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November

The Grays audiobook
Whitley Strieber's next novel, The Grays, will be released on audio CD in both abridged (4cds/5hrs) and unabridged (10cds/13hrs) editions. No word on who the reader(s) or actors will be. Like the hardcover, expect these to be available in stores on or before August 22, 2006.

The Grays film update
Sony Pictures has reserved the URL of www.thegrays-movie.com for the motion picture adaption of Whitley Strieber's's next novel, The Grays. However for the foreseeable future the URL simply lands one at Sony Pictures' main website.

BeyondCommunion.com update
I've done some minor updating of the look of the site, mainly involving changing the font from Times New Roman to a sans sarif font, and putting the title of the website in the left-most column. You can also click on that title to return to the main page, which is a long overdue improvement.

September

New Short Story Published
Kaddish, a new short story by Whitley Strieber, is presented in the anthology Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre by the World's Greatest Horror Writers, edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelbe. Published September 9, 2005. Synopsis unavailable, but according to reviews the story envisions what the world would be like a few years from now if the ultra-conservatives and Christians (the apocalyptic-minded "neoCons") dominate America.
Blurbs about Whitley's story:
"Strieber's 'Kaddish' has a Gothic grandeur that would surely make Flannery O'Connor proud, a story replete with Southerners, Bible-thumpers and comeuppances."—Los Angeles Times
"...a great piece of speculative fiction."—Bookgasm
"...portrays a grim near-future where horror and politics go hand in hand"—Library Journal
"...Strieber contributes the most chilling...a compelling vision of extremism in all its forms."—Locus
The launch party for the book was held on Sunday the 25th, at the Dark Delicacies bookshop in Burbank, CA, founded by co-editor Del Howison. Whitley was reportedly there, but he's not in the photos on their website. On the Dark Delicacies message board Del notes "For those of you who want to read some fun stuff go on Amazon [and] get a load of the right-winger who wants us to tear Whitley Strieber's story out of the book! My suggestion to him is to buy as many copies as he can get his hands on and do just that."

August

The Greys feature film news
Variety is reporting that Sony Pictures will pay screenwriter Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) $3 million for his 75-page "script-ment" (less than a script, but more than a treatment) of Whitley Strieber's as-yet-unpublished alien SF novel The Grays, one of the studio's largest payments for a treatment. The Sci Fi Channel says “It's not clear who'll star in The Grays, but insiders say the lead role is intended for a woman.” More info here.

The Greys publication date planned
The publication date for The Grays, Whitley Strieber's next book about the alien presence on Earth (and elsewhere), is now planned to be sometime in August 2006. This is known because in a recent journal entry he speaks of “...the book that I'm bringing out a year from August...”. The Grays will be published by Tor/Forge. For more information visit this page.

War Day Television Series Proposed
Spyglass Television and Benderspink are said to be preparing a pitch for a show dealing with life in the United States after a major national disaster. Idea is based on the Whitley Strieber novel War Day.

Wikipedia entry updated
On August 5th I added a line of info about The Grays to Whitley's Wikipedia encyclopedia entry, which at that time was very brief. This modification evidently got the attention of Pterodactyler (an English teacher who regularly contributes to Wikipedia) who then wrote a major expansion to Whitley's entry. The Wikipedia entry for him is now as in-depth as that of other contemporary authors. By the way, Pterodactyler says that Whitley's full name is Louis Whitley Strieber. If that is mistaken, Whitley is free to update the info...

More Foreign Cover Art Added
Whitley managed to get a book translated into Slovakian! I am fairly sure the book is Confirmation because the cover has an eyeball motiff vaguely reminiscent of the original US art. Also added a Wolfen cover from Denmark (I think), and the French cover of Lilith's Dream. How about the Swedish cover of WarDay (titled K-Dagen) or the Brazilian paperback cover of Nature's End (or “The Death of Nature”)?
Also turned up cover art of the Hungarian editions of Communion and Tranformation from the early 1990s!
If you recognize any errors regarding country of origin please let me know.

July

If anyone is making a list of songs that refer to aliens...
(and I'm not saying that would have a point)
here's another one.
From Camper Van Beethoven's 2004 album New Roman Times, from the song "Hippie Chix":
They bring the grays into the room / man I say this just ain't for real /
True Christian Church of Texas teaches aliens are the devil /
The grays they tell a different story / of humanity upon the brink /
Of ecological disaster / they have come to save our asses
(I should mention it is a concept album, and the character's statements aren't neccesarily reflective of the opinions of the lyricist).

 

June

BBC Radio4 documentary: Abduction, Alienation, and Reason
We've added Angela Hind's BBC Radio 4 documentary about Dr. John Mack to the subsection of this website which features materials about Dr. Mack. The half hour program is a lovely documentary about a lovely man who left this world too soon. Be sure to listen to the audio and read the related article.

Website updates
I've corrected the links to the websites of various authors, artists, and interviewers whose work infuses this archive of Whitley Strieber's writing career. You will now find proper links to the websites of Ted Seth Jacobs, Stanley Wiater, and Sean Casteel.

Cover Art update: Dutch version of Confirmation
Came across a pic on ebay of the Dutch version of Confirmation: The Hard Evidence, which was retitled Close Encounters: De Bewijzen (Close Encounters: The Proof — interesting that the words “close encounters” are in English). Not sure if it is hardcover or paperback; probably a trade paperback.

Cover Art update: Wolfen
Finally found a passable pic of the limited edition dust cover of Wolfen that was released to promote the feature film. The front is basic black using the movie font and the movie tag line (“There is no defense”), and the spine is changed from The Wolfen to Wolfen: The Movie. Essentially, the publisher threw away the original cover and replaced it with this variant to hype the film. The puzzling part is, the book getting this treatment is a first edition hardcover - 1978 - but the new cover art is hyping a 1981 film. Did the publisher simply have a few stacks of the original hardcover in storage which they pulled out in 1981 and dressed up? 'Spose so.

May

Vampire Trilogy Limited Edition
It appears that Borderlands Press may be releasing a limited edition version of The Hunger, a limited edition version of The Last Vampire, and a limited edition of Lilith's Dream, sometime this year. All three will feature a new introduction by the author, and will be autographed. They are planned as collectibles, meaning they're expensive. 350 of each will be made, and it may be possible to get matching numbers (ooh!*) if you order the whole trilogy simultaneously, but I'm not sure about that. Here's the page with info, at Borderlands Press.

*barely restrained sarcasm. Hey, I used to be a big collectible fan, but lately I've been feeling more financially conservative. That said, Borderlands Press makes some great limited editions, and as soon as pictures are up I'll post them here.

March

Website Additions
I came across an old data CD of mine from the time back in 1998 when I created this website. I found a few articles on it which I hadn't included when I set this site up. But since I couldn't remember why I hadn't included them in the first place, I've added them now. Additions include: an interview with Whitley from a short-lived UK magazine called "UFO Reality," conducted during the release of Breakthrough; and an online posting which Whitley made later around the time of The Secret School (a time when he'd occasionally release public statements onto the internet, before the spoofing of people's identities made that impossible). I also added some factoids in the descriptions of Communion and Transformation, namely how many copies of each have been sold. That info now appears below the release dates (just above the synopsis of each book). I'd have liked to have added such info to all of Whitley's books, but the presskit I got the stats from only covered Communion and Transformation. I also added a tiny bit more information about the old Beyond Communion comic book from Caliber Comics.
About the sales statistics: It says 2.3 million copies of Communion (2 million paperbacks and point-3 million hardcovers) were sold, and that figure only counts the domestic printings. Seems that it would have been very good to have been Whitley Strieber during those years. But one must bear in mind that the very reason why his book found such a large audience also meant that a backlash against the author was inevitable. Communion struck a chord because Whitley was saying something that went against cultural assumptions, assumptions about reality which millions recognized had outlived their usefulness. But the entrenched culture of denial - the very culture which ironically created the opportunity for his book to be a breakout success - also struck back against him for having spoken out.
In 1987 when Whitley came out with Communion, it was an era when experiencers were being called liars. That was the grand pronouncement of the skeptics who simply could not accept what people like Whitley were reporting - that such reports must be lies. Today, we at least live in an era when people know experiencers are experiencing “something,” and the skeptics no longer deny, they merely deflect (by taking refuge in convoluted theories of “hallucinations during sleep paralysis mixed with vivid lucid dreams blah blah blah”).
I don't know how much Whitley made from those 2.3 million copies, but I suspect he earned every penny.

February

Peter Jennings ABC special:
“The definitive special about alien life ...has yet to be made.”
Click here to visit a collection of reviews of the Peter Jennings special.

Jennings special available on DVD
The DVD of the Peter Jennings television special can now be ordered from ABC television's online store, for delivery in March. The DVD contains both the regular and widescreen versions of the program.
Click here for ordering info.

Peter Jennings ABC special
We start out 2005 with a major television special about a subject quite dear to many of Whitley's readers...
Peter Jennings Reports:
“UFOs: Seeing is Believing”
The effort Springs Media Inc. & Peter Jennings Productions put into this program is nearing legend status, with dozens upon dozens of people reporting that they were interviewed by the producers of this program (whose working title was “Life in the Universe.” Whitley Strieber declined the invitation. Possibly included in this program will be Dr. John Mack, whose interview, conducted at his home in Cambridge, MA, in late August of last year, became his last-ever interview when he was struck and killed by a car in London the following month. I know a few other people who may be in the program, but many of the people interviewed may not have made it through the editing. And of course, no one yet knows at this time whether the show will be a sensitive, wise exploration of the subject or not. I have hope it may be, but I am unsure.

As I wrote back in early August, when my bit for the program was taped:
“Well the interview for the 'Life in the Universe' special went fine - not exceptionally fine, but alright enough for them maybe to use a couple minutes of, I expect. That critique is of my own performance mind you - the producers and crew were expert of course. Their b-roll consisted solely of me sitting in a chair staring thoughtfully out a window. And walking down my hallway to stand thoughtfully before a window (and repeat). My acting involved whether to blink or not. I decided “yes” to the blinking. I think it conveyed a lot about how my eyes require moisture. ...”
“Our participation in this program is now essentially done. For some reason I find this really disappointing... there’s a sense of a part of ourselves, a sacred part of our lives, has been left in someone else’s custody. It is a sense of absence I am feeling. Like dropping off a baby with foster parents and not knowing how it will be raised.”

Personally, I suspect I'm not in the finished piece.
Which may be just as well -- it was my first-ever on-camera interview and suffice to say there was room for improvement on my part. I am optimistic that if Dr. Mack is featured, they may present him with a bit more respect than usual, due to his no longer being alive to defend himself...

Tune in and see.

Update (16 Feb): Dr. John Mack omitted from Peter Jennings special
From the John E Mack Institute website: We have just received the unbelievable news that John Mack's last-ever interview, the only interview he'd granted for a major program in many years, will not be present in the finished piece. We are absolutely stunned by this information, and cannot conceive of how a documentary purporting to explore the subject of alien encounters could have been made without the views of the man who was arguably the world's leading authority on how these encounters affect people's lives. It is also deeply saddening news, since it was hoped by many that this program would in some ways serve as a farewell to a great man.
Click here for full article

Update (16 Feb): Striebers' Estimation of What the Jennings Program will Be About
Anne and Whitley Strieber think the Jennings special may be inspired by or will revolve around themes advanced in a study published in the British Journal of Interplanetary Science. This sounds like it may be good news. Here is what they believe the show will be about (courtesy of their email newsletter):

ABC Special to Call for Scientific Research on UFOs A Peter Jennings Special to air on ABC on February 24 will conclude that there has been inadequate scientific research into the UFO phenomenon. The special will concentrate on UFO footage more than the abduction phenomenon or government secrecy. Skeptics will be given a hearing, but the program will draw a similar conclusion to a paper that recently appeared in the British Journal of Interplanetary Science. In the peer-reviewed article, four prominent scientists, James Deardorff, Hal Puthoff, Bernard Haisch and Bruce Macabee suggest that understanding being gained from new discoveries in physics mean that it is almost inevitable that aliens are here and have been here for a long time. Mr. Jennings will suggest that there is too much UFO evidence to be ignored, and that if even a small amount of it represents objects under intelligent control, serious and effective scientific research is needed. --related paragraphs-- Astrophysicist Bernard Haisch says, "We are in the curious situation today that our best modern physics and astrophysics theories predict that we should be experiencing extraterrestrial visitation, yet any possible evidence of such lurking in the UFO phenomenon is scoffed at within our scientific community." Deardorff says, "It would take some humility for the scientific community to suspend its judgment and take at least some of the high quality reports seriously enough to investigate…but I hope we can bring ourselves to do that."