60+ Secrets, Insights & Behind The Scenes Nuggets In Panic! Horror In Space

ChristinaEngela

6 months ago

Hello, friends and fans!

Given my previous articles “50 Secrets, Insights & Behind The Scenes Nuggets In ‘Underground Movement’, ‘Xanadu’ & ‘The Last Hurrah’” and “60+ Secrets, Insights & Behind The Scenes Nuggets In The Galaxii Series“, I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of similar insights into the four current books of Panic! Horror In Space, now available on Amazon!

“Static” was first published in 2017. It is the first novel in the series, and is divided into four distinct parts.
Static started out as a short story called “Mercury Rising” (2017), which in turn had its roots in a high school composition I’d written as far back as 1987 called “The Curse”. At over 14,000 words, this short story drew so much praise from those who read it, I felt prompted – almost “bullied” into writing a sequel. Since it ended on a cliff-hanger, people wanted to know how the story continued… and my saying, “that’s the point of a cliff-hanger ending” almost got me lynched. So I wrote “Mercury Resurgent” a few weeks later, with a similar reaction. It was my wife Wendy’s suggestion to turn these stories into a series quick, before I needed to take out life insurance – so blame her!
“Mercury Rising” became part 1 of “Static”, with “Mercury Resurgent” being part 2. Two more stories, “Dead Center” and “Through A Dark Glassy” related in episode format, were added to create book 1 in the series.
Panic! Horror In Space is a parody. It provides paranormal thrills, horror scares and suspense, all dressed up in a sci-fi environment with a noticeable twist of wit, sarcasm and comedy, exploring – then making fun of our deepest, darkest fears. Personally, I think there’s something deeply terrifying about someone staying perfectly calm in the face of mounting evidence that something supernatural is happening around them… I know, because it’s happened to me.
Yes, I do believe in supernatural and paranormal entities and events, and have actually seen quite a lot of strange stuff. No, I’m not religious. My perception of these phenomena is that they are real but misunderstood, but skeptics in the sciences glaring over the tops of their spectacles still haven’t figured it out yet.
No, I’m not a psychic – medium, or any other size.
I have, on occasion, assisted several people in clearing their homes of troublesome spirits and the like.
My home is not haunted – we just have more cats than we can actually see most of the time. *shrugs* It saves on cat food and vet bills.
Why did I write PHiS in a sci-fi setting? Why not? Do you think people will just somehow stop being afraid of the dark, empty spaces like the basement, under the bed, the closet in the corner, just because the centuries tick by, our tech advances, and we move out into space? Space itself is rife with dark, empty spaces after all… the name is a dead giveaway.
I wrote the PHiS series because of my fondness for the paranormal, TV paranormal investigative shows, sci-fi & select horror, and wanted to see what happened if I scrambled it all together. I have no regrets.
I’ve never entirely been convinced by the whole zombie trope, so that’s why the ‘zoms’ in Static are really technological puppets.
The Captain of the starship Mercury, Stuart Flane, used to be an academic overachiever at the space academy, but since he’s been on the job, his career has been distinctly underwhelming. At least, up until the start of Static. He takes his job as Captain very seriously.
“Flane” is a futuristic evolution of “Flanagan”.
Flane starts out as a confirmed skeptic of anything remotely paranormal. As things progress, he deals with the manifestation of things he didn’t know existed, with pragmatism and somehow takes it all in his stride. The disbelief of his superiors frustrates him.
Flane refuses to lie in his reports to cover up paranormal-related incidents, mainly because it’s not in his nature to lie – but also because it’s considered a crime. This leads to his growing frustration due to people laughing at him for the content of his reports, while others feel prompted to take action against him for “lying” in his reports.
Part of what adds more humor to the story is that while Flane’s incident reports defy belief at HQ, his immediate superior continuously sends him more assignments bearing the hallmark of possibly paranormal events, adding to the awkwardness and frustration felt by Captain Flane.
Describing over time, the negative effects all these paranormal incidents have on the protagonist, Captain Stuart Flane’s career with the Space Fleet, was an immense amount of fun that also led to even more fun describing later investigations into his reports.
Vic Chapman, EXO of the Mercury (and Flane’s childhood best friend) is a chilled goofball. He’s really the antithesis of Flane. He takes his job seriously enough, but he takes every opportunity to have fun and to smell the roses along the way. He loves history – especially historical mysteries about ghost ships and abandoned outposts.
Flane really, really, really loves coffee. And chicken mayo. And so do I.
The starship I.S.S. Mercury is often described as small, but this is mostly in jest – it’s really quite a large vessel, big enough to house over 200 crew members in relative comfort. It is however the smallest class of starship in use by the Pioneer Fleet.
In part 3 of Static, (Dead Center), a paranormal investigation TV show called “Specter Adventures” is a spoof version of “Ghost Adventures”. It’s meant to be in good-natured jest, not a criticism or any kind of personal attack. I’m very fond of the show, no matter what anyone else thinks of it, and it’s one of the few shows of this type where I’ve watched every single episode more than once.
The “Specter Adventures” team is loosely based on the team members of “Ghost Adventures”, with names parodying the originals – for example: Mak Sagan (Zak Bagans), Erin Goodman (Aaron Goodwin), Neil Gruff (Nick Groff), Milley Marley (Billy Tolley) etc.
I’m not sure exactly which member of the “Specter Adventures” team was Commodore Peters’ favorite (now missing) nephew, but it’s probably Neil Gruff.
The subtitle “Dead Center” is wordplay referring to the center on Floridia-7, which has been abandoned and believed to be the most haunted abandoned outpost in the galaxy, hence “dead”.
Dialog presented in superscript is meant to represent the faint voices caught in EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) recordings, or in fact, soft disembodied voices. I think I’ve used it to good effect in the story, both to add to the terror – and sometimes comedy – in these stories.
In this future, distant time, humanity has for the most part cast away religion. There is literally just one obscure church organization left, operating mostly out on the fringe worlds on the edge of civilization, and it’s called the Reformed Puritan Church. As in most elements of PHiS, it’s satire.
The subtitle “Through A Dark Glassy” is wordplay referencing the bible verse “Through A Glass Darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
I put quite a lot of effort into researching the details of haunted items featured in the book, which enabled me to invent some quite (I think) convincingly terrifying haunted objects doing the rounds. I wouldn’t want any of them. Well, except maybe the ancient soccer ball. Johnny is kinda okay.
The sign reading “WARNING: POSITIVELY DO NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON” was inspired by the Annabelle story and the Warrens. Yes, the doll in the glass case is meant to evoke that.
“Life Signs” was first published in 2017. It is the second novel in the series, and is divided into three distinct parts.
I almost wept while writing and refining the story of Miora (part 1 of Life Signs). I still feel it’s one of the most beautiful and poignant stories I’ve ever worked on.
Miora first appears as a 20 year old girl while Flane and his landing party are investigating a downed alien ship on the surface of a long-dead world. Later on, it’s revealed that there’s much more to her than that.
Part 2 of the book, subtitled “Lange’s Legacy”, covers the discovery of an abandoned starshuttle in deep space, containing only an unidentified dead body – and a very long letter, which makes up the body of this part of the story as Flane reads this very long, intriguing letter that leads him down a long, twisting rabbit hole featuring a 20 year old mystery of a lost starliner, an outbreak of disease – and vampires.
Although the final destination of Lange and his companions who had been aboard the shuttle remains a mystery, Flane and Dr. Killian speculate based on where the shuttle was discovered. I am at liberty to reveal that they *most likely* went to Deanna – the main setting of the Quantum Series.
The vampire social structure and traditions as laid out in “Lange’s Legacy” laid the foundations for the vampire community described in later titles in the Quantum Series.
“Lange’s Legacy” is the substantially lengthened and fleshed-out evolution of a novelette I released in 2016 under the title “Space Vacation”, now out of print.
“Lange’s Legacy” was also very briefly released as the fourth title in the Galaxii Series, but I then withdrew it because it didn’t fit with the overall theme and setting of that series – most especially because of the first-person viewpoint of the story.
A lot of the information and inspiration for “Space Vacation” and “Lange’s Legacy” was drawn from research and interaction with the Online Vampire Community (OVC), in other words, real, self-identifying vampires.
The subtitle of part 3 of Life Signs “The Big Rain” refers to the moment when a terraformed planet has built up enough atmosphere and moisture for it to trigger a lengthy rainy season. This title and that terraforming part of the story were inspired when I read an Usborne book about space and the future as a child.
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t mind spiders. I actually like some types of spiders, especially the little jumping spiders. Gigantic spider-like creatures lurking in caves filled with crushed human skulls, though, not so much.
“We All Fall Down” was published in July 2022. It is the third novel in the series, and is divided into three distinct parts.
The title of “We All Fall Down” was directly inspired by part 1 of the story, subtitled “Dust”. It evokes that part of the children’s rhyme, “Ashes to ashes, we all fall down” – and also the funeral rite, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”.
I loved working out the secret of Paritinian radiation and its effects and the story behind the ghost ship Amundsen!
Yes, the ghost ship Amundsen was partly inspired by the legendary Mary Celeste.
Flane’s tendency to forget the names of most of his crew members isn’t based on anyone I actually know of – I just think it’s funny when he makes up crass names for them on the spur of the moment. That’s how you end up with “Lieutenant Fuckit” and “Ensign Whatchamacallit”.
Part 2, “The Song of the Drillipede” took me places I never thought of going before. Being inside an actual old-timey photograph was probably the absolute weirdest.
Flane and Vic teleporting down to the mining colony on Eriksen-A and arriving in the middle of the runoff pooling around a storm drain still cracks me up just thinking about it.
This was the first story I’d ever used a self-driving car as a prop. I think I might do it again sometime.
Vic Chapman, Flane’s best friend and EXO aboard the Mercury has a habit of referring to him in different languages as part of their parlance, such as “el Capitan”, “mon Capitaine” etc. He reserves “jawohl herr Kapitan” for the times he’s feeling sarcastic or doing something under protest.
A “drillipede” is a type of drilling rig resembling a giant robotic centipede, used in mining colonies. They’re able to mine and partially process the ores before they reach a pick-up point at the back of the rig, where trucks can collect the output periodically.
The way Flane reacts to how a gated community is described by the Eriksen staff reflects how I feel about such things. If I wanted to be dictated to about what color my mailbox could be, or how many guests I could have over on week nights, or wave at nosy parkers leering at me through their windows all day, I’d move into one right away.
I have nothing personally against either clowns or mimes. It’s just a story. Lighten up. Geez.
Part 3, “Hotel No-Tell” was the first time that Captain Flane really starts to feel the squeeze for all his bizarre incident reports in which he honestly and dutifully mentioned all the weird paranormal incidents that had occurred so far.
Commodore Steven Link was named after my first childhood best friend – who moved away when I was about 7. I’ve never been able to trace him or reconnect with him. He was much nicer than the Commodore.
The commodore presents himself as a skeptic of the paranormal, but by the end of the story you should realize he’s really in denial – so deeply in denial that he doesn’t want to face the truth about his own experiences because they challenge his own perception of reality, and in more ways than one.
“Terror In The Outblack” was published in June 2023. It is the fourth novel in the series, and is divided into five distinct parts.
The Outblack is the part of space on the outer fringe of populated or colonized space. The name also intentionally evokes the Australian Outback, referring to the darkness and emptiness of that part of space.
In part 1, “Hunger”, the late captain of the Heyrdahl, Ernest P. Genders’ name was inspired by the name of an old school friend (without the “P”). If he ever reads it, I hope he appreciates it.
“Nine Tenths Of The Law” is a direct reference to the phenomenon of spiritual possession and deals with Flane and his friends having to conduct an exorcism by any means necessary, even if it means resorting to ritual involving a wannabe street-preacher who’s a bit of a conman and a charlatan pretending to be an ordained Reverend of the Reformed Puritan Church.
Paul de Sol’s name is a play on words. “Paul” is a traditional biblical name, “de Sol” essentially meaning “of the Sun”.
Much of this story was inspired by the time I participated in an exorcism, and if you think I’m kidding, let me tell you that it’s no easy feat trying to find a brass bell and holy water on the day before Christmas in the middle of silly season and spree-shopping insanity!
The name of Szandor station in part 4 of the book, was inspired by the middle name of Anton Szandor Levy. I thought it evoked the situation on the planet rather nicely.
The underlying story of “Szandor Station” is a variation of the child’s game “the floor is lava”, playing on the fear that something under the floor will “get you”.
Part 5 of Terror In The Outblack is titled “Dysfunction”. The title refers to a brain malfunction, and specifically addresses the fear of being lobotomized.

Well, that’s that – quite a long list of things you probably never knew about Panic! Horror In Space! You can find all these books on Amazon as eBooks and paperbacks, with the first 3 also available as audiobooks.

I truly hope you enjoy reading these books!

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