Finishing a UFO Book

Wow, I'm down to the last chapter in my Hynek bio!

It's a weird feeling, let me tell you. I've been lugging this book around for 4 years, and in a matter of a few weeks I'll be sending it out into the world. Well, to my publisher, at any rate. And from there, who knows?

Dr. J. Allen Hynek (1910-1986)

When I look back on this project, several things amaze me:

• I have found amazing people and stories that I never ever would have dreamed of getting into this book when I started out.
• I have had to leave out mountains of material, but it's still a ripping good story (and all the material I couldn't fit in the book will make for a series of really wonderful podcasts).
• I know more about J. Allen Hynek than I know about my wife.
• My understanding and appreciation of the UFO phenomenon has been completely transformed.
• There are some jaw-dropping surprises in Hynek's story.
• Speaking of jaw-dropping, Hynek was either written up in or wrote articles for some of the finest titty magazines in the business. 
• Also speaking of jaw-dropping, the bad guys in the story are very unexpected, and very, very bad.
• Hynek could be an incredibly funny dude, a quality that is sorely lacking in many UFOlogists.
• I did end up writing about Roswell, but only after finding some amazing quotes from Hynek about his true feelings about saucer crash stories.
• A LOT of people loved and respected the guy.
• People who took his astronomy classes decades ago still have fond memories of him.
• I want to be more like Hynek.

Also, this:

That Juno probe that just entered into orbit around Jupiter? Should have been named after Hynek (and should have included a Lego Hynek).

UFO-curious?

The publisher's deadline for my Hynek book is fast approaching, and I am happy to say that the final chapters are coming together very well. There will be lots of surprises for both the UFO die-hards and the UFO-curious. Wish I could say more, but then you wouldn't need to buy the book!

Yes, this is still happening: the exact opposite of unique and fascinating.

Let's just say that I have found some very unique sources for information about Dr. J. Allen Hynek's work as a UFOlogists, and they have provided me with some fascinating material regarding everything from hypnotism to alien abductions to saucer crashes, and much, much more! The cool thing about these sources and this material was that a lot of it was right under my nose, hiding in plain sight the whole time, and the rest of it just came fluttering through the window and landed in my lap just in the past few weeks, at the exact moment that I needed it. Which, for UFO lore, is really quite appropriate.

Speaking of unique, fascinating takes on the UFO phenomenon, here's a brilliant article my son turned me on to this week, about UFOs, aliens, Roswell, Area 51, the atomic age and the American southwest. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the topic...