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Thanks to the following gifted artists for contributing original illustrations and stories to this publication.

Ricardo Pustanio

Ricardo Pustanio is an enduring icon in the world of New Orleans Mardi Gras float design and local artistry. Today his phenomenal creative talents are witnessed by thousands upon thousands of locals and tourists who throng the streets of New Orleans each year to catch a glimpse of one of the oldest and most prestigious parades of the season, the Krewe of Mid-City. According to Ricardo, “The best is still to come!”

Born in New Orleans, Ricardo is the third son of local golfing legend Eddie “Blackie” Pustanio. When Ricardo was baptized, the famous “Diamond Jim” Moran was hailed as his godfather and all the major golfing pros who visited the elder Pustanio at his City Park Golf Course digs bounced little Ricardo on a famous knee at one time or another.

Like nearly every child brought up in the city of New Orleans, Ricardo was brought out by his parents to enjoy the pageantry and revelry of the great old-line Mardi Gras parades. These halcyon Mardi Gras days of his youth were Ricardo’s first taste of the passion that would become the artistic pinnacle of his later career. During the 1960s Ricardo’s entries won first place, and he rode with the King of Mid-City three years in a row: a true precursor of things to come.

The winner of many art competitions throughout his life, his earliest prize-winning work was created while Ricardo was still in Kindergarten. From an early age, Ricardo’s work was distinguished with prizes and praise. Many are now in private art collections in New Orleans and across the United States.

Ricardo’s special style has been very visible in his work on numerous backdrops and displays for the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair; several of his original pieces from that fair have garnered high prices at auctions throughout the United States and Europe.

Ricardo served Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre as technical director for its 1992 to 1993 season, during which he contributed his considerable artistic talents to the creation of scenery and backdrops for the season’s major productions, including West Side Story and The Baby Dance, for which he created a giant 60 foot by 30 foot papier maché pyramid, one of the highlights of the season. Ricardo’s set designs for the production of King Midas and the Golden Touch and The Snow Queen won him numerous awards.

Ricardo Pustanio building one of his popular New Orleans floats.

In 1992 Ricardo also began his long association with William Crumb and the Children’s Educational Theatre. His work on scenery and backdrops has toured with the company in 13 major productions across the United States, and he continues to contribute his talents to the organization to this day. Ricardo has also donated his time and talent to a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Save Our Lake Foundation and the March of Dimes.

Ricardo also displayed his talent with scenic design in some of the best-known, locally produced films in New Orleans, including Angel Heart, starring Mickey Rourke; The Big Easy, starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin; Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt; and most recently in the much anticipated A Love Song for Billy Long, which stars John Travolta and was filmed on location in historic New Orleans.

Ricardo has conceptualized and designed numerous book covers and illustrations for major works of science fiction and fantasy: he was voted Best New Artist of the Year at world conventions held in New Orleans and in Amsterdam, Holland. Ricardo has also illustrated children’s books, created portraits and artwork for private clients across the United States and Europe, and has to his credit three original action comic books, the illustration and design of the long-running International Middle Eastern Dancer magazine, and several decks of personalized Tarot cards.

Ricardo has said, in reflecting on his artist achievements, “I have paid my dues many times over the years and I am always in a constant state of expectation: I can’t wait for the next challenge, the next thing to approach me. I am probably most proud of my work with the Krewe of Mid-City in recent years, because they have allowed me an unlimited palette to create with: the only limit is my imagination, and as you see, that has never had any limits!”

Ricardo Pustanio’s hands have been busy creating artworks that have brought joy and pleasure to literally thousands of people over the years. It is no wonder that Ricardo has been named one of The Hardest Working Mardi Gras Artists in the City of New Orleans and in the history of Mardi Gras design.

Bill Oliver

Artist Bill Oliver is also a musician, composer, and award-winning song writer. His music is sometimes reflective and moody, and his compositions, like his art, often act as “sound photographs” that capture a moment of life and freeze it in time for further contemplation—even if that moment of contemplation involves a vampire, zombie, UFO visitor, or a werewolf.

Bill Oliver

Oliver resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he has nourished a life-long fascination for the paranormal, UFOs, the metaphysical, and all things esoteric, interests stemming from many personal experiences. His enthusiasm for pursuing the unknown brought him into personal contact and interview opportunities with experiencers in all aspects of the paranormal. These encounters have had significant influences on much of Bill’s work.

Brad Steiger first became familiar with Oliver’s exciting artwork when the Canadian won the Christmas Art contest on the Jeff Rense Program in 2005. In the art contest for Halloween 2006, Bill won honorable mention.

As the two men became better acquainted, Steiger was honored to learn that he had been one of Oliver’s boyhood heroes with his work on the paranormal, the esoteric, and things that go bump in the night.

“To be reading one of Brad’s classic books one day and being asked to do some art for one of his new books another is truly paranormal,” Oliver said.

Visit Bill Oliver’s website at http://www.boysoblue.com/.

Dan “Wolfman” Allen

Dan “Wolfman” Allen is the owner of Ronin Studio, where he has been perfecting his unique style of comic book art for many years. Wolfman also does incredible renderings of vampires, werewolves, and other assorted monsters in a very compelling and graphic manner. He is not really into the “superhero” genre that permeates the American comic book industry. Rather, most of his characters are more a part of the fantasy and sci-fi genre; his protagonists, while thought by some of their peers to be antisocial or disreputable, continue to be themselves and try to rise above their superficial visages or reputations to solve a key problem, rather than trying to save the entire world.

Dan “Wolfman” Allen

Dan is also fascinated by Native American lore and shares both tribal and Viking blood in his genes. As much as possible, he attempts to follow shamanic teachings in combination with Christian philosophy. He has studied the paranormal and the mystical since he was a boy, and he has experienced many aspects of the so-called supernatural on a personal basis. Contact him at plan9motorsports@charter.net.

Tim R. Swartz

Tim Swartz is an Indiana native and Emmy Award-winning television producer/videographer. He is the author of a number of popular books, including The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla, Time Travel: A How-To-Guide, and Admiral Byrd’s Secret Journey Beyond the Poles. As a photojournalist, Tim has traveled extensively and investigated paranormal phenomena and other unusual mysteries from such diverse locations as the Great Pyramid in Egypt to the Great Wall of China. As well, he is the writer and editor of the Internet newsletter Conspiracy Journal, a free, weekly email newsletter considered essential reading by paranormal researchers worldwide. Visit his website at www.conspiracy journal.com.

Tim R. Swartz

Alyne Pustanio

Folklorist and occultist Alyne Pustanio is a New Orleans native whose roots go deep into the local culture; and it is from that proverbial “gumbo” that she draws her inspiration for most of her tales of terror and fascination.

Alyne Pustanio

A descendant of Portuguese and Sicilian immigrant families who trace their ancestry to European Gypsies, Alyne was exposed to the mysteries of the occult at an early age. Two great-grandmothers were gifted and sought out mediums and another relative is a verified psychic; however, Alyne credits her mother—an avid spiritualist—with inspiring her lifelong interest in the supernatural and unexplained.

These interests, combined with her avocations in folklore and history, result in a validity and passion that is immediately obvious in all her writings. Learn more at her website www.hauntedamericatours.com.

Pastor Robin Swope

Pastor Robin Swope, who is known as the “Paranormal Pastor,” has been a Christian minister for more than 15 years in both mainline and evangelical denominations. He has served as a missionary to Burkina Faso, West Africa, and ministered to the homeless in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. He is the founder and chief official of Open Gate Ministerial Services and a member of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Erie, Pennsylvania. His website is http://theparanormalpastor.blogspot.com.

Pastor Robin Swope

William Michael Mott

William Michael (Mike) Mott has been a creative director for a national toy and manufacturing company and a high-performance software company, an art director for a city newspaper, an artist/designer for Fortune 500 companies, as well as for an NSF Engineering Research Center, and has done work for a variety of clients on a freelance basis, such as book and magazine publishers. He is also a freelance artist and writer, and writes both fiction and nonfiction. His artwork and writing have appeared or been featured in many publications, such as Computer Graphics World Magazine, DRAGON Magazine, FATE, NEXUS, World Explorer, Undaunted Press, Lost Continent Library Magazine, and others. He has created artwork and graphic design for massmarket book covers, posters, brochures, packaging, CD-ROM covers and art collections, and digital/web-based media. And he has won several design awards, from regional Advertising Federation awards for printed material to awards for website graphics and design. His artwork has been featured in the exhibition “In Dreams Awake: Art of Fantasy” at the Olympia and York Gallery, NYC, 1988; at the 1987 World Fantasy Con, Con∗stellation, the DragonCon 2001 art show, several one-man exhibits, and digital galleries in various venues. He also researches and writes on Fortean, folklore, comparative religion, and paranormal topics.

William Michael Mott

Mike is also the author of the satirical fantasy novel Pulsifer: A Fable and its sequel, Land of Ice, A Velvet Knife, both soon to be re-released in one omnibus edition from TGS Publishing, as well as the nonfiction books Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures and This Tragic Earth: The Art and World of Richard Sharpe Shaver. His pulp fiction anthology of fiction, verse, and artwork, PULP WINDS, featuring an introduction by Brad Steiger, has been recently published by TGS (www.hiddenmysteries.com). Mike can be reached at admin@mottimorphic.com and at mottimorph@earthlink.net. His website is www.mottimorphic.com.

Nick Redfern

Nick Redfern

Nick Redfern is the author of a number of books on cryptozoology, including There’s Something in the Woods; Memoirs of a Monster Hunter; Three Men Seeking Monsters; and Man-Monkey. Originally from England, Nick lives with his wife, Dana, in Dallas, Texas, and only a stone’s throw from the infamous Grassy Knoll. When he’s not chasing monsters, you can usually find Nick playing music—very, very loudly. He can be contacted at his website www.nick redfern.com.

Donald Avery

Donald Avery

Donald J. Avery was born in Tacoma, Washington, and has been a resident of Washington state for most of his life. He has been married to his wife, Peggy, for 31 years. Avery has a B.S. degree in business administration and a master’s degree in public administration. He did a stint in the Marine Corps from 1966 to 1972. Most of his employment background centered around a23-year period in which he was a city and county administrator. Don and Peggy retired in March 2010 after spending almost two years as assistant managers for a retirement community in Kennewick, Washington.

Drs. Dave and Sharon Oester

Drs. Dave and Sharon Oester began the International Ghost Hunters Society in 1996. They are the authors of 23 books. Their most recent, Ghosts of Gettysburg: Walking on Hallowed Ground, describes 50 of the most haunted sites on the famous Civil War battlefield. Dave and Sharon travel full time in their RV coach as they investigate the most haunted places in America. The Oesters’ website is www.ghostweb.com. Their email address is ghostweb@ghostweb.com.

Drs. Dave and Sharon Oester

Eric Altman

Eric Altman’s journey into researching the paranormal began at the young age of 10, when he watched the 1970s docudramas Legend of Boggy Creek and Creature from Black Lake, allegedly based on events that took place in the deep south of Arkansas and Texas. The two films inspired Eric to begin 27 years of research into the paranormal. His main interest is studying hominid creatures such as Bigfoot. Eric currently heads the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, a group of dedicated researchers who investigate encounters and sightings of Bigfoot in the “Keystone State.” His official website is www.beyondtheedgeradio.com.

Eric Altman

Leslie Danielle Ferrymen

Leslie Danielle Ferrymen is a paranormal investigator from Franklin, Tennessee, who heads up The Franklin Ghost and Paranormal Investigation Team. Ms. Ferryman is very active in pursuing real urban legends and finding out what truth lies hidden in the stories told. Her 15-member group has investigated many haunted locations all over the United States since its founding in 2006.

Timothy Green Beckley

There always remains an audience eager to know the mysteries about the Hollow Earth. Timothy Green Beckley of Global Communications has made a sort of cottage industry out of his interest in the Inner and Hollow Earth theories, saving some old and rare books from obscurity and publishing up-to-date compendiums written by more recent researchers. His most popular titles dealing with this subject include: Twilight, Hidden Chambers beneath the Earth by T. Lobsang Rampa; Underground Alien Bio Lab At Dulce: The Bennewitz UFO Papers; Admiral Byrd’s Secret Journey Beyond the Poles by Tim Swartz; Best of the Hollow Earth Hassle by Mary J. Martin; and Finding Lost Atlantis Inside the Hollow Earth by the late British writer Brinsely Le Poer Trench, the Earl of Clancarty. Beckley is also the publisher of The Conspiracy Journal: www.conspiracyjournal.com.

Timothy Green Beckley

Micah Hanks

Micah A. Hanks is a lifelong researcher of the unexplained who in his articles and written work has covered bizarre reports of Fortean oddities, including strange creatures, UFOs, historical mysteries, conspiracies, and mysticism from cultures around the world. He posts daily updated paranormal news on his website The Gralien Report (www.gralienreport.com), and is producer of the regional radio program Speaking of Strange with Joshua P. Warren. You can learn more about Micah at www.micahahanks.com.

Micah Hanks

Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Loren Coleman

Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries Coleman began writing to share his experiences soon after his first expeditions. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983 (which was inspired by one of his books), and in subsequent years that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other global organizations. He was also a life member and benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).

Obtaining an undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Coleman majored in anthropology, minored in zoology, and did some summer work in archaeology. He received a graduate degree in psychiatric social work from Simmons College in Boston. Coleman was admitted to the Ph.D. programs, and took doctoral coursework in social anthropology at Brandies University and in sociology at the University of New Hampshire’s anthropology/sociology department. His dedication to fatherhood made his decision to first raise his sons, teach, and write, an easy one.

Coleman’s first cryptozoology magazine article was published in 1969, when he was 21 years old. His first book was published in 1975.

Today, Coleman has written more than 6,000 columns and articles, as well as over 30 books. He has appeared frequently on radio and television programs, and has lectured throughout North America, as well as in London and at Loch Ness. Coleman’s cryptozoology columns, since the 1970s, have included “On the Trail” in the London-based Fortean Times; “Coleman’s CryptoCorner” in TAPS Paramagazine; and “Mysterious World” in Fate Magazine, as well as regular contributions to The Anomalist, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Magazine, and Fortean Studies. His unique signature column, “The Cryptozoo News,” was published in Strange Magazine and Mysteries Magazine, and now appears as Coleman’s blog at Cryptomundo.com.

Coleman has been both an on-and off-camera consultant to the Travel Channel’s Weird Travels, the History Channel’s Deepsea Mysteries, NBCTV’s Unsolved Mysteries, A & E’s Ancient Mysteries, the History Channel’s In Search of History, the Discovery Channel’s In the Unknown, Discovery Science Channel’s Critical Eye, the History Channel’s Deep Sea Detectives, Animal Planet’s Animal X, Discovery Kids’ Mystery Hunters, Animal Planet’s Twisted Tales, and other reality-based programs, such as Current Affairs and Evening Magazine. In 2000, he served as the senior series consultant to the new In Search Of … program that was broadcast on the Sci-Fi Network. Read more at http://www.cryptomundo.com/lorencoleman.

Richard Senate

Richard Senate has been hunting ghosts since 1978 and has established a solid reputation for sense and sensibility in the field. He has visited over 200 haunted sites in northern California and the Southwest and authored many bestselling books on the subject of psychic research. He stresses that he is a normal person, but one with an obscure hobby. In the real world, Senate works for the city of Verona, California, where he manages three different historic sites as well as giving lectures at a local college His wife, Debbie, a gifted psychic, often joins him in his ghost hunts. You can email him at HaintHunter@aol.com.

Mary Croft

Mary Croft

Mary grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and moved to Hermosa Beach, California, where she ran on the beach and worked as a registered nurse. After a decade, she moved north to Petaluma, California, where her two boys, Colin and Casey, were born. Over the decades, Mary has remained fascinated by the power of the subconscious mind and all disciplines of energy and frequency healing. She then moved to Roswell, New Mexico, for the challenging experiences without which she would not have had the material to write—upon moving to Canmore, Alberta—her book: How I Clobbered Every Bureaucratic Cash-Confiscatory Agency Known to Man: A Spiritual Economics Book on $$$ and Remembering Who You Are. This book can be downloaded at www.SpiritualEconomicsNow.net/solutions/How_I_08.pdf, and her subsequent, related articles can be read on her blog: http://SpiritualEconomicsNow.net/.

Linda Godfrey

Linda Godfrey

As a professional artist, teacher, writer, and mother of two, Linda Godfrey has carved a niche for herself as one of the most respected authorities on anomalous animals and paranormal phenomenon in Wisconsin.

As the acknowledged expert on the creature knows as “The Beast of Bray Road,” Godfrey has been interviewed on a plethora of television networks and programs that deal with bizarre creatures, such as Inside Edition, Sightings, Animal Planet, Discovery Kids and the SyFy channel. Godfrey hasalso been featured on AMC’s exposé of the realities behind the werewolf film Underworld entitled Fang vs. Fiction and has recently been working with an Australian team producing a show for the Discovery Channel. Godfrey has also made numerous appearances on Godfrey has also made numerous appearances on Coast to Coast AM.

As a journalist, Godfrey was the first to break the chilling story of the horrific, werewolf-like monstrosity that is said to lurk in the shadow shrouded forests surrounding Elkhorn, Wisconsin’s Bray Road.

Since then she has gone on to author three books: The Beast of Bray Road, Tailing Wisconsin‘s Werewolf, Hunting the American Werewolf, and Lake and Sea Monsters (Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena).

Godfrey has continued to pursue her interests in the unknown and has gone on to investigate an array of unusual animals allegedly lurking in her home state. Next on her slate is the forthcoming Beyond Bray Road, which will continue her chronicle of this nefarious creature’s exploits with numerous additional sightings and encounters as well as further exploration of possible explanations for the so-called “wolfman” phenomenon.

You can learn more about Godfrey and her work at http://twitter.com/lindagodfrey, http://www.beastofbrayroad.com/bloga.html, http://www.weirdmichigan.com, http://blogs.myspace.com/lindagodfrey, and http://lindagod frey.wordpress.com.

Dr. Franklin Ruehl

Dr. Franklin Ruehl holds a Ph.D. in physics (UCLA) and has a weekly column (“Weird Science”) in the (San Bernardino County) SUN, has an online column (“Ask Dr. Ruehl”) at tabloidbaby.com, and has published over 2,100 technical papers and popular articles in a wide spectrum of newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Dr. Franklin Ruehl

Additionally, he regularly lectures before various colleges, organizations, libraries, aerospace firms (such as Hughes, Lockheed, and ITT), and expos (such as the Whole Life Expo) and conventions (such as the Babylon 5 Con, Dr. Who Con, and Space: 1999 Con).

He has been a guest on television and radio talk shows, such as Roseanne, Donahue, Mid-Morning L.A., Morning Edition, Tom Snyder Show, and the Michael Jackson Show. He regularly appears as a guest expert on EXTRA and Strange Universe, and hosts his own segment, “The Dr. Ruehl Show,” on Weird TV. Most recently he was a regular contributor to A Current Affair.

His UFO column is available at http://ufonews.tv/dr-franklin-ruehl-editorials/, and he can be reached at drruehl@yahoo.com.

Frank Joseph

Frank Joseph is the author of more than 20 published books about ancient civilizations and alternative spirituality. His latest title is Gods of the Runes, Their Stone Age Roots and Original Meanings, from Bear & Company. He was the editor-in-chief of Ancient American magazine for 15 years from its inception in 1993. Today, Joseph lives with his wife, Laura, and Mystical Norwegian Forest Cat, Sammy, near the widest stretch of the Mississippi River in Lake Pepin, Minnesota. His website is www.InnerTraditions.com.

Sandy Nichols

An alien abductee himself, Sandy Nichols is founder and president of ARG (Alien Research Group). A Brentwood, Tennessee-based organization for the study of alien abductions, ARG specializes in helping the abductee through all phases of the abduction phenomenon, especially in locating licensed counselors and certified hypnotherapist in their specific locale.

Sandy Nichols

Nichols is also past coordinator for the Tenn Files website and magazine for the Memphis, Tennessee-based “Night Search” organization, and former update host for its radio program on WWOW 1430AM; a member of the “Night Search” X-Files coalition of Paranormal Researchers; and past contributing writer for the “Night Search” newsletter, Nichols has conducted numerous radio interviews with organizations such as the Heritage Radio Network and the “X-Zone,” hosted by Rob McConnell.

Brent Raynes

Brent Raynes has been active in the UFO and paranormal fields since the early 1970s. He has written for Fate and other magazines, and in 1970 established Alternate Perceptions Magazine. Raynes is also the author of the book Visitors from Hidden Realms and the Edge of Reality. Learn more about him at www.mysterious-america.net.

Brent Raynes