Tag: Systema Paradoxa

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Mother’s Instinct” Author Sherri Cook Woosley

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 21, 2024
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We all love dogs, and we all love watching videos of otters.

But a seven foot tall otter dog with a taste for human flesh…not something I’d want to see on TikTok. Or in my backyard.

In my new interview with author Sherri Cook Woosley about her urban fantasy / horror novella Mother’s Instinct (paperback, Kindle) — the latest installment of eSpec Book’s Systema Paradoxa series — she discusses why she decided to get up close and personal with the Dobhar-chu, the 7-foot-long, human eating, dog / otter hybrid from Irish folklore.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Daylight Comes” Author John L. French

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date December 20, 2023
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Two years after he kicked off eSpec Book’s Systema Paradoxa series — in which different writers pen novellas about different cryptids — writer John L. French is bringing his time with this series to a close with Daylight Comes (paperback, Kindle), his third and final contribution.

In the following email interview, he discusses how he picked the last cryptid to write about, as well as why it’s the final time he’ll be writing about these mysterious monsters.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Crimson Whisper” Author Ken Schrader

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 21, 2023
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In eSpec Books’ Systema Paradoxa series, writers tell stories about different cryptids that exist in myths and legends and maybe your backyard. But unlike some of them, the cryptids in Ken Schrader’s contribution, Crimson Whisper (paperback, Kindle), are not the monsters they might seem to be. I’ll let Schrader explain in the following email interview.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Out For Blood” Author Jorie Rao

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 5, 2023
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In eSpec Book’s Systema Paradoxa series, different writers have told stories about a wide variety of cryptids. But while I’ve interviewed many of these authors — including, but not limited to, Sean Patrick Hazlett, Mary Fan, and Keith R.A. DeCandido — few seem as tailor made for this series as writer Jorie Rao who admits that “Cryptids are a special interest of mine” in the following email interview about her urban fantasy novella Out For Blood (paperback, Kindle).

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Hell’s Well” Author Sean Patrick Hazlett

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date November 21, 2022
1 Comment on Exclusive Interview: “Hell’s Well” Author Sean Patrick Hazlett

For the latest novella in their ongoing Systema Paradoxa series about cryptids, eSpec Books have enlisted author Sean Patrick Hazlett to write Hell’s Well (paperback, Kindle). Which, as you’ll quickly realize from reading the following email interview he and I did about this science fiction / borderline cosmic horror story, may have been a mistake…for him.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Eyes Of The Wolf” Author Robert E. Waters

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 5, 2022
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In eSpec Books’ Systema Paradoxa series, writers tell stories about cryptids, mysterious creatures like Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, and Mothman. But most cryptids don’t come with a backstory / origin story as intricate as El Cadejo, the one at the center of Robert E. Water’s Systema Paradoxa novella Eyes Of The Wolf (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Waters discusses what influenced both this story and his decision to tell it with El Cadejo.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Forget Me Not” Author Carol Gyzander

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 21, 2022
1 Comment on Exclusive Interview: “Forget Me Not” Author Carol Gyzander

Like other writers who’ve penned novellas for eSpec Books’ Systema Paradoxa series, writer Carol Gyzander chose to make hers about the cryptid that lives near where she grew up. But as she explains in the following email interview, her book, Forget Me Not (paperback, Kindle), wasn’t just inspired by her local monster, but where it lives as well.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Found Footage” Author Mary Fan

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 20, 2022
2 Comments on Exclusive Interview: “Found Footage” Author Mary Fan

For the latest installment of their Systema Paradoxa series of novellas about cryptids, the good people of eSpec Books have enlisted Mary Fan…who used this opportunity to reminisce about her childhood. At least that’s the impression I got from the following email interview about her installment, Found Footage (paperback, Kindle).

Books

Exclusive Interview: “All-The-Way House” Author Keith R.A. DeCandido

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date June 24, 2021
2 Comments on Exclusive Interview: “All-The-Way House” Author Keith R.A. DeCandido

In the two decades that I lived in New Jersey, I never once saw the Jersey Devil. I saw a pissy turtle, some easily spooked deer, and a lot of hungry mosquitos, but not once did I ever see the namesake of our state’s hockey team.

But while he may or may not be real, that doesn’t mean he isn’t deserving of the kind of attention we’ve given Big Foot and Nessie.

Which brings me to All The Way House (paperback, Kindle), a new novella about the Jersey’s unofficial state cryptid. In the following email interview, writer Keith R.A. DeCandido discusses this supernatural thriller / urban fantasy mash-up.