The Season for Flying Saucers by Brendan Colley
(Transit Lounge)
Brendan Colley writes about the inspiration behind The Season for Flying Saucers, his artful, left-field novel for adults, for Joy in Books at Paperbark Words blog.
In 2014 I was playing around with some narrative poetry, like I usually do as a warm-up before I start my nightly writing sessions. Out of this routine I fetched down the following:
sales rep’s text to a colleague
hi k.
hope your quarter’s tracking solidly
currently bunked overnight in launceston
flying out to melbourne sunday
business so-so, usual traumas &
resuscitations
still no ufo sightings despite
the increased mileage
quota heavy but remain optimistic
the nights are what get me through
the skies sparkle with activity
for those who are watchful
one day they will come get me
b.
At the time I thought nothing of it. These poems are for myself – not publication – and over the course of the past 12 years I’ve written over 1000 such pieces. But it’s the stitching together of two or three seemingly unrelated ideas that provides the foundation for my novels, and little did I know the voice captured in these unremarkable lines would later mature into that of the protagonist for a novel about flying saucers!
It turned out to be the first in a series of what I came to call my ‘little green man poems’. Every so often they’d pop up and ask to be written, and over the next decade I collected around 80 in this style. I had no plans for them, but simply enjoyed that they humoured me.
Fast forward to the COVID year: during this period I became interested in exploring the idea of a family confined to a house. Perhaps due to an economic downturn? I spent an evening with it, penning down a few notes about an estranged family with two adult children forced to live under the same roof for a fixed period of time. These family members had no interest in resolving their differences; it was a purely practical arrangement. Once they’d sorted out their respective circumstances, they would continue on their separate ways. I filed it away, thinking it fodder for a play (I don’t write plays!), and something I’d likely never revisit.
Later that same year I came across an article about how summer is the season where UFO sightings are most commonly reported in Japan. From this article a title leapt out at me! The Season for Flying Saucers. I immediately knew I wanted to write a book with this headline. In that same sitting I connected the title with the two aforementioned ideas, resulting in the following premise:
Due to an economic downturn, an estranged family is forced to live together under the same roof for one summer. As if things weren’t strained enough, they become increasingly convinced they’ve been targeted for alien abduction.
The main protagonist would be the 29-year-old son. Unbeknownst to the rest of the family, in his despair and belief that he’s not meant to know happiness in this lifetime, he’s been writing alien abduction poems on an old typewriter, requesting any passing motherships to drop down a beam and whisk him away.
With a title, a premise, and the voice for a protagonist, I had the reasons needed to abandon my then work-in-progress and embark on a journey to discover this family and their story.
The published novel is the product of the roads travelled down (and skies traversed!) over the next three years.
The Season for Flying Saucers by Brendan Colley at Transit Lounge
(available 1 April 2026)
paperbarkwords.blog 