The Truth is Out There?

During the past 3 or 4 years, I've had a number of experiences that cannot be explained easily. Of course there could be prosaic explanations for some of these events, but despite a lot of thought, research and exploration, I am left without any real explanations. 

That doesn't mean I'm automatically attributing them to UFOs and the paranormal, but these are subjects which interest me greatly. I've read widely on the subject, watched videos, and spoken to others. I'm not a tin-foil hat wearing conspiracist, nor am I firm in believing they are amongst us.  I do believe there are many things which cannot be explained with our understanding of science, and I also believe the Governments know things and are hiding them from the public.

I've read widely and regularly on this topic since I was about 12 years old. I find the whole idea of conspiracy theory fascinating. I find the worlds of ufology and the paranormal completely entertaining and interesting. Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe - but unfortunately I don't think my own experiences, despite their weirdness and high strangeness, are not convincing enough for me to consider as any kind of real proof.

There are many, many podcasts for those who are interested. I try to avoid the ones where the "woo" factor is strong, the ones that wander too far into the sensational or fiction. But there are plenty of others that attempt to be balanced and objective.

I still watch every episode of Sean Patrick Hazlett's Through A Glass Darkly, and Preston Dennett's UFOs and the Paranormal. That UFO Podcast is always enjoyable and informative, while Weaponized and Need to Know have seasoned, respectable journalists exploring the topic. I first read Whitely Strieber's Communion in the late 80s and was fortunate enough to meet Strieber and ask him to sign my copy. His Dreamland podcast continues on the same themes,  Richard Dolan regularly deep dives into aspects of the phenomenon, Cristina Gomez does a great job in covering current events and interviewing guests of interest, while Paul Sinclair's Truth Proof is informative and reasonably local to my own world.

As an aside, Bryce Zabel (Need to Know podcast) is a huge Beatles fan. I had his book on the Beatles many years before I knew of his UFO interest. (BTW, Bryce. If you're ever up for a discussion on the Beatles and UFOs over a beer, let me know!)

That's enough to get started with if you are interested in the topic. I have watched checked out quite a few others and discarded them from my playlist. Like so many other things, you have to find the right podcast for you.

As for my own experiences - if you truly want the details invite me to the pub, buy me a beer or two, and be willing to share your own thoughts as well. The truth, whatever that is (and I'm not saying ETs in UFOs), is out there. We just have to search for it.

Disclosure?

I regularly watch a couple of UFO/paranormal podcasts. I never miss an episode of Sean Patrick Hazlett's Through A Glass Darkly, or Preston Dennett's UFO and the Paranormal episodes.

Both of these take quite different approaches. Preston is a MUFON investigator, and provides details on a number of cases, usually in a themed episode. He is generally positive, believing the encounters and the intentions of ETs are benevolent.

Hazlett, on the other hand, covers a range of topics; everything from UFOs to geopolitics. He has really developed as an interviewer, and while he can get a little excitable on some subjects, he is very much a man after my own heart, seeking the truth and trying to be objective and balanced.  (As a point of interest, my original name for this website, in 2011 or so, was Through a Writer Darkly!)

I have had a few UFO sightings, and certainly experienced some things I simply cannot explain. If you read the literature, listen to the experts and scientists, and watch the documentaries, it's difficult to think anything other than they are here, and the governments are aware of this.

The testimony of David Grush should have been all over the media. A credible, knowledgeable whistleblower, and yet the stroy was hardly touched. I can't help but wonder if he is part of a gradual disclosure by the US government. There are a number of indicators that suggest we will be told in the nxt couple of years that we are not alone.  And that will change everything, which is why they have to control disclosure, build us up to it.

The truth is still out there, but it's getting closer.

That Which We Believe.

I'm thrilled that my story, That Which We Believe, is now available in issue 59 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

I wrote this one a few years ago, and started workshopping it with Paul Haines under the AHWA mentor program. We really only managed one critique, in which he pretty much savaged the story. The critique hurt at the time. I had hoped to impress him. But, damn his eyes, he was right. The story was missing something and so I put it aside for a long time to congeal. The plan was that later, when I'd rewritten it, Paul would have another look at it.

Unfortunately that never happened.

But Paul's feedback directed the rewriting process, and David Kernot liked it enough to buy it, and now you'll be able to read it.

This now means that all three stories workshopped with Paul have been published.

Gitte Christensen and I will share the TOC. We have often spoken of having work in the same publication, and so another goal is reached. I look forward to reading her story. I know Preston Dennett has a story in this issue. David Steffen, with whom I shared a  TOC in After Death, has one as well. The fabulous cover is by Paul Drummond. Who else is in there? I have no idea, but I have no doubt this will be another quality issue of ASIM.

A Tale Of Caution.

Apparently Dean Wesley Smith, amongst others, tells the story of a writer who was submitting to a whole lot of magazines over the period of a few years. Smith refers to this man as Topanga Canyon, as that was where the writer lived. The writer was submitting good work and was regularly receiving personal rejections. The editors, in fact, all knew his name and were watching to see who would be the first to buy his work. Even agents knew his name. He was really close.

And then for no apparent reason in 1991 he stopped submitting and was never heard from again.

Until now.

This story was mentioned briefly on a forum I visit, and one of my fellow frequenters, Preston Dennett, read the story and thought it sounded like it could have been about him. He used to live in Topanga Canyon, he was subbing around that time, and he gave up because he didn't think he was getting anywhere and his non-fiction writing was starting to take off. So he shot off a quick email to Dean Wesley Smith, and sure enough, Preston was Topanga Canyon.

Part of him is elated that he was known by editors and agents, and oh so close. The other part of him is devastated. I know I'd be wondering what might have been.

I don't know how those personal rejections were worded, but maybe a few extra words - something that could have helped him realise just how close he was - might have made all the difference. He's started writing fiction again, and this time he's planning on success.

Don't give up. And if an editor asks to see more of your work, believe it.