Champ and a Bit of Sunshine: A Cryptozoology & Craft Beer Adventure

A Cryptozoology & Craft Beer Adventure #2

by Mark D. Trollinger

After encountering the San Antonio chupacabra, Carson, Ty, Kareem, and Tegan head to New England for a tranquil leaf-peeping and New England hops excursion. However, their plans are disrupted by unsettling incidents and an increase in Champ sightings near Burlington's Lake Champlain, which threatens to spoil their fun and draw them back into action.

330 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2018

About the author

In 2016, I did something no one had done before: I combined cryptozoology and craft beer to create the first cryptid-meets-craft-beer fiction series. What started as one experimental book has grown into ten published novels, with an anticipated final total of 34 books exploring legendary creatures, roadside oddities, and America's best breweries.

I write realistic fiction for people who don't normally read fiction. My books feature everyday language, tongue-in-cheek humor, pop culture references, mysterious creatures, and (of course) craft beer. If you like beer, road trips, paranormal TV shows, and keeping an open mind, you'll probably like what I do.

By day, I work in university faculty training and teach marketing, business management, and criminal justice. By night (and weekends), I'm chasing cryptids across the country. I'm also part of the 50 State Half Marathon Club, because apparently I enjoy punishment in multiple forms.

Here's the thing: a 2016 Pew Research study found that 26% of Americans haven't read a single book since high school, and the average American adult reads at a 7th-8th grade level. Instead of writing with flowery language or big words, I write the way people actually talk. My books aren't trying to win literary awards. They're for bartenders, brewery regulars, road trippers, and anyone who's ever wondered "what if Bigfoot walked into a taproom?" But if you read with an open mind, you'll encounter something deeper than surface-level beer and cryptids. There are layers if you're looking for them.

All of the beers mentioned in my series are real. All of the breweries are real. The creatures... you decide. When I published The Lizard Man and the Sope Creek Cryptidweizen, that beer was initially fictional. But I worked with a local Phoenix brewery to bring the Sope Creek Cryptidweizen to life, and we released the book and beer together at the brewery. The book is still around, but alas, the Sope Creek Cryptidweizen, like an elusive cryptid, has disappeared into legend.

Cryptozoology and craft beer make an unusual pairing, but that's exactly why it works. And since non-readers don't hang out in libraries or bookstores, I'm taking the books to where they are: breweries. I'm on a nationwide tour, hosting book events at craft breweries across America.


Check out my tour dates at mythsandmalts.com (or visit my events page here on Goodreads). I might be coming to a city near you. Bring your curiosity, your sense of humor, and maybe a designated driver.

Let's crack open a cold one and talk about Mothman.

Reviews

[Andrea Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I read from this author, and I like it and the style. I like that it isn't fancy writing, but just regular conversational. He doesn't try to make everything so big. It's more like everyday and hanging with your friends. This book has the same main characters as the first book, so I felt I knew them. It is an interesting combination of beer, monsters, travel, pop culture, roadside oddities, and real world issues. A lot of balls in the air, but he combines them well and the story is interesting. I have never been to New England, but I kind of feel like I could be familiar with it now. Each chapter contains the date it happened and what I learned is that things mentioned in the book in the chapters actually happened on that specific date - like events and things. If it mentions a beer at a brewery it was available on that exact date. A concert or a sports game happened on that date. There are so many little comments and statements that seem like just story, but then I think about the research in including those things on dates they happened and it makes it that much more enjoyable because it is fiction but there is a lot of reality in the story. Some new characters along the way were cool. You don't have to read the first book to get this one, other than meet the characters in the first book, but I liked how there was a subtle tie in from book 1 to book 2. At the end of book 1 it mentions New England, and then book 2 is set in New England. I think this is a different type of book that a lot of people read, but that makes me like it more. I hope there are more books to come because I like the unique combination of craft beer and monsters - and travel, and all the other things. I'd say I am a fan :)