I recently had the privilege of interviewing author and researcher Kevin Randle via email. Mr. Randle is a USAF veteran, writer of historical fiction as well as sci fi, and has worked on various media productions concerning UFO’s.
Since you have such a vast knowledge of The Roswell incident, what do you make, as a sci-fi writer, of the Roswell based TV shows and movies? For example, the 90’s teen drama and it’s remake on the CW?
Haven’t watched the show, not in the new version or in the old. Too old to really care about teen dramas, even those with a science fiction slant.
As a retired military person, did that give some insight when writing the Jefferson’s War series on the tactical and other aspects of the series?
Of course, my military experience helped. I understand the working relationships, chain of command, small unit tactics, and the overall military experience. Many of the things seen in movies do not happen in real life. Too often a subordinate will challenge the superior in a way that would not be tolerated in the military. And, in the world today, you have to be careful of the female – male relations. Too often we have seen a superior take advantage of his or her position in a way that is inappropriate. This also leads to problems with attempting to create a team.
As just one example that I know of personally, when one unit or male and female soldiers deployed into a combat arena, there were tents set up for each company, but one tent set up for the female soldiers. The company commander asked the females if they wanted to be billeted with the other women, or if they wanted to be billeted with the rest of the company. They opted to stay with the company and I think that built a more cohesive team than having the unit split by gender.
With the study of UFO’s still a highly researched subject, do you think that the mixing of UFOlogy with the New Age Movement such as crystal healing and Tarot has diluted the scientific study?
I think it is a bad idea… Walt Andrus told me that he embraced some of the New Age because it could expand the membership base. While we are dealing with what many think of as a “fringe science” we do see some support from “real” science. However, that is my personal bias showing. I don’t believe that Tarot Cards work, and that crystal healing is of benefit except as a placebo. When we are dragged into that, we lose some of our credibility… Of course, we hurt ourselves with some of the sub categories of Ufology.
How do you prepare for writing your historical fiction versus sci fi?
Not sure if you are lumping the UFO books in the historical fiction or not. With the UFO books, it is a question of talking to people and searching documents and files… With science fiction there is more leeway, depending on the particular book. Those dealing with time travel, such as Remember the Alamo! required in depth research into the history of the battle and the times to make the world of 1836 seem to be real to the modern reader… Or, in other words, sometimes the research necessary for one genre of books is as difficult as it is for another.
Is there a favorite book or series of books that you enjoy?
If you’re talking about my books, I liked the Time Mercenaries as well as The Exploration Chronicles. Single science fiction book is probably Seeds of War because of the ordeal getting the book written and finally finding a publisher.
With the stagnation in UFO research do you see any hope of progress in this field, or is the scientific community at a point they are just spinning their wheels?
We have to move away from the lunatic fringe and tougher our standards of investigation and research. We have to be willing to see that certain classic cases now have good solutions to them. But, with the way things are today, I fear that we won’t make much progress in the near future.