Hey all! I’m swinging by with a quick blog post about Cryptids and my new book, The Rules and Regulations For Mediating Myths & Magic.
The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic features a main character named Bridger and deals with Bridger’s fears about the upcoming changes in his life due to being a senior in high school. Bridger wants to go far away from his home for college because he believes it’s the only way he can be himself. To afford college and everything that goes with moving across the country, Bridger finds a job—one that has him interacting with cryptids regularly.
The first cryptid I ever had knowledge of or experience with was the Loch Ness Monster. Growing up, I lived a few miles from Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. At the time, the biggest, fastest, scariest roller coaster was a yellow monstrosity of steel track with interlocking rings that towered over the Rhine River in the Heatherdowns section of the park. The waiting queue was filled with fake diving equipment, grainy images of a sea monster, and an old video tape played on small television sets mounted in the high corners of the wooden waiting area that detailed failed expeditions to find the creature. Before I was tall enough to ride, I would stand on the bridge under the towering rings (the only interlocking rings in the world) and wait for my older, braver siblings as they screamed through twists, turns, and drops, and went upside down. Riding the Loch Ness was a coming-of-age milestone, something to brag about when disembarking on shaky legs with a raw throat. I don’t remember my first ride—what age I was or who I was with—but I do remember the fluttery feeling I got in my stomach, because even now as an adult, when I visit and stand in line, I get that familiar anxious twist when I hear the click-clack of the coaster ascending to that first formidable drop.
I can’t help but compare the way I felt riding that roller coaster as a kid with the way that Bridger experiences being a teenager—lots of stomach-swooping feelings and eager anticipation for what comes next.
(I would like to point out that the first roller coaster I did ride at Busch Gardens was The Big Bad Wolf, which is another folk tale, and has since been removed from the park. That ride was accompanied by lots of howls and staff members who ominously invited you to ride “at the speed of fright.”)
Though neither the Loch Ness Monster nor The Big Bad Wolf appear in The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths and Magic two other closely related cryptids do – Ogopogo, a Canadian lake monster, and The Beast of Bray Road, a Wisconsin wolf/human hybrid. Researching lesser known American folklore was one of the highlights of writing this book. I loved reading about the sightings and urban myths that populate the Midwest and incorporating those into Bridger’s narrative. I hope readers enjoy seeing how Bridger interacts with those myths as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic is available now!