I have an unhealthy addition to Cherry Coke and H2’s Ancient Aliens. The good thing is, both fuel my writing. The Cherry Coke though, is particularly bad for me. I’m trying to quit.

I’m not about to quit Ancient Aliens. I love this show! What I thought was just an interesting two-hour documentary turned into six seasons (so far) of episodes. For a SciFi author, this show is inspirational gold. I’m especially fond of their way of saying “Could (insert some wildly implausible theory) be true? YES!” They don’t say “Is this true? YES!” They very carefully use the words “Could this be?” with every claim.

“Could this be?” is an excellent starting phrase for a SciFi author. This doesn’t mean we strive to predict what will happen or what scientific discoveries will prove to be true. It is our job to put forth as many plausible (and even not-so-plausible) scenarios as possible.

I have several ‘universes’ I write in. My Lunar Shorts are in a very plausible near-future on the moon. My Victoria Pontifex series is set in a re-imagined Steampunk Victorian era. My Kingdom Come stories are about a thousand years in the future on a human colonized planet, with no mention of aliens. I have another universe (tentatively titled The Joined) that deliberately presumes opposite rules from the Kingdom Come universe, including a plethora of aliens for humans to interact with.

My most recently published story is The Genesis of the Incorporeum in The Garden of Eden anthology from Garden Gnome Publications. This story began with the question “Could it be ____?” On Ancient Aliens, the answer is “I’m not saying it was aliens, but…IT WAS ALIENS!” On Ghosthunters, anything they can’t explain in “possible paranormal activity.” For some people, the explanation for mysterious happenings is angels or demons.

I came up with the Incorporeum to give yet another explanation. The Incorporeum are incorporeal creatures native to Earth. They’re not ghosts. They’re not aliens. They live symbiotically with human hosts, but they aren’t constrained by linear time. (I did something similar in my serial novella Synaesthesia, where the humans become incorporeal in order to travel in time.)

The Incorporeum were there in The Garden of Eden, and I’m now working on my story for the Incorporeum’s view of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I’m guest-blogging over at Garden Gnome Publications next week, talking about the Bible as literature. If you’re coming here from there, and you’re wondering about whether I can indeed recite the minor prophets from memory, here it is: