Sea Monsters, Folklore & The Paranormal w/ Michael Thompson

On this edition of the show, I invited a brand new guest, author, illustrator, and realm hopper, Michael Thompson. In it we discuss his Winslow Hoffner book series, which encompasses folklore and tales of different sea monsters and cryptids. The show also takes an unexpected dive into the paranormal as well.

Check out Michael's website here

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Several ecnally nine flying goutor flying dip that are out there.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Next for Red, for Laura Larne, uh Harry creature with
arm to hang down. Besides it's you know, bore down
on the side, Cartoonymin and Marjon.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
He said he's called come not anything.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
You're listening to the Strangeology Podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Floren,
and this is your place to explore the weird, strange
and unexplained from cryptis and creatures, the paranormal, aliens and UFOs,
forbidden knowledge, ancient mysteries, conspiracies and more. Hey everyone, and
welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for

(01:00):
hanging out with me today. Coming up on today's edition
of the show is a conversation about cryptids of the sea, folklore, storytelling,
and even some paranormal encounters. Well, summer is finally starting
to wind down here in New England. Just the other
day I started noticing some orange and red leaves starting

(01:23):
to pop off, which usually mid August is about the
time that you start seeing the random tree here and there,
but peak foliage doesn't really hit until Columbus Day weekend
or something like that end of September early October. So
just this past weekend from when I'm recording this, I
went to Squanka Palooza number two in Johnstown, Pennsylvania that

(01:47):
was hosted and put together by Lisa from Cryptid Comforts
and Joe from Cryptoteology, and it was an awesome time.
Getting there, it was a little dicey because there was
a hurricane remnant I believe it was Hurricane Debbie, and
I had to drive through upstate New York to get

(02:11):
to Pennsylvania, and I just hit this band of really
heavy rain for a little while. Thankfully though, it passed
quick and most of the ride was pretty uneventful, although
I didn't get into my hotel until like ten or
ten thirty at night, after leaving at eleven thirty in

(02:34):
the morning. I was hoping to leave earlier, but you know,
sometimes you get a little bit of Snapo stuff happening
when you're trying to pack and all that. But it
was a great event. The morning was super super nice
temperature wise, and the whole day was actually just beautiful

(02:55):
sunny weather. There were lots of people that came out
and really some awesome vendors all around. I was in
this kind of block of people like Easton Hawk, Danner
from Contra Dust Designs, Jamie Snell, we were all kind
of lined up there. A bally Riven Folklore was across

(03:16):
the pathway, and yeah, it was just a super fun event.
I'd highly recommend going to next year's event as well
if you are in that area. So yeah, it was
just a fun time overall, and glad that I got
to chat with some of you and even get some

(03:37):
new listeners out there. There were a few people that
were checking out my booth and they're like, oh, you
have a podcast, and so I usually carry business cards
with links and all that, and definitely some new people.
Welcome to the show if you're listening now, definitely glad
to have you here. And as far as other events,

(03:58):
the only event event that I have confirmed for the
rest of the year right now. I do have another
one that's in the works, just not confirmed yet is
the Sasquatch Calling Festival or Calling Contest in Whitehall, New York.
This is going to be my third year doing this event.
It is a super fun time. It's in the Skeensboro

(04:21):
Park in Whitehall, New York, and it's an all day,
all ages event. It's really it's like a big craft
fair with all sorts of cryptid vendors in all that
very heavily bigfoot sasquatch themed of course, and at the
end there is a calling contest where people give their

(04:41):
best bigfoot calls, and there's also going to be speakers
as well. It's just a super fun time and that
time of the year. It's happening September twenty eighth, it's
a Saturday, and you know, it's beautiful weather, at least
it has been the past couple years that I've done it.
Knock on wood that it'll be nice weather this year
as well. But it is a super super fun time,

(05:03):
so definitely catch me there. And if you're ever wondering
about future events, I'm trying to keep up with my
website events page and so things will be up there,
and hopefully within the next episode or two I'll be
able to announce whether or not I've got another event
going on, which thankfully it's an event that's actually pretty
close and won't be a nine, ten, eleven, twelve hour

(05:26):
drive for me. But that's about all the updates I
have for now, and just a couple quick reminders before
we get into today's episode. Make sure to set your
podcast app to auto download so you never miss a
new episode of the show, and don't forget to follow
Strangeology over on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc. For more content, updates,

(05:52):
giveaways and all that. I also make sure to visit
my website strangeology dot com. I have a blog there
with a bunch of articles, and you can also sign
up to my mailing list to receive updates and get
occasional promo codes to my Etsy shop if you're ever
looking for Strangeology merch which is at strangeology dot etc.

(06:14):
Dot com. And I'm always trying to add new designs
as I have time. And also don't forget to join
my Discord server if you have a Discord and you
like chatting with other people who are passionate about the
strange and unexplained. I've got the link in my show notes,
but you can join at discord dot io forward slash

(06:34):
Strangeology if you want to join an ever growing community
of forty and fans. And as always, the best way
to support the show is to tell your friends and
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mysteries and all that good stuff. And if you really
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(06:54):
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Patreon dot com forward slash Strangeology and you can join
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(07:17):
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and for my research episodes, it's often a whole other
research topic as well. There's also a permanent merch discount

(07:39):
for my Etsy shop, exclusive merch voting power for different
topics and other bonus content. And more so, if you
want to join a growing community of like minded people
who are into the strange and unexplained, it is a
great place to be. I appreciate the support, and the
more of it I get, the more content I can
create for everyone out there, and to those members out there,

(08:01):
thank you so much for your continued support. And for
anyone who wants to join, we'll see you there. All right,
that's enough of that. Let's get into today's episode. For
this one, I brought on a brand new guest, author
Michael Thompson, and we had a super fun conversation about
his book series Cryptid Storytelling, Mysteries, folklore and more. So,

(08:27):
sit back, relax and enjoy the show. All right, folks,
welcome back to the show. Joining me today is author

(08:51):
Michael Thompson. Michael is an independent author, illustrator, voice actor,
and realm hopper, which we're going to be getting into
what that is. He began his journey into writing as
a teenager and has since joined in on the speaker
panel circuit along with different programs other podcasts discussing his

(09:14):
works Scryptids, Folklore, and we're going to be talking a
little bit about his Winslow Hofner book series High Ceiling
Adventures and Incredible Encounters, which is super fun and you
definitely need to check out. So, Hi, Michael, thank you
so much for being here today. How are you doing.
I'm doing great? Thank you for of course, of course.

(09:36):
So yeah, we got to meet at Monsterfest in Ohio.
Just I guess man time flies. It was what end
of June, so about a month and some change ago.
And I have to thank you again for helping me
out when I was setting up. I have this for
those of you out there. I know sometimes listeners actually

(09:59):
come out to the shows that I go to and
vend at, and you might know that I have these
big metal racks that I put my my shirt merch
on and my stuff was falling apart. I was missing screws,
I had missing object. Phenomenon happened to me, and Michael
came in for the wind with some gator clips to

(10:21):
help kind of jerry rig it together. So thanks again man,
that was yeah problem.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
I always have so much with all my little handouts
and bookmarkets.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah for sure, for sure, I just gave you the
whole Yes, yes, yeah, definitely saved the day. So I
want to get into your journey as an author. You
started at a pretty young age. What sparked your interest
in things like cryptids and folklore and the unknown, and

(10:51):
and how did that evolve into pursuing this path as
as an author and a speaker.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, you know, I've always loved the unknown. I've always
loved folklore, reading about mythology, and then reading about cryptozoology.
You know, it's kind of like a modern mythology. It's
mythology that's happening right now, and there could be monsters
in your own backyard, and I always thought that was
really cool. I started writing when I was really young.

(11:21):
I was always creating. I was always drawing since I
could hold a cran And when I was nine years old,
I wrote my first book, Chicken Boy and the Wrath
of Doctor Dimwod, and when I got a little bit older,
I self published it. I started self publishing when I
was thirteen, and the Chicken Boy series is still going.
I got the latest one here, Chicken Boy in the

(11:42):
Might of the Movie Man. So I'm still drawing and
I'm working on anniversary editions of the first three now.
But this is the latest and greatest here. But as
far as like the folklore goes, when I was in
high school, this line came into my head out of nowhere.
Usually when I'm writing a story, there's either a foundational

(12:03):
image or a foundational line, and then all the rest
of the story sort of flows out of that. And
for the Winslow Hoffner series, it began with what was
what would become the first line of the first chapter
of the first book, which is, have you ever stared
straight into the eyes of Death? And scoffed? And I thought, oh,
and it's what I came through, just like that, within

(12:23):
that voice and everything. And so I tied that into
a document and I saved it. And then later on
in high school, I got the I got the assignment
to write a short story, and I thought, let's let's
look into this eyes of death situation and see and
see what this could turn into. And I got the
sense that it was a man of the sea, you

(12:44):
know from the dialect. And then I thought, well, what
are the eyes of death?

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Like?

Speaker 1 (12:49):
What story is he telling? And my foundational interest in
cryptozoology bubbled up, and I thought, ooh, you know what
if we did a cryptid sea adventure, a cryptid fisher entail?
And I remembered the story of Gambo. I was really
into globsters, which for those who don't know, that's a
portmanteau between glob and monster to describe anything that washes

(13:11):
ashore that's hard to identify. And so I remembered the
story of Gambo from a nineteen eighty three It was
this unidentified creature that washed ashore looked sort of like
a dolphin and had like this big, long beaked sort
of face with all these like eighty conical teeth and
these little little webbed feet, and I thought, I thought okay,

(13:35):
And I really liked the name. I thought it was
a strong sounding name, and I started to look into that.
And before anyone had a chance to really scientifically document
this creature, it was chopped up and buried in the sand.
The head was sold to a tourist, it's been said,
And I thought, this is perfect. I can do whatever
I want with this thing. So I decided to adapt
it into a fire breathing fish for the story in

(13:55):
my book. And that's kind of how.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
It all is. Yeah yeah, and gambo is is the
correct me if I'm wrong. But it's like the very opening,
uh chapter of the book. And I mean, everyone out there,
you got to check out the book and especially the
audio book, because you know, Michael narrates the whole thing
and brings these the characters to life. It's it's just

(14:22):
super super fun listen. But yeah, no, that's that's that's great.
You know, I think we all many of us that
study this subject anything in the fourteen Umbrella. You know,
we always had this kind of draw to it and
some some kind of unexplainable interest in in this this

(14:44):
kind of stuff. But yeah, no, globsters are definitely super interesting,
and I was unfamiliar with with gamba. I know, like
the Saint Augustine monster from Florida that was that was
well photographed and documented and talked about. And you know, uh,
your focus for this book is a lot of sea monsters,

(15:05):
legends of sea monsters and that kind of thing, and
you know, there's just so much out there or these
old legends of of uh you know, sailors crossing the
ocean and you know, things coming out of the water
that are unrecognizable and that they just become these tall tales.

(15:26):
But yeah, so you know you mentioned that, uh, this
this this line came to you in your head and
it was this this uh, this sailor character, Winslow Hoffner,
Can you expand a little bit on on you know,

(15:46):
what kind of person is is Winslow Hoffner. Was there
an inspiration behind this character to use us a framework
to discuss cryptids and folklore and other sea creatures.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Well, the interesting thing about it is there's this there's
this kind of perfect union between the setting of the
book and you know, the theme of cryptozoology. You know,
the sea is just like the perfect setting for the unknown.
You know, you you're out on the surface, and if
you've ever been on the water and you see no
land on either side of you, then you get a
real sense of the vastness and you get a real

(16:23):
sense that anything could be hiding under there. And the
unknown is just a perfect, perfect foundation for a story.
As far as Winslow himself goes, he just he kind
of came out of nowhere. In many aspects. He has
sort of the aesthetic of your traditional sailor, uh, your

(16:45):
traditional man of the sea guys. You see, he's seen
a lot of stuff, but it's not the stuff that
you expect. And I think that Winslow in the story
kind of represents an inversion of the tropes. Although although
like you approach him and and you think you know
what you're gonna get, you really you really have no idea.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
I mean, he's so tall.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Tales and fisherman tales in general are kind of associated
with a stretching of the truth. But as we find out,
the more we seep into Winslow's world and these stories
it's all real, you know. The wenzel Hoffner series sort
of takes the position that that you know, it's all true,
all the legends are true. And and John, our main

(17:30):
character in the first book, is this very skeptical journalist
and he's he's thinking that he's been assigned a fluff piece.
And because he's the new guy. And then the more
he listens, the more he drifts into a more magical
reality because he starts to he starts to believe it.
And then in this book, believing is kind of seeing

(17:50):
more than seeing his believing. It's the characters are sort
of rewarded for their belief with these with these legendary moments.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Interesting, interesting, kind of a fun juxtaposition thinking about things
that happen to people out here in the real world
outside of you know, a book. You know, a lot
of the a lot of the times, you know, seeing
seeing is believing for most people. And in a lot

(18:17):
of the cases where encounters and sightings of these fantastic
beasts and cryptids happen, and it's usually unexpected and it
happens out of the blue, like they kind of choose
for you to see them with anything within the Fortian
phenomena that's that's out there. Now, have you what was

(18:43):
your you have all these other characters, do you have
like a specific process for developing them and doing all
this research for these stories, because I mean, you have
several chapters in this series, and each one kind of
focuses on a different creature. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, it's definitely. It's kind of kind of a monster
of the Week type vibe, you know, as you as
you go through each of the chapters. And I definitely
do a lot of research. Sometimes I have a sort
of a scene that pops into my head, and then
I'll try to find a cryptid that that would match that,

(19:26):
because I like to have what I call the real
world tether in the story. I think it's a fun
aspect to have the have these have these adventures, and
then if you if you happen, if you, if you
feel so inclined to look up any of the sort
of dates or the monsters mentioned, then you'll see these
old news articles and you'll see that it's all true,
and it kind of creates this living mythos with the

(19:47):
real world that's super fun, to the point where it
kind of blends. Like I've had readers, uh ask me
about other aspects of the book, and and like I
tried to look up cryptolabes and I can't find anything.
I was like that was made up for the booty,
you know, and that's like this cryptid tracking device in
the in the center of the story. And people are

(20:07):
even asking me if if wenzel Hofner himself was a
real guy, and you know, no, he's a he's a
he's the he's a creation. But for instance, there was
there was this one moment for the it Weren't No
Sandbar chapter where I was I had come up on
that part in the book and I was about to
move on to the next chapter. But then the scene

(20:28):
came to me of this giant lobster crashing through the waves,
and I thought, oh, okay, are there any large crestaceous
cryptids and and so I started doing my research and
I came upon you know, old vintage c maps like
the Carda Marina, which is like one of my favorite
monster maps of all time, and that had you know,
a big, big lobster like you know, with a with

(20:50):
a guy in his claw and stuff. And I thought
that was pretty cool. But I wanted something a little
bit more modern, and I was having trouble finding it.
A cryptid for that one, but I thought, okay, well,
why don't I just look up where where the biggest
lobster ever caught in the world was ever scooped up?
And as it turned out, magically, it's exactly where the

(21:10):
book takes place in Nova Scotia back in the seventies.
And so I thought, oh, all right, all right, so
this guy is I kind of I kind of went
with that, and you know, it's had a few decades
to grow exponentially, so that one that one's that one's
just kind of based on a record breaking catch. But
I also do research based on based on the location

(21:34):
and trying to make it.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Make it as believable as possible.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
I have done phone calls to verify the validity of
single lines of dialogue. For instance, I called different locations
different fish restaurants in Nova Scotia. Uh. For there was
there was a line with the Cook in the second
chapter and the Trouble with Mermaids where Ken Keeley or Cook,

(22:01):
who becomes the new force of skepticism moving forward in
the book after John, and he has a line where
he says, he just love making me work with mackerel,
don't you wins? And I'm like, and I'm like, is
that is that correct?

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Is that in season?

Speaker 1 (22:14):
So I I you know, I spend hours on the
phone just to make sure that everything is for something
even that.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, that's great. Now Bayfield Nova Scotia was there, you know,
Uh why Nova Scotia versus somewhere else for the setting
of where the series took place.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Uh, you know, it's just uh the amount of coastline
that it has, and it kind of just sort of
revealed itself to me that way. Uh, it was just
kind of a magical thing. If I was if I
was like to pick, I would probably put it like
in Maine or somewhere. But it just kind of like
it came into my head that way. And I always
just surrendered to, you know, the will of the story

(22:59):
kindkind of you know, I always try to be the
author that my story.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Wants it to be.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
So, and as it turns out, that's just where it
happened to take place. So I had to do a
little extra research.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's a perfect a perfect setting,
especially with the like you know, the fishermen vibe and everything,
and you know, there's interesting stuff that happens up in
Nova Scotia with cryptid sightings as well as things like oh, gosh,
what was it shag Harbor, the UFO, the incident back

(23:33):
in gosh, what was it the sixties? Then you have
Oak Island. Of course, if you like the ancient mysteries,
I want to say, I want to say they had
was it Nova Scotia? Did they have sightings of the
Father of all turtles? It might have been, it might
have been yeah, yeah, yeah, I was speaking of speaking
of turtles. I think, you know, I was. I was

(23:55):
listening to the audio book and there's a section on
the Beast of Busco, and that's correct. I was kind
of surprised that, like during it where they're like, you know,
they're trying I can't remember the character's name right now,
but they were trying to like take him out, and
I was like, oh, no, not Oscar.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
But yeah, yeah, that's our kind of our antagonist, Joseepi Scialpi,
who represents kind of the inversion of Winslow's ideals. Winslow
is kind of a form of positive chaos. You know,
he kind of goes with the flow and uh, you know,
he loves these creatures. And then Skialpi is kind of
a negative form of of of you know, of of logics,

(24:43):
you know everything everything by the books, you know, no
matter what, and so and so they're an interesting dynamic. Yeah,
So as we go into Winslow's past, we see that
he had these these connections with these other people who
have u a certain reason to pursue cryptids in a

(25:03):
different way than Winslow does.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Now.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Winslow, it's almost like they're drawn to him when he's
out on his voyages and fishing. Right, But back in
the day there was there's this other group of people
with less pure intentions.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yes, yes, of course. Yeah, it's kind of you know,
tying in true human nature to you know, this kind
of thing. You know, seeing people comment on social media
or on message boards or what have you, and they're like,
that's nothing that such and such a the weapon couldn't

(25:39):
take care of, and I'll put it on my trophy
wall or whatever. You know. It's like, well, I mean,
but yeah, so I've got to ask, because I'm sure
my listeners are curious. Have you ever experienced anything like
an unexplained creature or maybe even anything paranormal that kind

(25:59):
of deepened your interest into the unexplained, realizing that like, oh,
there's something else out here perhaps mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
I have not seen any cryptid creatures yet, I hope
to you one day.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
I'm always looking.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
I'm always if I'm when I'm driving to these conventions,
these cryptic conventions, I'm always like looking out, looking out
the window, like glancing at the woods, you know, because
I take these long drives and I'm like, you know,
watch a big foot just run across the streets, right,
you know. But but I I have had plenty of
my share of ghostly encounters, interesting sort of spirit spiritual encounters.

(26:40):
I had one where, uh, this is a pretty cool story.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
I was.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
I was in college and and my grandfather was a
big part of my life. I always loved writing my
books so that he could read them because he had
such a great voice. And I loved, you know, bringing
him new chapters and then like hearing and read it
out loud, you know, back when I was writing World
of the Orb, for instance, This is my this is
where realm Hopper comes from. This is my young adult

(27:07):
fantasy novel about a couple of kids who discover the
hidden world the museum was trying to keep secret.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Oh wow. And so this was my debut novel.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
This is the this is the sort of chunkiest book
I ever wrote, after my after my Chicken Boy books.
And he had my grandfather had passed away before that
book was published. And I was still in college at
the time, and I was about to graduate. I was
at this honors ceremony where we were presenting like our

(27:36):
final sort of research projects. It was all in this
big room and they had this banquet and they were
passing out raffle tickets for this big prize, an iPad,
you know, an iPad many sort of thing, and and
then they had some other prizes too, and they said.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Everyone, hanging on to your tickets.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
You know, we're gonna We're gonna do the raffle and
in an hour and they had someone like walking by
with the with the iPad, and I was looking at
it and I thought, oh wow, you know, it would
be great to have that, because you know, the plan
for me was to finish this book, get it published,
and then hit the comic con circuit, which you know

(28:19):
previously I had done, you know, bookshops you know, indie
bookshops and Barnes and Nobles. But I hadn't done hadn't
done comic cons yet. So I was going to take
this as my comic con debut. And I needed a
I needed a way to collect the money, and Square
was sort of getting popular. I'd seen commercials for that,

(28:40):
and so when I saw the iPad, I thought, oh, man,
I could I could use that as my register, you know,
I hope I win that. And then audibly in my
left ear, I could hear my grandfather's voice and he said,
you know what, I'm going to get that for you.
And to the point where I looked left and there
was nobody standing next to me, and I thought, huh, okay,

(29:03):
let's see what happens, you know. And then an hour later,
I'm I'm standing up. They're like, we're gonna do the raffle.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
We're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Uh the draw for the iPad. And my friend comes
up next to me and she's like, oh, I forgot
my ticket. Well I hope you win. I was like,
we'll see, we'll see, you know, and then they start
calling the numbers, you know, whatever it was. It was
like five three, eight, two four and I'm looking at
my my number. I said I won, and then my

(29:32):
friend's like what and the and they like they're like,
come on up, and so I go up and then
they hand me the price, they hand me second prize,
and I was like, oh, okay, you know they're building
up to the iPad. And then I walked back and
it was like a bag full of coffee and like
a thermos and stuff like that. And then my friends like,
didn't didn't you win the iPad? I was like, I
guess they're building up to it. And then the organizers

(29:53):
run down. They're like, was your number just called? I
said yes. They said oh no, no, you were supposed to
get the iPad and I was like, oh here, and
I tried to give him back second place and they're like, yeah,
keep that too, and so so then I and eight
years later, that has been my register for every book.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Interesting and so you heard the disembodied voice of your
grandfather and he says he's going to get it for you. Wow. Interesting,
that's a pretty cool story. It's amazing. Yeah, wow, geez

(30:32):
it's pretty yeah, pretty cool. Pretty nice grandpa too, and he.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Was always into like gadget and technology too, so it's
like exactly the thing that you know, he would you know,
be interested in. So I thought that that was that
was special.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, Wow that's a really cool experience. Thank you
for sharing that for sure. Sure. Yeah. Wow. Well, off
of that, a quick little side quest there. You know,
I'm wondering with your you're writing in your research, you know,

(31:11):
you look into all this folklore and everything. How how
do you balance staying true to folklore stories while adding
your own flare and creative elements within your writing.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Oh that is a great question. I really like the
process of adaptation for these cryptids, and I do it
in a couple of different ways. Sometimes I really like
the obscure ones because there's more room for sort of
creative license. And like, as far as gambo goes, it

(31:52):
was seen once and then you know, sort of chopped up, disappeared,
and then so I thought, okay, I can I can
sort of get a little bit more fantastical with it.
And I like starting out a story that way because
if I can manage to make the reader believe in
the most unbelievable thing possible, then the whole rest of

(32:13):
the story you're hooked and it'll lend credibility for Winslow
as a storyteller. And you know, the whole book ideally
should feel like you're sitting right there and listening to
this old man tell you his unbelievable tales. But then
like in the second book, for instance, in wenzol Hoffner's
High Sailing Adventures, and here's the cool cover for it,

(32:33):
and there's Winslow with the Luckness Monster, but he's surrounded
by all these more super obscure creatures. Like right here
on the shore we have the Offnc, which is a
Welsh cryptid kind of mythical figure, and it has a
reputation of being a water demon and that had the
ability to sort of flood flood areas just by tossing

(32:58):
around in the deepest part. Interesting and yeah, and it
has a few different variations of how it was said
to look, but one of the most famous was a
hybrid between a crocodile and a beaver. And so I thought,
this is already kind of like strange and the perfect
creature to wins Lowifi, how do I make this now

(33:21):
biologically feasible? How do I keep all these elements while
making it making it sort of believable? And so I thought, Okay,
one way I like to do this is to just
look at the creature purely in silhouette, just sort of
like black out all the elements in my mind and
and then just sort of just stare at it for

(33:42):
a second, and I thought, you know, it looks like
a big platypus. And then I started doing digging into that,
and I was like, okay, you know, asking the magic Internet,
I was like, has there ever been a more massive
precursor to our modern platypuses? And there has There was one.
It was not quite as big and fearsome as mine

(34:04):
in the book, but it introduced the biological feasibility of it.
When I came upon this discovery in it was about
like twenty thirteen, they discovered the tooth of a massive
precursor to the platypus called Abdura dom theracuse child. And
it had a tooth, and so it even has these
these great teeth, and so I can exaggerate that even further,

(34:26):
just a little bit more impressive fangs to arm the
jaws and a little bit bigger, and we have a monster.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Interesting. Yeah, that's pretty cool, especially that you know there
was a creature predecessor creature to the modern day platypus
that was, you know, maybe considered megafauna or something like
that kind of makes me think a little bit of
like the White Beasts of Sherman, New York, where people

(34:56):
have claimed to see these almost megath type creatures giant
ground sloths that are somehow survived the extinction in the
Ice Age. So, yeah, that's really cool. That's really cool.
Do you have any authors or researchers that really kind

(35:17):
of influence your writing or that you kind of look
to for inspiration.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Oh, I am, Well, I'm hugely inspired by my great grandfather.
I dedicated my book World of the Orb to him.
Laurence Schoonover was his name, And so it was pretty
cool to have, you know, learned that it's been done

(35:45):
in my family, you know what I mean. When I
when I was really young and and I decided I
want to be an author, I found out I started
learning stories about him and I had never gotten to
meet him. He had died before. But and here's actually
a pretty cool story about that. I got this sort
of wall of autographs back here, and I have my

(36:07):
great grandfather right there, And it was cool when I
when I was putting this together, I thought, you know,
it would be really neat. It's it's too bad, you know,
I don't have like an autograph of from my from
my the other author in the family, you know, Grandpa
scoon Over, you know, and we talked, We talked about
paranormal stuff earlier. This one was kind of kind of

(36:30):
fascinating too. I don't think I've shared this with anyone.
This might be a strangeology exclusive, but I had. I
started doing podcasts and stuff, and I guess one of
my family members had seen one and heard me talking
about him, and he sent me a big box of
my Grandpa Scoonover's books, all of these historical fiction novels,

(36:54):
and he didn't even include a note with it.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
And I was like, I was like, wow, you know.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
And so I started going through all the book and
and I picked up one and then the first one
that I opened out twirls, you know, like a like
a leaf, a little card, and it's a book plate
and it says with the compliments of the author Larry,
and it's and it's and so I got his sick nice.
So he was He's probably my biggest inspiration. I named

(37:22):
the school that the kids go to in World of
the Orb after his name before it was changed on
Ellis Island. Uh so it's uh they go to von
Schenhoven High and then as far as uh as far
as cryptids and and and sort of that aspect of it.
For the books I have, like, I have tons of

(37:44):
books of like old I really like the old old
c maps and sort of like uh, they sort of
dive into the different like medieval illustrations of stuff. And
then Lauren Coleman has like a great book for anyone
who's just getting into cryptozoology, ript Zoology A to Z.
It's a nice it's a nice easy read, and it's got,

(38:05):
you know, a perfect introduction to all of those.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah. Definitely, definitely that one's on my shelf for sure.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Ooh and Adam Benedict has an excellent book called Monsters
in Print, which definitely appealed to me because there's the
journalistic sort of themes in wenzel Hoffmin's Incredible Encounters, being
that our main characters are journalists and he's digging into
Winslow stories, and that book is an archive of a

(38:35):
whole bunch of newspaper clippings of obscure beasts.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, yes, yes, yeah, there's all that. All those interesting
news articles from like the nineteenth century the early twentieth century,
a lot of which is I think considered yellow journalism.
You know, people people tell the detales to maybe drive
tourism or whatever too small towns that need need some

(39:03):
revenue and and that kind of thing. But you know,
there's some diamonds in the rough with that kind of stuff,
for sure. You know, you've got stories of Bigfoot and
other lake monsters and winged creatures, thunderbirds, that kind of thing.
So yeah, yeah, that's really cool. What what have been

(39:25):
some of your favorite cryptids that you've researched and written
about and included in these books thus far? Ooh ooh.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
I love them all. They're like my children. What's my
favorite one?

Speaker 2 (39:40):
I think?

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Here, I'll show you there's one from the a couple
in the second book that are really killer. Let me
see if I can. I'll get the illustration out here.
I do all the illustrations in the book, and so
at the top of each of the chapters you get
this cool sort of arcu yeah that introduced this is
called the mo and this is my interpretation of the Morgar.

(40:03):
So in Cornish Legends, there's a creature sort of typically
depicted as sort of like your classic sea dragon or
like a plesiosaur type cryptid. But that was another example
of adaptation of the cryptids where I just looked at
it purely in silhouette. And this one was easy to
do because the most famous photographs of this cryptid is

(40:25):
basically a stillouette. It's like this big, lumpy, sort of
wiggly mask emerging from the water, and I just I
was just staring at it, and I thought it looks
like a like a big c slug, you know, and
so and so I adapted it in that direction. I
thought it would be cool to do like a you know, like.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
A mom Yeah. Yeah, super interesting for sure.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, and these there's another, there's another one I was doing.
I had a flash in my mind for one of
the one of the finale moments of book two, where
the characters were being pursued by a flying humanoid, which
is kind of unusual for the Winslow series because it's
so aquatic, and it, you know, looked like sort of

(41:13):
your classic moth Man type. Yeah, and so I'll show
you the I'll show you the picture of that too
for the viewers.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, from the chapter, Oh yeah, there is.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
So we got the two reporters there in Winslow's borrowed truck,
lug in some mysterious cargo being pursued by this flying humanoid.
And so I had gone in twenty nineteen in preparation
for this book. I was doing my research at the
Mothman Festival, nice and and so I met and I

(41:51):
met Faye DeWitt and she told me her her her
story when when she had witnessed the creature, and she
described I did very vividly. She talked about, you know,
the sort of the downy feathers, but then you know arms,
you know, uniquely not just not just the wings, but
arms and wings, and that its body had this sort of,

(42:13):
at least on the arms, this sort of draconic dinosaur
like flesh, and she could see the veins moving under
it in the arms. I was like, man, you know,
and it didn't sound anything like, you know, what I
was preparing for for my story, and I just sort
of had the impulse to search up different stuff after that.

(42:34):
So that that was an example of where my research
sort of developed, where it's like maybe it's not that,
maybe it's not the most obvious thing, and maybe it's
something more obscure, And of course I love the obscure stuff.
So I started searching. I felt compelled to look up
gargoyle type and then I found a great one. I

(42:56):
found one from Chile. It was called the Mantam and
so it was another flying humanoid type that you know,
looked like some type of like a humanish manta ray
swimming through the air. Interesting, and I thought, this is
the one that's that's our guy, you know, So that's

(43:16):
that's going to be the cryptid. And it was only
seen like twice, which, of course, you know, it gives
me all the creative license in the world, right, yeah,
And we'll save We'll save Mothman for something, yeah future.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah. I mean there's so many different flying humanoids. One
gargoyle type creature that made me think of and what
I thought you might have what you were going to say,
was frank Shaw's Gargoyle, which was a setting that happened
I think in Houston, and it was the story of
this this guy Frank Shaw. He was an employee of

(43:50):
NASA and I think he he was like leaving work
from uh, what's the name of the uh the space
center down there, I can't remember off the top of
my head right now, but NASA's like headquarters in Houston.
And he was leaving leaving work and saw this this

(44:12):
winged humanoid perched on one of the buildings and it
looked just like a gargoyle. And I believe if I
remember correctly, after he like had this like tense moment
like stare off with this thing because it saw him
and locked eyes with him, it like flew off and
kind of like I think, flew towards him, but then
like went up into the sky. And then that was

(44:34):
the only time it was ever seen as far as
I as far as I know, you know, could have
been something like a mothman or may a manta man.
Who knows, but yeah, I should look into that one
for sure. Fantastic. Yeah, I wrote it down as you said,
that's Crankshaw's gargoyle. Yeah. Why do you think there's such

(44:55):
a fascination with cryptids and the unknown for people? You know,
people who were into this stuff get you know, very passionate,
of course, you know, people we've got people doing podcasts,
writing books, you know, attendees to all these events and
stuff coming out in droves. You know, what do you
think it is about about this stuff?

Speaker 1 (45:18):
It's the new last frontier, you know, it's the last
frontier of the unknown, just the the and there definitely
is we we don't know everything that's out there. When
it comes to the sea and the winszel Hoffner books,
you know, it's such an unexplored place, and you know
you have these you know, these storms are these monsoons,

(45:40):
and you know, a whole bunch of brand new species
are discovered in a single day. When these things are
washed ashore. All takes is for one of those one
of those creatures to have been seen once but never verified,
and you have encryptid And so I think it's just
it's sort of a thing that in abbits everyone's everyone's minds, everyone,

(46:01):
and the unknown is fascinating. In the winzeol Hoffner series,
it's usually the unknown is sort of seen as a
as a source of fear, but in the winslow Hoffner
series it's it's it's also a source of adventure. So
we moved from the fear of the unknown to the
great unknown. And I think in the in the sort

(46:22):
of cryptic community I'm see I'm seeing that sort of come.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Alive before my eyes. You know.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
The first book came out in twenty eighteen, and it was,
you know, to me, it was just such a niche interest.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
But after.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
After twenty twenty, after all the lockdowns, uh, everyone suddenly
has the same the same fascination. I noticed there's like
all these great conferences that popped up out of nowhere,
and and so Winslow had this great renaissance of popularity,
and I thought, awesome, Okay, I'm gonna, you know, continue
the series. I felt compelled to continue the series. And

(46:58):
then I can kind of see, I can kind of
see why now it's it's there was something in the
air about it.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, I mean since since twenty twenty. I
mean that's kind of when Strangeology started. There's there's definitely yea. Yeah.
I've always been into the strange and the unexplained, and
as my listeners know, you know, I was always drawn
towards books on Bigfoot and NeSSI and UFOs and all

(47:24):
that stuff since I was a little kid. And you know,
I had an old band like Gosh around like two
thousand and six, two thousand and seven or so where.
I actually had a song that was called Point Pleasant
and it was about the Mothman. I'm not gonna tell
you where you can find it though, So yeah, yeah,

(47:45):
I was always into this stuff. But yeah, it seems
it seems that it's a it's a growing a growing niche,
a growing community of of like minded people that you know,
just love this stuff and want some answers. You know, yeah, definitely. Now,

(48:07):
uh do you uh, obviously there's a lot of skeptics
out there, a lot of the bunkers. Does that ever
play a factor when you're writing about different cryptids and creatures?
You know, do you kind of uh pit one character
on that perspective versus the other? Or is anything kind

(48:28):
of fair game? Yeah, they're there, you know.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Like I said, there's there's different sources of of skepticism,
and that's that's sort of the fun. When Winslow's telling
his stories, ken Keely our cook is always like you know,
he's always he's always trying to fact check him in
real time and trying to trick trip him up. But
Winslow tends to have some type of artifact from from
the journey, you know, ready to go in his pocket.

(48:55):
And uh sort of you know, win over everyone at
the at the at the bar, and and uh yeah,
and so outside of the outside of the stories, it
doesn't it doesn't affect me. I think I'm fascinated by
the mystery and in the Winslol Hoffner books, I just
sort of take the position that it's all true. You know,

(49:17):
I've even adapted monsters where it's probably a case of misidentification,
like the Canvy Island Monster is our opening creature in
the first chapter of the second book, and you know,
it's probably either a misidentified anglerfish or like a what's
it called, like a frog fish, coffin fish, those But

(49:42):
in this, in this one, I sort of took it
and made it my own thing. Nice, nice walking anglerfish
with big, long frog like legs, you know.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
And uh.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
And so that's sort of the position that the books
take that it's all true. And if it's true, then
you know, what would that be like And how would
that affect the real world, How would it affect the
people who encounter them?

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah, it's you know,
it's good to be skeptical and also to have an
open mind with this kind of stuff. I think healthy skepticism.
But yeah, now, I know we've talked about a few
of the cryptids in the book. In your book so far,

(50:25):
what would you say is the most obscure or unique
cryptid that you've run across in your research, or the
most intriguing one, maybe not necessarily like North American or European,
because obviously there's cryptids in every country in the world.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
I would say, So I had to find a cryptid
to match the mental image of this sort of high
intensity scene at the end of the second book where
Winslow was escaping some bad guys and there were these
cryptids in the water that were shelled mammalian uh, cryptids

(51:09):
with like like super buoyant, like like armored backs, but
they were furry still, and I'm like, Okay, how am
I going to do this one? And so I I
researched so deeply until I eventually found one called it's
an Icelandic cryptid called the Skellia Crimsonly. I don't know
if I'm pronouncing it correctly, but its name translates to
shell monster. And in the book I call them mostly

(51:32):
Icelandic sea wolves, uh. And so they're kind of there,
these uh cryptids that sort of exist on the shoreline,
and they got all these sort of like a whole
bunch of armorial plating that sort of like clattered together,
and they're depicted as kind of these armored sort of
semi aquatic sloths. Interesting and uh, and so I kind

(51:56):
of adapted it looking at different ice age type creatures
like the glyptodon and things of that, and then just
sort of mixing it all together. And so as soon
as I kind of find that biological real world tether,
then I feel comfortable like expanding and altering and stuff.
And and uh, and so we got that he's featured

(52:17):
right here on the bottom of the areas. I kind
of gave kind of gave him more of a Weasley head,
kind of like a kind of like a wolf. Yeah,
and then he's got that great club night here.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
A little bit of armadillo armor. But then also yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's fun. That's fun. Now, so you do all your
own illustrations too, Yeah, yeah, that's uh, that's really cool. Uh.
What came first was it was it the drawing or
the the interest in writing. I know you mentioned earlier
on that you know, you always had a pencil or

(52:49):
a cran in your hand.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
But yeah, I I I think uh nowadays, I kind
of do it both in equal measure, and it's it's
kind of a process of my world building. Like I'll
draw the creatures in this case, the cryptids or the
like the fantasy monsters and stuff like for World of
the Orb, I have big notebooks where I create essentially
encyclopedias of all of my different creatures and heroes and

(53:13):
villains and stuff moving forward. And in that process of
drawing them, you know, you're doing all these nice fine
details and things sort of like reveal themselves to you
in the moment, and so that's kind of cool. So
then when it comes time to paint the pictures with
your words, when you're typing it out, you have that
extra fine layer of specificity.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a really interesting process to you know,
go through with you know, coming up with all these
different ideas, these creatures, the characters, and and bringing it
to life through you know, visual medium and then kind
of expanding through the written medium. So yeah, you're doing
some really really cool work, Michael, I have to say, yeah,

(53:58):
thank you.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Who's your favorite character so far or your favorite cryptid
from Oh Gosh?

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Trying to remember. Oh you know, I believe there was.
Was it the the shark squid? Uh oh yeah, sharks
the million Yeah, which which makes me think of the Lusca,
which is I'm not sure if that was what you
were referencing based on it's like the real life shark
to us, exactly, it's just so like, uh, equally ridiculous

(54:32):
and terrifying, like, you know, imagine running across a shark
with tentacles. That's just totally going to kill you. So yeah, yeah, no,
that's a that's a fun one for sure. Yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
I think you're the the second or third person to
really like hone in on that chapter because it's a
very different chapter in the book. But it's it's also
the point where the world expands the most. And and
so that's where we have our character Millie Matterhorn, who's
a taxidermist who's putting together all these like little Frankensteinian monsters.

(55:07):
And John is of course on the trail of of
some some hard evidence and he, you know, thinks he's
in the wrong place, but it turns out later on
he found exactly the place. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Yeah, And speaking of of world expansion, and I'm wondering
are you gonna keep writing these books? Right? There's gonna
be some some sequels because there's a lot more to explore.
Uh is is uh? Is the story gonna take us to?
Uh places beyond Nova Scotia and the British Isles? You know,

(55:39):
are there other areas in the world that are you're
really just like wanting to get to.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
We are going to get uh We're gonna go all
over the world really, I mean Winslow, well, the majority
of it takes place in in the present timeline on
on Nova Scotia. Winslow is kind of a citizen of
the world. He's been everywhere, and so when he's telling
his stories, like especially in the second book, where there's
a lot of Celtic stuff, you know, we talk about

(56:10):
there's a lot of stuff that takes place in Wales.
We of course have an encounter with the Lockness Monster
in Lockness, and and then as as the series goes on,
we're going to see more and more exotic and other
worldly places. Perhaps there's going to be five books in
the main stay.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
It's a big undertaking and there may be too. Yeah,
I love it. Yeah, So just train of thought here
real quick now you know you've done all this this research.
Do you think there's a kernel of truth behind a
lot of the folklore around with these creatures and different

(56:57):
cultures talking about I just uh, yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Yeah, I definitely do. I think you know, when you
dive deeply into these stories, a lot of them uh
on their face, you know, there there's sort of there's
sort of two lines of thought where uh, you read
something and and and then you're like there, you know,
there's no way. But then the more deeply you read,
then then you're like, maybe there's something to it. I

(57:25):
was discussing with Cryptis of the Corn. We were talking
about Trunko on one of their episodes, and you know,
that's a fascinating globster as well. Another globster. I love
those globsters. This one is featured in the second Wins
the Hoffner book, and it's essentially an aquatic elephant. I
mean it has an elephantine trunk and then it had

(57:47):
the the original witnesses described it as having a big
lobster like tail, and you know, how how do how
do those things possibly go together?

Speaker 2 (57:57):
You know?

Speaker 1 (57:57):
But in but in my research, you know, to find
out there have been other Trunked, you know, Titanic uh
sea monsters scene, like, for instance, there was a the
Glacier Island body that was an unusual uh cryptid that
washed ashore and it looked like an aquatic mammoth as well.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
Yeah, there were other and and and other and other
ones as well. I'm blanking on on the names right now,
but it goes even deeper into ancient mythology.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
There there's an.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Idea that anything in on land has its answer in
the sea. You know, you can find an equivalent and
in some in some cases that's true. So when I
was adapting Trunko, I thought, you know, what's the closest
relative to the elephant that is aquatic or semi aquatic?
And you know, manates are are kind of you know,

(58:48):
siren are kind of a perfect a perfect avenue for
that for the adaptation. And so, you know, looking at
other pachad erms like rhinoceroses who have dermal plating, those
folds of thick flesh, I thought that could explain our
the lobster like tail if it has this sort of
armorial but still dermal folds and so and so that

(59:11):
there's your lobster like tail and then.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
And uh, and this one.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
Just happens to be fuzzy because that that was that
was the original sighting that it was like covered in
covered in fur. It was called a fish like a
pole in the uh in.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
The Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like those that the
hairy trout that that was was found one day. But
I think it turned out that the hair was actually
like a bacterial growth or a fungal growth or something
like that, which is also super interesting in and of itself.
Whether it's interesting, yeah exactly, but yeah, I mean it

(59:46):
makes me think. You know, they say that the ocean
we've only explored, was it like five to ten percent,
and there's all these other zones. The further down you
go under water, you know, there could be tons of
stuff living down there that we'd never know about because
when it dies, it sinks to the bottom and gets

(01:00:08):
recycled into the ecosystem with the bottom feeders, unless it
washes up to shore like a tentacle from a giant squid,
which were thought to be just you know, they were
cryptids up until about twenty years ago, right, and then
then scientists finally got video footage of a I can't

(01:00:29):
remember if it was a giant squid or colossal squid,
because they're two different species. But either way, you know,
you've got these creatures that can grow up to what
forty eight fifty feet in length at least, So these
old tales of sailors running into a kraken, you know,

(01:00:50):
capsizing boats and stuff or not too far fetched.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
You're going to enjoy the finale, the oh yeah, I
can't wait.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
We got we got a great crack and based on
the Saint Augustine histop based on octopus giants.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
That's awesome. That's awesome. So, you know, speaking of like
creatures that were once cryptids that are now confirmed, do
you think there's any other you know, uh, cryptids out
there that are pretty like well known or thought about
that have a good chance of being real today. Yeah, yeah,

(01:01:35):
a lot of them do.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
I mean, I think, you know, it's it's kind of
a it's kind of a basic one, but bigfoot, I think,
you know, it's probably only a mass time because that's
not that it's not that unusual of a monster. You know,
there's things like that existed in the fossil record and
you know, could still be around today as a sort
of relic domind Yeah, so uh so definitely, Yeah, I think,

(01:02:00):
I think, I think a lot of things. It would
be would be really cool to live to see the
day of some of these cryptids confirmed. And there have
been cryptids that were confirmed, like the okappy and even
even the platypus. Our friend, the platypus that we mentioned
earlier that was that was they looked at that and
they thought, you know, there's no way you know, this
is this is a hoax. And then and then it

(01:02:22):
turned out to be and it turned and turned.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Out to be real.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Which is why I think that Platypus is a perfect
explanation for the OFFNC because you know, it wasn't until way,
way more modern times that the platypus was like accepted
as a real creature. And it's like, if we have
a slightly larger one, you would probably call it like, yeah,
I had the head of a crocodile and the body
of a body of a beaver.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Yeah, yeah, such a weird animal. You know, it's a
weird venomous barb on its back behind flippers.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
These cryptids aren't that crazy. We got monsters.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Yeah, Sometimes things that are in the zoological record are
sometimes more interesting. But yeah, yeah, going back to Bigfoot,
you know, we've got the Gigantopithecus that lived in Asia,
gigantic primate, which I'm not convinced is what Bigfoot is.
I you know, there's all these different ideas of bigfoot,

(01:03:26):
whether or not it's flesh and blood, whether or not
there's something more pure, normal happening, interdimensional? Is it an alien?
You know, I don't know the answer, but yeah, you
kind of have to take everything in and form your
own your own opinions on that. But yeah, it seems
like there is something out there that people are are witnessing,

(01:03:48):
And yeah, I think a lot of the times there's
you know, people are like, oh, there's no way something
we'd see, hunters would see something out there. It's like,
do you realize how big the wilderness is. It's like
if you look at maps and like look into like
the Pacific Northwest all the way up into Canada, like
the amount of land that's just untouched by humans, even

(01:04:08):
hunters and prospectors and all that stuff. If you're dealing
with an intelligent relatiominid who might have a similar intelligence
level to humans, they're not gonna want to be found.
You know, they're gonna do anything they can to stay away,
unless by accident. But yeah, yeah, it'll be interesting to see.

(01:04:32):
I always love that Futurama episode where it's, you know,
a thousand years into the future in Bigfoot. It's like
alien civilizations, like they're interacting with all that. But Bigfoot
still isn't confirmed, and I think it's Fry like runs
into one in a national park and he's like, like,
don't tell anyone about me, man. So yeah, So you've

(01:04:58):
got more books in the works. Uh, you know what
what kind of release schedule can can your readers expect
for when the next book is going to come out?

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Well, up next, I'm working on the I'm in illustration mode,
and I'm working on the anniversary editions of the first
three Chicken Boy books. So end of this year and
beginning of next year, I'm going to release one, two,
and two and three again and they're going to be
glorious and shiny and new. And then very soon after that,

(01:05:35):
in the spring of next year, Winslow Hoffner three is
going to hit the shelves, So you can check that
out when it comes out. All the updates are on
Michael Thompson.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Books dot com. That's great, and just you know, a
couple more questions here for you before before we go
for the day. You know, do you have any advice
for aspiring authors who are passionate about writing cryptozoology and folklore.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Yeah, you know, I always say, write what you love, right,
the thing that you wish already existed, Because if you
love it, chances are there's going to be people out
there who have the same taste as you. I never
expected that there would be this sort of love for
the cryptids when I started writing the wenzel Hofner books,

(01:06:27):
but as it turns out, as it turns out, there
are so you know, write the story that comes to you.
If there's there's a story that's coming to you, that's
a that's a sign that's meant to be told, I think.
And so if you if you get that down on paper,
then you can worry about the marketing afterward. And sometimes
things just sort of like magically unfold that way. I
think I think it's important to it's important to write

(01:06:49):
what you wish already existed.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, that's some solid, solid advice.
And one final question here do you have any upcoming
speaking events or anything on your calendar. This people should
be aware of because you do the festival and convention circuit.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Yes, I'm doing a lot this weekend. I'm heading out
to Fairfax Comic Con. I don't know how quickly this
is coming out, but that's going to be. That's going
to be this weekend in August, and it's going to
be a lot of fun. You know, love doing the
comic cons. But after that, I'm going to be doing
a speaking event. I'm a featured speaker at Cryptidfest in

(01:07:33):
Massachusetts and Random, Massachusetts on September fourteenth. I'm going to
be one of the featured speakers there and that's being
thrown by my friend Jessica from the show crypt Tidbits
with General Tidbits, and this is her first ever Cryptied event,
and so I get to get to be one of
the first speakers at the inaugural event. So be sure

(01:07:55):
to check that out. It's going to be a nice
cryptid party, celebration of all things unknown.

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
Very cool, very cool. Great, Well, this has been a
lot of fun, Michael. Before we go, can you let
my listeners know where the best place to find you online?
And to check out all of your books.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Sure, you can follow me on Instagram at m Thompson
Underscore Books, and you can find all of my books
at Michael Thompson books dot com. We have the Chicken
Boys series for young readers. We have World of the
orb Our alternate world fantasy adventure, and then of course
the Winslow Hoffner series, which is my folkloric fantasy on
the high Seas about cryptids, sea monsters, and epic urban

(01:08:37):
legends that you have seen, but there's one man who
happens to have seen them all, Winslow Hoffner, and I
think your listeners are especially going to like that, so
check that out and there's going to be lots more
of Winslow's adventures coming soon.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
Michael Thompson books dot Awesome. Great, Thank you so much again,
and we'll talk to you soon. All right, Thanks again
to Michael Thompson for coming onto the show today. Definitely

(01:09:12):
check out his website and his book series and his
art as well. All of that is going to be
linked in the show notes. It's a wide, weird world
out there, and it's great to have people like Michael
who are just painting this picture and getting people into

(01:09:32):
this subject. It's I think it's super important, so definitely
check it out. As always, I want to give a
huge thank you out there to everyone who checks out
the Strangeology podcast. Those of you who download it share
it with friends and family. It helps me out so
much when you do that. The Strangeology Podcast wouldn't be
possible without the support of listeners like you. And again,

(01:09:54):
if you're looking for a way to support the show,
head over to my patreon at patreon dot com forward
to slash Strangeology where there's tons and tons of extra
bonus content and perks, so check it out. To any
advertisers or companies out there looking to collaborate with the
Strangeology Podcast or would like to be considered for an

(01:10:16):
interview on the show, please send all business inquiries to
info at strangeology dot com. And if you have any stories,
I want to hear about them, so definitely send in
your stories, your encounters with the strange and unexplained from cryptids, ghosts, aliens,
you name it. Again, that's info at strangeology dot com

(01:10:39):
And if you haven't yet, make sure to give me
a follow over on all my social media accounts. I'm
on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok threads. I'm most active
posting short form content on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, so
if you're looking for more from me, definitely check that out.
I have a series on cryptids conspiracy is just these short,

(01:11:01):
little factoid videos and people seem to love them. They
get a lot of really good to reach most of
the time, so definitely check that out, and definitely keep
an eye on my Instagram because that's where I typically
host giveaways, which I'm planning on doing one pretty soon.
It's been quite a while since I've done one, so
you'll definitely want to stay tuned there on that channel.

(01:11:22):
And if you're looking for another way to support Strangeology again,
you can check out my Etsy shops strangeology dot etsy
dot com, where I have a whole assortment of Cryptid,
Alien and fourteen gear available on things like T shirts,
tank tops, long sleeves, sweatshirts, and hoodies with cooler weather
that's right around the corner. I've also got stickers, magnets, prints, mugs,

(01:11:46):
enamel pins, and more. I'm forgetting so much. You just
go to the website, you get to check it out
and I'm always trying to add in new designs. So
if you love cryptid and alien and that kind of
merch and you want to support the show, that's Strangeology
dot Etsy dot com. Thank you so much. All right,

(01:12:09):
that's all for me for now. I'm going to take
a quick break here. Michael was able to hang out
for a little while longer to chat about some more
of his paranormal and ghost encounter stories. Super interesting and
totally unexpected, and he has some really cool stuff to share,
so you're not gonna want to miss it. Members, stick

(01:12:31):
with me and for everyone else until the next time.
Take care of yourselves and each other, and keep it strange.

(01:13:44):
All right. Welcome back, Patreod members to Strangelogy beyond your
exclusive portion of the show. Michael, thank you so much
for chatting