There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend. They have been sighted by a lucky-or unlucky-few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven and unrecognized by the scientific community.
These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places. They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, and some from other worlds, and others have always been with us-watching us, fearing us, hunting us.
These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales.
***
PI and retired MMA fighter Rufus Griffin pounds the streets of Vegas on the tail of an unfaithful spouse, but what he finds is a tale of another sort. One of intrigue and illicit fight clubs and cage bouts too incredulous to believe, even when he sees the fighters with his own eyes.
He keeps his head down and stays on task until he discovers those in the ring aren't there by choice. A victim of abuse himself, there is no way he can leave them to their fate, even when his official business concludes.
Rufus Griffin dives back into the underbelly of the Strip and comes out fighting.
There has long been a debate among certain obscure and drunken literary scholars about whether PATRICK THOMAS was raised by Cthulhu, a leprechaun in a Manhattan bar, or two human parents. What there is no arguing about is that Patrick is the award-winning author of the beloved Murphy's Lore fantasy humor series (9 books from Tales from Bulfinche's Pub to The Mug Life), and the darkly hilarious Dear Cthulhu advice empire (6 collections including Cthulhu Knows Best and What Would Cthulhu Do?) and the creator of the Agents of the Abyss monster spy series (including Frankenstein: Monsters of the Abyss and Staring Into The Abyss). His over 40 books include Fairy Rides The Lightning, By Darkness Cursed, Lore & Dysorder, Dead to Rites, Startenders, As the Gears Turn, and Exile & Entrance. He is the co-author of the long running Mystic Investigators paranormal mystery series (including Shadows & Brimstone, Once Upon In Crime, and Mean Streets). He co-wrote The Santa Heist and Assassins' Ball with John French. His latest SF humor series kicks off with Bikini Jones Vs. The Brainnappers From Outer Space. He co-edited Camelot 13, New Blood, Hear Them Roar and was an editor for Fantastic Stories of the Imagination and Pirate Writings magazines.Over 100 of his stories have been published in magazines and anthologies. His noir novella appears in Murder in Montague Falls. Dear Cthulhu broadcasts monthly on the radio show Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction. A number of his books were part of the props department of the CSI television show and Nightcaps was even thrown at a suspect's head. His Fairy With A Gun had been optioned for film and TV by Laurence Fishburne's Cinema Gypsy Productions. Top Men Productions made his Soul For Hire Story, Act of Contrition, into a short film.He wrote the first two books in The Wildsidhe Chronicles YA series. As PATRICK T. FIBBS, he has penned the Ughabooz picture and first reader books as well as the middle reader books the Babe B. Bear Mysteries, the Undead Kid Diaries, and Joy Reaper Checks Out and the YA Emotional Support Nightmare. Visit him online at www.patthomas.net and www.patricktfibbs.com.
Although Jason Whitley has worn many creative hats, he is at heart a traditional illustrator and painter. With author James Chambers, Jason collaborates and illustrates the sometimes-prose, sometimes graphic novel, The Midnight Hour, which is being collected into one volume by eSpec Books. His and Scott Eckelaert's newspaper comic strip, Sea Urchins, has been collected into four volumes. Along with Box Mountain's Cryptid series, Jason is working on a crime-noir graphic novel. His portrait of Charlotte Hawkins Brown is on display in the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum.
