BIG FOOT AND THE HAIRY MAN: FACT OR FICTION? by Marilyn Meredith, Author of DISPEL THE MIST

Marilyn Meredith's virtual book tour continues with this guest post about the Hairy Man, an Native American legend similiar to Big Foot. This creature plays a role in Marilyn's new Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Dispel the Mist.

A Tulare County Supervisor, with both Native American and Mexican roots, dies under suspicious circumstances. Because of Deputy Tempe Crabtree’s own ties to the Bear Creek Indian Reservation, she’s asked to help with the investigation. To complicate matters, besides the supervisor’s husband, several others had reason to want the woman dead.

Tempe has unsettling dreams, dreams that may predict the future and bring back memories of her grandmother’s stories about the legend of the Hairy Man. Once again, Tempe’s life is threatened and this time, she fears no one will come to her rescue in time.

You can purchase Dispel the Mist from Amazon or the publisher's website. You can order an autographed copy directly from Marilyn by visiting her website at http://fictionforyou.com/.


BIG FOOT AND THE HAIRY MAN: FACT OR FICTION? by Marilyn Meredith

Most of us have seen home movies purported to be Big Foot moving through the forest. And some of us have traveled Highway 1 up California’s Northern California coast and seen the gift shops and signs heralding Big Foot.

When I was in Crescent City (the last California town before Oregon) doing a booksigning, I met a Tolowa woman who told me many stories about Big Foot and people who had actually seen him, or a female counterpart and child. She was such a fascinating personality she became two people in Kindred Spirits.

While doing some Internet research about Big Foot, I came upon a site dedicated to The Hairy Man, a legendary being of the Tule River Indians. An actual pictograph of The Hairy Man, his wife and child are in a rock shelter on the Tule River Indian reservation. The paintings are thought to be between five hundred and a thousand years old. Like Big Foot, there have been recent sightings of The Hairy Man. No other pictographs of a Big Foot-like creature exist in California.

As an author, I was intrigued. I gratefully accepted an invitation to go on a field trip with the local college’s anthropology class to the place where the pictographs are, The Painted Rock.

It is not an easy place to find or get to, but once I was there I was thrilled. The painting of the Hairy Man looks much like what is on the cover of Dispel the Mist except it is more colorful—and he is eight-foot tall. Amazing.

While I was gazing upon the Hairy Man and scribbling notes, our Indian guide stared at me sternly and said, “Don’t come out here after dark.” Though that wasn’t something I’d even try, I asked, “Why not?” His answer, “There are too many spirits here at night,” convinced me that Tempe would indeed visit this spot after dark.

I also asked him if he knew anyone who’d seen the Hairy Man. His answer was that his father had seen him. I knew from my research on the Internet that there were others who’d also glimpsed the Hairy Man moving around the mountainside.

In Dispel the Mist, Tempe remembers stories her grandmother told her about the Hairy Man. Strange dreams, which she isn’t able to interpret, haunt her as she investigates the murder of a popular county supervisor. Of course Tempe has an encounter with the Hairy Man.

Do I believe in the Hairy Man? Why not. It’s certainly more fun to believe than not. Because I can see the mountains the Hairy Man inhabits from my office window, I do look up from my work and watch for him.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over twenty-five published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Dispel the Mist is from Mundania Press. Under the name of F. M. Meredith she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series. No Sanctuary is the newest from Oak Tree Press.

She is a member of EPIC, four chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, WOK, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She was an instructor for Writer’s Digest School for ten years, served as an instructor at the Maui Writer’s Retreat and many other writer’s conferences. She makes her home in Springville CA, much like Bear Creek where Deputy Tempe Crabtree lives. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and at her blog - http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/.

To see where Marilyn stops next on her virtual book tour, please visit http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/.