Whitley Strieber's Blog - Posts Tagged "strieber"
Melody Burning
My first young adult novel Melody Burning is coming out on December 17. Anne came up with the idea about a rising young singer who encounters a feral boy living in the crawlspaces of her exclusive apartment building in LA and falls in love with him.
The book was a joy to write, and I'm hoping that it's the beginning of a long line of young adult books. I really enjoy writing for kids, and I hope they enjoy reading what I write.Melody Burning
The book was a joy to write, and I'm hoping that it's the beginning of a long line of young adult books. I really enjoy writing for kids, and I hope they enjoy reading what I write.Melody Burning
Give Melody Burning a Chance
Melody Burning by Whitley StrieberMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am the author of Melody Burning. The book has not yet been published, and yet there are reviews from as early as last March. Last March, it hadn't even been FINISHED! For what it's worth, I think that these people are reviewing a controversial author who they dislike. They cannot have read a book that has not yet been released. So please give Melody a chance. Do not rely on fallacious reviews. (I have dated this review to the actual date I finished the book. It will be published on December 7, 2011.)
View all my reviews
Miraculous Journey
As many of you know, my wife Anne has had difficult health issues since 2004, when she had a brain hemorrhage. Last summer, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Now, these are terrible things, but, as in all adversity, there is also joy, and there are also miracles. We have written a book together about our journey as a couple through the darkness of this experience, and into the joy that comes with acceptance and a determination to find what is beautiful in it.
And there is much that is beautiful. We have been happily married for 43 years, and that happiness has only deepened since Anne's latest diagnosis.
The book is getting lots of wonderful reviews on Amazon, largely because it is about the power of the spirit in difficult times, not about giving in or giving up.
Miraculous Journey is available as an ebook on Kindle, Nook and Kobo, and as an iBook. It's $4.99. Miraculous Journey
Now, these are terrible things, but, as in all adversity, there is also joy, and there are also miracles. We have written a book together about our journey as a couple through the darkness of this experience, and into the joy that comes with acceptance and a determination to find what is beautiful in it.
And there is much that is beautiful. We have been happily married for 43 years, and that happiness has only deepened since Anne's latest diagnosis.
The book is getting lots of wonderful reviews on Amazon, largely because it is about the power of the spirit in difficult times, not about giving in or giving up.
Miraculous Journey is available as an ebook on Kindle, Nook and Kobo, and as an iBook. It's $4.99. Miraculous Journey
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.
The Journey to Dog Heaven
I have just published a short novel called the Journey to Dog Heaven. It's mostly from the viewpoint of a dog, and in his voice.
It's about the choices that must be made in life, and a dog who makes a really hard one.
The book comes from deep within my life and childhood, when I was a scruffy little Texas boy running around with a scruffy little dog behind me.
My dog was a rat terrier named Candy, so called because she loved candy, was an expert thief, and would defend her candy to the death once she had it.
I also feel that we owe our pets something. They have come to depend on us, and too often they get let down. So the Journey to Dog Heaven is also meant to encourage adoption, especially in families with kids. And cats will do very nicely, too!
In the book, Bob, an Aussie cattle dog living on a Texas ranch, sets out to follow his master Buddy, without understanding that he's gone off to war and cannot be found.
Bob struggles mightily and makes an incredibly hard choice. But, then again, hard choices are part of life on the path to every heaven, including dog heaven.
You can get an ebook now for $4.99. Hardcover and audio will be along in a few weeks.
Find out more about Dog Heaven and all my books on Strieber.com
It's about the choices that must be made in life, and a dog who makes a really hard one.
The book comes from deep within my life and childhood, when I was a scruffy little Texas boy running around with a scruffy little dog behind me.
My dog was a rat terrier named Candy, so called because she loved candy, was an expert thief, and would defend her candy to the death once she had it.
I also feel that we owe our pets something. They have come to depend on us, and too often they get let down. So the Journey to Dog Heaven is also meant to encourage adoption, especially in families with kids. And cats will do very nicely, too!
In the book, Bob, an Aussie cattle dog living on a Texas ranch, sets out to follow his master Buddy, without understanding that he's gone off to war and cannot be found.
Bob struggles mightily and makes an incredibly hard choice. But, then again, hard choices are part of life on the path to every heaven, including dog heaven.
You can get an ebook now for $4.99. Hardcover and audio will be along in a few weeks.
Find out more about Dog Heaven and all my books on Strieber.com
The Afterlife Revolution
First, thanks for all the great reviews, and I assume that some of you are also among the Amazon reviewers, so a thousand thanks!
Now, if you've read the Afterlife Revolution, you'll know that my wife Anne died in August of 2015 and then executed a plan of contact that we had worked out back in the 1990s when we realized that there really was an afterlife.
There are a lot of reasons we came to understand this, which are detailed in the book. What I want to talk about here is things that have happened AFTER it was published, and there are a lot of them. Anne is still around and she's good at this.
She has changed the way I feel about life and afterlife, and the way I handle grief. There is just such a bubbling, delightful sense of presence when she is involved with me.
From February 18 to 23, I was at at a conference at Esalen. I was there with my friend and fellow Unknowncountry.com podcaster Jeremy Vaeni, the medium Paul Selig and a woman who was transformed into a psychic by a lightning strike, Elizabeth Krohn.
We were there to tell our stories to a group of academics and social scientists who take a serious interest in extreme experiences.
As those of you who have read Afterlife know, Anne indicates her presence by the appearance of a white moth, generally in situations where no moths are around.
After my presentation on the Afterlife Revolution, most of the conferees went to dinner at the Esalen dining hall. As they were eating, a white moth appeared and flew up and down the table, then flew up in the air and seemed to just disappear. Then, at the final banquet in a private dining room, a white moth flew around and landed on Jeremy Vaeni's head! (Anne loved his approach to the unknown and his show.)
There were no other moths of any kind seen by any of us at Esalen over that five day period. It was just like all the other white moth appearances that have been associated with her--appearances that are carefully timed to be relevant to what is happening when the moth appears.
Additionally, last December, a psychic called Cherylee Black found herself face to face with a ghost called Anne. (Her psychic ability includes seeing and interacting with ghosts.) This ghost was so clear and remained for so long that Cherylee drew a portrait of her. She sent it to her friend and mine, my co-author of Super Natural, Jeff Kripal. He did not recognize the face. Eventually he sent it on to another friend, who wrote back at once, "that's Anne Strieber."
So the portrait was sent to me. Not only is is Anne, it is very close to my favorite photo of her, which hangs on my wall so I can look up at it while I am working. I now have them framed side by side.
Anne was in life a remarkable woman with a strong intellect a wonderful sense of humor and a big, open heart. Since she died, she has been on a mission to confirm to us that we have souls and there is an afterlife, and that we need to look to the health of our souls in whatever way we choose.
She has said many wonderful things to me and others since she died. One of them is "enlightenment is what happens when there is nothing left of us but love."
She came to that in her life and continues in her afterlife, calling to us on behalf of love.
Now, if you've read the Afterlife Revolution, you'll know that my wife Anne died in August of 2015 and then executed a plan of contact that we had worked out back in the 1990s when we realized that there really was an afterlife.
There are a lot of reasons we came to understand this, which are detailed in the book. What I want to talk about here is things that have happened AFTER it was published, and there are a lot of them. Anne is still around and she's good at this.
She has changed the way I feel about life and afterlife, and the way I handle grief. There is just such a bubbling, delightful sense of presence when she is involved with me.
From February 18 to 23, I was at at a conference at Esalen. I was there with my friend and fellow Unknowncountry.com podcaster Jeremy Vaeni, the medium Paul Selig and a woman who was transformed into a psychic by a lightning strike, Elizabeth Krohn.
We were there to tell our stories to a group of academics and social scientists who take a serious interest in extreme experiences.
As those of you who have read Afterlife know, Anne indicates her presence by the appearance of a white moth, generally in situations where no moths are around.
After my presentation on the Afterlife Revolution, most of the conferees went to dinner at the Esalen dining hall. As they were eating, a white moth appeared and flew up and down the table, then flew up in the air and seemed to just disappear. Then, at the final banquet in a private dining room, a white moth flew around and landed on Jeremy Vaeni's head! (Anne loved his approach to the unknown and his show.)
There were no other moths of any kind seen by any of us at Esalen over that five day period. It was just like all the other white moth appearances that have been associated with her--appearances that are carefully timed to be relevant to what is happening when the moth appears.
Additionally, last December, a psychic called Cherylee Black found herself face to face with a ghost called Anne. (Her psychic ability includes seeing and interacting with ghosts.) This ghost was so clear and remained for so long that Cherylee drew a portrait of her. She sent it to her friend and mine, my co-author of Super Natural, Jeff Kripal. He did not recognize the face. Eventually he sent it on to another friend, who wrote back at once, "that's Anne Strieber."
So the portrait was sent to me. Not only is is Anne, it is very close to my favorite photo of her, which hangs on my wall so I can look up at it while I am working. I now have them framed side by side.
Anne was in life a remarkable woman with a strong intellect a wonderful sense of humor and a big, open heart. Since she died, she has been on a mission to confirm to us that we have souls and there is an afterlife, and that we need to look to the health of our souls in whatever way we choose.
She has said many wonderful things to me and others since she died. One of them is "enlightenment is what happens when there is nothing left of us but love."
She came to that in her life and continues in her afterlife, calling to us on behalf of love.
