Are you, dear listener, a believer? Do you look for things that go bump in the night? Do you listen for a haunting call between the trees? Well then, buckle in, Jackie's taking us on a tour of three of the most popular cryptids in North America, including the rougarou, mothman and (of course) sasquatch, and their appearances in romance novels!

Questions/comments/suggestions/cryptid sightings? Email us at [email protected]!

Books we mention:

• Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
• Dark Hunters series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
• Sweet Berries by CM Nascosta
• I'm In Love With Mothman by Paige Lavoie
• Moth Wanted by Loki Renard
• Subterranean by James Rollins
• Beverley Green's First Adventure by Andrea Neil
• Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle
• Off the Map by Trish Doller
• How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
• My Life On the Road by Gloria Steinem
• Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Pictures:

• Mothman over bridge
• Eurasian Eagle Owl
• Patterson's photo of sasquatch
• Tourons (instagram)

Sources:

• American Monsters by Linda S. Godfrey
• “The Science Behind Bigfoot and Other Monsters” (Hartigan, 2013)
• “Save the Swamp: But, Beware the “Rougarou”” (Renfro, 2019)
• ROUGAROU - The Cajun Werewolf EXPLAINED (Freaky Folklore Podcast)
• "Native American Legends: Stikini" (Native Languages of the Americas, 2020)
• "Uncanny Georgia: The Ishkitini" (Purciful, 2015)
• "The Atchafalaya Basin" (Atchafalaya.org)
• The Atchafalaya River Basin" (The Nature Conservancy)
• “History of the Rougarou: Louisiana’s Werewolf” (Kerner, n.d.)
• “New Orleans Bayou Creature: The Rougarou" (Poulton, 2019)
• "Legend of Bigfoot" (Washington National Guard)
• “Sasquatch” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
• “Beyond Bigfoot” (American Museum of Natural History)
• “Why Bigfoot is Getting Nervous” (Blake, 2014)
• “Bigfoot (Sasquatch) legend” (Walls, 2022)
• "Halq’eméylem" (Indigenous Education, Abbotsford School District"
• “How the Bigfoot Legend Began” (Little, 2020)
• “Big Foot, 1958” (Buhs, 2009)
• “The Legend of Mothman – Paranormal W.Va.” (Klein, 2021)
• “The Terrifying Tale of West Virginia's Legendary Specter: The Mothman” (Overdeep, 2022)
• “An Ode to a Hometown Creature: Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia” (Mallow, 2021)
• “All About the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Bluridgemountainlife.com, 2023)
• "The 8 Oldest Mountain Ranges in the World and Where to Find Them" (Haase, 2023)
• “Geology of the Appalachian Mountains” (Britannica)
• “Witchcraft in West Virginia” (ToSalem, 2022)
• “Cherokee had high regard for owls (Ellison, 2019)