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Live Long And . . .
I stood in the middle of the pasture and looked up at a star filled night. Growing up on a farm out in the middle of Nowhere, Louisiana God gave me a gift I would not appreciate for years. Living so far away from city lights, every night sky gleamed and glittered with a celestial light show. I saw the Milky Way stretching across a sky filled with twinkling stars. Points of light moved across the expanse as satellites and spaceships soared in orbit. I lost count of the many falling stars. On this night, at the age of 11, I wanted one thing and one thing only. I wanted to meet Mr. Spock.
I grew up in the golden age of science fiction television: Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Lost in Space. At the age of 11, I was growing increasingly tired of the silly and overly dramatic Dr. Smith ruining every effort of the Robinson family to get home to Earth. Perhaps it was because of my growing maturity. Maybe it was because of my evolving ability to write stories.
In September, 1966 something life changing happened. I had seen commercials for this show and I decided to give it a try. Star Trek. The very first episode was about a salt vampire. Yes, there was that vampire angle again! But the story? Amazing! The characters? Riveting. I was hooked!
And now I waited, eyes fixed on the distant stars reaching out with my “Vulcan” mind meld to any alien life form flying by. Come by and pick me up! Take me to outer space!
Nothing happened. I wish I could say I have had a close encounter with a UFO, now a UAP, or an ET. This side of a movie or theme park ride, I haven’t. My fascination with these phenomena did not wane. And as part of my apologetic training, I had to ask the question, “Are we alone? If the universe is filled with life, why is it so silent?” These questions prompted me to write many potential science fiction novels. Naturally, I wanted to work one of these novels into “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel” and “The 10th Demon: Children of the Bloodstone” was born. I recently re-edited the book mainly for grammatical errors and then created a new cover. Here is it is:
I have also taken “The 7th Demon” and “The 5th Demon” and combined them into one book. Both books were supposed to be in one volume but the pandemic interfered. I have now combined both books into one large book, “The Pandora Stone: Demons 7, 6, & 5”.
And to make life easier, I have combined all ten books into three volumes. “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel Volume 1” contains “Demon 13”, “Demon 12”, and “Demon 11”. Volume 2 contains “The 10th Demon”, “The 9th Demon”, and “The 8th Demon”. Volume 3 contains “The Pandora Stone”, “The 4th Demon”, and “The 2nd Demon”.
Don’t forget, “Death By Darwin” is technically a prequel to the Chronicles and Ruth Martinez figures heavily in the last books. And Dr. Jack Merchant now has his own series “Shadow Merchant” and “Merchant of Justice.”
And now, the full reveal of the cover of the last book, “The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli” which will be available as soon as the final cover is finished and the book is uploaded for distribution. I will post a blog announcing it!
I Want to Believe!
I’m old enough to say I totally geeked out over the X-Files television show back in the 90’s. In fact, I would put myself right up there with Spooky Mulder in saying, “I want to Believe!”. I grew up in the countryside outside of the tiny hamlet of Blanchard, Louisiana and my night skies were brilliant and clear. There were many nights I would take an old blanket out and place it on the ground, recline and just watch the stars go by. Many times, I would see meteorites falling to the Earth streaking across the sky in brief brilliance. I watched as satellites blinked and slowly made their way across the darkness. One night, in coordination with a broadcast on network television, I watched one of the Gemini spacecraft soar across the heavens, a tiny blinking white dot against the cosmos.
I yearned, I longed, I even prayed to see a UFO. Just once, I wanted a flying saucer to land on my front lawn. Back then, aliens were not quite as hostile in their fictional depiction. It was the age of Progress, a time enlightened by the success of the American space program. Our hope was the stars. Our future lay beyond the solar system. Star Trek promised a future Utopian society where racism, sexism, disease, hunger, and strife were a thing of the past. If we could only get out there! And, in our unyielding optimism, we knew that friendly, highly educated aliens were just waiting for us to mature to a level that could withstand the truth of their existence.
Lights in the Sky and Little Green Aliens — A Contest!
The night sky was black velvet sprinkled with a million tiny diamonds. It was mid June and the air was thick with the fragrance of honeysuckle. Fireflies blinked lazily in the darkness. Crickets and frogs sang their choral arrangement to the heavens.
I was two hundred feet from the warm, yellow pool of light at the back door of my house, wrapped in inky darkness. At age ten, I was definitely creeped out by the dark, especially the kind of dark we had in the country. I could barely see my hands in front of my face as I emptied the trash into our trash bin.
The crickets stopped. The frogs fell silent. The night smothered me in deafening humidity and above me, the stars were eclipsed by something blacker than black; darker than dark moving above the tree limbs. I gasped for breath, paralyzed with fear as the thing moved silently across the heavens; heavy and ominous. My hair stood on end and I could hardly breath.
I dropped the trash can and fumbled in my pocket for the matches I had brought to burn the trash. The small box of matches exploded under my clumsy efforts and matches showered away into darkness. One was left barely hanging in the box. I grabbed it and stroked it against the side of the box. The blue sparks were swallowed by the night. Finally, the match burst into flame; brighter than the sun pushing the night away. I dropped it into paper wadded in the trash bin and the trash caught fire, light spilling all over me. I looked up. The stars were back. The crickets and frogs tuned up slowly and returned to their symphony. I ran to the back door, into the porch light, into the house and back to sanity.
I don’t know what I saw that night. For years, I tried to reason my way around the object that hovered above me. I knew that our house, although far away in the country often had airplanes fly over from the nearby Barksdale Air Force Base. Maybe it was an experimental aircraft. Maybe it was a weather balloon. All I know is it was an unidentified flying object; a UFO.
I am currently writing the fourth book in the Jonathan Steel Chronicles. It will be about UFOs, aliens, and alien abduction. Based on the information in one of my favorite books, “Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men” I hope to explore the mythology of UFOs and E.T.s.
I am announcing a special contest beginning today and ending in two weeks. I want to hear your stories. Have you ever seen a UFO? Have you ever had a “close encounter”? For the next two weeks, I would like for you to send me your story. Include your name and address and the top ten entries, as judged by me, will receive an autographed copy of “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”.
I will publish the top ten stories in this blog in the month of July so look to the night sky and tell me about your special “encounter” with a UFO!!!! Send your stories via the contact tab.
Bruce Hennigan 
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