The Cryptoterrestrials is now available

Editor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:06:07 +0000

This is a bittersweet moment. Mac Tonnies is no longer with us, but his long-awaited book finally is. The Cryptoterrestrials has now been published. It’s a short book that’s packed full of ideas. What’s important is not that they all be right, but that they stretch our minds to think beyond the idea of “aliens” as “extraterrestrials.” That’s why the book is subtitled “A meditation on indigenous humanoids and the aliens among us.” Mac had asked Nick Redfern and Greg Bishop to contribute to the book; Nick wrote the Foreword before Mac’s death, and Greg wrote the Afterword after the news of his passing. In addition, John Shirley, who has long been a supporter of Mac’s work, was kind enough to supply us with a blurb that says, in part, “The Cryptoterrestrials is the most refreshing speculation on the paranormal I’ve seen in ages…Mac Tonnies’ ﬁnal Fortean landmark is the Book of the Damned for the 21st century.” Finally, Nadia Sobin contributed the striking cover art and Mike Clelland did the wonderful illustrations that begin each chapter. In Mac’s memory, thank you, all.

A Quiet Escape from Kansas City

Editor — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:02:26 +0000

Writer Mac Tonnies died this week at the age of 34, supposedly of “natural causes,” though dying at such a young age in this society is anything but natural. He was found dead in his bed in his apartment in Kansas City, Missouri. Mac was a soon-to-be author of an Anomalist Book, his long awaited work entitled The Cryptoterrestrials. I first contacted Mac after reading his clear-headed, remarkably balanced, but still full-of-wonder website on Martian anomalies, The Cydonian Imperative. I found him to be an original thinker and a terrific writer. At the time, I was the editor of Paraview Pocket Books, published by Simon & Schuster, and offered Mac a contract to write a book on the subject which became After the Martian Apocalypse. I spoke to Mac several times after the book was published and he expressed a strong desire to leave Kansas City, which he loathed. He seemed to have trouble making ends meet and was exasperated by the job market there. He ended up working at Starbucks and most recently at a call-center, in both cases a terrible waste of a wonderful mind. I saw Mac as a writer with a brilliant future and did my best to encourage him. Unfortunately, there will be no more quirky blog posts, stark photographs, or trenchant observations from Mac Tonnies anymore. He had promised to deliver his manuscript to us at the beginning of November and I will do my best to get his final work published. Mac is now posthuman, no doubt wandering among the stars from which he came. And I, along with his many friends, have a terrible case of the blues.

Anomalist Books » The Cryptoterrestrials

The Cryptoterrestrials is now available

A Quiet Escape from Kansas City