Wow! It's been an eventful few weeks for the Starchild Project. Recently I was contacted by producers from the National Geographic cable TV channel, inviting me to be filmed with the Starchild for a new program they're doing about "ancient astronauts."
They're filming Erich Von Daniken, Zecharia Sitchin, and others who've moved the ancient astronaut theory to where it is now. Naturally, the Starchild is the primary relic in the world at the moment, in addition to megalithic stonework artifacts, that indicates an extraterrestrial presence on earth in the distant past.
They flew Amy and me to El Paso, where they arrived to film the real skulls with the owners, even though both skulls have been cut into rather severely now in order to take testing samples. However, we did our best to shield the blemishes whenever possible, but I have to say it....there is just nothing like looking at, and holding onto, the real thing. I had forgotten how stunning it all is, but I was reminded by the reaction of the National Geographic crew. It was obvious they were quite impressed with it.
As we all know, National Geographic is an icon of establishment science, so we can expect a free and clear ride into everyone's homes when the show airs in the fall sometime (late October is their goal). We can all anticipate some heavy criticism from whatever "experts" they choose to negate the positive things we say about it. However, this is absolutely first-rate exposure on a very wide basis, and we all have to be comforted by the fact that any publicity is good publicity if it brings your message to more people.
As if that news wasn't good enough, at the same time we were filming the show, one of the top five literary agents in New York was deciding to take on the new Starchild book to sell it to a mainstream publisher. This woman has been at the top of her game since she came into agenting over 30 years ago. I really, truly could not be happier. I don't think any other agent in New York has such loyal clients, and I've read more than enough testimonials to her and about her to convince me that we've enjoyed a major stroke of luck by gaining her interest and commitment.
I am already at work on the proposal that will go out to publishers, and she tells me we could have a deal with one of them as early as two months from now. Part of that will entail Amy and me driving up to New York with the real skulls (can't fly with them any more because I can't pass them off as "movie models" since 9-11) so tentative publishers can be certain it's all real and legitimate.
Since the recent James Frey scandal over "A Million Little Pieces," all nonfiction books have to be vetted for veracity, which is not a problem for the Starchild, but we have to drive up there to put all their minds at ease about it.
Now, as if that's not enough good news, I recently talked to the main geneticist who has been dealing with the Starchild's ancient DNA testing. He's the one who three years ago told me it would be three to five years before the technology in his field would improve enough to take another run at securing the Starchild's elusive nuclear DNA. (You all might recall that in seven attempts, the human primers never got a whiff of the Starchild's nuclear DNA).
Jason informed me that a new protocol for recovery is now in prototype, and he should be able to use it about two years. He says it doesn't use primers in the current fashion, and it secures much smaller pieces of nuclear DNA. So this is what we've been waiting to hear from the beginning of this back in early 1999....we definitely WILL get an answer to the all-important nuclear DNA question (which will provide information about the Starchild's father's DNA) in about two years from right now. Place your bets!!!!
Amy and I hope this finds you all having a great summer and anticipating a happy 4th of July holiday. We'll be trying to dodge the hurricanes this season. Best of luck to us all, and I'll keep you informed when we have a book deal and I know when it will hit bookstores (look for it in the fall of next year, 2007).
