The Taking: Dona Masi Reveals the Chilling Story Behind Her Paranormal Thriller!

In this gripping episode of *Generation X Paranormal*, Logan and Nicole sit down with **Dona Masi**, the brilliant mind behind the suspenseful fiction novel *The Taking*. Dive into the emotional and eerie journey of John and his daughter Vera as they grapple with the haunting mystery of Vera’s mother’s disappearance. As John struggles to guide his troubled daughter through bizarre dreams of otherworldly creatures, he soon realizes that an unknown force may be controlling their fate.  

Set in a small, enigmatic New England town, *The Taking* masterfully weaves suspense, supernatural elements, and the complexities of a father-daughter bond. Dona Masi shares the inspiration behind the story, the chilling themes that keep readers on edge, and the real-life mysteries that influenced her writing.  

Don't miss this captivating discussion—perfect for fans of paranormal fiction, suspense thrillers, and supernatural mysteries. Tune in now and uncover the secrets behind *The Taking*!  

Transcript

Dona Masi (00:00)
I've had a lifelong interest in UFO mysteries. so just eventually that led me to write this novel about the mystery that explores how it affects people. Because, you know, I think that if these events are in fact true, people's lives are being disrupted. So it's not just like an extraterrestrial kind of topic. It really is a human topic.

and so that's basically, you know, how I ended up writing the book. And as I said, I've had a lifelong interest. I've read a lot of books and articles about it. I've talked to researchers and investigators. I once wrote a research paper about UFO folklore. you know, so just growing up, I had a big interest in them and I'm interested in the paranormal in general.

Generation X Paranormal (01:41)
Well, hey everybody, welcome back. Hey, everyone. Generate Scenics Paranormal. I'm Logan. And I'm Nicole. So.

We have an interesting episode. Yeah. You know, sometimes we have, you know, different experiencers on and different things like that. But occasionally we do like to bring on authors that write, you know, some really good books. You know, we've had some really fed some that deal with a lot of them been ufology, actually. Yeah. And then we had Gary on that kind of talked about some really interesting, yeah, some really, really interesting ghost stuff. But today's kind of going to be one of those where we talk to somebody who

is gonna tell us a little bit about their book and what can you tell us about Donna Massey? Okay, so Donna Massey is a writer and editor whose short fiction and articles are used in reading and writing assessments throughout the United States. In her fiction, as in her playwriting, she loves bringing relatable characters to life and depicting them in all their heroic and flawed humanity. Her debut novel, The Taking,

was inspired by her interest in UFO folklore and reports of alien encounters. With a BA in liberal studios, studies. Cut, you're gonna have to cut that. With a BA in liberal studies from Vermont College, she earned her MA in liberal studies from the University of New Hampshire. She lives with her husband in Dover, New Hampshire. Awesome. Yeah, so I read the book. I didn't. Really, really good. And I got in trouble for it.

He didn't get in trouble. He's just not a book reader, but I have to expose him when he doesn't read the book. And nobody wants me to get exposed. No, no, but I actually did really, really enjoy it. I'll give you kind of a synopsis. John and his daughter Vera grieve the loss of Vera's mother, who mysteriously disappeared when Vera was a baby. As John struggles to raise his troubled daughter, he dismisses connections between his wife's disappearance and Vera's bizarre.

dreams of other worldly creatures. But when he finds Vera unconscious, lying in a ring of scorched trees, he begins to believe that a mysterious outside force is controlling her fate and his. The taking is a suspenseful story depicting a loving but difficult relationship between a father and daughter amid the strange events that underlie their everyday life in a small New England town. Ooh, how cool.

and say a sensible story three times fast because you can't do it. You can't. That'll expose anybody. But anyway, guys, let's let's talk to Donna.

Generation X Paranormal (04:20)
Well, hey, Donna, how are you doing? Awesome. Hey, no, it's awesome. Thanks for having you. Yeah, happy to have you. You know, it's it's funny because we often talk about the different types of paranormal that we have. And of course, there's usually like the big three that gets a lot of a lot of people looking and watching. You know, of course, the ghost is one of them. And, know, the big foot and the crypt is. But of course, UFOs is huge.

Dona Masi (04:21)
Good, good. Thanks for having me.

Generation X Paranormal (04:47)
and pretty timely for right now considering kind of what's, you know, kind of what's going on in the world. Yeah. With, uh, you know, at present time we have all the drone stuff going on, but, uh, but yeah. Um, so yeah, we're super excited to have you on, but before we kind of talk about, about the book, can you kind of give our, I guess our audience, the, the proverbial fly by of everything that, kind of brought you up to this point.

Dona Masi (05:11)
Yeah, well, I've had a lifelong interest in UFO mysteries. so just eventually that led me to write this novel about the mystery that explores how it affects people. Because, you know, I think that if these events are in fact true, people's lives are being disrupted. So it's not just like an extraterrestrial kind of topic. It really is a human topic.

and so that's basically, you know, how I ended up writing the book. And as I said, I've had a lifelong interest. I've read a lot of books and articles about it. I've talked to researchers and investigators. I once wrote a research paper about UFO folklore. you know, so just growing up, I had a big interest in them and I'm interested in the paranormal in general. Strange, interestingly enough, I guess a lot of us are probably.

Generation X Paranormal (06:06)
Okay. Right. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah, it's funny. know, with with our audience, it really runs the the gamut of different people, different walks of life, different religious beliefs. mean, cultural beliefs. There's really no.

I guess there's really no standard person that believes in the paranormal or is somewhat touched by the paranormal. It just seems to be that it's kind of so universal that it's kind of that language we do all speak, you know, and it's interesting. But yeah, that's awesome. As far as as UFOs, have you had any experience yourself or anything you think may have happened?

Dona Masi (06:55)
I think it's more in the think may have happened category. when I was a kid and pretty young, I think I was about seven years old. I saw something. sometimes I question whether it really happened. You know, it looked like a craft and it was just a long time ago and I really don't have anything to back up my story except very vivid memory. And some of the

things, know, some of the characteristics that you hear about in UFO encounters seem to be part of it as well. And it's just looking back at it after I have spent a long time learning about UFO reports and what happens to people, what they say happens to them, that, you know, I began to recognize that I could have experienced some of those same things. So just in brief, I was at school.

And, was recess and I looked up in the sky and I saw an object. looked like a plane. didn't have wings. had windows on it, I think. And it was really big. It was sticking between two clouds. And I said to myself, it looks like a plane, but it doesn't have wings. And, I was very startled and kind of like nervous. And then I, was a moment when I.

Generation X Paranormal (08:11)
Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (08:21)
looked away from it and I looked back up at it and it was still, I looked back up and it was still there. And that's when I started to get really scared. I mean, I was just like really scared. And there seemed to be an element of lost time then that happened very, between the time I looked away and then I looked back up again. So that was my experience. And then some kind of odd things happened just directly.

Generation X Paranormal (08:26)
Hmm.

Right.

Hmm.

Dona Masi (08:49)
in the moments following that. I would forget about it and I'd remember it and I'd forget about it and I'd remember it. And this went on for a long time until finally I, I did remember it and it's stuck in my head and I, and it's there for good. So I don't, you know, it's hard to say whether it really happened or whether it was my imagination at this point. It feels real. It was very visceral. but I don't have any, any proof. don't.

Generation X Paranormal (09:13)
Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (09:18)
know of anybody else who saw it. but I, I believe that it was probably definitely a spark that was lit in me. that made me interested in UFOs, perhaps ultimately led me to the point where I wrote a novel about it. mean, I am a writer. I've been a writer for a long time and, it just generated in my head, this, story gradually. And I decided it would make,

I felt it would make an emotional story, a suspenseful story, and about a very interesting question that's been around for a long time. Are we alone and are we being visited by aliens from other planets? there other dimensions from the future? What are these encounters that people have been reporting and talking about, telling stories and legends about for thousands of years?

Generation X Paranormal (10:16)
Absolutely. Right, right. Yeah, and it's these early experiences, which is why we all end up doing what we're doing. At least in the paranormal field, we all have something that happened in childhood usually.

Dona Masi (10:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know I'm interested about your experiences too. cause I like hearing these, these stories.

Generation X Paranormal (10:34)
Well, I

have I have many that would take a very long time, but mostly ghost related, lived in a haunted house growing up. Lots of experiences there. And then when I was in college, more experiences there in the house that I lived in and pretty much up and I mean, almost I think I'm a haunted person. You know, there is a term for that where you just are open to things and things come to you. And I think that's what I am. Yeah.

Dona Masi (10:37)
haha

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Generation X Paranormal (11:03)
And we're pretty, I guess, and our audience may or may not agree, but we're pretty middle of the road for the most part. We're not, especially when it comes to trying to come at things from a bit more of a logistical, skeptical mind. I am definitely probably the more skeptic between the two of us. I'm a pretty big Occam's razor believer. I'm a pretty big.

You know my background I'm in analytics. I'm actually a network engineer so being an IT administrator my whole job is to look for analytics and look for you know sequentials and algorithm, but Having said all that I'm also somebody who's had a lot of really weird things happen And I've also Again, one of those things that I'm not sure how I quite sit with it yet

But I'm definitely one of those when I walk in a building, I can always sense things. I can always pick things up. I like to offer that as just having good intuition. I don't know. Sometimes I really wish I didn't have it, but I get the I get the heebie jeebies as they say. But I honestly think a lot of people have that. They just don't know how to hone it right. But I've had a lot of experiences. Some definitely ghosts and I've had some UFO experiences.

Dona Masi (12:08)
Yeah.

You

Mm-hmm.

Generation X Paranormal (12:24)
I've had one in which it's very strange, but actually too. And they happen within the same general area. They're around the Yuma, Arizona area. My father and I, we would travel back and forth from San Diego to Tucson, Arizona. And we, yeah, this is a really weird one. I remember one time we were coming back from San Diego and we hit it roughly where the dunes are. I don't know how familiar you are with that area, but.

Yuma kind of has these big dunes and and But anyway at any rate it was right after that and I was driving and I happen to notice off the left side I looked and there was this really weird cigar shaped looking thing in the sky Now it wasn't way up. There was actually pretty low flying So my initial thought was that's probably like some kind of air balloon or something like that So I said to my dad I'm like, hey, do you see that over there and he looked and you know

My dad was not the kind of person to get spooked easily. He would kind of laugh things off. But I remember his reaction to it. And he just looked at it he's like, I don't think that's a balloon. And we kind of kept driving for a while and we went behind these like the hills and the dunes. And as we came across the other end, gone. It was gone. So we live with that for a little bit. And I remember talking to my dad like, well, is that a UFO? And he's like, I don't know what it was. And it was flying. So I guess so. But there was that.

Dona Masi (13:39)
Phew.

Yeah.

Generation X Paranormal (13:50)
And then there was a yeah, technically, if you want to follow the letter of the law, it was a UFO. And then very shortly thereafter, we're actually moving back to Tucson. Actually, I was moving them back. I still lived in San Diego at the time, but we're moving back. And I know this is going to sound really odd. But as we got to that same area now, this was a little further down the road. So it wasn't exactly the same spot. But there was the whole.

Dona Masi (13:50)
technically.

Generation X Paranormal (14:19)
freeway was shut down, which is very odd. And I was granted it was very late at night and it wasn't police officers. It was very much so a military type blockade. And we stopped and the guys like, hey, look, there's been an accident up there. And I just assumed and I'm sure my dad did too, that there was like a military accent, like maybe, you know, one of their convoys or something. There was an incident we didn't know. But they told us we're to have to get off the road.

and go this detour and come back to it. So we of course did it. The guy had an M16 so it wasn't going to, you know, wasn't going to challenge it. So we got off the road and we were in this big U-Haul and I felt like we drove for hours. I mean, just it felt like the longest drive of my life. And I don't recall getting off the freeway. I don't recall where we went in the detour.

I don't recall getting back on the freeway and to make it more interesting. I don't remember the drive back. I don't remember getting to Tucson. What I remember is pulling up to my mom's house and both my dad and I being so exhausted and my grandmother was with us and she was already asleep. And I just like in my mind, I'm like, how did we even get here? Now it could have been that I was just tired, you know, and we got off the road and we had to find our way back on, but

That was a very interesting, I guess, event. I mean, I can never prove it just like you. There's no proof, but we've done this long enough now that as these things progress, I usually say, well, I don't know. I mean, it's certainly up for debate.

Dona Masi (15:50)
Ew.

Yeah, we second guess ourselves first. That's the first thing we do. don't, can't quite bring ourselves most of the time to believe that actually like right away, like this is really happening because the whole idea of the existence of these, um, you know, other, visitors, other realities, you know, it is impossible for us to really understand, grasp, and we don't see it, you know.

Generation X Paranormal (16:10)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Dona Masi (16:35)
We don't live like that in a material world that we live in. So yeah, it's mind-blowing.

Generation X Paranormal (16:41)
Yeah,

it really is. And I think it's transformative for people that have, you know, an experience that they can't explain that don't just automatically, you know, decipher it as being, you know, well, I was just tired. You know, if they want to grow to accept the fact that something could have actually happened. But, you know, we're good about talking ourselves out of things. Yeah, I'm very good at it. Mm Mm hmm.

Dona Masi (17:08)
Yeah. Is that area

from San Diego to driving near Yuma, is that a known hotspot for paranormal activity?

Generation X Paranormal (17:20)
Yeah, so it's the Yuma Proving Grounds and it's around that area and there's it's known it's not probably as big of a hot spot as some of the other places, but it is around a pretty big military installation and there are there's just a lot of stuff that happens in that area. Very.

Very famously, they're known to pick up a lot of University of Arizona students, graduates and move them out there for a whole host of things. Like I know a lot of electronic engineers that work at the human proving grounds. And it's always like. Why? You know, it seems kind of odd, you know, it's of course, you know, you never know. No, but I was prior military, so I also know not to ask certain things, you know, I also know that, hey,

Dona Masi (18:01)
Can they talk about what they do out there?

Generation X Paranormal (18:12)
just because I think it's odd doesn't mean that it's necessarily odd. It's just something I don't particularly know about. But it is interesting. It's not, you know, I think about like a lot of different regions, of course, like the Hudson Valley. We think about like Gulf Shores or Gulf Breeze, Gulf Shores and Florida. remember which one it is. Anyway, and then you think about like the...

Dona Masi (18:17)
sure.

Generation X Paranormal (18:38)
I think even like in the Pacific Northwest of being these big hotspots. I don't know that it necessarily falls in that particular category, but it sure was for me because two times it happened. So, you know, there's nothing out there also. So that would be a perfect spot. That's for sure. That's for sure. Yeah. But but yeah, you know, about the about the book and again.

Dona Masi (18:50)
Sure.

You

Generation X Paranormal (19:03)
I wasn't I wasn't one that read it. I read it. It was fantastic. I'm so sorry. I didn't get a chance to read it. She she got it. He's not a reader. We've spoke about this before. I can read things really fast and he just doesn't like cracking open a book. So I'm usually the reader. I I am somewhat well read. Yes. Yes, exactly. I've got the gift of the gab. She's just she's the brains behind the operation. So yeah.

Dona Masi (19:18)
haha

And the storyteller, because you tell him about him.

Generation X Paranormal (19:32)
Yeah, I think it's interesting that of your experience, the schoolyard, because there's a lot of things that happen around a schoolyard where kids have seen things like they're, you know, the aerial phenomenon. don't know if you've heard of that one in Zimbabwe. That was a huge. Remember when I first and we did a show on it just blew my mind that that happened. So it kind of leads to I mean, somewhat related to the book that you wrote. So do you want to talk to us about that a little bit? Sure. Thank you.

Dona Masi (19:47)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

sure. Thank you. Yeah. The book's called The

Taking and it's a suspenseful story about the UFO mystery. it's also about, inside that paranormal framework of the book is also a story about a girl and her father and their relationship and the

The girl is the experiencer of these events that are going on in their town. It's set in New England. I live in New Hampshire, so it's set in a fictional town in New Hampshire that I sprung from my imagination, you know, it kind of represents, it has the rural atmosphere, the wooded atmosphere, the, you know, of New Hampshire. And at the heart of the story, I think it's a coming of age story. And it's about

Generation X Paranormal (20:35)
Thank

Dona Masi (20:53)
gosh, know, friendship, family, relationships, love, courage, learning difficult truths, and finding ways to try to cope with them. And just the challenges that come along with that and the emotional, it kind of tries to depict the emotional trauma of an experiencer of these events.

and the impact on those that are close to her.

Generation X Paranormal (21:23)
Yeah, I got that. I was very connected. And I was like, this lady's either an experiencer or she's done a lot of research because I picked up on a lot of that stuff that, mean, we've talked to these people and so much, so many of those things in your book matched up with what people have talked about. So, yeah.

Dona Masi (21:33)
You

Good. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I've

done a lot of research and read and talked to people and also, you know, had my own potentially actual experience. And sometimes I really, you know, sometimes I really tend to think that it is because I'll give myself these little tests. Like I'll think, no, that, that didn't happen. That didn't happen. And I'll start thinking, but then I'll get this feeling like, come on, Donna.

Generation X Paranormal (21:51)
Yeah.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (22:09)
Don't lie to yourself, you know, this really did happen. And I'll say, you know, yes, this did happen. Yes. And then I'll start feeling like really kind of nervous all over again. Like it's, I'm having that emotional, flashback or something, when I think about it in depth. So. Could be, but I guess short of going anything other than going under hypnosis, I may never get to the bottom of it.

Generation X Paranormal (22:27)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right, and maybe you don't want to know. Right. I always think about those people that once they find out, it's like, maybe I shouldn't have opened that can. Yeah. we've we've. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Once you uncover it, it's kind of hard. I'm going to use a very colloquial, maybe a little bit risque comment that I learned from micro. You can't put the poop back in the goose once it comes out. So but.

Dona Masi (22:40)
That's right. Yeah, I'm not sure I want to know

Well yeah, like my character in my book, you know? Yeah.

I'm

Generation X Paranormal (23:07)
You know, it's funny, I'm also, you know, we talked to lot of different people and we have those kind of connections where we could do. In fact, I've been offered some regression therapy. I just don't know that I am ready to know because I think that once, once that comes out, it, if what all these different things point to actually did happen, then, it's going to be. But they also say it can, it can heal.

Dona Masi (23:23)
here.

Generation X Paranormal (23:34)
certain traumas within you that you have pushed down. So right. You kind of got to weigh, weigh that out and decide for yourself for sure. What's the thing?

Dona Masi (23:41)
Yeah. Yeah.

And if you get to the bottom of it, you might find out that it's so much, this is what I'm thinking about it from my research, so much weirder and crazier and weirder than you could ever possibly imagine. And that makes it, you know, the idea of that is makes, it's kind of scary too.

Generation X Paranormal (23:51)
Yes.

Yeah, I mean.

for sure. Yeah. I mean, to think about it, if that would have happened and we were an experiencer, it would have had to have been my grandmother, my father, myself, our two dogs that we had in the cab, an entire U-Haul. All at the same time. So that's the part that I'm like, if that were the case, then, man, it is a little weirder. But but anyway, you mentioned some of the research.

You kind of want to talk a little bit about, you know, maybe some of the people that you spoke with, you know, some of the things that that you really took away as being, you know, kind of kind of the real rounding of why you chose their stories or maybe their encounters for your book.

Dona Masi (24:47)
Yeah, well, you mentioned Nicole Zimbabwe incident with the school children and actually, John Mack was one of my, you know, distant mentors because I only read his books. never met him, of course. But for some of the ideas that I had in the book, I mean, the book is fiction. All of the events are made up. They are not based on anybody's actual person's experiences, but he's the one

Generation X Paranormal (24:52)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Dona Masi (25:17)
John Mack, who made me start thinking about, wow, this is really a story about people and what are the, how does that impact somebody and how do they find a way to cope with it so that they can live a normal life? They, know, the fact that they don't have any control of their lives and they don't know when and if this is ever going to happen to them again. So reading him really

was an inspiration for me going in that direct, this direction to look at that, those questions in my book. Before I, I read John Mack, I'd never really thought about it that way before. So he put that idea into my head because in his treatment that, you know, and he was a Harvard psychiatrist, excuse me, I'll back, backtrack a bit. Yeah. John Mack was a psychiatrist at Harvard, very prominent. And, he began treating.

Generation X Paranormal (26:02)
Right. Yeah.

Dona Masi (26:11)
people who had symptoms of severe trauma, fear, know, repressed memories and were having struggling to cope in their life. and reporting strange experiences over time, you know, it, it seemed to him that they had something to do with alien encounters and alien abductions. And, you know, he was skeptical at first.

And then he, started to believe them. He, he started to, not that every patient, don't think thought that they were having a UFO experience that some did, but that's sort of the conclusion that he thought they had in common. And, he, he came to believe their stories. He came to believe that what they experienced was real. may not be explainable on a physical level, but you know, like on the metaphysical.

level, and out of body experience, but, but they were still, it was still happening. It was still real, no less real than if it was just a physical experience. But it was some, it's the kind of thing that we don't quite accept, like we were talking about earlier. And, um, that's, uh, not really dealt with in our culture. You know, he was speaking Western culture.

Generation X Paranormal (27:11)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

you

No.

Sure. Yeah.

Dona Masi (27:39)
specifically

because in the East, some Eastern ideas, you know, they seem to be a bit more open to it than that, or it's more incorporated into their culture and their religious traditions. mean, we have ours, you know, I mean, but at the same time, so he drew upon that. He got into a lot of trouble because of his beliefs and they, you know, although I guess he was exonerated by Harvard and they didn't.

Generation X Paranormal (27:47)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Yeah.

Dona Masi (28:07)
takes 10 year away or any, there was no repercussions, but they looked into his, his, treatment of these patients. in any way, you know, John Mack was one of my influences for that book and, you know, just my lifelong interest. And one thing led to another. And when I was in grad school and taking an anthropology course, I I, we had to write a call about a culture other than our own. So I asked my professor if I could write about UFO folklore.

Generation X Paranormal (28:15)
Yeah, we are.

Dona Masi (28:37)
And he, you know, he was a little skeptical at first. He's like, well, is that really a culture? And I'm like, yeah, it is. It is. I think it is. Maybe in a different way of thinking about it. Cause you know, these people don't, you don't all live together or go through a continuous experience with each other. But you know, in the groups that meet to discuss it and among paranormalists, the experiencers and also, you know, at when you go to UFO conventions and all of these symposiums and.

Generation X Paranormal (29:04)
Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (29:07)
And like, like, you know, like your program too, the talks to people. mean, that's a community, you have a community of people, you know? So, yeah, I think in many ways it is a culture. So anyway, I eventually, I talked him into it and I wrote this paper. And in the course of that, I did speak with like MUFON researchers, mutual UFO network. I.

Generation X Paranormal (29:10)
Right. Yeah.

Yes, we do. Yes, we do.

Dona Masi (29:33)
When I told people I knew that I was writing this, some of them came forward and said, well, I've had experiences too. Don't use my name, but I've had experiences. they told me about some of the things that happened to them. I spoke with, I had the honor and pleasure to speak with the niece of Betty and Barney Hill. Do you know that UFO story?

Generation X Paranormal (29:43)
You're right.

Dona Masi (30:00)
Kathleen Marden is her niece, is Betty's niece, Betty Marden's niece, and she's a UFO researcher herself, very renowned. And she's like on a lot of documentaries about them. She's written a great length about them. And she's also a sociologist too, I believe. So she is a researcher and an analyst.

Generation X Paranormal (30:08)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Dona Masi (30:28)
But one day when I was writing my UFO research paper, cause she lived, she used to live and she was brought up in New Hampshire. someone, through a mutual friend, I was invited to go see Kathy. And we spent a long time talking about her aunt and uncle's alien abduction. And she was writing a book about it at the time. So she told me a lot of details.

Generation X Paranormal (30:55)
I'm sure.

Dona Masi (30:55)
on that really

nobody had no nobody knew until she published the book so she had me you know like a captive audience for like three or four hours.

Generation X Paranormal (31:02)
yeah I'm

sure yeah, I mean that's probably along with maybe the Travis Walton Yeah, I put in the Mount Rushmore if you will Yeah, we we've also had some some people that we've spoken to where

Dona Masi (31:18)
Yeah, yeah.

Generation X Paranormal (31:25)
It's interesting about not wanting to use their names, but everybody coming forward. We had a pretty long discussion and we actually had an episode with Preston Dennett. And I don't know if you're familiar with Preston or not, but yeah, he's written a lot of books. He's got his own show that he puts out as well. But in all the books that he talks to with these experiencers, he said, it's amazing how many people when you first start out, you know, they,

Dona Masi (31:36)
No, I don't think so.

Generation X Paranormal (31:52)
You always wonder if they're questioning you and then you say something about it and like, well, yeah, actually I had an experience, you know, it's, interesting because, you know, with the, the paranormal and with just you aphology and everything in general, you know, it's so easy to coin it as this big, huge, Ooh, la la, you know, woo woo thing. But when it breaks right down to it, it's a human experience. So, you know, it's.

It's with books like yours and a lot of very much more smarter people than I, and obviously more well read. it's through that experience that I think that a lot of this is kind of getting more demystified. So yeah, that's awesome.

Dona Masi (32:26)
you

Ha

Yeah. I just wanted to ask you if you've heard of, gosh, what's his name? He just published a book. shouldn't mention any of the books, but mine, but, but I just read a book called paranormal ranger and it's, it's really great. It's not fiction, but it's, it's written by a man who was a ranger on the Navajo reservation.

And he and his partner became the, um, what they call them, the paranormal unit. So they were investigating lots of different kinds of paranormal activity on the reservation, know, big foots, ghosts, witches, um, skinwalkers, you know, lots of things, UFOs. Um, I mean, and so he was doing, he was in ranger for 23 years.

Generation X Paranormal (33:07)
Really?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Dona Masi (33:36)
And there was a lot of need for people that were devoted some time to exploring these, these following up on these reports that people were calling in because, you know, they were really, they needed support and they were terrified of what was happening and they needed to be heard and they needed people to be sympathetic and believe them. And there was nothing like that until this, their,

Generation X Paranormal (33:48)
Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (34:03)
you know, chief created this, this unit. we sent them out on the road. So, um, now, mean, his experiences are crazy just on all of those things. He's a, he's really incredible. It was a good book, well written too. Um, and now he's yeah. Paranormal Ranger.

Generation X Paranormal (34:18)
I'm to look that up. I want to read that. I know we we've heard about

that before. I don't remember. I know we've been talked to. I don't know if it's with when we talked to less or somebody like that, but I'm pretty sure. yeah, yeah, I'm definitely gonna check that out. That sounds interesting.

Dona Masi (34:32)
Yeah. I think it was

just published, you know, in 2024. So it's new. but, what was the other thing I was gonna say about him? yeah. He's, he's touring all around now, doing like, well, he gives talks, of course, book talks and stuff, but he also meets with people, who are experiencers and he's doing that in groups more now because when he was, he has people coming up to him all the time and saying,

Generation X Paranormal (34:36)
Okay. Okay. Okay.

Dona Masi (35:01)
I'm so glad to meet you because I've been, need to tell somebody what happened to me. And I'm, I'm scared to that they're going to believe, not going to believe me. They're going to mock me and I have to get it off my chest. So he's very, you know, glad that he's there for people. He's able to offer a service that apparently is needed.

Generation X Paranormal (35:22)
Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. So. Yeah, I'm going to. Yeah, definitely. I've got a list like 20 books along at this point, but I'll get to them eventually. So do you find yourself going to a lot of conventions or is that something that.

Dona Masi (35:25)
Yeah. But put that on your reading list, Nicole.

you

Um, the only, the only things that I have attended in that respect was the Exeter UFO festival, which is in Exeter, New Hampshire is near where I live. It's probably about 20 minutes. And, um, Exeter is a, had a famous, another famous UFO incident, uh, in 1965, actually. And it was a long time ago, but it's pretty well known. And so every year in Exeter, they have a festival.

Generation X Paranormal (35:51)
Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (36:08)
And they have researchers there, Kathleen Martin, Betty and Billy, Barney Hill's niece appears there sometimes. And lot of the same people you see like on the History Channel, et cetera. And, you know, they have, it's a three day festival. It's on Labor Day every week, Labor Day weekend every year. So I've been to that several times and that's fun. And I want to contact them to see if maybe I can get, part of the festival in September.

Generation X Paranormal (36:15)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah, you should

yeah, absolutely Yeah, that would be great yeah

Dona Masi (36:39)
you know, maybe do a reading from my sell, sell books, but yeah, that's a big thing around here too. You know, I kind

of want to go to a symposium. It's not that I don't want to, I just haven't. Yeah.

Generation X Paranormal (36:51)
You're right. Right. Yeah.

That that area is beautiful. In fact, it's been many years since I've been out that way. I think we drove somewhere around there as we headed to the Franconian notch. I was out there. It was when I was working and traveling a lot. But but yeah, I've been I've been up through New Hampshire and that that area is gorgeous. But.

Dona Masi (37:14)
Yeah, on the White Mountains. Well, Franconia

Notches where the Betty and Barney Hill experience took place. And, and actually there's, I, my husband and I want to do it soon, but there's a, Betty and Barney Hill historical drive. So it takes you through the route where, you know, they first, that they were traveling from, from Canada to through, you know, South to the Southern tier of the state by the seacoast where they lived.

Generation X Paranormal (37:18)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Hmm.

Dona Masi (37:43)
And so you can drive part of that route, the crucial part where they first see something in the sky and where, you know, they end up down some dirt road where the abduction allegedly took place. it travels, it's like an 11 or 12 mile drive. So, and there were kind of landmarks along the way. So I want to do that. And I was thinking it would be cool to make a video of it, you know? Yeah.

Generation X Paranormal (37:46)
Mmm.

that sounds nice. you should. Yeah,

that's great. We'll watch it. Yeah.

Dona Masi (38:12)
And also

just one more piece of local stuff is that at the University of New Hampshire, they have the Betty and Barney Hill, a special collection exhibit of a lot of artifacts from their, abduction story. Yeah. Including, you know, the dress that Betty was wearing the night of it, which is all torn, covered with like the strange powder. Just a whole, a whole bunch of.

Generation X Paranormal (38:27)
really?

Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (38:40)
different manuscripts, papers, from Betty's collection of exchanging letters with people about it and all sorts of artifacts. So it's permanently housed there now.

Generation X Paranormal (38:51)
Sure. Wow, that's really cool. Yeah.

Yeah, that's great. I'd love to. I didn't even know they had that. So Donna, know, kind of where we're kind of audience find you what I mean, is this something you're going to continue doing as far as ufology or are these sort of books? Is this kind of something that you're going to continue or is this kind of like trying to feel your way through different things?

Dona Masi (39:18)
I, it's possible I could write a sequel to the book. I, I'm not doing that. Thank you.

Generation X Paranormal (39:25)
Please do. I liked it. I

was like, I want more.

Dona Masi (39:31)
Good, good. So,

you know, I've thought about what might happen in part anyway, in a sequel. I'm not writing it now. I'm writing another book. I'm not really a science fiction writer, although I like science fiction and I like, you know, I like science fiction movies and I like science fiction TV shows. You know, I love Star Trek, all the series and things like that. but I'm more just, I'm more of a writer who's interested

Generation X Paranormal (39:46)
Mm-hmm.

Dona Masi (40:01)
whose interest in this phenomenon led me to explore it because I thought it would make a really good story that might capture people's attention and interest, I should say, interest. But I do have other ideas like, you know, for kind of a science fiction type of books. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I do like to put

The book I'm writing now, I'm thinking of putting like some paranormal elements in it. Like it might have to do with magic or something or, you know, if it's, because I think in places it could serve the story. So I'd like to kind of play with genres and crossover. And I think a lot of people like to read books like that, are realistic, but they have these.

Generation X Paranormal (40:35)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Dona Masi (40:59)
you know, kind of mystical elements to it that are just because if you think of life as being, you know, okay, but if you just step over it, these things can happen. And they happen to all of us where we have these insights, where we have these that who knows where they come from, but they seem to come from without us or something. So, yeah, that's where I'm at with that. But the book I'm writing now is not, yeah.

Generation X Paranormal (40:59)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

That sounds like I'd be interested.

Yeah, I'd be interested in reading that. For sure. Those are the kinds of books I read. So that's sort of my yeah.

Dona Masi (41:27)
Yeah, I do too.

enjoy that magical realism, I guess is what you call it, you know.

Generation X Paranormal (41:35)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Well Donna in closing, know, I know our audience is gonna want to know more about Where to find you kind of how to get your book and you know, we're working they find yet

Dona Masi (41:47)
Oh, sure. I have a website. It's Donna Massey.com. So D O N A one N M A S I.com. And there is a link there and order the taking button that you can click on and it'll bring you to a place where you can order it. Um, it's on, you know, it's on the, publisher's website, which is collective Inc. And if you search for the book, you'll find it there. Search by name, my name, my name, you can purchase it there.

It's also, you know, it's on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Noble, it's on a lot of different online sites. And the sales reps are working on now to, you know, get it into bookstores. It was just released January 2nd. So it's kind of in its, you know, infant stage and we're getting it out there into the world.

Generation X Paranormal (42:29)
awesome.

Great. Yeah,

well, we'll provide the links for all that. Yeah, we'll put those on and we'll circulate our information.

Dona Masi (42:38)
Yeah, that's great. if you, and you know,

Hey folks, if you like it and you think somebody else would like it, I would sure love it. It'd be humbled if you write a review on Amazon and, get it out there, you know, because the more reviews you get, decent reviews, good reviews, and people pick up on things that really encourages them to give it a try. So that would, I would be more than appreciative for that.

Generation X Paranormal (42:59)
Absolutely.

Well, there you go. Folks, I'll be leaving mine. So we'll be leaving it. yeah, you're welcome. Guys, if you haven't noted or haven't picked up, get the book. It's it's it's been out now for a couple of weeks, looks like. And yeah, I think you'll have a good time. Yeah, they're taking Donna. Thank you so much. We appreciate you coming on and taking a few minutes with us and love to have you back at some point. So.

Dona Masi (43:08)
Thank you. Wonderful.

Yep, the taking, yes.

yeah, I'd love to. It was fun and it great to meet both of you. All the best. Bye bye.

Generation X Paranormal (43:31)
Awesome. It's great to meet you. Thank you. Same here.

Generation X Paranormal (43:39)
Thanks, Donna. That was a good time. Yeah, it was. Yeah, she's really sweet. Yeah. And for somebody who may or may not have had an incident, which I honestly, think that it very potentially could have been that she did have an experience. It could be. And to be able to come at it from an experiencer's point of view, that speaks a lot to her ability to be able to kind of bring all that.

stuff collectively and put that into some characters. So that's fantastic. And for me, I'm a reader, so I read difficult stories. I, you know, I can read really fast. But even if if that's not the kind of reader you are, it's a very easy read. It flows really well. And it's a great story. And you can connect really well to the characters. So I definitely recommend to check this out because I think you like it.

Yeah, we'll provide the links of where you can get it. I'll make sure and put the Amazon because that's usually the easiest one. Everybody can get a hold on. Yeah. You know, put it in their cart and you can always say for later if you need to. That Amazon. Yes, it's all right. Listen, guys, thank you so much for hanging out with us. Pick up the book. You know, take a look at it. You know, tell us what you think. Leave the comments. And yeah, other than that, guys, I guess we'll see you next week. See you next week.