It’s much like a first-person shooter video game (which is why it’s called a first-person shooter video game), in which a player inhabits a single character while everything else comes charging at him from off-screen.
The downside of this narrative structure is that an author can no longer be an omniscient storyteller, which I found to be a scary proposition. The main character has to be center stage for the entire novel, with the camera never leaving his or her face. The reader can only know what the main character knows, and can’t gain insight into anything happening offstage.
Yikes! I found these to be pretty daunting constraints.
And yes, I’m fully aware that millions of authors have managed to successfully write a first-person novel, I just wasn’t sure if I could be one of them. I’d like to think my plots are fairly complex, with any number of twists, turns, and reveals, and I’ve always believed that this type of plot doesn’t really lend itself to this style of narrative.
In the end, as you know, I was able to at least finish the novel, all in first person, and I was happy with how it turned out. All I can do is hope that you are too.
Either way, it was fun for me to try something new, and it got me out of my rut for a while.
I guess you can teach an old Doug a new trick, after all.
MY FANTASY CHAPTER: I decided to write the epilogue the way I did for two reasons. First, I did feel that this gave the novel an interesting symmetry, with Jason’s appearance on the Mark Russell podcast bookending the novel at both ends.
But more importantly, since I was old enough to dress myself, even though I was skeptical of UFOs, I dreamed of a time when humanity might get actual answers about life in our galaxy, about the presence of other intelligent races orbiting other stars, and if we had ever been visited by extraterrestrials. Clear answers. Unambiguous answers.
Given recent events, I’ve longed for this even more. Wouldn’t it be amazing if someone who had all the answers finally came out publicly and provided them? Along with proof of the veracity of this information?
Revelations such as these are getting harder and harder to imagine. Truth, itself, seems to have become as elusive as a unicorn, something twisted endlessly by politicians and the media in the quest for power, ratings, and the promotion of individual agendas.
But wouldn’t it be something if UFOs were to land on the White House lawn and other such residences around the globe? If the world were finally told the truth? No games. No hedging. Just pure, undiluted answers to the greatest question ever asked—are we alone in the universe?
I have to admit, I’ve come to believe that monkeys will fly out of my . . . ears . . . before this will ever happen. So I decided to make it happen—at least in the pages of a novel. Write one of my ultimate fantasies, which is embodied by the epilogue.
I’d give anything for this to happen in real life, but since I’m convinced it never will, at least I was able to briefly imagine what this might be like. I suspect that most of you out there would also find clear revelations presented in this way to be a dream come true.
I only wish I had the power to fulfill this fantasy for all of us.
BEING A WRITER IN THE AGE OF TARGETED MARKETING: We’ve all noticed lately how proactive advertising has become. It’s almost as if the advertisers are in your head. You look at an image of a pair of shoes, and suddenly you’re seeing ads for shoes on your computer and Facebook feed, getting shoe emails from Amazon and other retailers, and so on.
I’ve had friends swear to me that they just spoke of a product, didn’t even look it up, and got bombarded with ads the same day. (Their theory is that their phone, or Alexa, or some other gadget with a microphone, heard what they were saying and dutifully passed it on to hungry advertisers.) I bring this up only because I often have to laugh at the advertisements I receive while researching a novel. I get ads for automatic pistols, combat knives, bullet-proof vests, and night-vision equipment. For UFO documentaries and UFO books. For vacations to Australian national parks, and for tranquilizer guns.
So far, I haven’t seen any ads for mercenary soldiers, poisons, knock-out gas, or mini-EMP devices (which do actually exist), but it’s only a matter of time.
What UFO information presented in chapters 1-4 is real? (hint: all of it) The first four chapters of Unidentified contain information that is as accurate as I could make it, and I won’t attempt to add anything here.
Obviously, if you have more interest in the subject, you can do a Google search on UFOs, UAVs, and so on, and you’ll find enough reading material to last ten lifetimes.
To help you narrow it down, I’ve listed references below that I used for this novel or thought might be of particular interest. You can either click on the links (underlined), or, if you’d prefer not to access them from your Kindle, you can just Google the titles and find them on your phone, laptop, or desktop.
Transcript of 60 Minutes broadcast referenced in the novel: UFOs Regularly Spotted in Restricted US Airspace, Report on the Phenomena Due Next Month
Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles in the 2004 Nimitz Encounter (Referenced in the novel, calculates estimated speed, G-forces, energy release, and so on, of UAVs during the Nimitz encounter).
Issued Patent: Craft Using an Inertial Mass Reduction Device (US10144532B2)
Issued Patent: Electromagnetic Field Generator and Method to Generate an Electromagnetic Field (US10135366B2)
Docs Show Navy Got UFO Patent Granted by Warning of Similar Chinese Tech Advances
US Navy controls inventions that claim to change “fabric of reality”
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Report to Congress. Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
Defense Intelligence Agency Sponsored Report: Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions
Defense Intelligence Agency Sponsored Report: Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy