AUTHOR RELATES LOCAL ALIEN TALES.

Byline: Robert Monroe Staff Writer

The truth is out there.

And, according to author and UFO researcher Preston Dennett on Friday, it has hovered many times over Topanga Canyon, the San Fernando Valley's own mini-Roswell.

Dennett's latest UFO book, ``UFOs over Topanga Canyon: Eyewitness Accounts of the California Sightings'' is filled with stories of strange lights in the sky and abductions by aliens, who have performed unwanted medical procedures and imparted sage advice to some of Dennett's interviewees. To a small crowd at Barnes and Noble, Dennett contended that the flood of local sightings is a sign.

``This UFO wave activity is a new phenomenon. They want to be seen,'' said Dennett, 34.

The backbone of Dennett's book are sightings reported by dozens of people of strange lights in the Topanga Canyon skies on June 14, 1992. Dennett brought tape recordings of calls to Los Angeles County sheriff's dispatchers from that night. All the calls began with disclaimers along the same line.

``We are almost ashamed to tell you what we saw,'' said one caller. ``My girlfriend and I have no psychotic illnesses whatsoever.''

That summer of 1992 was a banner time for sightings. One woman interviewed by Dennett said aliens advised her that Ross Perot was no good for the country. Perot was running for president that year.

The woman said she dropped her support for Perot.

Another woman told Dennett that aliens abducted her and cut her arm, leaving a scar.

``I examined it just days after and there it was,'' he told the crowd.

Dennett was a skeptic until a publicized UFO sighting got him asking family members about UFOs. To his surprise, he said, several of them, and friends and co-workers all related their own UFO stories.

``I can't believe they had all these stories to tell me,'' he said.

The book chronicles classic UFO phenomena - lights that disappear in the blink of an eye, aliens with big heads, big eyes. But what does he make of it? Maybe the rugged landscape of the canyon is an ideal place for aliens to observe humans while avoiding large-scale detection, he offered.

``One of the most common questions I get is, Why Topanga? - and I honestly don't know,'' he said.

Dennett's audience represented all points along the spectrum of credulity. Karna Hanson of Oak Park wanted more substance, fewer creepy accounts.

``It was more hype than a real communication of where we should be at,'' she said.

But Fred Luff, a member of some of the same UFO organizations that Dennett belongs to, believes. He's been following UFO phenomena since 1945, he said.

``You keep an open mind and approach it at face value,'' he said.