Dave Goudsward

Author of 24 NF books. Sea serpent enthusiast. Considered a Lovecraft scholar, but I know better. Occasionally plays an expert on TV.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

FINDING ARKHAM looks at one of the inside jokes Lovecraft added to historys. Have your CharlieCard ready, because we're going underground!

https://t.co/H5uogo7LDr

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

Acquired a copy of Fisher's Willoughby Lake (1988). This is the book that Citro (1994) cites for a brief lake monster mention. Everyone else then cites Citro.

It was signed at an event at the historical society, as evidenced by a custom-printed cocktail napkin tucked inside.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

I feel dirty and cheap, and not in the good way.

I just referred to JK Rowling as a cryptozoological influencer.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

I'm sure there is a perfectly logical reason an author discussing pukwudgies would chose to cite the entry of a folklore encyclopedia on general dwarf lore instead of the specifc pages on pukwudgies, three pages away.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@pondicherryyy Sea Serpents are such a basic level research it borders on tedium at times. Lake monsters are my pet peeve - I would be happy if they could spell the name of the lake correctly. Or locate it in the correct state.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

Adrienne Mayor is a science historian, w several books on fossils as inspiring myth. I can't recommend her works enough

I am intrigued by her theory that footprints carved into granite across southern New England were indigenous replication of regional dinosaur fossil tracks.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@pondicherryyy You start believing your hype and next thing you know, you're putting giant penguins in Florida. (Yes, I know that's Sanderson, but the point stands)

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@pondicherryyy It's a mess, plain and simple. And it's getting worse thanks to social media - if I see one more cited source that's a defunct Tripod website...

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@pondicherryyy I'm working on a sea serpent encyclopedia and have a classification system that differentiates hoaxes, pranks, fakelore, and misidentifications.

I do like separating the wheat from the chaff

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@pondicherryyy You're preaching to the choir on Heuvelmans. He was using news clippings that had been edited and translated.

His phantom “Bagaduse" which he thinks meant Bogalusa, LA when it's actually Bagaduce (Castine, ME) just makes me shake my head.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@pondicherryyy I'm not a strong supporter of euhemerism, but I do consider it to be a tool to start discussion. I'm not sure how many people would know the Trojan skull vase without works like Mayor

Personally, I lean toward Monge-Nájera's suggestion that it represents a Savannah Monitor skull

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@LarfleezeTakes That is not an improvement!

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

The Florida Swamp Ape was first called the Abominable Sandman. It is a much better name and should have stuck.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

FINDING ARKHAM: Lovecraft's Round Tower | Old Stone Mill of Newport, RI | Ep 3 #love... https://t.co/GCCMH2Rh4Y

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

@CryptoLoren It's not your work that's lazy, it the people sitting at a PC cutting and pasting the list 20 years later, citing you as if you have additional details, and calling it research.

We both know authors who nearly got a book pulped for cut & paste "research."

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

The lake monster appendix in Coleman's Mysterious America, cited by authors like Eberhart, Kirk & Newton, is lazy research. It's a pre-web 45 year old list of lakes- no dates, locales or sources. It should be used as a starting point, not a primary source. Yet, here we are.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

In 1977, a cryptid near Boston's Charles River was dubbed Dover Demon by @CryptoLoren

I may have a later report on a tributary. Poster seems unaware of the similarities to DD

But I haven't found a way to confirm an undated, anonymous user's post (pre2009) on a defunct website

[David M Tribby @dmtribby]

The July 2026 issue of The Fossil, available online at https://t.co/iaRgX50kBK, contains articles related to the history of amateur journalism.

[Dave Goudsward @goudsward]

Why did Lovecraft place Arkham on Massachusetts' North Shore when so much of his inspiration for the fictional city was grounded in Providence and Rhode Island?

In Episode 2 of FINDING ARKHAM... we visit Dark Swamp and find a "Colour Out of Space."

https://t.co/IiMB4BT9R5