Halifax is going to witness its first paranormal conference in 17 years, and it’s something planners want to make a historical repeater. Elliott Van Dusen, president of Paranormal Phenomena Research & Investigation (PPRI), is collaborating with Dr. Darryll Walsh, executive director of the Centre for Parapsychological Studies in Canada, on […]
Tag: Cryptozoology
B.C. investigators ecstatic to keep ‘We Want to Believe’ alive through Paraflixx deal
Providence. That was the word writer-director Jason Hewlett used to describe the rebirth of “We Want to Believe” with the paranormal streaming service Paraflixx. After the abrupt end of the YouTube channel The Paranormal Network on Halloween 2022, lead investigator Peter Renn, Hewlett and the Canadian Paranormal Society team weren’t […]
Folklore is littered with chimeras — all the more reason to dissect the fiction
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a chimera as an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts. It seems the perfect term to use when discussing the strange creatures our ancestors first bore witness to when they were exploring the world. Imagine the first time an explorer crossed paths with a tapir, capybara, […]
Review: The Whisper on the Night Wind is the cryptozoology book we all need
Getting lost in a book is like getting lost in a dense forest. You never know when and where you’re going to get out. That’s part of the allure of writer-explorer Adam Shoalts’ 2021 book, The Whisper on the Night Wind, as he brings readers along for a good, old-fashioned […]
Giant squids are a tale as old as time in Newfoundland
Newfoundland is swimming in mariner folklore, but no other story about a run-in with Architeuthis dux captivates audiences more than the Squires-Picot sighting on Oct. 26, 1873. Two fishermen and a boy were fishing in the tickle near Bell Island, just a few miles north of St. John’s, when they […]
Brampton writer puts a spotlight on lesser-known cryptids of Asia, Oceania in book
Carol Scott’s idea for her book The Cryptids of Asia and Oceania had been simmering on the creative burner since high school. The Brampton-based writer started the first draft of her book in 2015. Its publication came to fruition in September 2022, allowing her passion for digging deeper into cryptozoological […]
Review: Umboi Island takes cryptid-themed mysteries to new heights
The evolution of Laura Reagan throughout the three Creature X Mystery books is impressive. Reagan is the protagonist of J.J. Dupuis’ Creature X Mystery series and she’s gone from in search of her estranged father to full-blown buster of drug smugglers. Umboi Island is the third book of the Dupuis […]
Photojournalist and filmmaker Jason Kenzie is no stranger to exotic wildlife
Photojournalist and filmmaker Jason Kenzie is no stranger to exotic wildlife, having worked with tigers, grizzly bears, alligators, monkeys, wolves and even the African serval. And he is no stranger to the sprawling forests and mountains of his native British Columbia, where he grew up hearing stories about the “hairy man […]
What lurks in Cowichan Lake? Stin-Qua adds to B.C.’s super, natural mystique
Canada’s westernmost province has a rich history of water monsters. There are those we know — the Pacific giant octopus, the white sturgeon, the orca whale — and then there are those that inhabit the folktales and urban legends of British Columbia: Ogopogo, Cadborosaurs, and Shuswaggi, among many others. One […]
Review: J.J. Dupuis’ second Creature X mystery a more mature Mystery Inc.
Murder mysteries and their villains always have those “goddammit” moments when they realize they’ve been made. “Murder She Wrote,” “Columbo” and “Ellery Queen” all culminated into a “the jig is up” denouement and the villain always attempts to flee. I know I equated J.J. Dupuis’ first Creature X Mystery book […]