When writing fantasy and sci fi stories,
writers often tap into the great and glorious world of time-honored mythology
to anchor their books in the fantastic. I accessed this ancient well of story
fodder in my first series, The Akasha Chronicles, steeped in Celtic mythology and lore. It was great fun to
research ancient myths and legends and explore how they still speak to us in
our modern world.
But when I set out to write a new science
fiction series (H.A.L.F.), I decided to focus on modern myth, legend and lore
by focusing on alien mythology and the government conspiracies related to it.
When writing H.A.L.F., I assumed that the myths surrounding the Roswell crash
event were true. What if a flying saucer crashed in the desert on a
ranch near Roswell in 1947? What if the military did, in fact, recover not only
crash debris but also alien bodies?
It’s against this “mythical” backdrop that H.A.L.F.: The Deep Beneath is set. I
chose not to create wholly new myth, but to add my own spin to some of the now
nearly universally known stories of alien encounters.
I’ve been fascinated with all things mythical,
paranormal and supernatural since childhood. I read every book in my school’s
small library in the “Supernatural” section. I think I read A Wrinkle in Time two or three times.
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| Roswell Crash, Roswell UFO Museum |
It’s no surprise that as an adult I’m intrigued
by alien mythology (and my own sighting of the “Phoenix Lights” in 1997 fueled
this further). As I read books on the UFO phenomenon, MUFON newsletters, toured
the Roswell museum, and watched every documentary I could find about ET’s and
UFOs, the more fascinated I became with the idea that a new mythology has
developed over the past seventy years or so. Aliens have become our new “gods”.
The idea that we were created not by a divine being or merely by the process of
natural selection, but that we exist due to ancient aliens meddling with the
gene pool on Earth has grown from fringe thinking to reality for many people.
This thinking has been popularized and perpetuated by writers such as Erich von
Dรคniken (Chariots of the Gods),
Zecharia Sitchin (The 12th
Planet and other books), and by the show “Ancient Aliens” on the history
channel.
Keeping with the idea that aliens have become
our new “gods”, ETs almost always have “supernatural” powers of some kind. The
idea that a being from out there – from the heavens – will descend to our plane,
possess powers beyond our own and become a savior is a popular theme of legend
and myth. The continued popularity of characters such as Superman and Thor
(both aliens) attest to the idea that humans look to “out there” to help us
solve our problems. We can’t seem to get enough of these humanoid characters
that are relatable yet better than we are. They’re smarter, stronger, and have
abilities we can only dream of. Perhaps these characters fulfill our wishes,
dreams and desire to be bigger and better than ourselves. Or maybe it’s our
fear of the dangers that plague our world – from natural disasters to war and
terrorism – that fuels our unquenchable need for superheroes to descend from
the heavens and help us out of this mess.
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| H.A.L.F.: The Deep Beneath, Audibook |
I had all of this in mind when writing The Deep Beneath. The story centers on a
human main character, Erika Holt, and a human-alien hybrid character, H.A.L.F.
9 (aka Tex). In the first draft, Tex was a bit cute. He was more a mix of E.T. and Paul than like the murderous aliens in “Independence Day”. But as I
got deeper into the project, I realized that a “cute” alien-human didn’t work.
He was, after all, created (in my fictional world) to be a weapon. He’d been
intentionally deprived of normal social interactions with humans and his
education and access to information limited to what his creators deemed
relevant. He needed to be more dangerous and less cute.
While reworking the character, I endowed Tex
with telekinesis. It seemed a logical ability for him to have as he has far
greater intelligence than a typical human (and a trait often linked to the
greys which is where Tex’s alien DNA comes from). Tex has access to regions of
his brain that most humans aren’t even aware they have. Tex has some other
abilities but I’ll leave those as a surprise for the reader!
But I think the overarching reason that I write
–and read – science fiction is to examine, through “alien” eyes, what it means
to be human. Through alien characters, we can look at ourselves. Maybe this is
what makes them so much fun to read, watch – and to write.
