cryptid \'krip-tid\ n: animals of unexplained form or size, or unexpected occurrence in time or space.

Welcome. This site is for you the reader. Strap your boots on, grab your imagination, and prepare to discover the conspiracy within your own mind. I believe there is something inherent in human nature that blinds us to certain truths. And so my stories are written to expose this oldest and darkest of conspiracies, or at least to take you on one hell of an adventure. To get you started on your journey you might choose to learn about Thomas Jefferson's secret confession, or whether there really is evidence of Sasquatch in the fossil record, or listen to an actual Bigfoot recording. And don't forget to claim your copy of Cryptid today, my debut novel. Enjoy the hunt, and thank you for your support. -Eric Penz

Back Cover Copy

Uncover the secret evidence of Sasquatch within Lewis and Clark's lost journals in Eric Penz's Cryptid, a cryptofiction award-winning novel.

The line between history and legend can be deceptively thin--too thin perhaps to maintain the claim that one is exclusively fact and one fiction. Such may be the case with the history of Lewis and Clark. For the fact is that two hundred years after they were handpicked by Thomas Jefferson to lead an extraordinary expedition to the Pacific coast legends still persist regarding unexplained gaps in the explorers' field journals.

Call it legend, call it history, Cryptid tells the riveting story of conspiracy theorists who have new evidence of a centuries-old cover-up. When a cryptozoologist, a paleontologist, and a descendant of Jefferson begin connecting the dots, they threaten to do more than unveil the well-guarded scientific discovery that lies at the heart of the ancient secret; they threaten to rewrite American history. That is if they can survive a conspiracy that dates back to the Founding Fathers--the very same that haunted Lewis to his grave. It may be that one of our nation's first secrets is still being kept.

Cryptid illustrates how the human act of seeking the truth can be the very element that destroys it. Two centuries in the making, Cryptid is the final chapter of the Lewis and Clark story. As with any good tale, the best secrets have been kept until the end.

Jacket Copy

Dr. Samantha Russell has spent her career seeking for truth in the only way she knows how, on her hands and knees, painstakingly digging it up from the crust of the earth. When the truth arrives by way of FedEx, she cannot help but see it as nothing more than another scientific hoax, especially considering the source.

Dr. Jon Ostman has practically been excommunicated by the scientific community for his interest in such subjects as the American Sasquatch.

Suffering from her father's tragic sense of curiosity, though, Sam can't resist the question begged by the bones contained in the wooden crate. How could they be bones and not fossils, since Gigantopithecus had been extinct for 125,000 years?

Driven to know the answer, Sam delays going to her father on his deathbed and instead pursues Jon to a remote corner of Washington state where he is about to make the greatest discovery involving the origins of the human species, a discovery Lewis and Clark may have already made two hundred years earlier. However, Sam is not the only one pursuing Jon, for one of our nation's first secrets is still being kept by all means necessary.

And if they do survive the centuries-old conspiracy, they will not only rewrite American history, but they will provide a miracle cure for Sam's father and the millions who suffer his same fate.

Awards

Named to Loren Coleman's Top Cryptofiction Books of 2005 on Cryptomundo.com

Earned Honorable Mention award at the 2006 JADA Press Book of the Year Awards

Took third place at the 2002 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest, Adult Genre Novel Category

Recognized by its publisher by earning all three of the company's awards for excellence: Editor's Choice, Reader's Choice, and Publisher's Choice awards. And soon to be re-released by iUniverse as one of their prestigious Star Books.

Buy Cryptid at BarnesandNoble.com	Buy Cryptid at iUniverse.com

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