FLYING SAUCER, the story behind a restless novel...

Flying Saucer is available here

What do you do when humanity decides to pump the brakes on the turning of the world?

Take care of some old business, I guess.

Ten years ago, I wrote a novel called Flying Saucer. It was about a struggling musician in Las Vegas who finds herself teaming up with a friend and a couple of strangers in a battle against dark forces from a certain military base near Groom Lake. I put the book through several drafts, sent it to a company who’d published two of my other early novels, and figured I was done with it.

A few years passed, and I kept thinking that Audrey Cole’s story was not done. Unlike any other story or novel I’ve ever written, this thing persisted in the back of my mind, insisting that I'd made a mistake in sending it off and assuming I was done with it. Rework me, rewrite me, write a sequel or a prequel—but you gotta do something, the book said, cause this ain’t over.

In 2017, I took the first step toward appeasing this restless story: I contacted Flying Saucer’s publisher and got the rights back. Feeling motivated, I started on the story again, approaching it from several different directions. None of them led anywhere, and I turned my attention to other projects. It’ll happen when it happens, I told myself. It always does.

It did.

At the end of 2019, a key plot point that had been totally missing from the original incarnation occurred to me (What if Audrey heard her song—“Flying Saucer”—on the radio, performed by her, but she’d never actually recorded it? Wouldn’t that be weird! And it could be explained by…!) With this in mind, I dove back into the story, taking it from the top. Start with the same headlines about missing persons that begin the first version. Move into that same first scene with Audrey as she's struggling with her singing and playing. Start there; see where it takes you. 

This time, the writing went smoothly. 

Flying Saucer is now a much different book. Portions of the first incarnation remain intact, especially in the first third or so of the story. Most of the key characters made the trek to their new home without difficulty…. But most of the book was rewritten entirely. Several plot threads were changed or removed. Most importantly, the theme of the book is totally different. 

And it’s all for the better.

That first version of Flying Saucer was a noble effort at an idea that I really liked but was incapable—at that point—of fully developing.

Despite its inspiration from my personal explorations of the desert north of Las Vegas, despite its title and the story's inclusion of creepy shadow figures from Area 51, Flying Saucer is not a book about aliens or alien vehicles.

It’s a book about a woman who made a poor choice in her life at a time when she should’ve never been asked about her priorities. Will she make things right, when forces she’s incapable of comprehending are working against her? Can she?

These are big questions about big ideas. They deserve proper exploration.

This time, it's all in there.