UFO Anniversaries!

It has occurred to me that marketing my bio of Dr. J. Allen Hynek could be very fun, and very easy. Turns out UFO world is just one big continuous marketing bonanza...

The current goal is for publication sometime in late 2015 or early 2016. It just so happens that a whole hell of a lot of significant UFO events took place in very convenient years, and will mark major anniversaries in the anticipated timeframe of the publication of my book.

Just take a look at this tantalizing list:

• August 21, 2015:     60th Anniversary of the "Kelly-Hopkinsville Little Green Men" invasion, Kelly, KY
• September 3, 2015: 50th Anniversary of the "Incident at Exeter," Exeter, NH
• November 5, 2015: 40th Anniversary of the Travis Walton abduction case, Snowflake, AZ
• December 9, 2015: 50th Anniversary of the "Kecksburg Incident," Kecksburg, PA
• March 21, 2016:     50th Anniversary of the "Dexter-Hillsdale Swamp Gas" case, Dexter & Hillsdale, MI

Of this bunch, the two hyphenates -- Kelly-Hopkinsville and Dexter-Hillsdale -- are the most closely associated with Hynek, and therefore the juciest anniversaries to exploit.

I've never been able to figure what the hell he's pointing at...

Hynek spent four days on the ground investigating Dexter-Hillsdale for Project Blue Book, with disastrous results. And, while he was unable to do much investigative work of his own on Kelly-Hopkinsville, he did work closely with the two civilian investigators, Bud Ledwith and Isabel Davis, who did such a cracker-jack job investigating the incident that the Air Force ended up pretty much cribbing their work. Hynek was so fascinated and puzzled by this case, and so impressed with the work of Ledwith and Davis, that he discussed the matter at length in not one but two of his books.

Still, I think the date I need to shoot for is March 21, 2016, the anniversary of the legendary Dexter-Hillsdale sightings, the case that, paradoxically, made Hynek both a pariah and a hero. Also, I don't think I can write fast enough to make the Kelly-Hopkinsville anniversary.

And just in case I can't make that deadline, I have a fallback: The 30th anniversary of Hynek's death will occur on April 27, 2016.

That's a whole month and 6 days extra.