Dan Aykroyd wants to put his best foot forward for fans.

Which is why he’s hitting pause on the release of his debut novel, Soulhider, which was supposed to be released this fall.

“Two weeks ago I underwent emergency foot surgery to clean out an infection,” the Ghostbusters star shared in a Sept. 12 Instagram post. “Recovery time for this prevents me from touring with the book in October. I want to get out there because I am proud of it. So we have postponed the release until May 18 when I expect to be fully healed.”

But despite the added wait time, Aykroyd is sure the payoff will be worth it—mostly because he himself is so excited about the extraterrestrial story he’s written. After all, it’s a topic close to his heart.

“I am not alone in believing aliens are real and there are multiple species with multiple machines,” the 74-year-old added in his post. “I’ve personally seen two ships.”

In fact, his own close encounters with the third kind and belief that we aren’t alone in this universe are what laid the foundation for Soulhider.