Prologue

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

-Albert Einstein 

Creative inspiration can literally come from anywhere.  For a brief period of my life, I experienced vivid recurring dreams about astronauts being attacked and killed by aliens on the moon.  Yes, it’s weird, I know.  I think it’s weird too!  The strange part is, nobody in my family was involved in the space program and I don’t typically watch science-fiction movies.  So what prompted the dreams?

“Moon Monsters” is a small collection of three short stories I wrote based off of the mysterious dreams.  If you ever wanted to be an astronaut, these stories might change your mind…  

Even though these tales about peril in space are short and fictional, I wanted certain details about being an astronaut on the moon to be accurate.  How does it feel to wear a cumbersome spacesuit and walk around in the low-lunar gravity?  Would the space helmet restrict your field of view and what kinds of hazards might you encounter in the merciless vacuum of space?  What would the landscape look like if you were one of the astronauts standing on the moon?  A great deal of research went into answering these questions, and many others, and I strived to incorporate these details into the stories.  Hopefully they will add a sense of realism to these eerie tales of extraterrestrial encounters.

The format of my writing varies from story to story.  For example, I wrote “Apollo 19” as a script for a short-film.  This was an experimental project for me, but I think the dialogue format will help you feel the terror that the astronauts were experiencing during their horrific encounter.  Who knows, maybe one day I will be able to turn it into a short movie. On a note that’s much more down to Earth, I authored the other stories in more of a traditional, third-person format.  

Now that all of the boring details are out of the way, don your spacesuit and strap yourself into your rocket seat, we’re getting ready for launch!  T minus 10, 9, 8…