by Timothy Pike

“I have lived a paranormal life,” declares author, comic book artist, and psychic medium Bruce Olav Solheim.

In case you’re wondering what this means, a slew of unusual phenomena, such as telepathy, telekinesis, ghosts, demons, guardian angels, precognition, near-death experiences, and more, have all played a role in Bruce’s life.

His 2018 memoir, Timeless: A Paranormal Personal History, documents some of these experiences. “Timeless tells the story of one man’s travels through the paranormal universe and out the other side,” we’re told on the book’s cover. Since then, Bruce has followed that memoir up with two more installments.

It was early in life that Bruce developed a fascination with telling stories. “I started writing as a young boy,” he says. “My parents got me a manual typewriter and I would type letters for my father who had difficulty writing in English. I would write short stories and make my own comic books.”

In fact, his latest release is a comic book: Dr. Jekyll Alien Hunter, which tells the story of Hanna Jekyll, a professor who researches extraterrestrials. “Her research,” the book’s synopsis tells us, “takes her around the world, where she discovers the hazy boundaries between life and death, and reality and dream.”

“An idea comes to me like a bolt from the blue,” Bruce says, “and then I roll with it and see how far it takes me.”

Bruce’s longtime fans will already be familiar with Dr. Jekyll. “She emerged as a character in my Snarc comic book series,” he tells me. “I thought it would be interesting to have a female main character in a comic book who was not a superhero.”

When it comes to story ideas, Bruce never knows exactly where he’ll be when one hits. “An idea comes to me like a bolt from the blue, and then I roll with it and see how far it takes me,” he says. “My writing comes from inspiration and such sudden realizations. It is intuitive.”

This intuition is almost certainly sharpened by Bruce’s disciplined writing routine. “I write everyday,” he says, “and my favorite time to write is in the morning, with a cup of coffee, black.”

To balance family and job obligations (Bruce is also a professor of U.S. history at Citrus College in Glendora, California), he divvies up his time and allots a certain amount to writing. “I take whatever time I allotted and at least write down thoughts that come to me,” he says. “A playwriting professor once told me this process is called capturing butterflies.”

Over the years, all of those butterflies have added up to a prolific, productive career, and we even have three new books to look forward to. “Snarc #3 will come out in 2023, illustrated by Gary Dumm of American Splendor fame,” Bruce says. “And Dr. Jekyll #2 should also come out in late 2023. I am also working on a self-help book called Let Me Help: A Scientific, Personal, And Practical Approach to the Paranormal.”

Bruce Olav Solheim has lived a paranormal life since age four, having experienced angels, demons, ghosts, cryptids, telepathy, psychokinesis, mediumship, and alien contact. He was born in Seattle, Washington, to Norwegian immigrant parents, and was the first person in his family to go to college. Bruce has published a trilogy of paranormal books about his personal paranormal experiences: Timeless, Timeless Deja Vu, and Timeless Trinity, and most recently published a book about his contact with an ancient alien mystic, Anzar the Progenitor. He’s also published two comic books featuring an alien hybrid character named Snarc and just released a new comic book called Dr. Jekyll Alien Hunter. Bruce earned his Ph.D. in history from Bowling Green State University in 1993, and is now a distinguished professor of history at Citrus College in Glendora, California. Bruce is married to Ginger and has four children and two grandsons.

Connect with Bruce at his website and Facebook page.