Guide to Cryptids. Why I Wrote This Book

It is a well-established fact that every writer (whether of fiction or non-fiction) usually writes the book that he or she wants to read but can’t find… so he or she has no other choice but to write it.

This was the case will all of my major books (the minor one just wrote themselves… sort of with little motivation on my part). However, this is not the case with “The Definitive Guide to Cryptids”.

This is not the case with this book because I never wanted to read such a book. And for a good reason – I was never consciously interested (and is not interested) in cryptozoology or cryptids per se. Or zoology or even biology for that matter.

I have neither any kind of training nor experience in cryptozoology (or zoology, for that matter) and zoology (and biology in general) in high school was my least favorite subject – I still have no idea how I managed to get an ‘A’.

However, I must still have a subconscious interest in this matter. When I was about five years old, I was so interested in dinosaurs (and reptiles in general) that seriously wanted to become a paleontologist (even visited museums and talked to their resident scientists).

But at the age of seven or so, I discovered military history (2/3 of 26 fiction and non-fiction books that I wrote so far are on that subject) … and forgot about zoology for over half a century. Maybe (just maybe) time has come to do what I wanted to do at the age of five - only in a slightly different field of study.

Still, there (obviously) a far more practical – pragmatic even – and quite conscious and rational motivation for writing this particular book. And this motivation has nothing to do with cryptids… or even with writing a book. Any book.

For almost two years, I’ve been generating pictures (of all kinds) on an hourly basis (I really love doing it – my psychologist was right when she recommended it) using various AI Art generators. Just for fun – with no other purpose at all. After creating 15 000 or so images, I decided that it was time to go pro.

Which way to go was obvious - I decided to create illustrations to books (mine and written by others) using AI generators. And book on cryptids was the obvious and natural choice – every entry in a book or online database on cryptids contains a detailed description of the creature (description that easily converts into a prompt for AI image generator).

So, while usually an artist creates illustrations for the book that has already been written… and I wrote a book to be able to create illustrations for it. Well, I’ve always been unusual – to put it mildly.

The third reason stems from my core (key) competencies – in knowledge management. I have already (and quite successfully) applied my knowledge management expertise to the field of history (The Holocaust, Third Reich, Soviet Union, World War II, etc.) and now want to apply it to a vastly, radically different area - cryptozoology.

The fourth reason is emotional (psychological). In about two years, I wrote more than a dozen books (yes, I am quite prolific) on Holocaust, World War II, and on history of human sacrifice, executions, torture and corporal punishment.

I am no big fan of Nietzsche (to put it mildly); however, this is exactly the case when “the abyss is staring into you”. After I reached a critical mass of books (and posts on social networks on abovementioned issues) … I guess, the stare from the abyss predictably became unbearable. So, I had to radically change the subject for my next book… and cryptids are about as far as you can get from all those.

And, last but not the least, I just want to write the best book on cryptids and cryptozoology there is. In the next section, I will explain why I am confident that this book is exactly that – the best one on the market on this subject.