Why I Chose Sci-Fi

On my ninth birthday, at age fourteen, and again at seventeen, my life was altered forever by mysterious encounters with otherworldly phenomena.

The most vivid memory I have is about waving a UFO down from the sky when I was seventeen and then waving good-bye to it several seconds later. Those few seconds turned out to be an hour and a half of lost time.

My novels are not based on these experiences but the new genre I chose — blending sci-fi with mainstream and throwing in a lot of contemporary issues — was definitely influenced by these events.

In the immortal words of the late Robert D. Barry who hosted a local late-night Pennsylvania TV show called E.T. Monitor in the 1980s: Something to think about.