Science Fiction for Thinkers

I don't write comic book SciFi. And I don't write Fantasy, although all my works contain some elements of fantasy in them. But there are no capes and swords, no hooded ghouls or space knights in my books.

When you unmask real life, what you see is a lot spookier and astonishing than anything purely imaginary, and that's what I do. I take an average American town or an average day in the life of an average man or woman and I peek under that rock and expose the supernatural roller coaster ride that runs beneath it all.

And on that roller coaster ride many battles are won and lost and many unlikely heroes emerge and all of it seems so real. And that's because most of it really is. And that's because there's a lot more to life than what we see, hear, smell, taste or feel. And much, much more than we think.

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.