Magical Beasts Party featuring Daniel Braum

Beyond the X-Files and Fantastic Beasts: Crytpozoology- Fact or Fiction

The Yeti, Big Foot, and the Loch Ness Monster are all “crytpids” that we know. Why are these monsters so enduring? We discuss how these and lesser known monsters are handled in fiction around the world, followed by a reading featuring one of these strange beasts.

We will also have monster trivia and a fantastic beasts game/scavenger hunt. Come dressed as your favorite fantastic/mythological monster!

ABOUT DANIEL BRAUM

Daniel Braum’s fiction has been classified as fantasy, science fiction, and horror but he prefers the good old fashioned term of just “fiction,” which when he was growing up simply meant a story where anything could happen. His stories frequently defy category and reside in the areas between genres, utilizing and combining genre elements to produce tales that are wholly unique.

Much of his fiction is set in the here and now and explores places on the edges of civilization. His stories seek to illuminate the human condition as characters encounter something unexplainable or supernatural and often very dark before achieving some insight, resolution, or ray of light. Another line of stories are science fiction tales with speculative elements that border on the fantastic or magical. Setting always plays a prominent role.

Daniel was a reader at Ellen Datlow and Gavin J. Grant’s Fantastic Fiction reading series in New York’s KGB bar and has been a guest on Jim Fruend’s long running Hour of the Wolf radio show. His stories have received honorable mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology series.

His two books are of strange tales in the tradition of Robert Aickman. The stories are best described as those akin to The Twilight Zone. His newest collection is The Wish Mechanics: Tales of the Strange and Fantastic. His work has been praised by the likes of Victor LaValle and Jack Ketchum.

Daniel lives in Long Island, New York though he often wishes he was on the streets of Brisbane Australia with its glowing sculptures and giant fruit bats high in the dusk sky or eating chicken tikka masala in Punjabi Palace after a Thursday night reading at Avid Reader bookshop.