Book release!

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And CONFIRMATION has arrived! My first novel is now available in hardcover, paperback, and electronic versions. Whatever your preference, you can get the book from any of your favorite booksellers.

As Kirkus Reviews wrote, the book is “A captivating examination of humanity’s fear of the unknown, with hints of sci-fi and fantasy.” You can read their full excellent review right here!

Paul Levinson, Fordham University professor of communication and media studies, former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and the author of such acclaimed science fiction novels as “The Plot to Save Socrates,” “The Silk Code,” and “The Consciousness Plague” calls the book “A media-savvy, X-Files-like, fast-paced story that’s just dying to be made into a Netflix or Amazon series.”

Will be appearing soon on "One-on-One With Steve Adubato."

I had a fantastic time a couple of days ago being interviewed by Steve Adubato, Emmy-winning anchor and host of PBS's "One-on-One." We got to talk about my forthcoming novel, CONFIRMATION: INVESTIGATIONS OF THE UNEXPLAINED, and the dangerous, damaging impact of conspiracy theorizing on American culture. The episode should air near the end of July or early August. Keep an eye on this spot for the exact date!

CONFIRMATION COVER REVEAL!

7/16/18 The time of...CONFIRMATION. Less than one month now and my new novel is available!

Hail Satan! Lucifer Returns!

OK, so I feel like digressing now and again, writing about some of my favorite TV shows and films. And my very favorite, just for its audacious premise, is FOX's - or formerly FOX's - "Lucifer." The devil himself as a crime-fighting hero? I think it's probably one of the best high-concept ideas that was ever on television. I had been meaning to read the Neil Gaiman graphic novels the show is based on and I think I will get around to it very soon. Perhaps while I wait for "Lucifer" to return on Netflix.

Fox had axed "Lucifer" a month ago, but the show's devoted fans started a #SaveLucifer social media campaign immediately. I did my part in retweeting it, of course, and now I'm ecstatic to see that Netflix just stepped in and saved the show. Read an article about it right here. 

It does keep raising interesting questions about the validity of the TV ratings system and how best to gage audience preferences in the era of new media technologies. Or whether science fiction and fantasy shows should even be attempted on the four main broadcast networks. Sci fi and fantasy have been thriving on cable and streaming services for years now, so perhaps all future productions like this that think way outside of the box and past the stale old lineup of the usual cop shows, lawyer, shows, doctor shows, and sitcoms should head straight for cable and streaming.

But now I'm just excited to see the devil back on TV!

Please let this be a joke! Please let this be a joke!

Hmm...so a friend of mine recently shared this link to a story about the latest in Flat Earth thinking and Flat Earth conspiracy theorizing. Apparently the flat Earth model is not enough to accommodate Australia. The giant pancake flying through space - or whichever model whatever group of Flat Earthers choose to believe in - would not be big enough to hold the Australian land mass. Thus we get this conspiracy theory that Australia is really an invention by the great global - pun intended - conspiracy. So Australia does not exist, so say these yo yos. Got that? Australia has been invented by NASA and all the people who claim to be from there are actors all in league with the conspiracy and just pretending.

Oh, boy! Need we say more? Life in the 21st century.

This is almost as wonderfully deranged as the conspiracy theory about Finland not existing. Yup, I just ran across this the other day. Check out this link to the story. Finland is really a Russian/Japanese hoax concocted after World War II.

"But wait!" you might say. "So what about all the hundreds of years' worth of recorded history referring to Finland? How about all the people who've been to Finland? Or the ones who claim to be from there? Or couldn't you just get on a plane or a ship and just travel to Finland?"

Recorded history? Recorded by whom? "They" can make up the fake books! In the hidden printing plants of the Illuminati and the Bilderbergers.

People from Finland? Actors! Just like the Parkland and Sandy Hook crisis actors.

Flying or sailing to Finland? The airlines and cruise ship companies - all in on the conspiracy - are actually taking you to Sweden where an army of Swedish actors are then pretending to be Fins.

Ah, the great derangement of the 21st century. This makes my job of deprogramming college kids who are open minded to garbage like this even more...well, at least colorful.

Where I Answer Questions About CONFIRMATION: INVESTIGATIONS OF THE UNEXPLAINED

Last week I had the fantastic opportunity to answer questions about my upcoming novel, my writing process, and how my academic work informed what will be my first published work of fiction. This link to the Ask Me Anything web page has all the answers to the questions I had a chance to reply to. I was able to answer some excellent questions about the culture of conspiracy theories and their dangers and the way the issue provides a major theme for my new book.

Talking About Conspiracy Theories and Education in Los Angeles

In two weeks I'll get the opportunity to visit my favorite city in the world and give a talk about teaching college students to become more critical consumers of information at the University of Riverside Spring Global Education Conference. I will be discussing exercises I use in my Conspiracy Films class to teach students how to deconstruct and debunk the most absurd of conspiracy theories circulating on the Internet and pop culture. Yes, conspiracy films can be fun, but we need to know how to distinguish between fantasy and reality, don't we? The need for a more media literate generation of young people has never been more important than today.

My first novel to be released on July 16

While this is something that has been in the works for a while, I now wanted to announce that my first novel, CONFIRMATION: INVESTIGATIONS OF THE UNEXPLAINED, will be released this July 16 by World Castle Publishing. It will be available in both print and electronic formats from all booksellers.

This is a project that I am particularly excited by because World Castle Publishing gave me the opportunity to combine several of my main interests from fictional entertainment to concerns I have written about as an academic and media commentator. A science fiction/suspense hybrid, the story focuses on an unexplainable event that shocks the world and the chaotic ripple effects it sends through societies everywhere. Much of the chaos is caused by the fear-mongering of unscrupulous conspiracy theorists.

So keep an eye open for more updates on the book, a cover-reveal coming soon, excerpts, and more cool things.

But as the jacket copy will read:

THE EVIDENCE OF ANOTHER WORLD IS HERE...

In Mount Shasta City, California. In San Francisco. In New Jersey. In San Diego. Then in Scotland, in Italy, and Cairo. In dozens of locations around the world, 20-ton granite globes suddenly appear. They usually turn up overnight, sometimes in remote locations and other times in the middle of cities in places no one could have put them without detection. For the first time, the world is witnessing a truly unexplainable phenomenon.

AND THE THREAT IS REAL...

As Rick Ballantine and Cornelia Oxenburg, cast members of the low-rent supernatural reality show "Confirmation: Investigations of the Unexplained," quickly realize, the globes' greatest effect is the way they make people speculate about their origins and purpose. Some think the globes are placed by aliens. Others think it's all a hoax. Many more fear sinister government conspiracies behind it all. But each of these points of view believes they're absolutely right...and others who disagree are dead wrong...and dangerous...and must be dealt with by any means necessary! Before the true, incredible origins of the globes is finally revealed, the "Confirmation" cast comes to see the extremes people are capable of when their beliefs are challenged and threatened...even in their own group.

How to Deal With a Professional Scumbag

If anyone was still doubting that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is one of the most vile human beings around today, his rantings about "false flag" attacks and "crisis actors" being behind mass killings like the Colorado theater shooting, the Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, and Parkland shootings, and the Boston Marathon bombing should erase all doubts in any sensible mind. And they should erase all doubts in any one with any tiny sliver of human decency.

Now notice that I didn't write anything along the lines about his rantings being "demented" or "delusional" or "insane." Alex Jones is among the lowest dregs of humanity exactly because he is completely sane and knows what he is doing. His bovine manure about these crisis actor conspiracy theories, accusing grieving families of lying about the loss of their loved ones, are carefully calculated to rile up a very specific sector of society - the disaffected, the ignorant, those with significantly diminished intellectual capacities, the fantasy prone, the losers of life who need to look for scapegoats to blame their lot in life on. People like this are Jones' bread and butter and he knows exactly what he needs to do to keep them listening to, watching, and reading his bilge. These people need to have their siege-mentality paranoia fed and Jones tells them exactly what they want to hear. They want to hear about the Illuminati and the New World Order and the Bilderbergers and the International Bankers coming after them to enslave them and throw them into FEMA camps in Area 51 and under Denver International Airport. Jones provides these losers with the exact product they are looking to consume.

Except these losers have been subjecting the grieving families and survivors of these mass killings to vicious harassment and threats. And Jones knows this. He has known this for years and kept stoking the rage of these conspiracist morons with no regard to the viciousness they are capable of.

Except now the victims are fighting back. Jones has been hit with defamation suits by the people he has been tormenting. As this excellent op-ed piece explains, ignoring conspiracy theorists no longer works because it mere emboldens them. Since Jones and his sleazy ilk love words like "war" and "fight" and battle, it's time they were given the war they have been asking for.

This article will definitely be a tool I will be using in my own classes on conspiracy theories to do my own small part through academia to combat this sort of reprehensible conspiracy sewage spill that has been polluting American culture.

What If Agent Scully is Really the Good Guy?

So I just finished binge-watching season 11 of The X-Files and reflected on my changing feelings about this show and its characters. To be sure, I was a devoted fan during its original run, watched the two theatrical films - own both of them on DVD - and I was looking forward to its season 10 revival in 2016. I was curious, though, if the revival could be pulled off effectively given how every sensible person today should be leery of anyone calling himself a conspiracy theorist. Can conspiracy-believing Agent Mulder still be seen as admirable in an age where conspiracists are propagating offensive nonsense like "crisis actor"" theories and their most visible public representative is a bloviating charlatan like Alex Jones?

It was interesting to see that at the start of the season 10, the show was kind of aware of this. The Internet conspiracy theorist character (Joel McHale) appeared to be the sort of unhinged nut a writer would create if they tried to pay homage to Alex Jones. One couldn't help but completely side with Scully in the scenes where the McHale character unspooled his claims of far-reaching, all-powerful cabals and their diabolical plots. The show could have taken a fascinating opportunity to examine the dark side of the conspiracy culture and conspiracy entertainment itself. It could have made a more pointed commentary about when we cross the line between healthy skepticism of authority and a delusional world of post-fact fantasies so much of American culture is sinking into.

As of this writing, there is still no word from Fox about whether the show will be renewed for a 12th season. The ratings for Season 11, after all, have been declining. Could the reason for this be that viewers, too, are coming to realize that conspiracy theorists are no longer the good guys?

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Conspiracy Theorists

I am quoted in this article about a new study into the psychology of conspiracy beliefs. It's fascinating to read that insecurities kindled in people from the time they are infants will shape their predisposition to believe in fantastic, irrational, and unrealistic claims of massive conspiracy theories later in life. These findings are not surprising, though, as a growing body of research has been affirming that people who tend to be the biggest fans of the most outlandish conspiracy theories are also those who feel the most powerless, alienated, and insecure. "Individuals with anxious attachment are preoccupied with their security, tend to hold a negative view of outgroups, are more sensitive to threats, and tend to exaggerate the seriousness of such threats," the study says.

Raising well-adjusted children who are given adequate feelings of security and control in their lives might be a good start to help keep us from raising another generation of kids who will believe that the Earth if flat, that LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, the Dallas police, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, aliens, oil billionaires, Elvis Presley, Oliver North using a time machine, Frank Sinatra, and John Wayne shooting from the grassy knoll killed JFK.

Moreover, as I argue in the article, the educational system needs to do its part in teaching logic, critical thinking skills, and media literacy skills to help young people deconstruct the messages of paranoia hucksters like Alex Jones and the flat Earthers, to understand all of the underhanded and unethical communication tactics conspiracy theorists use to convince the gullible and unwary of everything from "crisis actor" conspiracy theories to the fantasies of the anti-vaccination crowd.

I incorporate such exercises in the class I teach about conspiracy films and American culture at Saint Peter's University. In their semester projects, students need to manufacture their own conspiracy, creating one using tactics such as the reverse scientific process to cherry-pick facts that support preconceived notions, inaccurately assigning causality between unrelated variables, and launching all manner of character assassinations against one's critics. Once students can see how easy it is to create vast conspiracies where none exist, they should hopefully be able to recognize all the flat Earth theories, Moon landing hoax theories, and 9/11 Truther claims for the simple parlor tricks they are.

Anyone Still Think Conspiracy Theorists Are Heroes?

So this was certain to happen within hours, if not minutes of a tragedy like the Parkland, Florida mass shooting. The conspiracy theorists peddling their "false flag" scenarios are flooding the internet with claims about the shooting being a hoax and the victims and survivors being crisis actors. Some kind of a sinister "They" are behind the shooting to enact gun-control laws and take away our freedoms and advance the agenda of the Illuminati and the "globalists" and the "international bankers" and so on and so forth.

I'm fascinated by just who exactly "they" are supposed to be right at this moment. In the aftermath of the Colorado theater shooting and the Sandy Hook massacre, "they" were the liberal minions of Barack Obama, with Obama supposedly masterminding and pulling the strings behind the killings to advance his gun control agenda. But how about now? With Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans holding the legislative power at the moment, can this conservative power in Washington also be a part of this shadowy, malevolent "them?"

Oh, wait a minute, "they" control everyone, right? Conservative, liberal, libertarian, everyone. They pull the strings from the Bohemian Grove and Denver International Airport and Area 51 and the meetings of the Bilderberg Group. OK, got that. Sure! Conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones have exposed all of that. Gotcha!

Actually, making sense of these sorts of demented fantasies is similar to sitting down and trying to discuss logic with the inmates of a lunatic asylum. But at least the ever more critical coverage of the conspiracy subculture by the media is becoming somewhat heartening, like in this piece on CNN. No longer do these people seem to be ignored as goofy, colorful, and ultimately harmless group of cranks who exist on the fringes and harm no one. Their maliciousness and utterly shameless sleaze is finally being called out for what it is.

The appeal and the dark side of conspiracy theories

A few weeks ago I was quoted in this Urbo.com article on the truth behind conspiracy theories. Like the most deranged of belief systems, there is just a tiny enough reality, a bit of plausibility at the core of conspiracism to explain why half of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory. While I had long held that conspiracy theorists, even the most demented of them, still served some small positive purpose in our world - their most irrational and unproven claims at least functioning as a symbolic inspiration to stay skeptical of authority - today I am wary of anyone who uses the term "conspiracy." In light of the theories claiming that mass shootings are "false flag" attacks and climate change is the creation of a vast global hoax perpetrated by scientists, most of conspiracism today is the home of charlatans and opportunists out to make a quick buck off the gullible.

The People Vs. O.J. Simpson

I was recently interviewed for this Smashd article about the ongoing fascination with the O.J. Simpson case and the new FX miniseries it inspired. I think that the miniseries is one of the best things on television today, with Fox's limited-run revival of The X-Files right behind it and followed by the network's Lucifer series. But check out the article here about how the Simpson case retains its relevance in the racially charged world of the Ferguson riots and Black Lives Matter movement.

Smiley Face Killer in New Jersey?

No, a nation-wide network of serial killers has not struck in New Jersey. Check out this article I was recently interviewed for about the "Smiley Face Killer" theory and how the recent drowning death of a Hoboken man in the Hudson River was immediately attributed by some to a conspiracy of serial killers being protected by the police. Of course, I'm not much surprised by how the conspiratorially inclined will want to believe in this. Any major - or even minor - event these days almost immediately inspires accusations of conspiracy. Although this particular conspiracy sounds so much like the debunked Satanic underground conspiracies of the 80s and early 90s that I'm dismayed that more than a tiny handful of the pathologically gullible will want to believe it. Just like the Satanic conspiracies, the Smiley Face Killer theory alleges that there's a nation-wide network of serial killers working together and that a vast conspiracy within law enforcement is keeping it all covered up. Sounds like something that would make for a really cool movie - sounds a bit like the 80s Sly Stallone flick Cobra - but not particularly believable in the real world.

The Walking Dead Returns

Fan behavior, and especially fan anger, should be of ongoing concern to media producers of all types, especially TV showrunners. I was interviewed for this Detroit News article about The Walking Dead and the fan outrage over Glenn's fake death. Check it out here.

What Not to Say to Romance Readers

I was interviewed for a Woman's Day article about the broad, unfair, and sexist stereotyping of romance literature. It's an issue that can be applied to all forms of genre entertainment and fan communities. Before the critics of genre lit or movies or TV shows paint fans with broad strokes, they should actually take the time to understand the entertainment they are talking about and the pleasures they bring to their fans. Check out this very good article right here.

Talking Oscars and Golden Globes on Fresh Outlook

With February just around the corner, I'm getting Oscar fever! And so is the Fresh Outlook TV show on the Ebru network. Check out my guest appearance on Fresh Outlook and discussion of some of the films up for awards, and the Internet's impact on television as evidenced by some of the Golden Globe nominations and wins right here.

Crisis Fatigue?

Have audiences become too weary of more bad news, more threats, and more terror in the Middle East? I was recently interviewed in this International Business Times article about whether or not Americans are becoming desensitized to ISIS beheading videos. At first images and articles of the brutal ISIS executions were just about inescapable on the internet. But what about the most recent execution videos? Are we no longer moved?

Edge of the Unknown

I was recently interviewed on the Edge of the Unknown radio show, hosted by Mark Henry. You can listen to the entire two hour program right here. We discuss everything from UFOs to Area 51, just what exactly the U.S. government's HAARP project does - what it's accused of doing! - the JFK assassination, and whether or not the Moon Landing was a hoax...plus the allure of all the conspiracy theories surrounding all of these things.

So what are the unbelievable conspiracies, the unlikely ones, and which ones might just possibly have something to them?  Check out this episode of the Edge of the Unknown...plus the archives of a long list of great discussions with Mark Henry every week.

50 Years of Myths

In this op-ed piece I wrote for the Jersey Journal in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, I talk about the growth of the assassination myths and their potential danger.

In a half century, a multimillion dollar industry perpetuating a mountain of misconceptions, lies, misinterpretations, fantasies, and fallacies about vast shadowy conspiracies behind JFK's murder has risen. Although these theories can all be debunked, does our culture's fixation on them signal something troubling about the times we live in?

THE NEXT BIG THING

Since I've been away from blogging for quite a while, the perfect opportunity to start writing here again came by way of Malachi Stone's invitation to contribute to The Next Big Thing novel-in-progress chain.

So here is my next big thing:


1. What is the working title of your next book?
THE CONSPIRACY THEORIST

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
Should I be embarrassed to say it was inspired by film and reality TV? Well, it actually was. I’ve been fascinated by and a big fan of “found footage” films like the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise, CHRONICLE, and all the dozens of other similar films. So I asked myself how this reality craze could be translated to literature. How about a novel written in the voice and style of a nonfiction book, using devices like footnotes, interviews with experts and commentators on the plot, appendices of excerpts from secondary sources, and a bibliography?

3. What genre does your book fall under?
I would put it under mystery, or perhaps thriller. How about “literary crime thriller”? Well, if it’s “literary” it sort of sounds pretentious and kind of boring, the sort of thing that’s hard to follow and understand and it might scare a mass audience away. So let’s just say mystery. When I feel a bit egotistical I would like to think that it will create its own subgenre…”fictional non-fiction” maybe.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
For my title character, the charming charlatan of a conspiracy theorist Shane Conroy, LOST’s Josh Holloway (Sawyer) keeps popping into my head.

For his ill-fated girlfriend, champion fitness competitor Rose Bedford, I would ask my people to do lunch with Jessica Biel’s people. Remember her in BLADE TRINITY? That’s about Rose’s look…well, perhaps if she pumps a little more iron. Jessica Biel with the Linda Hamilton, TERMINATOR 2 muscles.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Accused of murdering his girlfriend, a best-selling – and completely sleazy and fraudulent – conspiracy theorist becomes a fugitive and an international superstar by claiming he was framed by “a vast global conspiracy” for “getting too close to the truth.”

6. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
About 14 or 15 months, I think. I lot of time went into the crime scene investigation-technique research. That and the trial and error method of the experimental format took quite a while to finish. Actually, making the experimental fake-reality format work is still taking plenty of time in the ongoing revisions.

7. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I recently read STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens and saw a lot of elements in it that I use in THE CONSPIRACY THEORIST. Stevens’ parallel story lines surrounding a woman’s kidnapping, which are not always chronological in order, are something I use as well. I would also compare it somewhat to the style of Michael Crichton’s THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, reading as if it was the report of a real incident. My description of the plot has also been compared to Elizabeth Kostova’s THE HISTORIAN.

8. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The first inkling of the idea to write this book came to me two years ago because I’m not a football fan. During Super Bowl Sunday I found myself flipping the channels, staying away from the game, and came across a Biography Channel documentary about the real people involved in the Amityville Horror case. In the detailed history of all the people involved in the supposed haunting, the alleged hoax, the books and feuds between various writers calling each other liars and con artists, I realized that the drama of all these people trying to make money off of this obviously phony ghost story was much more interesting than the story of the house itself. So I had this idea of writing about something allegedly otherworldly or fantastic but not focusing on the phenomenon itself but the personalities of all the people surrounding it and the ways they try to exploit it, the way the media help the story distort.

Hmm…Can I call it “Tom Wolfe meets The X-Files”?  Or “Bonfire of the Conspiracies”?

9. What else about this book might pique the reader’s interest?
Think about how outrageously successful some conspiracy theorists are these days. Some of them have top-rated radio shows, web pages getting tens of thousands of hits every day, and best-selling books blaming Midwestern tornadoes, the Batman shootings in Colorado, hurricane Sandy, and just about every single event in the world on conspiracies. Now if one of these people were accused of a crime, what would they say? That they were framed by a conspiracy? And would it affect their success at all, or would their fawning, paranoid fans rally around a “victim” who was set up by “shadowy forces?”

Or how about a tagline: “What if Agent Mulder was the bad guy?”

And now the torch passes to Jennifer B. White.

Looking at conspiracy cinema

This may be a belated start to a new year of blogging, but I am just able to put a new link in to the amazon.com page for my forthcoming book, CONSPIRACY FILMS.

Due this June 30th from McFarland publishers, the book will be one of the most comprehensive histories of conspiracy theory films ever written. Tracing a decade-by-decade chronicle of some of the most pervasive conspiracy theories in modern American culture, the book will then look at the films they helped inspire.

From JFK to Roswell, alien abductions, men in black, secret societies like the Masons and the Illuminati, I document our culture's most colorful fears and the movies they turn up in.