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

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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

Ghost Hunting Theories: Patterson-Gimlin Revisited

The now-famous Patterson/Gimlin Film (PGF) is etched into the psyche of american pop-culture. It probably universally recognizable. In Bigfooting circles it is somewhat a sacred cow. Opinions we have heard in private would never be shared publicly; from those who support or dispute the film.

Fortunately, for us, we are not in the business of proving Bigfoot, or proving the value or authenticity of Bigfoot evidence. Not often anyway. Mostly we want to learn as much as we can by sharing all things Sasquatch and hopefully like cosmologist do with the universe, we can build a better "model" of Bigfoot until we discover the big guy.

So we need to hear from all voices, yesterday we posted opinions from a palaeozoologist, today I am proud to say we are sharing the opinions of a Ghost Hunter and pshycic. If you have never visited Ghost Hunting Theories you are missing out. Even how she tackles PGF, is a delight:

This film is definitely polarizing.

One thing I talk about extensively in my upcoming book “Was That a Ghost?” is taking the context into account when looking at your encounter; taking into consideration your belief system and your explanatory style when evaluating an encounter. I am going to try to do the same here with the film.

Belief: I do believe in Bigfoot, not sure if I believe in the film (partially objective)

Context: I will review the context in which the film was taken (below).

Explanatory style: In comparing the pros and cons, I will try not to interject any belief system and keep myself objective (below).

The truth is, we must judge on just this case and not anything else. You might believe in ghosts, but each hunting case has to be handled very objectively. You know you believe in ghosts, but that does not have to mean that everything that happens is ghostly. Same here. I believe in BF and that will remain whether or not this film proves to me to be authentic.

This film, in other words, will not be the only thing that makes or breaks my belief.

I thought I should step away from a strange gut feeling that it's authentic when my head says it can't be. I figured I'd break down what bugs me about the film and what intrigues me about it and play “good guy/bad guy” with it. Read the rest of Patterson-Gimlin Revisited. It is thorough and refreshing.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Patterson-Gimlin Revisited
Bigfoot: My Furry-Butted Relative

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Encounters with Gigantic Orangutans

We have been negligent in our postings about primatology and feel bad. We decided to bring you the story of the Gigantic Orangutans of Borneo.

At Tetrapod Zoology (hardcore fans, like us, call it Tet Zoo for short), Darren Naish is profiled as "a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Portsmouth, UK) who mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs."

He writes great articles that sometimes border into the realm of Cryptozoology while maintaining the rigor of science. Without further ado, please read the excerpt below and follow the link to Encounters with Gigantic Orangutans.

Over the past couple of months I've been reading John MacKinnon's In Search of the Red Ape (Collins, 1974) - one of the first books anyone reads whenever they want to learn about orangutans. The book is stuffed full of anecdotes and other natural history tales about Borneo and Sumatra, and it seems that MacKinnon (who, these days, is best known for his association with the discovery of the Saola Pseudoryx nghetinensis in Vietnam (MacKinnon 2000, Van Dung et al. 1993, 1994)) encountered just about every creature you could hope to encounter in the tropical jungles of the region... yes, even the enigmatic orang-pendek (or its tracks, at least).

Anyway, one particular section of the book really stands out for me: the bit where MacKinnon catches sight of a gigantic, terrestrially walking male orangutan...

I was nearly home when I saw a terrifying spectacle. For a moment I thought it was a trick of my vision. A huge, black orang-utan was walking along the path towards me. I had never seen such a large animal even in a zoo. He must have weighed every bit of three hundred pounds. Hoping that he had not noticed me, I dived behind a large tree. I was in no state to defend myself, or run from him should he come for me, and I could recall clearly the natives' terrible stories about old, ground-living orangs. I held my breath as the monster passed within a few feet of me and let him get about forty yards ahead before I followed in pursuit. He was enormous, as black as a gorilla but with his back almost bare of hair; Ivan the Terrible was the only name I could think of. (MacKinnon 1974, p. 54)

We guarantee you will love reading the rest at Tetrapod Zoology

EXTERNAL LINKS
SRC:Tetrapod Zoology
Tet Zoo: Chimpanzees make and use spears
Tet Zoo:Bipedal Orangs
"What to Make of Yowies?" by Darren Naish at Science Blogs

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Bigfoot's Walking Cousins
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