Terror strikes a small, tight-knit mountain community. Was it a homicidal manic? Bigfoot? Or something even more malevolent.... Terror strikes a small, tight-knit mountain community near Mt. Saint Helens. It begins with a string of horrific occurrences that echo local superstition, including missing hikers and a vicious attack on a local logger–who insists his assailant was none other than Bigfoot. After exhausting all conventional law enforcement methods, the sheriff reluctantly hires the services of Dr. Ian McDermott, Ph.D., a former cryptozoologist who at one time had attained some notoriety in his unconventional field. More questions and mysterious events surface as tensions mount. Homicidal maniac? Bigfoot? Or perhaps something lycanthropically malevolent…more maniacally evil than anyone could possibly imagine.
In this dark fantasy of sexual obsession, Doug Hailey, a banged-up ex-cop from LA, leaves his family to seek a fresh start in peaceful, family-friendly Salt Lake City. If things work out, Rachel and Doug Jr can join him. His quiet new life is quickly disrupted when he meets Monique, an exotic dancer with a big secret: She prowls the night as a werewolf. He feels drawn into a torrid affair with her like he has no choice. Then bizarre dreams invade his life. The dreams become more and more real, in spite of the presence of mystical beings. The creatures warn Doug about the shape changer he calls Monique and hint at her sinister intentions. Strange events build up and make him feel torn between Rachel and Monique. This way for loyalty, and that way for lust. He knows all hell will break loose, no matter which path he takes, but it’s time for Doug Hailey to make his choice.
Raven Eaglehorn is no ordinary teenage girl. Tormented by a black wolf who constantly appears in her dreams after her brothers death two years ago, it turns out to be more than just a dream. What she finds out with the help of Ray, a sweet and attractive boy she meets, changes her life and the lives of those around her forever. Werewolves and vamires arent exactly how we imagine them to be.
Since before recorded history, werewolves have captivated human imagination. Simultaneously, they represent our deepest fears as well as our desire to connect with our primal ancestry. Today, werewolves are portrayed negatively, associated with violence, cruelty, cannibalism, and general malevolence. However, in ages past, legends depicted them not as monsters, but as a range of neutral to benevolent individuals, such as traveling companions, guardians, and knights. The robust legacy of the werewolf spans from prehistory, through ancient Greece and Rome, to the Middle Ages, into the Early Modern period, and finally into present-day popular culture. Over the ages, the view of the werewolf has become distorted. Media treatment of werewolves is associated with inferior writing, lacking in thought, depth, and meaning. Werewolves as characters or creatures are now generally seen as single-minded and one-dimensional, and they want nothing more than to kill, devour, and possibly violate humans. Hollywood depictions have resulted in the destruction of the true meanings behind werewolf legends that fascinated and terrified humans for so many ages. If these negative trends were reversed, perhaps entertainment might not only discover again some of the true meanings behind the werewolf myth, but also take the first steps toward reversing negative portrayals of wolves themselves, which humans have, for eons, wrongfully stigmatized and portrayed as evil, resulting in wolves receiving crueler treatment than virtually any other animal. To revive the many questions posed by lycanthropy, entertainment must show respect to the rich history of so many cultures all around the world - and rediscover the legend of the werewolf.
"In the course of an impressive career as a writer, Herbert Gold has demonstrated many gifts, among them his talent for making high drama of ordinary events, ordinary people."-Chicago Tribune Book World "Goldhas a sharp eye for detail."-The Washington Times Magazine "Not just a good book, but a great one."-London Daily Mail "Herbert Goldgives his stories a wry, bright air of wonderhe is a born storyteller."-New York Times "One of the most gifted writers in America."-Detroit News Five decades ago, award-winning author Herbert Gold traveled to Haiti on a Caribbean version of the Fulbright Scholarship. The journey proved to be a turning point in his life. Fifty years later, his attachment to the tiny Caribbean nation-his second home-remains as passionate and powerful as ever. Now, in Best Nightmare on Earth, he explores the secret life of this vibrant, volatile, violent land. "Beautifulbizarredangerousexotic, a Garden of Eden fallen into despair, a tiny nation of unimaginable misery and unpredictable grace, an island where life is a kind of literature, a world of "unlimited impossibility." This is Herbert Gold's Haiti, a country of extraordinary paradox and remarkable extremes-of gingerbread dream houses and wretched slums, of brutal repression and explosive creative energy. Where else, he asks, can you run into evil spirits on the back roads, or find the goddess of fertility and orgasm represented by a photo of a tap-dancing Shirley Temple? Where else is there such generosity amid such corruption, such humor in the midst of such desperation? In his many Haitian travels, Gold has dined with Graham Greene and chatted with the hated Duvalier oppressors. He has traded stories with CIA saboteurs, former Nazis, rum-soaked diplomats, and voodoo priests. He has taken in the cockfights and hunted for pirate treasure. He has nearly died of malaria; he has faced machete-wielding gangs of Ton-Ton Macoutes. He followed the traffic in Haitian blood to American hospitals and watched the AIDS epidemic take its toll. He listened to the steady beat of drums rolling down mist-shrouded mountains, and shared in the flirting, drinking, and laughter of the streets. He has captured the essence of this land where tragedy is the music the people dance to. Herbert Gold reflects on the country's history and politics, culture and folklore, but sees much more. He sees Haiti through the eyes of a lover: impassioned, jealous, probing, ever alert, and alive. This book will be of interest to travelers to, and people interested in the problems of, Haiti and the Caribbean; and collectors of Haitian art. Herbert Gold is a novelist, short writer, essayist, sometime journalist, who has made his living as a writer for fifty years.