It all started with the question…WHAT IF?
What if alien material had been smuggled out of the most famous UFO crash in history that happened outside Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 and it was hidden away somewhere…
…and what if, twenty years later, it is now 1966 in the little town of Lake Oswego, Oregon and teenager Melanie Simpson is the only one who can figure out where!
I’ve been fascinated by UFOs ever since I saw one. I was ten years old, sleeping outside with my friends, Keith and Donny, snuggled deep in our sleeping bags (just feet from the house, but camping no less). It was 1965 and we were staring up at the starry night hoping to spot a satellite. It had only been 9 years since the Russians launched Sputnik, but there were already hundreds of satellites in the sky by then. The odds were against seeing something, but we had high hopes.
The occasional falling star kept us focused. Then, sure enough we saw a small white dot slowly move across the sky. We watched it and wondered if it could actually be Sputnik itself. Suddenly, the dot took off at a sharp angle, zigging and zagging across the sky, finally shooting off so fast we lost track of it. All three of us jumped from our bags and raced inside the house. We were NOT going to sleep outside after that. We all knew, right there and then, other intelligent things existed out there, and they were not from our planet.
Many years later, while wandering the aisles of a library I came across a book called The Roswell Incident, by Charles Berlitz and William Moore. Thus, started my infatuation with the crash and cover-up, finding everything I could about it and doing some deep research. It convinced me the crash and cover-up really did happen.
This was about the same time I was working on a young adult novel about two boys and a girl in their teens. The novel takes place in 1966, and it hit me that the timing worked out where Melanie’s father could have been at the crash site. So, I asked myself, what if he smuggled material out and hid it somewhere? And what if the only person who could figure out where were these three teens? So, the novel took off.
Then I realized this wasn’t just a great novel with a different angle, but also a great way to reach out to our younger generations to share what happened so many years ago to the citizens of Roswell, at the Roswell Army Air Field base, and how it was all covered up.
When I attend UFO oriented events, I see a lot of grey. Tops of heads grey. Today’s generations know little about what happened over 70 years ago, or of the many other historical UFO events of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Do you know NICAP had a Youth Council? Why don’t we have something like this today?
In writing The Melanie Simpson Mystery Series from the perspective of young teenagers, I hope to bring these historical events to this new generation, who probably don’t have a clue what happened at Roswell so many years ago. Let us work together to pique their interest. That is why I call it the Push The Truth Forward movement.
Help me push the truth forward to these younger generations. We need darker hair at our symposiums, conferences, and festivals. We need the youth of today to ask…what if?
For those who don’t know about The Roswell Incident: The most famous UFO case in history was the discovery of a crashed flying saucer and alien bodies outside Roswell, New Mexico in July, 1947. The Air Force put out a press release saying they had recovered a flying disk, but recanted the next day, stating it was a big misunderstanding and just a weather balloon. Over the following days the military from Roswell Army Air Field covered it up: They cordoned off the crash sites, recovered the bodies and debris, threatened the local population into silence, and switched out pieces of a weather balloon for the crash material in a big press event. And the most important extraterrestrial incident in history remained buried for years.