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Alien Contact, Alien Life, Aliens, UFOs

World UFO Day 2nd July

By NeilA

World UFO Day 2nd July

Science Fiction Aliens

When I was growing up, I was obsessed with science fiction books and attending conventions. I got to know many wonderful people throughout quite a number of different ‘codes’ – Doctor Who Clubs, Star Trek Clubs, Bablyon 5 clubs and more.

However, that tiny room off to the side that appeared at comic conventions and the like, devoted to ‘real’ aliens, didn’t appeal to me that much.

Thirty years later and I’ve just signed myself up as an ambassador for World UFO Day.

I guess times have changed. Or perhaps I have.

Real Aliens

The important thing about World UFO Day is to just help people become aware of what is above them. (Even harder these days with most people looking down at their mobiles!) There are a lot of organisations teaching people about aliens, and you can find anything you need to know searching Google.

But, I think the most important thing that has happened in the past 10 years is that many governments have released their materials to the public. Much of which can be easily accessed online.

Official Government UFO Archives

Here are a few of the larger databases:

UK National Archives UFO Files

US FBI UFO Files

US CIA UFO Files

Canada Library and Archives UFO Files

Australia National Archives UFO Files

Le GEIPAN, Groupe d’Études et d’Information sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non Identifiés fait partie intégrante des missions du Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) is the official French government UFO research department. This site is a comprehensive archive, which also includes guides for teachers. Find out more here

The Denmark Airforce UFO files are now behind a login, but I have the 329pg pdf which you can download here: UFO_materiale

There are a lot more official government sites out there with UFO information, and many more governments releasing materials (I believe Germany will be next) so it’s not about whether you want to believe or not. It’s whether you’d like to get interested. If this is a subject for you, and you’d like to meet a real alien one day, going through the archives and familiarising yourself with the thousands of different types of alien craft, could go some way to acclimatising yourself for when Official First Contact takes place. (Sometime within the next 15 years.)

And, if you can’t wait for that to happen in normal reality, you can always try organising a more private contact experience yourself. Check out this book, and perhaps it’ll help you meet some aliens outside of normal reality!

Contact Aliens Within 30 Days Digital

Contact Aliens Within 30 Days Print

 

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Aliens, Galactic Missions, Science Fiction Ebooks, SF Books, SF Story Excerpts, Short SF Stories, The Andromeda Effect

Stories and Excerpts by Neil A. Hogan

By NeilA

Stories and Excerpts by Neil A. Hogan

There are a number of stories I’ve written over the past few years that are either no longer in print, or are no longer that noticeable. So, I thought, why not make them free, or at the very least, choose some excerpts for people to read online?!

And so, here is the list. All these are available on my site right now for you to read. Of course, an opportunity may appear that will mean I take them off again, but in the meantime, I hope you find something interesting.

Stellar Flash Series

Chapter books for a more mature audience

Alien Frequency: Stellar Flash Book One Part 1 (2017)

The Andromeda Effect: Stellar Flash Book Two Introduction First Draft (2018)

 

Galactic Missions Series

Chapter books for Young Adults

Ida and the Planet Invasion: Part 1 (2013)

Gabriel and the Resurrection of Maldek: Part 1(2014)

Tiara and the Comet Apocalypse: Part 1 (2014)

John and the Ancient Earth Defenses: Excerpt (2015)

 

Short SF Stories

By Neil A. Hogan

Oh My God, It’s Full Of Stars New

The Hydrofluorons of Krakon 7 New

A Little Matter
Child Safe
Cosmic Joke
Evolution
Inter-View
InterRelations
Pocket Monsters
The Language Tutor
The Learning Curve
The Old Boy’s Club
Tutor Who Heaven Cent
Work After Death

List of Other Stories Available Via Amazon

 

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Alien Contact, Alien Invasion, Alien Life, Aliens, Articles

Protocols of First Alien Contact

By NeilA

Protocols of First Alien Contact

What are they? Where are they?

With movies like Arrival getting a lot of attention in the mainstream press, many would like to know, myself included, what the official protocols are for first alien contact. After much searching I’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t have anything in place.

Yes, seriously! (Well, officially!)

No government agency has a formal step by step system in place. The main reason for this is that no government agency actually expects it to happen for at least another twenty years. (Best to leave it for the next generation?)

I find this very strange, as we have detailed step-by-step plans for all government officials, members of royalty and civilians for just about any eventually. Why we don’t have official protocols for first alien contact is beyond me.

After all, if the government of your country wants to make sure that you as a citizen are safe, no matter what the eventuality, pamphlets, leaflets, websites, social media, video sharing sites and more should have some easily found list of protocols for the eventuality of running into an alien at some point.

If I was Prime Minister of my country, I certainly wouldn’t want a teenage kid stumbling onto a UFO in a field somewhere, hooking up with the aliens, then going for a joyride, teaching them how cool it is to troll people, or encouraging them to blast a bully at their school. I’d prefer there to be strict rules in place, much like the safety demonstrations on air flights.

“Good morning citizens. Welcome to protocol 47. Our friendly team will demonstrate the correct way to approach a space alien, if one happens to land in your back yard…”

Private Protocols for Alien Contact

Of course, there are plenty of citizen plans out there. SETI has one, other organizations, too. But major governments? Nope. Rumor has it that the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is planning to draft a protocol soon. Nothing on their website yet. (UNOOSA)

And so, of course, if aliens are out there waiting for us to make contact, they need to make a few more cups of tea before we get our act together.

First Things First

But, assuming aliens are waiting for us to give them an official invitation, the first thing we need to do is get organized about sending a message. When famous scientists like Stephen Hawking have said it’s dangerous, and we shouldn’t contact aliens, you’ll understand why we haven’t done even that yet.

And I don’t mean a gold disk on the side of a piece of equipment thrown into space. Or a signal sent into space in ’74 by Carl Sagan, purported to have been replied to via crop circle a few years ago, and dismissed.  I mean a real, comprehensive, contact message signed by leaders of all the nations of the world.

When that happens THAT will really be the first step. Any alien race will be far more advanced than us and would probably be simply getting on with their lives, waiting for us to grow up and actually want to contact them. So, we need to send that official message on behalf of the entire human race. All countries need to get on board and agree to it.

What’s step two?

Okay, now we can get to step two, the most popular area of making first contact with aliens, but one which leaves me cold.

The International Academy of Astronautics has created the “Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” This was with the support of the International Institute of Space Law, according to Wikipedia. This declaration includes what to do in the event of the detection of an alien race, what level of acceptance society is at, and other factors relating to whether the message can be understood, or even revealed.

The problem with this is that it assumes that there would be a natural order or progression for this situation, and that governments would be the ones to announce it. It also assumes a detection event like a signal or even a single ship, invisible to almost everyone in orbit. Neither of these are likely. It’s far more likely we’ll get a very noticeable appearance with no regard to red tape or official procedure.

Reality?

My personal feeling is that we’ll get the ‘official’ announcement quickly through Facebook and YouTube, followed by news reports as cameras arrive on the scene.

It may take weeks before world governments get their act together and make an official announcement. And by then, the aliens would have already been having a coffee with us.

Certainly, there would be a huge number of people, myself included, who would travel to the site to make contact, without going through officials, without considering it to be a momentous occasion, without once thinking that the first person to meet the aliens would somehow be recorded in history. (Why would it matter? Aliens!)

If we followed strict procedures…

Of course, if you want to follow strict procedure, if you’re in a country that is part of the Commonwealth, the only logical person to be flown over to meet the aliens first would be the Queen (or King) of England! That would not be considered safe, nor would it be acceptable. Like Arrival, it would be far more likely that only the military would be involved. This would certainly cause problems if the aliens decide a shopping mall in the middle of a CBD would be the ideal place to land.

If we were to assume the aliens wouldn’t want to disrupt government procedures (really?) then they would simply appear above all the major government buildings, and ask to speak to the leaders.

A very advanced alien race, with more spaceships than Earth has cars, would simply position them all above the local councils as well, creating an atmosphere of ships. There would be no need for any leaders to come out and say anything.

“Thank you for your call. If you are calling about the spaceships in the sky…Yes, they are alien. No, we don’t know anything yet. No, there’s nothing you can do. Just continue with your lives until you hear an announcement from the Queen/President/Prime Minister in your area.”

SETI have their own alien contact guide which can be found here. It really does work from a perspective of detecting a signal, though.

But, many SF fans aren’t interested in boring signals. We want real solid, chunky space craft, and shaking hands (or some other protuberance) with aliens in a first contact situation.

No Protocols for Mass Landings

So, while the SETI plan for signal detection would be useful for a slow dissemination of information, it doesn’t really deal with the mass landing scenario.

Of course, science fiction writers have come up with many types of protocols over the decades, and you’ll find them in all sorts of stories. But an actual official protocol set that covers a mass landing? Nope. Nowhere.

Perhaps it is hidden in the CIA or FBI files, or maybe Mulder and Scully have it. In any case, the governments of the world are saying that humanity is not yet ready for alien contact.

Oh, aliens landing? Hang on. We haven’t done the paperwork on that. Can you ask them to come back later? Can we get an extension of time? Yeah, I know you first asked in 1947, but, just a bit longer. Hello? Hello?

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Alien Life, Aliens, Articles, Science

Alien Life Found!

By NeilA

Alien Life Found!

The Viking Missions

“Alien Life Found” should have been the title of a news report in 1976 regarding the Viking Missions landers. Unfortunately, due to our level of understanding of the chemical reactions recorded, and the results obtained at the time, the soil was deemed to be dead. No sign of life or, more hopefully, inconclusive.

However, Joop Houtkooper from Justus-Liebig University in Giessen Germany, has gone over the evidence and believes that the Viking spacecraft did actually encounter life. A strange life form based on hydrogen peroxide. Download the research paper here: Arxiv.org pdf

Further research suggests that at least 0.1 percent of Mars land could harbor biological life. Maybe more.

Now that scientists are widening their scope of what is considered life, thanks to unusual bacteria surviving in the most inhospitable regions on Earth, it’s highly likely that NASA did discover life on Mars in 1976. (Extremophiles Las Cumbres Observatory)

Unfortunately, until the Mars 2020 mission gets there to find additional evidence, it’ll stay as ‘inconclusive’.

Alien Life Found rating: 87%

234 Alien Signals

Ermanno Borra and Eric Trottier have claimed, after analyzing 2.5 million stars in a number of galaxies, that 234 of them seem to be emitting regular pulses of light. As the stars of those systems are similar to our own, the researchers suggested the possibility that the pulses are laser messages from aliens.

The Breakthrough Listen project backed by Stephen Hawking turned its attention to these stars in an effort to figure out whether they are indeed message pulses, or whether there is a new star reaction that scientists aren’t yet aware of.

This project is still ongoing. However, the Breakthrough Listen project does give these results a Rio scale of 0 to 1, so maybe not. Read the accessible write up at (Futurism)

Alien Life Found rating: 27%

Alien Megastructure Star

KIC 8462852, known as Tabby’s Star, features some strange dimming and lightening of its light, and a slow reduction of its overall light over several years. While this may be able to be explained by a massive storm of comets constantly hitting the star, or even a ring of matter, a slightly more wilder and more interesting theory is that a megastructure is slowly being built around it. Perhaps even a Dyson Sphere. If the star completely disappears in the next 10 years, then this explanation will gain greater weight.

However, recent scientific research has confirmed that it is actually really fine dust. Sadly. More details at this (news.com.au) write up.

Alien Life Found rating: 0%

Alien Life Found on the International Space Station

Russian cosmonauts, on a number of occasions, have been able to swab bacteria, and even things higher up the chain like plankton, from the outside of the ISS. Are they coming from space? Or are they more likely being dragged up to lower Earth orbit by air currents? Or simply brought there by successive astronauts on their tablets? Hardy bacteria can survive just about anywhere, so it’s more likely that anything found in lower Earth orbit is from Earth. A great write up is at (National Geographic.)

Maybe the atmosphere extends a lot further for microbes, and there could even be a network of microbial space traveling currents between Earth and the Moon. I personally like the idea that space is just a huge bacteriological soup and not finding life somewhere is the more likely scenario. All those new viruses and bacteriological infections that appear out of nowhere probably simply floated down. (Wikipedia Panspermia)

Unfortunately, as much as I’d love to believe it, I don’t think the cosmonauts found ‘alien’ microbes. Even if they’re unrecognisable, maybe they found some old Earth microbes we haven’t had the chance to study yet.

Ancient Aliens TV Show finds Extraterrestrial Bacteria

This was also explored in another way recently in an episode of Ancient Aliens. A weather balloon was sent up, and the microbes brought back were ‘confirmed’ as alien, purely due to their size. This has yet to be scientifically disproved, (inconclusive) but knowing that plankton can exist on the outside of the ISS suggests just about anything can be floating about in lower Earth orbit.

Until I can see conclusive results of a sample of something containing DNA made from something other than adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C) or even something alive with no recognisable DNA, I’ll be crossing my arms and frowning.

Alien Life Found rating: 27%

Octopuses (Octopi) are aliens

Nope. Unfortunately. Or, if they are, so are we all, as they appeared in Earth’s history around 135 million years ago, and we probably started eating them about a million years ago. (Independent.co.uk) has a good write up.

Alien Life Found rating: 0%

Official Alien Life Found? Not yet, but we’re ready.

So, at this stage, it is just the 1976 Viking Mission results that give the highest possibility of proof. And I’m really excited by the idea of a hydrogen peroxide based bacteria.

Now that plumes of water have been confirmed as coming from Jupiter’s Moon Europa (abc.net.au) , TESS has been launched to look for more exoplanets (Aljazeera), and (NASA) has its Mars 2020 plan to look for alien life on the planet, it’s just a matter of time before we know for sure.

I guess the governments of the world have decided that humanity is now ready, and there’ll be an ‘official’ announcement with scientific proof in 2020.

Finally!

 

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Aliens, Articles, VR TV

Vriter Notes. Writing Science Fiction for VR TV. Extending the Life Span of your Story.

By NeilA

Vriter Notes. Writing Science Fiction for VR TV. Extending the Life Span of your Story.

One of the things I’ve said to science fiction writers just starting out is that you need a future proof game plan for your stories. You don’t want your stories to date too quickly. If you plan to stay a writer and not move into script editing, you might find these tips useful. If you have any other suggestions as to how to make sure a story doesn’t get dated, besides constantly reediting it, please leave a comment below.

Make your story as disconnected from the present as possible

Generally, if you write it well, it’ll have about a fifty year life span. If you write it with only limited reference to the present, it might even have 100 years. If you use science that has no possibility of being replicated in the near future, you might even get your story to 200 years. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, also known as The Modern Prometheus, is 200 years old this year. First published 1st January 1818. And humans still haven’t been able to put together a pseudo human from multiple parts from a variety of bodies, and resurrect it. Though, there is a lot more to this story than just that, but it’s a good example of a story that can withstand the march of time.

Choose your characters’ words carefully

Unfortunately, sometimes, the mere fact of being a certain age will date your writing, purely due to the kinds of words you use. In 2018 what words should characters use to show appreciation? ‘Incredible’ in their 70s, ‘Cool’ or ‘Sick’ in their 50s, ‘Awesome’ or ‘Winning’ in their 30s… But when someone reads that story in 2038 they’re going to feel all the characters sound weird. Cool, huh?! Best avoided. Choose a generic exclamation for your characters so that it becomes background. Battlestar Galactica did this with ‘frak’ , Red Dwarf with ‘smeg’.

Avoid common items from the past

Awhile ago I read a great science fiction story that was written in the 90s. Set hundreds of years in the future, after the Earth had been enslaved by giant space whale like entities, a government representative (?) took a long journey (?) to meet one and while waiting, opened his briefcase (???) After reading that, it took me awhile to get back into it again. A lot more effort was needed to suspend disbelief at that point, but the story got a lot better as it progressed. Most writers struggle with that first chapter and write and rewrite it over and over after writing the rest of the story, so most readers are forgiving. But I thought I’d point it out as, if you happen to include audio cassettes, old music, briefcases, even CDs, in the far future, you’ve already dated it. Best to avoid these things and create new things eg mindview system (instead of audio tapes) space fold storage systems keyed to a thought (instead of briefcases), sounds of the solar winds of Archetan 5 (instead of music) I’m sure you can come up with anything. Basically look at absolutely every item any of your characters use, and make sure none of them have ever existed.

Include aliens, even if it is just a reference

I’ve always loved writing about aliens, and expect that most stories in the future will have them. In the future, when we are working with the millions of alien races in the galaxy, most humans will find any story without an alien in it to be a bit anachronistic, if people are even still reading then. It would be like watching Alien Nation or Buffy and not seeing a mobile phone.

So, I encourage anyone writing science fiction to always include some alien races, even if it is just a reference. You could write a whole story about human habitats if that is your passion, or human-only colonies, without ever having an alien in it, but if you don’t refer to the ‘trade with alien x in the nearby star system’ it’s just going to get dated really quickly once aliens land.

Scientists speculate that we’ll make contact within the next ten years. Some believe we’ll even have an official landing before 2033. Others believe it already happened in the 60s and there is film somewhere to prove it. And even the series Ancient Aliens suggests we’ve always been in contact with them, for at least 500,000 years. Don’t leave out the aliens!

Write (vrite) your scenes with VR TV in mind

If you want to make it easier for a future script writer to discover your story and create an immersive experience from it, think about all your scenes as though there is space in the middle for a constantly moving camera.

I call this ‘vriting.’ (Oh, look, he’s replaced the ‘w’ with a ‘v’ so that the word has VR in it. LOL.)

When you vrite, you should have three things happening in the scene. The camera should be able to be placed in the center of three characters, or two characters and a screen, so that if you were there, with a VR screen, you could turn around and see the characters talking to each other, or turn to see the screen and hear the characters behind you.

As more and more people get immersed in VR, normal writing will seem a bit staid and boring. A character walks down the street? Two characters side by side talking? No, these are less immersive scenes. Not much is going on. New readers will see old stories like this as endless padding. Make sure you have a lot of things going on at once, and you’ll be able to grab the attention of younger readers.

If you’re unsure what I mean, just check out a Marvel movie. The camera rarely stops moving. It is continually tracking moving characters and screens, turning back and forth. Scenes rarely last more than 3 seconds. If you want to write for future generations, take on the vriting style where possible.

There has been a steady decline in reading over the past hundred years, only propped up with the increase in babies being born. Eventually, if we don’t change our writing styles for future generations, readers will continue to disappear. I doubt anyone will be reading books or ebooks in 200 years anyway, so make the most of those remaining upcoming years by writing with VR in mind.

 

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Alien Invasion, Aliens, Articles

Alienophobia

By NeilA

Alienophobia

Fear of Aliens and Alien Invasions

The fear that people feel, who suffer from this affliction, is based on a need to be in complete control of their lives. They don’t want their current life changed or controlled in any way. The idea of an alien invasion fills them with dread.

Of course, with the number of rules and regulations in our lives, the cultural norms we’re expected to follow, the clothes we need to wear, the behaviour we need to display, and the connections with certain types of people we need to make, we really have no control over anything anywhere ever anyway. We just flit from place to place, swapping one net of standards for another, believing that we have some semblance of control. Try to control when the sun comes up, or the weather, or even the time that your train arrives, and you’ll realize how little control you really have. Not to mention that no one can yet make a light saber fly across the room and into their hand.

So, control is already lost anyway. We’d be just passing what we don’t have to someone else.

Invaded thousands of years ago

Some more esoteric texts and fringe beliefs have explored the possibility that we have had an alien invasion in the past. The series Ancient Aliens, alien channelers, and new age belief systems take this as truth.

Ancient Babylonian texts talk of our previous species being visited by a race of aliens called the Annunaki, an alien splinter group intent on taking gold and other minerals from our planet. They reengineered the human race (then homo habilis) to enable them to work better in the mines, and they subjugated us, had children with us, and then were removed from the planet by their own race, who were horrified at what this fringe group had done to the peace-loving homo habilis.

If this is true, then we’ve already been invaded and we are now the invaders, the descendants of the original invaders 500,000 years ago.

So, the invasion has already happened. Nothing more to worry about!

Original humans

(According to some, the original human species, the original custodians of planet Earth, have already advanced to the point of no longer needing to exist in this reality, and flit in and out of our dimension from time to time just for fun. If we ever saw them, we’d recognize them as sasquatch, big foot or yeti.)

As we cannot yet prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt, let’s leave that in the background and move onto the likelihood of a future alien invasion.

Is it worth getting stressed over?

Future Alien Invasions

Firstly, any aliens capable of travelling the galaxy by avoiding the speed of light limitation must be so incredibly advanced to either a) not need our planet or b) be able to invade and take over in moments. There are planets out there, thousands of times larger than ours. If they were full of trillions of aliens bent on control, and physically strong enough to withstand the higher gravity or a larger planet, of course ours would be invaded in moments.

So, if we are going to be invaded, it won’t be the fear-filled, fight-to-the-last-man or woman style alien invasion that the movies portray. It would be simply billions of ships the size of cars landing everywhere, freezing everyone in force fields and subjugating us, probably within about one hour. So, no stress, and we would then humbly greet our new overlords.

Humans wouldn’t be needed

Of course, if an alien wanted Earth and had all the materials it needed to get what it wanted, what would it need humans for? A simple and quick reengineering of the Ebola virus seeded into every cloud would wipe out the entire human race within days. Or perhaps a spray stimulating anaphylactic shock, ending the human race in hours. Or something more dramatic but slow acting like an asteroid. An alien could even easily detect life signs and send out a pulse that disrupted the electrical signals of living creatures. Then use another device to suck them all up and send them into the sun. Really, if they had wanted to do that, it would have happened a long time ago.

We’re still pretty defenseless. Anything from a major solar flare to a large mass passing by would wipe us out, and hyper-advanced aliens have an endless list of extinction events they could draw on. I think a one hour invasion would be too long.

Aliens that want to mine Earth

Why? Hyper-advanced aliens could recombine atoms to create the matter they needed. If there was a rare element that was difficult to make, and I was just looking for planets full of minerals to mine, I’d build another spherical device that was 100 times the size of the one I planned to mine, full of mining equipment, and simply get it to suck in whole planets, extract what I needed and spit out the useless dust. I wouldn’t even think about considering the life signs on the planet. Douglas Adams explored this concept in the story ‘The Pirate Planet‘ in the TV series Doctor Who. Why would you bother with an invasion? Just suck the planet into your mining system, process it, and compress what remained.

No invasion needed.

Alien Tourists

In conclusion, if you are worrying about an alien invasion, I hope these few points might help you to overcome the fear and push forward with enjoying your life. Live in the moment, and don’t get caught up in something that, if it could have happened, would have already happened. It is either highly unlikely to happen or, even if it did, be over in an hour.

Having said that, my personal belief is that any aliens planning to come to Earth will be friendly, peaceful and want to learn more about us. Much like human tourists today.

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Aliens, Science, SF Related TV

Review of Ancient Aliens “Earth’s Black Holes”

By NeilA

Review of Ancient Aliens “Earth’s Black Holes”

Playgrounds for Exotic Physics

One of my guilty pleasures is chilling with a glass of wine while watching the latest Ancient Aliens. For a science fiction writer, it is full of pieces of gold that could be weaved into the next short story, or a one-liner that helps expand on a futuristic environment. I thoroughly recommend it, if only to broaden your perceptions.

Earth’s Black Holes

Earth’s Black Holes was surprising in that it not only gave some really serious science (with actual interviews with real scientists) and some fantastic imagery of black holes (along with some dramatic voice-overs) it was creative and accessible enough that I’m sure many kids would have loved this episode.

Physicists

An integral part of the first section was the research done at the SLACK national accelerator laboratory. Commentary was provided by Michael Dennin Ph.D Physicist at the University of California – Irvine, and John Brandenburg Ph. D Plasma Physicist at Orbital Technologies. Fascinating stuff.  I had always thought that black holes were collapsed stars, involving intense gravity, and the cessation of various physical laws. But black holes can be created by other means, especially via just about any kind of vortex. Gravitational, electromagnetic, you name it. Get rid of some electrons in a certain way, and a vortex or hole will automatically appear.

Portals through space / time

I was interested in the idea that the SF trope about black holes being a portal through space / time could actually be true in a smaller sense. The environment of Earth, even just the weather, is ripe for portal creation. The idea of any part of the environment forming a vortex that could transport you through space / time is quite attractive for me, and has probably contributed to thousands of Science Fiction and Fantasy stories over the decades for other writers, too. (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, anyone?)

Aliens!

Of course, the basic premise of Ancient Aliens is to make sure that any idea mentioned ends up making some kind of connection with aliens. So, of course, these portals or pockets created by electromagnetic squalls would be ideal for aliens to visit Earth via, say a quick hi, drop some knowledge, then split again. There was discussion about the South Atlantic Anomaly, and how it is a localized reversal of the EM field across South America, information about how nature can create its own electrodynamic space/time portals, and a lot more.

Compelling Stuff!

Skipping Journeys

I personally loved it because it used an idea that has been a feature of many of my stories for over 10 years, namely finding a way to either flash to another location through instant teleportation, or space folding, or wormholes, or tunnels through space and time. Essentially, I’ve always wanted to get rid of any boring ‘travel’ or unnecessary ‘journey’ paragraphs. (Yes, I’m one of those who has never made it past the first few chapters of Lord of the Rings – OMG a journey??? Saw it at the cinema instead!)

When I was a kid, I used to find stairs so boring that I would simply jump flights of them. My friends would slide or skate down the banisters, but even that was a bit slow for me. Now, if I could find a way to physically and instantly travel almost anywhere in the universe, I’d be very happy, (As would my hips, and probably later my replacement hips.) I’d love to jump about one of the Magellanic Clouds one day!

Ancient Aliens Convention

In its 13th year, the series has become popular enough that it now has its own annual convention, called Alien Con, not only featuring presenters of the programme, but also X-Files and Star Trek luminaries. At the time of writing, David Duchovny, Gates McFadden and Robert Picardo for the June 2018 convention. The marketing is USA-only, so I had to set up a fake USA address to find out more from the robot system, but I’ve since been in contact with one of the organizers of the convention, and things look like they’re going to be pretty wild.

As a brand, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos is well known, and it would be great to rub shoulders with him, learn a bit about the behind the scenes stuff that goes on. Meeting Erich Von Daniken would also be a highlight, and he’s not in as many episodes as I’d like. I read his book in the 70s, and was quite taken with it. Chariots of the Gods. It has probably influenced quite a lot of my SF writing over the years, so I’m sure a convention would elicit more interesting insights from him that would not otherwise be seen in a restricted 40 minute format.

Unfortunately, beyond my budget

Most tickets have already sold out (US$549 Gold Pass!) A 14h flight from Melbourne to Pasadena (AU$1500) plus accommodation (US$200pn) plus food and drinks and local travel (probably lots of drinks!) I’d be expecting to pay, at a bare minimum, about AU$4000 for the weekend. So, hopefully there’ll be some Youtube videos afterwards.

If you want to know more about the Ancient Aliens Convention, check out the website here:

The Alien Con

Being a writer, I wanted to know how much I could advertise my book Alien Frequency in their programme guide for. Unfortunately, a bit beyond my budget. US$1000 for a page – more than I earn in a month! (Quarter pages available for US$300)

Maybe next year.