Knowing Andromeda

It's funny how people find us. Even funnier how sometimes those people live in another realm, another dimension. And maybe the funniest part of it all is that they find us when we need them most—when we're at our lowest, our loneliest.

The characters of Knowing Andromeda found me in the strangest way.

One lazy Saturday, while my husband dozed on the couch beside me, I watched alien contact movie after alien contact movie. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, Fire in the Sky, The Vast of Night…

I was in a mood.

While digging into Travis Walton’s story via Google, I happened upon Betty and Barney Hill’s abduction account and that was all it took—I was hooked.

I devoured everything I could find on their experience, and, for some reason, it was Barney I fell for as I pawed through evidence of their account in the Dimond Library at the University of New Hampshire.

Then a strange thing happened.

Mac and Sadie Evers, an interracial couple inspired by Betty and Barney but not based on them, tracked me down in my home office and told me their story.

These two very quickly became my chosen family and I transcribed everything they said, word for word, from June of 2022-December of 2022. They provided a steady rush of information then introduced me to their chosen family—one Miss Joanne Shelley, her cousin Beau Harper, and a slew of ancillary characters.

The four of them have been with me for years.

Set in the 1961 civil rights era, Knowing Andromeda follows the couple into Trouble Falls, New Hampshire, where recurring extraterrestrial contact brings unexpected comfort.

Yes, comfort.

Not horror.

Not harm.

Comfort.

I think this novel might lean toward “cosmic realism” but I’m not sure. See, it’s not all sci-fi even though there is extraterrestrial contact; it’s not all horror even though human existence can be horrific; it’s not magical realism because there isn’t really a mystical element; and it’s not fantasy because, well, I just don’t think it fits that definition.

So, is it genre-bending? Genre-defying? Cross-genre? Genre-busting? First Contact Sci-Fi? Retro Sci-Fi? Historical Sci-Fi? Social Sci-Fi? A Sci-Fi Cozy?

I just don’t know.

What I do know is this novel zeroes in on the human condition through various lenses and focuses on the human need for belonging. Since there’s not a ton of that here on Earth—in 1961 or now—enter extraterrestrials.

Maybe they can help.

For anyone who’s not a “Granite Stater” (proper term for those from or living in New Hampshire), the mountainous rock formation in the bottom right hand corner I drew myself (I am so proud!) and it is New Hampshire’s beloved Old Man of the Mountain. He crumbled in 2003 but still lives in the heart of every Granite Stater who knew why stopping at the scenic spot on I-93 North to gawk at his profile was a big deal.

I’m making my way through proof edits as we speak. Then I'll release and try desperately to promote.

Marketing seems to be my weak area, but since I’m not promoting me or the memoirs, maybe this will be easier (and more fun) than sharing the horrors of a doomsday cult upbringing.

After all, it’s Mac and Sadie’s story not mine.

XOXO, Rebekah