadow. There’s plenty of sunlight, and nourishment in the ground, to help the idea flourish. And it looks magnificent! Here I will sit and take root.

Finally, going back to Stephen King. In his fabulous autobiography, On Writing, he discusses his ‘pantser’ creative process. It all boils down to finding one or two interesting characters and putting them in a room together and documenting what happens. I’m supposing these characters are acorns already sown. I’m inelegantly summarising, but hopefully you get the gist. Ideas, whether people and place, situation or solution, the opening or the close, come from anywhere – and they can fall on your head at any moment. You have to explore forests’ of trees before finding the one with potential, but that’s half the fun, right? At least it should be, if you want to be a writer.

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