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cryptofiction
Cryptozoology is the study of hidden animals, or as I like to describe them, animals out of place or time. It could be something as extraordinary as a large, hairy biped walking out of the great north woods in the Pacific Northwest, or a kangaroo hopping through a cornfield in Wisconsin. Usually, it involves the discovery or research into a rumored animal. The Golden Triangle, the no man's land bordering Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in Southeast Asia, is a classic example. Over thirty species have been discovered thus far, and more are found every year, three decades later.
Cryptofiction is the application of cryptozoology in a novel. The degree of hard science applied determines whether it is closer to science fiction or fantasy. In my writings, I do an incredible amount of research. Currently held beliefs as to the nature and origin of thee creatures is only a starting point for me.
I will include nothing that is not scientifically sound, and historically accurate. The results are stories of high adventure, with cutting technology applied against ancient beliefs to discover the source of the myths and legends. At this point, I'd like to add that there is no gratuitous language, sex or violence. It doesn't mean there is not an exciting story to tell, as my many reviewers will attest. Gratuitous implies an aside that does nothing to advance or fit the story.
My novels
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Shadow of the Thunderbird |
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Track of the Bigfoot |
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Wake of the Lake Monster |
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As an introduction to both my novels and cryptofiction in general, we have prepared this video. Although, like my books, it contains nothing gratuitous that would disturb younger readers or viewers, it does depict flight over rugged terrain behind the text. Also, a cinema-quality film score to accompany it. You may want to turn your speakers up or down, depending on your preference. Enjoy! |
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my novellas
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The Chupacabra | (9 part serialized novella and audio book) |
my novels
Although I have written creatively in some form or medium for the greater part of my life, I only completed my first novel several years ago. Since then, I have added two others, with additional tales already outlined and in some stage of completion. I am fascinated with the idea of animals man has yet to discover or rediscover, as the case may be. My first three titles, which comprise "The Cryptids Trilogy", are epic in scope and huge by any standards.
I am very proud of the level of response each has garnered, and that my readers cover such a wide range of demographics. I have also enjoyed having my first title, "Shadow of the Thunderbird", as required reading in the largest technical college system in South Carolina. I lecture and conduct conferences in association with the novels, which led to a radio hosting position for two different programs averaging between 30 and 40 thousand listeners weekly.
The cryptids trilogy
A long time fan of the works of such authors a James Rollins, Steve Alten, Michael Crichton and Lincoln Childs & Douglas Preston, I endeavored to try my hand at writing a novel. As I was preparing the first manuscript, it occurred to me that I was writing a story that could not be told in one book. Technically, a trilogy is one book broken down in three parts. Due to the nature of cryptofiction, I knew I would end up with readers who had preferences for the type of cryptid I was writing about.
So, I literally wrote each novel with enough overlap that each book could stand on its own. The results have been very satisfying. I was able to combine elements of a storyline with those of a plot. I created characters that grew and changed over the course of my titles, yet they set about solving the mystery of the creatures they pursued. Stories are about changes in characters, while the settings remain the same. A plot is just the opposite, which characters remain static while the situations in which they are involved change.
I began writing "Shadow of the Thunderbird" in the spring of 2001, and had a publisher who took it to press in May of 2002. Although I struggled through the first publication of SOTT, due to my lack of knowledge of the industry, I have since become more pragmatic and sensible about the writing process, developing a thicker skin. Although my novels rate well in most reviews, I have my detractors, just like anyone else. Unable to please everyone, I remain true t the vision of my tales, and appreciate the feedback, positive or negative, that motivate me to improve in my nest effort.
The premise
A professional student with myriad degrees finds himself at odds with his Ph.D. advisor over the dissertation for his doctorate. His childhood experience with a large, bipedal animal while on a camping trip with his parents convinces young Ian McQuade that such creatures do, in fact, exist. Ian attempts to study anthropology, paleontology and zoology, in an effort to become the first collegiate recognized recipient of a degree in the study of hidden animals. In essence, by pushing through a dissertation on the impact of encroachment by man into domains inhabited by ice age survivor megafauna species.
The ploy almost works, but logic alone is not enough to sway the argument for his instructor. He leaves school with his undergraduate and masters' degrees in hand, but lacking the one substantial credential he worked his whole life to achieve: cryptozoologist. No college or university in the world offers a full curriculum and associated certification, and to attempt to mix the so-called pseudo-science with academics is considered professional suicide.
Scholastics aside, McQuade is not ready to meet the world. He is offered a job as the assistant curator at a museum of natural history in Boston, but gets sidetracked by the opportunity to track and classify his own species of giant spider. He leaves for South America, where his troubles begin. He is rescued by a beautiful Peruvian cartographer by the name of Alma Del Nephites, who takes him to meet with her enigmatic employer, reclusive billionaire Cyril Pritchard of the Chimaera Foundation LLC.
There, he is given the opportunity to go in search of Thunderbirds, with Alma as his guide. He is ill-prepared to function effectively outside the classroom, and managed to get himself into some pretty tight situations others must help him resolved. As mentioned previously, he grows into his own man, with the help of a wide range of very human, very flawed individuals.
The formula for all three books is basically the same. If it did not die out in the last ice age or earlier, what species of animal would account for the sightings going back centuries? What would allow these creatures to escape detection and classification by increasingly more advanced forensic and tracking methods? Each title deals with an aspect of science that results in the plausible identity of the cryptid.
book i: shadow of the thunderbird
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1st Chapter Excerpt and Download |
| Ian McQuade fails in his bid for a Ph.D. in cryptozoology, by attempting to subvert his doctoral dissertation on the metaphysical aspects of native American iconic beasts into an argument on their reality. | |
| Not only does he leave school and get fired from his first job as an assistant curator, but nearly loses everything to thieves in the Brazilian rainforests of the Amazon River basin Enter cartographer Alma Del Nephites, who rescues him out of is difficulties more than once, as they team up to work for a mysterious organization stranger than the paranormal field research they conduct | |
| Ian is given s second chance to prove his theories, this time as he and Alma race against time and sinister competitors to follow the journal of a madman into the heart of an 800 year old mystery. |
book ii: track of the bigfoot
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1st Chapter Excerpt and Download |
| Alma has left to keep a promise to her dying father, leaving Ian on his own to confront his greatest fear. Cyril Pritchard is having nightmares regarding his own Bigfoot encounter, and asks Ian to go and find out the truth behind the giant hominids. He must go it alone, leading others who look to him for answers. | |
| Partnered first with conspiracy theorist Albert Myers and then a feisty primatologist by the name of Billye Carlton, he discovers there is more to the mystery than a single explanation, or even a single species. | |
| Finally, Ian will confront not only his greatest challenge, but that of the Bigfoot population that roam the slopes of Mt. St. Helens. His choices and decisions as senior agent will result in an explosive situation from which not all of them will survive. |
book iii: wake of the lake monster
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1st Chapter Excerpt and Download |
| Alma travels to Cusco from the heights of Machu Picchu, there to say goodbye to an old friend at the site of the ancient ruins where they first met. Boarding a plane back to New York and the Foundation, she stops off in Mexico City to rekindle an old relationship. | |
| She receives a strange gift from a child that brings her and Ian back together in a way neither would have ever anticipated. Ian must pay a ransom that involves traveling to the mystical Nahanni Valley. There, to confronts the source of the legends of wild men and decapitation of prospectors foolish enough to venture into its shadows. | |
| McQuade and Del Nephites follow clues to the Altamaha River of coastal Georgia, there to save not only the Foundation, but himself as well, in pursuit of a legendary lake monster. |
my novellas
To bide my time between the publication of "Track of the Bigfoot" and "Wake of the Lake Monster", I decided to keep my skills sharp with a 9 part novella, serialized and placed out on my site every Sunday evening. The results were very encouraging, as I wrote each segment in about an hour. The popularity of my site swelled tenfold, as regular visitors and new ones flocked to see what would befall my latest protagonist.
I had a lot of support along the way, including ex-military, Chupacabra experts, and Cajuns living down along the area of Caddo lake, where the story takes place. I later turned the novella into a 3 hour audio book. I plan to add two others to it, for later publication on the subject of creature with unearthly red eyes. Although I have not yet settled on a third, the second in outline regards a survivor of the Silver Bridge collapse still haunted by the creature known as Mothman.
A poll might be in order, but my choices for a third are either Lizardman of Bishopville, or the Jersey Devil of the Pine Barrens. Let me know what you think?
The Chupacabra
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Audio and eBook Download |
| The death of a prize Brahma Bull leads small town deputy Roth Jacobs into the investigation of a creature thought only to exist in the heritage and culture of its Hispanic believers. | |
| Along the way, Jacobs enlists the aid of members of the small community of Jefferson, a tiny East Texas community just 30 miles from the border of Louisiana. He befriends a woman from Puerto Rico, whose own troubling experiences and scientific knowledge with the creature known as the Goatsucker draws the attention of men who would go to any lengths to see that its existence and origins remains a secret. | |
| Together, Jacobs and Odessa Davis will find themselves trapped between the dreaded creatures and the military in pursuit of them. In a final showdown that brings all the parties into an ambush with the deputy as bait, who will survive to see that the town will ever be safe again? |