Whitley Strieber's Blog - Posts Tagged "gnome"
Fiction vs. Nonfiction: What to Write?
For the past few years, I've been writing fiction for two reasons: First, it's where I started and where my heart lives. Entering the world of the imagination is a magical, wonderful thing to do and I relish it. My second reason is that I sense that I have lots of buried memories from my very strange life, and I think that they reveal themselves in the fiction.
This was particularly true of the Grays and the Alien Hunter series. Toward the end of Alien Hunter: Underworld, I found myself dealing with a completely new vision of the reason for all those legends we have had throughout our history for beings living beneath the surface of the earth.
It was really a riveting experience, and a completely new take on the subject.
Then, just this last Thursday (8/21/14) a remarkable thing happened. Linda Moulton Howe (Earthfiles.com) who has done research for me for years, sent me a photo of a creature taken by a trail cam in Pennsylvania. When I first looked at it, I thought it must be a hoax (it looks like a classic garden gnome) but a photo expert, Dan Drasin, who does photo analysis for us says that it is not a statuette because it's moving very quickly. It's unlikely to be a bird because of its coloring and form.
What is so very odd about this--getting back to the fiction-nonfiction issue--is that I was working on a new nonfiction title at the time I received the email from Linda. The chapter I was writing was about creatures that live underground.
For more about this, go to this link on my website and scroll down until you see the picture: http://www.unknowncountry.com/dreamla...
My odd life has left we with a joyous sense of wonder about the world. While I still can't say that I've ever been face to face with an alien, there has been a vast amount of high strangeness, for which I am incredibly grateful. What a life!
This was particularly true of the Grays and the Alien Hunter series. Toward the end of Alien Hunter: Underworld, I found myself dealing with a completely new vision of the reason for all those legends we have had throughout our history for beings living beneath the surface of the earth.
It was really a riveting experience, and a completely new take on the subject.
Then, just this last Thursday (8/21/14) a remarkable thing happened. Linda Moulton Howe (Earthfiles.com) who has done research for me for years, sent me a photo of a creature taken by a trail cam in Pennsylvania. When I first looked at it, I thought it must be a hoax (it looks like a classic garden gnome) but a photo expert, Dan Drasin, who does photo analysis for us says that it is not a statuette because it's moving very quickly. It's unlikely to be a bird because of its coloring and form.
What is so very odd about this--getting back to the fiction-nonfiction issue--is that I was working on a new nonfiction title at the time I received the email from Linda. The chapter I was writing was about creatures that live underground.
For more about this, go to this link on my website and scroll down until you see the picture: http://www.unknowncountry.com/dreamla...
My odd life has left we with a joyous sense of wonder about the world. While I still can't say that I've ever been face to face with an alien, there has been a vast amount of high strangeness, for which I am incredibly grateful. What a life!
Writing Up a Storm
Just finished Alien Hunter 3: the White House. It will come out next summer. My editor at Tor/Forge, Bob Gleason, told me he thought it was the best thriller I've ever written. I hope that's true, and as Bob doesn't do a lot of praising, at least I know it's good.
It takes my character, Flynn Carroll into a conspiracy in the White House that turns into a chess game with the denizens of Aeon. This is the planet where the criminals came from in Alien Hunter 1 and 2.
But things have changed on Aeon. There was a revolution, and now the ones who were viewed as criminals are in control of the planet--and they want more.
This is not a typical 'alien invasion' story. It concerns a chess game between Flynn and what is no longer a small group of criminals, but a massive conspiracy with state support. Worse, they are in possession of breathtakingly advanced technology. (Some of which is real, and which we have. But I'll leave you to play with that one!)
How do you take an entire planet, but get rid of its population without destroying it? The aliens have a solution. Flynn has to stop them.
It takes my character, Flynn Carroll into a conspiracy in the White House that turns into a chess game with the denizens of Aeon. This is the planet where the criminals came from in Alien Hunter 1 and 2.
But things have changed on Aeon. There was a revolution, and now the ones who were viewed as criminals are in control of the planet--and they want more.
This is not a typical 'alien invasion' story. It concerns a chess game between Flynn and what is no longer a small group of criminals, but a massive conspiracy with state support. Worse, they are in possession of breathtakingly advanced technology. (Some of which is real, and which we have. But I'll leave you to play with that one!)
How do you take an entire planet, but get rid of its population without destroying it? The aliens have a solution. Flynn has to stop them.
