Q&A with Roxyanne Young                                        

It's unusual for there to be three authors for one book.  How did you get involved in the project and what did you do?

Kelly and I have been friends for a long time – over ten years now – and I’m used to her writing books about weird, unusual, and fascinating topics. One day a little over a year ago, she Instant Messaged me and asked me what I knew about Bigfoot because she was working on a book proposal for a book on cryptozoology. Well, I’ve been a Bigfoot fan for years. Since I was a kid, actually, so I just gushed everything I knew, and that conversation became much of the sample first chapter that was sent with the book proposal. After it was accepted, Kelly asked me to help research the cryptidictionary, a long list of cryptids that she and Rick had brainstormed, then I added a few, too.

Why did you undertake this topic?  What was it about cryptozoology that inspired you?

I grew up in a small river town in north Florida called Palatka. On the western outskirts of Palatka, out near Nine Mile Swamp, there’s a community called Bardin. When I was a kid, it was basically a general store for fishermen and hunters, and people who wanted to live way, way, way out in the woods. My grandmother told me about a creature called the Bardin Booger, which turned out to be the local version of the Swamp Ape, what Sasquatch is called in the southeast. There was a series called In Search Of when I was young, too, that I really enjoyed watching. I think I must have seen these shows on the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and all sorts of other mysterious creatures and happenings at a young and impressionable age, because I love that kind of thing now, as an adult.

Are you telling young readers that Bigfoot and sea monsters and other cryptids are real in this book?

Not unless we know them to be proven real, which some of them are. Some of them have been proven to be hoaxes, too, and we talk about those as well.

What has been your favorite response to the books so far?

I love the kids who go and start their own books about cryptids. They’re just great, and so creative!

What is your favorite section in or element of the book and why?

Wow, that’s a hard call, because they’re all so good. I think I like Kelly’s “Imagine…” passages the best. The Bigfoot one gives me chills every time I read it.

Who do you think will want to read CRYPTIDS most and why?

I think anyone who has ever wondered, even a little, about that shadowy thing they saw in the woods on their last camping trip, or that strange-looking ripple in the lake, or that flash of something they saw out of the corner of their eye.

Are you skeptical about any of the unproven cryptids?  Why?

Sure, some of them would have a hard time existing in the environments they’re supposed to live in. Others, well, it would be hard to exist unseen by mankind when mankind is encroaching on so many virgin areas of the world.

Do you believe any of the unproven cryptids might be real?  Why?

The ones I’d really love to see turn out to be real are the dinosaurs in the Congo. Mokele-mbembe, Kongomato, and the rest. They’re right out of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World!

What's next for you, book wise? 

I have a completed novel about ghosts that I’m sending around to editors, and I’m working on a book about the Presidents with another writing friend, Linda Ragsdale, who lives in Nashville.

Do you do school visits?  Why or why not?

Yes, I do, and I love doing them. The kids I get to meet are all so creative and curious. I love the questions they ask, the observations they make. I’m thrilled to share this book with them.

What do you hope kids get out of reading CRYPTIDS?

Belief in the possibility of being and the courage to go out and find their own answers.