Throughout my Other Worldly novels, I’ve had a grand adventure addressing—and sometimes solving with flagrant literary license—myriad mysteries involving aliens of the extraterrestrial kind, including the infamous Roswell, New Mexico, UFO crash, hushed happenings at Nevada’s Area 51, and saucer sightings in places like England’s Rendlesham Forest by US AF personnel in December 1980.
Not to mention divulging the truth about those little green men. Not what you think they are!
I’ve further tackled the mystery of Loch Ness’s fabled aquatic creature Nessie and other ancient Scottish lore in book four, Being Alien, along with one of Nessie’s American counterparts known as Champ in the US in Alien Sensation, book five.
Now, in the imminently launching Altogether Alien, sixth novel of the Other Worldly series, I continue the tradition.
Altogether Alien dives into everything from electromagnetic vortexes causing humans to disappear á la the Bermuda Triangle, to why there are so very many UFO sightings near Washington’s long-dormant volcano Mount Adams, and a supposedly long-gone tropical island reminiscent of Atlantis—or South Pacific’s Bali Hai—known as Lemuria.
I suppose this was bound to happen, given my personal life-long fascination with both Bali Hai and Brigadoon, but who knew my novels would somehow lead me to actually tie them together? To make uncanny connections, as my now aged 60 protagonist (and not feeling all that lovey-dovey about it) Rowan Layne would say.
How I do this involves the flow of lava from volcanoes so very prevalent on Hawaii’s Big Island (and other places in space in my novels, including Venus, aka Lacerta, in Alien Sensation).
Of course, a story awash in tropical isles must also include marvelous marine mammals, both real and imagined. I most definitely take poetic license therein in Altogether Alien, because selkies and mermaids and sirens have long been entwined in ancient Celtic lore, as well as various other cultures of Earth.
Hence, Rowan returns to Scotland in Altogether Alien, back to visit with the “Monster Morag” of Loch Morar, but she also explores a new spot on the uninhabited (by humans) Isle of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides, with its melodious Fingal’s Cave and frolicking sea life.
Rowan’s journey eventually takes her to Hawaii’s lava-spewing Mauna Loa and Kilauea…and beyond. Because Earth isn’t the only planet or distant star with tropical islands, dolphins…or shapeshifting selkies.
Here’s an excerpt from Altogether Alien, wherein Rowan has a fun-loving discussion with a special aquatic entity in an otherworldly locale:
“Dolphins may look like fish, but we have all the characteristics of a mammal. Lungs for breathing air, a backbone”—he waggled his brow—“and females give birth to their young, feeding them milk like humans. A dolphin pregnancy lasts between nine and sixteen months.”
“You better not be communicating that you just got me pregnant.”
[He] laughed, sounding more dolphin than man. “Dolphins are found all over Earth, adaptable to different environments, though underwater noise pollution is a very real threat to their numbers. They’re intelligent and chatty—”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” I grinned, nudging his chest with my nose.
“We communicate by whistles, modulated in frequency through burst-pulsed sounds. And we possess an acute sense of hearing.”
“Maybe I’m part dolphin?”
He tossed me into the water; I came up spluttering and laughing.
“Our brain’s auditory cortex is highly developed. A dolphin’s auditory nerve is about twice the diameter of the human nerve connecting the inner ear to the brainstem, allowing for rapid sound processing. Dolphins actually hear through their lower jaw and are seven times better at it than humans. Except for you.”
While on the Big Island in Altogether Alien, Rowan learns another very important touchy-feely tidbit about dolphins. Did you know that they symbolize unconditional love as a Hawaiian spirit animal?