Ciera Burch on cryptids and her new middle grade novel, Camp Twisted Pine
"As a Jersey girl myself, the Jersey Devil has always had a special place in my heart."
This post was written by Ciera Burch, author Camp Twisted Pine.
A Jersey Girl and Her Love of Cryptids by Ciera Burch
There are a lot of cryptids out there. Most of us know the popular ones, like Mothman or Bigfoot or El Chupacabra. But what about the lesser known guys? The Kelly Little Green Man in Kentucky, the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp in South Carolina, and, my personal favorite, the Jersey Devil in, well, New Jersey.
By definition, cryptids are animals (or beings or entities) that aren’t technically proven real by scientists but have reported sightings or other evidence about their existence. I like to think of them a little bit like aliens—some people fully believe in them and some people deny their existence, but they’re more than a little fun to imagine. The fascination for me is especially true based on their origin stories and locations and the different categories they can fall into—anything ranging from humanoid to reptilian to downright devilish.
Like most cryptids, the Jersey Devil has a host of origin stories and even more depictions of what he looks like. Sometimes he’s a massive, dragon-like creature, other times he’s a small, dog-headed, leather-winged, kangaroo-footed chimera. Since he’s been around for more than 250 years, and ‘sighted’ by countless people throughout all that time, it’s no wonder his description is all over the place! When it comes to how and why he exists, the Jersey Devil has a slightly more normal tale than many others. While he supposedly prowls around the marshes and forests of south Jersey like a creature searching for prey, specifically in the New Jersey Pinelands and nearby towns, he was born to a human woman, Mrs. Leeds, as her unwanted thirteenth child. Supposedly, the woman screamed “Let it be the devil!” as she was having her baby and the devil he was. The newborn Jersey Devil flew off into the night and has haunted New Jersey ever since.
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As a Jersey girl myself, the Jersey Devil has always had a special place in my heart. He felt like the most fascinating, frightening part of what I believed was an otherwise unremarkable state growing up, and kids trying to scare each other always brought him up in stories without fail. While I was on a week-long field trip to the Pine Barrens in 6th grade, he was the star of nearly every campfire story we told and probably the main character of all our nightmares that week, too. In my newest middle grade novel, Camp Twisted Pine, I knew I wanted two things to be at the heart of the book because I could never write one without the other:
The Pine Barrens and the Jersey Devil.
While I did a lot of research for both, and had great fun twisting and creating my own origin story for the Jersey Devil, to add another to the list, I also spent a lot of time reminiscing on that 6th grade field trip. It remains my only camping experience but even if that weren’t true, I think it would still be my favorite. Between bonfires and chores and night time hikes, I was constantly thinking of the Jersey Devil. As an indoor kid, I’d never spent too much time in the woods, nor had I exactly wanted to back then, and suddenly I was surrounded by them! So, every rustle of tree leaves or strange bird call put me on edge. If the Jersey Devil had so many different versions, couldn’t anything be the Jersey Devil? And was he as frightening of a creature as the stories claimed he was or would he be a more Disney version of himself, closer to a sweet stray dog than a chicken-eating, people-scaring monster?
Unfortunately, I never found out the answer for myself. Dozens of 11 and 12-year-olds are probably a lot for even the Jersey Devil himself to deal with and school policy meant we were always in groups, so we didn’t wander off and get lost…or eaten. But coming to write the Jersey Devil as a character in Camp Twisted Pine felt like coming full circle in the best of ways, because this time I got to be in charge and decide if any or all of the stories were true. Who was the Jersey Devil? What was he like? Was he good or bad, misunderstood or malicious? I wrote about a cabin full of girls who got to find out and experience what my childhood self didn’t and it was the most fun I’ve had writing in a while.
There’s just something about cryptids that forever draws me in. Besides the claws or the wings or the sharp, scary teeth, these are creatures that live at the very edges of our consciousness and visions, the uncanny valley present in every state and beyond, but they also say more about the humans who thought them up than they do about the monsters themselves. So, what does the Jersey Devil say about me? Or New Jersey as a whole? Or Camp Twisted Pine, for that matter?
Anything and everything.
Get your copy of Camp Twisted Pine by Ciera Burch here.