Author: kmcorby

kmcorby at yahoo dot com

My Thoughts on the Pentagon UAP Report

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 I’ve always loved weird science. Since I was a little kid reading the TIME LIFE Mysteries of the Unexplained books at the public library.  UFOs, Bigfoot, poltergeists, all of it. The Philadelphia Experiment. “Fortean phenomena.” Weird science. I love it! It fires my imagination.

I’ve been studying the UFO phenomenon my entire life.

So I have some thoughts about the Pentagon report on “Unexplained Aerial Phenomena” that dropped last week.

Much of the “UFO community” are infuriated at what they find to be weak tea, after 70 years of waiting.

But really, anyone who thought the report was going to include high-definition video of classic flying discs was letting their imagination run away with them.

If you read carefully, there are two major changes of policy in this report. 

First, the report says, “UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security.” [emphasis mine]

Since the Blue Book era onwards, the official position has been that UFOs/UAP represent no threat to national security. 

Second, the report suggests the phenomenon requires actual scientific study to increase understanding.

The conclusion of the Condon Report back in the 1960s stated that there was no scientific value to studying the phenomenon. This gave the Air Force the excuse it wanted to shutter Project Blue Book. 

Actually, three policy changes, now that I think of it — there are now formal procedures for the military to report UAPs.  

Previously, doing so could end a pilot’s or a scientist’s career through ridicule and ostracization.

This represents a 180 degree turn from previous policy. For generations, the official government position was ridicule and obfuscation. “Swamp gas.”

Now, suddenly UAPs are a threat to national security requiring rigorous scientific study (and more funding.)

Why? What changed?  

Mind, I don’t think it’s great that the phenomenon is suddenly being couched as a threat, a potential enemy.

But at least “the powers that be” are taking it seriously. 

They’re spoon-feeding us information here. But they ARE feeding us.  That is a huge change. 

Here is the report, so you can read it yourself. It’s only nine pages. Including two appendixes.

Make of it what you will.

Saddling Up and Riding into the Sunset

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Concept art from ecological architect Vincent Callebaut
WIKIPEDIA: KOMA MODULAR CONSTRUCTION

The plague year changed things for me. Changed how I think about things. I had a non-Covid-related health scare myself last year — I was in hospital during the spring lockdown. It was rough and scary. Since then, I’ve thought a lot about what I value, what I want to do with my life. Which may not suddenly be as long as I always imagined. (My family is long-lived. I have grandparents on both sides who lived to be 100.)

So when my employer, ravaged by the Covid depression, offered early retirement at the end of the year — I took it.

When my friend Christian Martin moved out to LA a couple years ago to try to break into TV writing, I was happy for him. But I was ravaged by regret for myself. That I hadn’t done the same and given writing my all when I was young. That I had always played it safe.

I should have taken that leap of faith. I should have bailed on one of my succession of shitty McJobs, told my boyfriend (now husband) that he had to support us for a year, and worked full time on writing. Given it all of my energy and attention. Who knows how far I might have gone?

So, when the retirement option appeared, I thought, People don’t often get a second chance like this. A chance to make writing my full focus while I still have some energy and mental focus left.

(Okay, I’m making it sound like I’m at death’s door. I’m not. I’m managing my issues and doing well. But when I first got sick I was in a dark place for a while, and it colored my subsequent thinking.)

So I took it. The chance. It’s not even like I’m throwing myself on the mercy of the universe. I have a pension — that’s unheard of for Generation X! It’s less than I made, but better than I expected. And if things get tight, I can always get another job.

So, this year I have been working finishing my latest book. It is almost ready for publication. The genre is Solarpunk and the title is THE PONO WAY. I’ll tell you more about it in subsequent posts.

Come along with me as I put some actual skin in the game. Wish me luck!

Random Atlantis Swag: Collectible Coins

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I’m not the only person obsessed with Atlantis. The lost civilization still has a pull on the human soul.

From time to time I come across Atlantis-themed kitsch or items in popular culture, and I like to share them here.

The latest one is a Kickstarter campaign from a company called Drawlab, offering a series of collectible coins as TTRPG props, one of which is Atlantis themed:

Here are the Atlantis coins:

Of course they look submerged, that is the popular conception, even though my Atlantis is pre-diluvian.

But needless to say, I’ll be backing this project. How about you?

Random Atlantis Swag: A Human Being!

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My first book, Daughter of Atlas, is an historical fantasy about the Fall of Atlantis.

As an Atlantis obsessive, it amuses me to see random stuff named after Atlantis out in the wild. It can be the strangest things.

For example, this Tweet about the stupid kids partying at Spring Break has a young man in it named Atlantis Walker!

How come I never thought of that? I could have named one of my cats Atlantis!

Vegas, baby!

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I’m in Las Vegas for the 20 Books to 50K indie author convention, the largest of its kind in the world. 1000 indie authirs, and reps from a lit if the big players in the field – Amazon, Reedsy, Bookfunnel and more. I hope to bring back some good information for my indie peeps.

In the meantime here is a picture of a cat trying to help pack.

See this Instagram photo by @kcorbyauthor https://www.instagram.com/p/B4siZGynCb6/?utm_source=ig_web_button_native_share

Putting the Brand Out There 2: Marketing Boogaloo

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I’m trying to stop screwing around, and get more serious about my branding and marketing efforts, now that I have a new book ready to come out, The Pono Way. (Oh yeah, I have a new book ready to come out. More about that later.)

To that effect, I created some new social media pages for myself, for my author identity. Here they are:

On Twitter: @AuthorCorby https://twitter.com/AuthorCorby

On Facebook: @kirstencorbyauthor https://www.facebook.com/kirstencorbyauthor/

On Instagram: @kcorbyauthor https://www.instagram.com/kcorbyauthor/

On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2914295.Kirsten_M_Corby

And of course, you can always email me at: kirsten@kirstencorby.com

Follow them! And I’ll follow you. Let’s all follow each other’s accounts in a big daisy chain and rip a hole in the space-time continuum!

They say you shouldn’t exhaust yourself posting to every social media platform, but stick to the ones you like and feel comfortable with. I use all of these personally, but for different things. We’ll see which ones work for me as an author. I kind of hate Twitter, but it has a dedicated #WritingCommunity, so you kind of have to be there right now. I’m on Facebook personally all the time, so that will probably stick around. Instagram is image-based — you can’t post without an image — but you can also right surprisingly long captions. And it has a committed #Bookstagram community too, so it’s good to try and hook into that.

Two years from now, this may all have changed, of course. But you can see my current contacts, whatever they may be, on my Contacts page.

Indie Author Day Report

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IAD_group
Indie Authors!

Indie Author Day at my library was a success! Ten people attended, just the right amount for our small meeting room. Most of them were indies who had already published a book or two, or were working on one. So we had a very collegial discussion.

Author Rob Cerio presented on “How to Know When Your Manuscript Is Ready” – technically as well as artistically.

IMG_2865
“The” Rob Cerio

Romance Author Farrah Rochon spoke about being a “hybrid author,” one who publishes both with a traditional publisher and independently. When the rights to her early novels for Harlequin Romance reverted back to her, she re-published them independently, while continuing to work with other New York publishers.

One thing Farrah said which I found very interesting, is that she feels her trad-published books provide her with discovery — marketing, being in brick and mortar bookstores — but her indie books are where she earns more money these days. That seems like a sound strategy, I wonder how many authors are trying that.

Farrah
Farrah Rochon

Author Zach Bartlett, who is also one of my librarian coworkers, presented on working with a small press, which is kind of in between indie and trad: you can get into bookstores, get professional book production, but you usually don’t earn an advance, and have to do a lot of marketing yourself.

I also want to thank my workshop partner, Xavier DeSoto, who came by to help me set up for the event, and took the pictures. Thanks, Xavier, that support meant a great deal to me!

We also watched several education videos from the Indie Author day website, on topics like designing a book cover and marketing. They had good information.

There is some other useful stuff on that website, which we didn’t get to, or wasn’t appropriate for the venue. Ingram Spark, the POD publishing arm of the book distributor Ingram, has a podcast about indie publishing, and there are a couple episodes of it there, on Print on Demand publishing, and on using ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers, the UPC code for a paper book that allows it to be ordered and moved through the various retail systems, including library purchasing.)

There are two videos about leveraging Wattpad for your writing platform, which I found very interesting. Wattpad has always gotten very mixed reviews, but it obviously works for some people. It even has its own publishing imprint now, and a development arm that shops Wattpadder’s stories to Hollywood for film and TV. Are Wattpadders being fairly compensated for that? I don’t know, you would certainly have to do your research.

There is a PDF “Guide to Self Publishing” from Elite Authors, which has some solid information in it, if you can hack your way through the hard, hard sell on the first five or so pages.

You can also see what went on at other libraries across the country on social media by using the hashtag #indieauthorday2019 on Twitter and Instagram.

All in all, my day went very well and I hope to do the same next year. Next year, Indie Author Day is on November 7, and it is being co-marketed with Nanowrimo. So we have to think of some way of combining the two. Maybe a day-long write-in, with breaks for workshops, games, and food.

Attendees, stay in touch. Let’s work together over the course of the year. I hope to see you all next year!

Thoughts?

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I heard Billy Joel’s song “Only the Good Die Young” on the radio. And I thought, “Man, this is kind of ugly. I don’t think this would fly in today’s climate. Mocking this girl’s religion and pressuring her into sex?”

And yet. It’s just a song. Maybe we have gotten too sensitive these days.

Thoughts?

Indie Author Day

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IAD-Flyer-2019

I will be hosting Indie Author Day at my library tomorrow from 11:00 AM — 3:00 PM.  Please stop in if you are interested in self or independent publishing, and to get an idea of what’s involved.

Local authors Farrah Rochon, Rob Cerio, Zach Bartlett and myself will be presenting.

Robert E. Smith Library, 6301 Canal Blvd, corner of Harrison Avenue.

Happy #indieauthorday to all!

Putting the Brand Out There

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Some of the people in my writer’s workshop, and others, have started a second group to work on marketing our indie books together.  We have been meeting to study up on indie marketing and draw up actions plans to publicize our books.

The first thing to do, is to provide a professional presence for your books and yourself as a writer on social media.  Facebook, Twitter, whatever you like to use. A website/blog is also a essential.  Look for some changes at this blog in the future.  For example, I changed the primary domain name from atlantisfallen.net to kirstencorby.com, to reflect the fact that my current work in progress is not the next book in my imagined “Atlantis Fallen” series, but a science fiction novel.  The website is currently about all my writing, not just Atlantis Fallen.

The next step is to create a Facebook page:  Kirsten Corby, Author. Again, advertising myself, the author, not just Atlantis Fallen, the books.  I can always create an Atlantis Fallen Group or Page later, once I finish the next book, which is currently called, The Gift of the Lion . 

I’m thinking about Twitter or Instagram.  I kind of hate Twitter, but it has a strong #WritingCommunity based around that hashtag — it even has a newsletter.  Instagram has a friendlier vibe.  But the fact is, I’m already wondering about good, useful content to post on FB and more regularly here.  Not sure I can generate worthwhile content for four different platforms.

I’ll update if I add those platforms.  But probably, it’s better to concentrate on what I already have, this blog, and my new FB page.  Please visit it and tell me what you think: Kirsten Corby, Author.

Oh, there’s also Goodreads — I have a page there — but that’s a whole other thing. We’ll talk about that later.