The Kelly Incident is based on a true story, a classic in the annals of Ufology. You can find a reference to this bizarre alien encounter in any major book on UFOs because the details are unique. Though the event was investigated by authorities at every level of government, this close encounter has never been explained!

I grew up in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, located about eight miles south of Kelly, where the witnesses of this startling alien encounter fled to seek the county sheriff's help on that sultry August evening in 1955. My family had moved to Hopkinsville a year or so after the alien event. I learned about the alien invasion from the neighborhood children who delighted in initiating the new kid on the block (me) every Friday night in the summertime with ghost stories that would curl your hair, as my grandmother used to say. I have curly hair to this day.

Some of the other weird stories in that part of the world include the spooky, eyeless fish of Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, the infamous Bell Witch who haunts nearby Adams, Tennessee (who would scratch your eyes out if you weren't careful, according to local legend), and the crazed one-armed zombie who attacks couples in the dead of night (especially if they are making out in a parked car). It's interesting to note that within a seventy-five mile radius, this rather small geographic area is quite potent in phenomena.

There were also stories involving psychic phenomena. Which brings us to Hopkinsville's most famous resident--psychic Edgar Cayce, one of my distant relatives by marriage. (I have since learned that I am also related by marriage to the Suttons--the eyewitnesses of the original Kelly encounter.)

Edgar Cayce was born and grew up in Hopkinsville, where his first psychic experiences began. Much later, he moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia to establish a healing center and educational institution, the Association of Research and Enlightenment (www.edgarcayce.org), a research center that remains a viable and credible source of astonishing information regarding psychic healing and paranormal phenomena that has withstood the test of time. To honor the life of "the sleeping prophet," the Pennyroyal Area Museum in Hopkinsville hosts the "Edgar Cayce Hometown Seminar" every March.

Though I had grown up in this center of paranormal activity, it wasn't until the 1990s that I began to seriously research the subjects of UFOs and alien encounters, paranormal happenings, and other phenomena. Only then did I understand that these often-inexplicable events are real manifestations in the world--and that they continue even now. I have experienced some of them myself. There is no consensus on the meaning of these phenomena. But millions of us know that "phenomena" ... rare or significant facts or events ... are real.

In this book, I have fictionalized the characters of the alien invasion that occurred during the high summer of 1955 in Kelly, Kentucky. However, most of the details that I've included of the original incident are historically accurate and factually correct, giving the story an authenticity it might not otherwise have had. Because the facts of this case are limited, and the case remains unexplained, it is a story without an ending. Therefore, I have allowed my imagination to offer some possibilities that may or may not prove out. I have also woven into the story a number of other historical, well-documented UFO encounters that will be recognized by those who are well-read in the genre, even though the cases themselves are presented here as fiction.

Whether or not you have found any evidence to support an alien reality, I hope you enjoy the story.

Anna Karyl

July 23, 2004