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“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet, Scene V, William Shakespeare. When I flew from Texas to Vancouver to meet someone I'd only known online and via phone call I had no idea where it would all end. All I knew was that my friend Tiny had an interesting story to tell about aliens and abductions and a lifetime of fear and self-doubt. It was a new angle, a fresh view, an exciting but ominous story of generational experience with "aliens," those spooky and rarely believed to be real beings who hover on the edges of our consciousness, get loads of publicity and ridicule in the media, and occasionally wreck the life of perfectly normal people. They had not wrecked my friend's life but only because they had been a part of her life since she was born. They had not wrecked her life but they sure spun it up and kept her grasping reality with both hands. She wanted to share her story. I wanted to write a book that would sell. I was not disappointed either in the story or my friend. Vancouver is a beautiful city with wonderful people and great Pubs. I spent a week being a tourist during the day and enjoying time with Tiny in the evening. Her story was indeed incredible. But was it true? Who believes stuff like that? After looking into her eyes from across a little table in the local Pub, sharing drinks and walks and long conversations, I believed her. And I knew hers was a story that would definitely fill a niche in the alien/UFO lexicon. The week was way too short. My flight was delayed by hours and I bounced into Texas where thunderstorms were harbingers of more trouble to come. I settled down at my computer as soon as I could and wrote up an encapsulated version of Tiny's story which I sent to the premier magazine of the genre. This would be a great step towards promoting the book and test the water to see how the story would fly. Within a few days, amazingly, I got a letter from the mag publisher saying I had a great story, they wanted to run it, but needed an affidavit from Tiny to verify it was her story. Great! We were on our way! Except we weren't. When I asked for the affidavit she hesitated and then told me she couldn't, "they" would find out, she would be in trouble, she had to remain anonymous. After a few frustrating communications she just vanished. No answer to phone or email. I could not afford to fly back so I was stuck. Was her story a lie? She virtually screamed at me that it wasn't. She was deathly afraid. When she vanished the book, of course, went with her. I could not, however, leave the story alone. I wrote PAWN instead. Much of what happened to her in Vancouver is a part of Laura's backstory in PAWN. There are some dramatic elements I added for effect and I changed the settings and situations but Laura IS a version of Tiny. So buried in this little UFO novel is the real-life story of a beautiful, petite, dark-eyed woman who wanted badly to tell her story but was cut off because of fear and threats.... If you're wondering, a year or so after her disappearance I spoke with her a few times again. She was cryptic, frightened, but insisted yet again her story was real. She also said she'd been fighting a deadly illness. Then she was gone again. Finally, a few years ago, I discovered that the daemons that haunted her finally caught up. She died of that mysterious ailment way, way too early in life. All that's left is notes in a folder, fond memories of a week in Vancouver, and this novel which I share with you.

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