First, I’d like to thank my host for giving me this time to talk about one of my all-time favorite subjects, especially since I made a new one in my book. This is my top ten favorite Scary stories, myths and legends to share around the campfire.
Now, I was asked to write my top 10, yeah, that is a pain in the butt for me because I really love scary stories. Plus, I don’t want to just put the generic answers we always see. So, not in any particular order are my favorites and why:
1- The Escaped Asylum Patient: this is a classic. It’s been around longer than I have been alive and I still love it. It’s the one where the girl has a late night with her boyfriend and they over hear the radio talking about an escape convict in their area. When she goes home, she is about to turn on the light, but decides not to because it would wake up her roommate. But, in the morning, she finds that her roommate had been killed and there is a note on the wall that says, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?” Yeah, that one freaks me out!
2- Following the same line, the story “Humans can lick too”, scares the daylights out of me.
- A girl is left home alone with her pet dog. During the night she hears that an escape insane asylum patient was in her area. When she goes to bed, she pets the dog, it licks her hand. At one point in the night, she wakes up and pets, what she thought was the dog, it licks her hand. Then, when she wakes up, she finds her dog dead and a note that says “humans can lick too”. Jeez! That one is freaky.
3- The classic “I was trying to warn you about the man in your back seat” is a good one. If you haven’t heard of it, look it up, it’s good!
4- The story of the original Native American Vampire is incredible to share. I don’t want to write too much about it right now, just know that it is coming up in my next Nightmare book.
5- Wendigo stories are amazing to share, especially out in the woods. If you start talking about wendigoes while you’re camping in the woods, good luck sleeping. The idea of people becoming cannibals and then turning into monsters is horrifying.
6- The story of the Baba Yaga - a hag from North-Eastern Europe. If you get your hands on the right legend, she is a horrifying creature! Even her chicken legged house (yes, that’s part of the legend) is a terrifying concept.
7- Skin walkers - Do I really need to say more? If you are a true fan of scary stuff, you need to know about skin walkers. They are crazy and dangerous and potentially one of the scariest things out there.
8- Gnomes - Now, when you read “gnomes”, your mind probably bounced to those cute little chubby guys who defend your gardens from bad things. Nope, there are myths that state that gnomes are some of the nasties of the little people. They are murderous little demons and I would make sure that I didn’t have a dwelling that these little monstrosities can live in. IF you have an old shack or shed behind your house and some sort of water, like a stream or a pond, burn the structure to the ground. You don’t want a gnome infestation!
9- Poltergeists- holy moly! If you have ever seen the movie, the stories are much worse. Poltergeists are a wicked spirit bent on torturing anyone who enters their haunt. This is no Peeves the Poltergeist, this is an apparition that is either going to: kill you, drive you into insanity, or make you do things you never wanted to. Want to talk about an ultimate mind game? Try dealing with an intelligent being you can’t see and can’t predict. They are nasty ghosts.
10- My greatest and most favorite stories I like to share are my own made up stories. I put a couple in my book, but, I have more to come. Whenever I have an audience around a campfire, I love to talk about my ghost experiences.
Maybe, one day, I’ll be lucky enough to sit down with you and tell you each of these stories in person. There is nothing better than sharing a good scary story with darkness pressing in around you and all that is keeping it at bay is the light of a slowly dying fire. I hope you’ve enjoyed my list and I want to thank my host again for giving me this fun guest blog. Hope we talk spooky again soon!
A Campfire Nightmare
Nightmare Series
Book One
Jeffrey Stagg
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Stagg Literature, LLC
Date of Publication: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1517744441
ASIN: B01CRQKFZO
Number of pages: 344
Word Count: 117,824
Book Description:
IN AGES PAST, the Flathead Native Americans fought a war against a monstrous force that stalks the woods surrounding Flathead Lake. So says William Rox, legendary musician and director of the prestigious Colman’s Amateur Music Program, known as CAMP.
Jimmy Downs is thrilled to be attending CAMP—or he would be, if he weren’t being bullied by campers who seem to think wealth can buy talent. Jimmy doesn’t have money, but he can drum like no one else. As for the bullies, at least his best friend, Michael Munday, is with him. The two have had each other’s backs all of their lives.
But bullies are about to become the least of Jimmy’s worries. Dark, hulking figures begin surrounding the woods around camp…figures that bear more than a passing resemblance to Rox’s campfire stories.
Jimmy and Michael are about to become players in a very old war—assuming they survive.
PROLOGUE
The
black-cloaked figure knelt by the lake, examining the muddy soil. A great
northern storm had rolled through hours ago, but the air was still frigid.
Waves crashed against the stony shore, waterdrops splashing up against his
waterproof black covering.
His fingers
traced along the print clearly pressed into the mud. It was a large paw print,
something like the shape of a wolf’s but the size of a bear’s. He examined the
mark on the ground and then moved to where he should have found the creature’s
front paws, but not surprisingly, he instead found what appeared to be
humanlike handprints, with long, triangular fingernails jutting out from the
tip of each finger. The cloaked man placed his own right hand within the print,
knowing that the muddy outline was easily twice the size of his own pale hand.
His left hand
tightened around the shaft of his bow as he stood up.
Even though it
was nearing one in the morning, his eyes clearly made out the many prints that
had been made throughout this particular clearing.
He had warned
the other guardian that something was going on.
“Why so many?”
the man asked aloud as he pulled down the hood of his cloak. “There shouldn’t
be this many here anymore.”
“What’s that?” a
British man’s voice called from the darkness.
A flashlight’s
beam bobbed through the trees, weaving back and forth until it fell upon the
pale man’s form. The man lifted one of his hands to block his sensitive eyes
from the somewhat dim beam. He indicated the soil in front of him that marked
the passing of their quarries.
“A pack,” the
pale man told his companion, moving the tip of his weapon to indicate how many
individual creatures had passed through there. “You should keep the camp closed
this year.”
“No,” the huge
British man answered, snapping his response a little more testily than he had
wanted. “It needs to be open. You know just as well as I do that we need to
stay open.”
“Even at the
risk of the lives of hundreds of people?”
His companion
stepped forward and jammed a double-edged longsword into the ground as he
examined the pathway. The flashlight was a head lamp, mounted with a pair of
bands that wrapped around his head. As his head shifted from one set of prints
to another, a feeling of anger began flooding into his soul.
“I need you to
thin out this pack. You can shoot the sods from afar, and with that horse of
yours, you’ll be able to stay ahead of them.”
“I can do that,”
the pale man agreed, pulling his hood back up, still watching the back of the
big man.
“There’s
something going on this year that we don’t understand quite yet,” the British
man told his friend, standing up and pulling the sword from the moistened
ground. “Something feels different. It feels wrong…and right at the same time.”
“Maybe the
legends are true, and the natives’ stories are coming to pass,” the archer
suggested, beginning to stroll into a particularly dark portion of the forest,
his fingers tightening on the dark wood of his bow as he disappeared into the
night.
Finding himself
alone, the swordsman stood and peered up into the sky at the bright round moon
hanging in the air, twinkling stars engulfing the night. This was Big Sky
Country, and it was true to its name. His eyes searched the heavens, hoping
that an answer would reveal itself.
He let out a
huff of hot breath, and the air clouded before his flashlight dimming the light
slightly.
Shaking his head
and turning to stare at the spot where his companion had disappeared, he
whispered to himself, “I hope not. We’re not ready for them yet.”
As his words
disappeared into the night like his breath, a clear rumbling sound thundered
through the night on his left. Reaching down slowly, he drew his sword once
more, its silver blade sparkling with the light of the moon.
“God above, keep
me safe that I might be able to open the camp.”
The rocky growl
turned into a mix of a scream and a roar as the furry eight-foot monstrosity
leaped at the man, humanlike hands reaching out with razor claws. Swinging the
sword out wide, the man pivoted to meet the demon in the darkness.
About the Author:
Jeffrey was born in Ogden, Utah in 1989.
Born to a podiatrist from Utah and a rancher's daughter from Montana. Stagg was able travel throughout his childhood finding solace and inspiration in the wild.
His interest in nature has made Stagg realize that the melding of natural world with magic was where he could excel. To keep ideas alive, Stagg is an avid nature photographer, imagining book scenes wherever he travels.
While attending Weber State University, Stagg was able to work as an artisan cheese maker for the award winning Beehive Cheese Co. in Ogden, Utah. It was there that the details of A Campfire Nightmare came together. During the 5 years he was employed at Beehive, Stagg has created story lines for many series he is in the process of writing.
Now, Stagg works as an educator and works with students in reading and writing. Encouraging those around him to spend more time in books.
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