Author Thom Powell Talks Bigfoot Spying in Richland, WA Part 1/4

Author Thom Powell next to an impressive display of the London Trackway

"Thom was one of my favorite speakers during the conference, in part because he proposes a different perspective on the field of research and has made some observations that others either have not or are not discussing." --Henry Patterson at GhostTheory.com

Full Disclosure: At Bigfoot Lunch Club we are completely biased when it comes to Thom Powell. We are huge fans. Until we met Mr. Powell it was hard for us to bridge the gap between the value we put on physical evidence and the relevance of the paranormal aspects Bigfooting. Thom Powell's "Spy Paradigm" comes close to bridging that gap. He proposes that our efforts would be best spent gathering information, like the CIA does, as oppose to trying to do hard science that requires us to duplicate results. In other words, Bigfoot is an unwilling uncooperative subject and we could gain better traction doing intelligence gathering. 

If you were to gauge by audience participation and the continued buzz afterwards, Thom Powell's presentation was the most well-received.  Henry Patterson, who was there, had this to write on Ghost Theory:

"Thom was one of my favorite speakers during the conference, in part because he proposes a different perspective on the field of research and has made some observations that others either have not or are not discussing." Henry Patterson

Watch author Thom Powell in the video below as he uses his trademark self-effacing charm to encourage a paradigm shift among bigfooters. Also in the video are topics Powell breached over a decade before they became casual conversation among Bigfooters. Want to know what the next decade has in store for Bigfoot research? Go to ThomSquatch.com and buy Thom Powell's Books.

Robert Gray Middle School does Bigfoot Comedy

Ian Sloan (standing) and, from left, Gwyneth Bushman, Max Fawcett and Nicole Panet-Raymond star in Robert Gray’s production of “North Woods Nonsense.”
CLAIRE OLIVER / SOUTHWEST COMMUNITY CONNECTION)

The very School that Bigfoot researcher Thom Powell teaches at will be performing a Bigfoot Comedy.

'North Woods Nonsense'
RGMS theater department presents upbeat, family comedy as its winter production
BY CLAIRE OLIVER

The Southwest Community Connection, Dec 1, 2011
HILLSDALE – Southwest Portlanders have the chance to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot in this neck of the woods, when Robert Gray Middle School’s theater department presents its production of “North Woods Nonsense,” a comedy by Andrew Ross, starting Dec. 1.

The action in this witty, upbeat comedy centers around the lobby of the rundown Lost Loon Hotel at Moose Bottom Lake, where handyman Pete has written a fictional story about Bigfoot kidnapping a local resident that ends up being published in a national tabloid.

People from all over nevertheless take the account as true and come to the hotel to search for Sasquatch on their own.

This sighting also provides the perfect excuse for Birch and Pine, assistants to inept congressman Oakley, to suggest a trip to the hotel to keep him out of the public eye. The pair is trying to keep Oakley, who is head of Congress’ parks committee, from speaking in public to prevent him from sharing his ideas of turning the Grand Canyon into a giant lake, building a mall at Yellowstone and building condos at Mount Rushmore.

Hilarity ensues with the convergence of the Bigfoot enthusiasts and the reporters hot on Oakley’s trail.

“It’s an amazingly fantabulous blow-you-away comedy the whole family would love,” said eighth-grader Ian Sloan, who plays Rep. Oakley.

Cast members said they’ve all had fun embodying their characters.

“I feel like my character is some part of me,” said eighth-grader Nicole Panet-Raymond, one of the sisters who manages the Lost Loon Hotel.

“I love my character because I get to scream a lot,” said eighth-grader Gwyneth Bushman, who play’s Panet-Raymond’s eclectic sister.
The cast has been rehearsing together since the second week of school, and its members said the group is now like a giant family.

“There’s a lot of love, and it’s a lot of fun,” Sloan said.

“Because we’ve created such a collaboration, it’s amazing to see it come together on stage as well,” Director Jules Moorhouse said. “It’s a great family show.”

“North Woods Nonsense” will open Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. on the school’s stage, located at 5505 S.W. 23rd Ave., and will continue Dec. 2 and 9 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 10 at 2 p.m.

Tickets cost $5 for students and $7 for adults and are available at the door or online through www.graypta.org. The theater and box office will open 30 minutes prior to each performance. All money raised through ticket and concession sales will support the Robert Gray PTA Theater Program.

Bigfoot takes to stage, page
Bigfoot isn’t just making an appearance on Robert Gray’s stage.

Thom Powell, a science teacher at the school, published his second book, “Shady Neighbors,” earlier this year, and the sasquatch mystery is the novel’s central theme.

Combining Bigfoot and baseball, the novel follows a rural family threatened by the imminent development of its land, according to the book’s description on Amazon.com. When the family begins to notice strange occurrences in the area caused by an unknown force, they must learn to work together with that force for the greater good.

“Shady Neighbors” is available for purchase on Amazon. Powell’s first book, “The Locals, a Contemporary Investigation of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch Phenomenon,” is a nonfiction investigation of the sasquatch legend. It is also available online.

For more information, visit www.shady-neighbors.com.
SRC: The Southwest Community Connection

Shady Neighbors the Website

Thom Powell has created a website to promote his new book Shady Neighbors. You may know Thom as the acclaimed author of The Locals

The site is a great supplement to his book. Included on the site is an interactive map, called Shady Places. The map highlights locations that inspired the book. If you read the book and reference the map you can find the squatchiest locations in Clackamas County, Oregon. According to Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, Clackamas County has the highest rate of reported sightings.

Best of all you can get signed copies of The Locals and Shady Neighbors from the man himself. The Locals is out of print and Thom only has a few left himself. Buy Thoms books here.

Finally, Thom has some great videos of the moments when they first discovered the body print of the Skookum Cast, as well as the footage of the casting.


Thom plans on continuing to expand his website, share his creative writing process, and intrigue us with his take on the Sasquatch phenomenon. We will keep you posted as updates occur.

Thom Powell Featured in Ethos Magazine

Ethos is a nationally recognized, award-winning student publication.

Our readers pick up Ethos to explore ethical, journalistic story telling, beautiful photography and illustrations, and innovative designs. We embrace diversity in our stories, in our student staff, and in our readership.--Ethos Magazine

They do a great job covering the Sasquatch topic while visiting Thom Powell. Below is a little teaser with a link to the full article on Thom Powell's new site Shady-Neighbors.com (we will cover the new site tomorrow).

Suddenly, Wilson shatters the eerie silence with an agitated spurt of barks. Powell’s flashlight flicks on. Its beam pierces the darkness, scanning the scattered pine trees for a glimpse of what alarmed the dog. A pair of eyeballs hovers in the blackness like a pair of glowing orbs. Powell edges forward to get a closer look. As his flashlight’s radius increases, the fiendish night beast is revealed to be a mere cow.

Powell looks back with a barely discernible, wry grin. “I hear coyotes all the time. There have been wolf sightings, too,” he says in a grave whisper. “Sometimes it takes nerves of steel to be out here. I figure I’ll be OK as long as I can run faster than you.”

For Powell, this is not an ordinary stroll through the woods. These are lands he has traversed hundreds of times with a specific purpose in mind. He is on the prowl for a creature more formidable than a pack of coyotes and more elusive than a wolf: Powell is searching for Sasquatch.

Read the entire feature covering Thom Powell

Author Thom Powell's New Book, Shady Neighbors, is Available!

It's official! You can now purchase  author, Thom Powell's newest book, Shady Neighbors.

For those few of you who do not know. Author Thom Powell is the acclaimed author of The Locals. The Locals was a ground-breaking anthology of several Bigfoot reports. Single-handedly, Powell breathed new life into Bigfoot research, promising and delivering a new perspective on the Sasquatch phenomena.

He does it again in Shady Neighbors.

On his blog, ThomSquatch, author, Thom Powell, says Shady Neighbors was a three-year process but you can read the cumulative decades of research that went into his newest book. After reading our advanced copy we can assure you he achieved his goal.

"I tried to craft a plot that is amusing as well as original, while also writng something that appeals to all the friends I have met (and those I have not yet met) who share my interest in the bigfoot phenomenon. I tried to do the same thing in Shady Neighbors that Christopher Munch did in his recent movie Letters from the Big Man: present a side of the sasquatch phenomenon that is honest and original; one that the bigfoot creatures themselves might appreciate and enjoy if they read books." -- author, Thom Powell

As a piece of brilliant fiction, it stands alone. If you love learning what decades of Bigfoot research tells us about the creature? Shady Neighbors delivers.

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Read the history of the Shady Neighbors book cover.

Thom Powell's New Book: Shady Neighbors Cover Art and Excerpt

Click on the picture to see full size

We are so proud and excited to present to you the cover art for author, Thom Powell's new book, "Shady Neighbors."

We even have an excerpt that takes place about halfway through the book. We chose this excerpt because it pairs well with the cover art, with a reference to the muddy baseball. Plus, its a great teaser for what is in store from the mind of  author, Thom Powell. Many themes from his blog and unique perspective are woven into this great narrative.

Without further ado, here is the excerpt from  author, Thom Powell's Shady Neighbors:

Sam looked at his watch. It was 4:30 a.m. He thought about calling Nick right then and there. He thought he should wait. Sam didn't even want to go back to bed and try to sleep. He didn't think he could. He got his robe from the hook on the wall in the bathroom and put it on.

"Are you thinking what I’m thinking," Sam asked.

"I think so," Nick replied. "We need to fix that grave right away. Like, today. I'm not going to sleep until we put it back like we found it."

"How soon can you get over here? I can be ready to go in an hour."

By 8:30 the two men were motoring up the road toward Squaw Meadow, bouncing on the bench seat of Nick's pick up; staring silently at the road ahead.

Nick broke the long silence. "I hate to ask what happened to you last night?"

"Nothing major," Sam replied with his usual sarcasm. "They basically made it clear that they would smash my house and my kids if I didn't put the grave back, post haste."

"They?" Nick asked.

"Three of 'em. They were waiting for me on the lawn when I ran out of the house. One of them kept saying, 'Put my grave back.' It was the scariest, most vivid dream I think I've ever had. To top it off, after my wife woke me up, 'I got up the courage to go outside. There on the front porch was this mud covered baseball. It seemed like a calling card. The dog could have left it there, I suppose, but after that nightmare, I'm not taking any chances. I don't ever want to have another night like that. How about you?"

"I kept waking up to the sound of rocks hitting my roof. Then sticks were hitting the side of the house. Every time I would go to sleep I would see this angry face saying, 'Fix my grave, fix my grave.' Then, I'd wake up and hear rocks on the roof. I'd fall asleep and hear the voice and see the angry face again. Then I'd wake up. More rocks. This went on all night. I didn't sleep more than a half hour all night. By four a.m. I knew I wasn't going to get a wink of sleep until we got up there and fixed the grave."

"Think they might be waiting for us when we get up there?" Sam wondered.

"I hadn't even thought of that," Nick confessed. He thought for a moment. "I suppose that after the night I spent, I'm willing to take that chance. I don't think I'm going to get any sleep until we fix that grave. I don't think my roof can take another night of that," Nick said a faint smile. Then he added, "I suppose if they're ready to kill us when we get there, then we won't be able to fix the grave."

With a smile, Sam said, "I suppose." Then he added, "Maybe they'll just wait until we fix it before they finish us off."

Nick managed to crack a slight smile. Then Sam asked pointedly, "By the way, do ya still think they're just some damn apes?"

We will keep you up to date when and where this book will be available for purchase. Sure we are partial, but we promise you you will turn page after page until you have read all 366 of them. It is informative, educational and over all entertaining; complete with an extremely satisfying ending.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Cryptomundo Reviews Thom's First Book, The Locals
Cliff Barackman Talks about Thom's New Book
Thom writes about his new book at ThomSquatch.com

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Thom Powell Week: Seven Tentative Conclusions
Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher
Thom Powell Week: Oregonian Guest Columnist

Thom Powell Week: Book Cover Tease

Click the above picture to enlarge and see details!

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot Research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"

Speaking of the book, "Shady Neighbors," Thom Powell is taking Bigfoot art and Bigfoot book covers to the next level. He has commissioned our artist to create an original and unique cover for the book.

The image above is what those artist-types call a study, basically practice to see how to create textures (like the liver spotted skin of a primate) or lighting (like the way a sunset highlights fur). Proportionals and sizing is also worked out, like perhaps a baseball would look even smaller in the hand of a Sasquatch.

You may ask yourself why would a Sasquatch hold a baseball. that's a question for Thom Powell on November 3rd!

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
November 3rd Event
Thom Powell Week: To true believers, Bigfoot lives
Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher
Thom Powell Week: Peer Review

EXTERNAL LINKS
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell