Beast of Bray Road, American Werewolf

Linda's Bio

Linda Godfrey is an author, researcher and artist based in southeastern Wisconsin who writes about all things strange, but specialized in tracking reports of a large, upright canine creature she calls the Manwolf. She has written two books on the topic (see some reviews below) and a third volume titled Werewolves due to be released in early 2008 by a New York publisher. She is also the author of Weird Michigan and co-author of Weird Wisconsin, both by Barnes&Noble, and the author of Strange Wisconsin, released in October 2007. Strange Wisconsin follows in the tradition of the Weird series with old and new folk myths and urban legends, strange roadside objects, eccentric people and places, haunted homes and businesses, creature and UFO sightings, and more. Full color photos and illustrations.

Linda's degree from UW-Oshkosh is in art education, and she taught part time while also working for ten years as a reporter, columnist and cartoonist for The Week, a county newspaper based in Delavan, Wisconsin. She won several first-place national awards from the National Newspaper Association for best feature stories, and additional state awards from organizations such as the Wisconsin Donor Network, Wisconsin Council on Developmental Disabilities, and Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Her editorial cartoons were featured in "Best Editorial Cartoons 1991, 1992, and 1993." She continues to create both fine and commercial artwork and illustrates her own books.

She lives with her husband and youngest son in a lake neighborhood surrounded by possible creature-harboring woods, and for fun, shoots pix of her 50s dollhouse collection with added conversations for her Myspace blog, Linda's Bloghouse. She spent much of 2007 battling breast cancer with surgery, four months of chemo followed by radiation (during which time she wrote two more books) and is now recovered and doing very well.

New October 2007: Strange Wisconsin, More Badger State Weirdness

includes more stories of the Beast of Bray Road, Bigfoot in Wisconsin, Wisconsin Man Bat, Goat Man and Washington Co. Bearwolf

Nick Redfern's Review of Hunting the American Werewolf

It is very seldom that I say to people: "If you only buy one book this year, make it this one." But I¹m saying it now. Following in the footsteps (or perhaps that should be the wolf-tracks?) of her book, The Beast of Bray Road, that detailed her personal quest to determine the truth about the unholy critter that roams the small town of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, Linda Godfrey¹s latest title, Hunting the American Werewolf, is definitive reading for anyone and everyone interested in all things hairy, monstrous, and, of course, wolfish. If you thought that werewolves were simply the imaginative product of horror novelists and Hollywood scriptwriters out to make a quick, few bucks, then think again. As Linda reveals, there really may be diabolical man-beasts roaming by moonlight the woods, the forests and the landscape of the more remote parts of North America and a considerable number of the not so remote parts, too. But they may not be all that they appear to be. In fact, they just might be your worst nightmare come to life. -- Nick Redfern, author of Three Men Seeking Monsters and Body Snatchers in the Desert, excerpt from his foreword to Hunting the American Werewolf

A riveting and outstanding work! Linda S. Godfrey makes a most compelling case for the existence of strange creatures moving in and out of our world. Her thorough research covers all possible angles in an objective light.- Rosemary Guiley, Author, The Enclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and Other Monsters

Linda Godfrey's comprehensive research on the subject of "dogmen" or "manwolves" in this country is too well documented to write off as mere fantasy. And her gift for vivid, spine-tingling storytelling will have even the most diehard skeptics looking over their shoulders the next time they are walking alone on a dark night. - Mark Moran, Weird US Books

Books like 'HUNTING THE AMERICAN WEREWOLF' are hard to come by. It's jam-packed with all manner of weird creatures, and brimming with accounts never before published. All Linda has done is prevent the evidence, and if this book is anything to go by, then it seems as though mankind has been sharing the woods with many a strange hairy humanoid for thousands of years. Thank goodness authors such as Linda S. Godfrey enable us to peek into this world. 'HUNTING THE AMERICAN WEREWOLF' is campfire reading, scientific enquiry and cryptozoological tome rolled into one. I suggest you snap it up! - Excerpt from review for "Animals and Men" Magazine, U.K., by Neil Arnold

SYNOPSES OF Poison Widow and Beast of Bray Road on Wisconsinmade.com http:

Go to Books (ordering page)

May 21, 2006 Green Bay Press-Gazette Jean Peerenboom column Werewolves: "Linda Godfrey of Elkhorn has become a werewolf expert. Her latest book, "Hunting the American Werewolf" (Trails Books, $18.95) continues the hunt she began in "The Beast of Bray Road." With only her investigative mind and her wry sense of humor, she takes on weird creatures too bizarre to be real and too well-documented to be mere fairy tales ‹ or so she says. It is enticing and she is a delightful writer. She has become one of the nation's leading experts on cryptozoology, the study of unexplained creatures."

These are reports that have come to me since the deadline for Hunting the American Werewolf. I will continue to post sightings here so that the sightings log can continue to be updated. The drawing, right, is my composite sketch of what most witnesses say the creature looks like, although many add that it is slightly hunched in posture and some say the muzzle is longer. Bear in mind that the creature has been witnessed walking, running and leaping both on four legs and two, sometimes seen doing both in the same sighting. If you have seen this critter, please write!