Brett's Blog

My Storybook project is centered around telling the stories of different creatures that have ingrained themselves into the horror stories of America. Stories of monsters like Bigfoot, Mothman, the Jersey Devil, the Wendigo, and the Chupacabra are all legendary in their different areas of the country and have heavily influenced local cultures. I will be using Wikipedia based sources for many of these creatures, as well as information from select research societies based around specific creatures, such as the Bigfoot Field Researchers' Organization   and the Mothman Museum and Research Center . These may not provide sound scientific evidence for the existence of these creatures, but they do provide key cultural and historical information about the legends of the monsters. I'm playing around with the idea of making this project a Twine-based, choose your own adventure horror audiobook, set in a strange zoo that houses these creatures. I want the reader to feel involved and al...

Mothman: Image My Storybook Project, Mythical Monsters of the New World can be found here I hope you all enjoy it, and I appreciate any feedback you can give! EDIT 3/5: I have heavily revised my Introduction, so if you have not read the new version yet, do so now!

Sasquatch: Image I have decided to focus my storybook project on the topic of American folkloric monsters, and there is arguably no monster more famous or recognizable across the country than Bigfoot himself. The "primal, hairy ape-man" monster archetype is nothing new, and is prevalent in countries all over the world ( Yeti , Yowie , Barmanou , Hibagon , Chuchuna , etc.) and the creature even has many different names across North America, such as  Sasquatch , Skunk Ape , Skookum , Momo , Grassman , the Fouke Monster , the Dewey Lake Monster and the Mogollon Monster , just to name a few. Much like the creature's many different titles, its proposed behavior also differs wildly depending on the regional spin-off that is being described. Some are benevolent or benign, while others are outright hostile. The versatility of this monster will allow for greater freedom when writing about it in my storybook project. The Mothman of West Virginia, statue by Bob ...

Old Stormalong, The Sailor Folk Hero of Massachusetts: Image Topic 1: American Avengers As I had spoken about in my Reading Overview post, I'm very interested in learning more about westernized American folklore and myths. That same post will also clue you in to the fact that I love stories of heroes. Stories like this are as old as time and are present in every culture known to man, and I think it would be interesting to understand the stories and myths of my own country. Here's Audacity: American Legendary Heroes by Frank Shay would be my main point of research and information on the topic. This book includes stories of heroes from all different regions and cultures of the United States, making it a very well-rounded jump-off point for a project. With the rise of superhero culture in our country, I think it would be interesting to go down a more comic-book flavored route for this project, with "issues" for each character that present different art styles ...