It’s nighttime, and the smell of the corn field is overpowering as you walk through the thick stalks. Your friend carelessly ran ahead, and now she’s vanished from your sight. You hear a noise and peer at the dark sky, certain you’ve never seen so many stars before in your life. The moon is a sliver tonight, not helping much to guide your steps. 

“Jane! This isn’t funny!” you shout, but your voice falls flat, like you’ve screamed into a pillow. And it hits you. The smell of ozone fills your nostrils, the flashing lights threaten to unravel your mind… You spot Jane before you hear her cries for help. Her arms are limp, her expression twisted in fear as the beam of light lifts her from the soil.

The UFO blocks the stars above, the light dying against its smooth surface rather than reflecting. Jane is carried away, the beam vanishes, and you’re left alone, trying to process what you just saw. Your hand feels something dripping over your lip, and you run your fingers over it, tasting blood.

Aliens. The concept is familiar, yet terrifying. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, the truth is out there. We just haven’t found it yet.

They’ve been a topic of interest for centuries, with sightings dating back as far as ancient Egypt. There are references to strange creatures “visiting in their vessel with wheels within wheels” in the Bible in Ezekiel 1, and Peter Cawdron even wrote a great book, 3zekiel, about this very topic, using remote Africa as the setting for the alien contact novel.

Fast forward to a time where HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds in the late 1800s, changing the way we thought about aliens and potential earthly invasion, and we were ushered into a new era of literature. Rumors of UFO and extraterrestrial sightings grew in popularity in the 1960s, making more people look to the stars for answers amidst lunar space travel and the Cold War.

So what makes a great UFO or alien contact story? 

For me, there are so many interesting concepts and ways to go about the topic. Personally, there’s something intriguing about the small-town crop circles, the recollection of abductions along a lakeshore, and the flashing lights in the night sky that offer no explanation of a definitive source.

I tackled the subject of alien abduction, and what would happen to someone if they’d possibly experienced it as a child, in my novel Lights over Cloud Lake. Not everyone who’s been through something traumatic like that should be deemed mentally ill, and I do think it was a unique take on the genre, blending mystery into a science fiction topic.

Another setting or trope I gravitate towards is the mysterious object in space. 

We see this done well by AG Riddle recently in Winter World, where an object is blocking the sun from reaching Earth. Books like Rendezvous with Rama, by the great Arthur C. Clarke, show us one of the most intriguing cases yet, with a giant empty ship rotating through our solar system, about to be flung around the sun. Others take a different approach, like Felix R. Savage’s
Freefall, where an unfamiliar vessel is orbiting Europa, and we follow a team on Earth as they prepare a flight to investigate. Each of these involves strange distant beings, but they are not the forefront of the story; instead, the setting and obstacle they create is. 

In books like Contact by Carl Sagan, we have instructions given to create a portal to another location, and in Douglas E. Richards’ brand new novel, Enigma Cube, we learn of a device left by aliens on Earth, and once we are advanced enough, only then will we have the means to uncover the truth. 

All of these stories are fascinating and thrilling, regardless of whether you actually see the aliens, or if their existence stays a mystery. 

The setting in an alien contact book is as important as any other aspect, and done well, it can create a tone and have as large of an impact as a main character.

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I tackled alien contact with my debut novel The Event, where we realize we’ve been living among them for years. My hero was an accountant who teamed up with a cocker spaniel as he set out to stop the invasion, and it’s what kicked off my career as a full-time author. I’m planning a new series with the mystery of alien life at the forefront, and when I’m preparing it, the setting is at the top of my list.

We’ve engaged in numerous discussions regarding the theory of aliens over the decades, but one thing remains constant. We still have no idea if they exist, but if they do, there’s one thing I’m confident of. They’re aware of us.

Keep looking to the stars, because you never know when we’ll make contact.

What’s your favorite type of alien contact story? Let me know in the comments, or hop on over to the DSF Reader Group on Facebook to add your 2¢ to the discussion we've got going there.

Nathan's also done mystery/thrillers with Red Creek, Return to Red Creek, and Lights Over Cloud Lake.

You can follow Nathan on Facebook, Twitter and his website.