Lean back into Louisiana lore with an earful of New Orleans jazz and a bellyful of Cajun cuisine. But when the music dies down and the lights flicker out, hushed conversations bleed into the darker mysteries of the Pelican State. Storied outlaws like John Murrell, Eugene Bunch and Leather Britches Smith steal into the room. Voodoo priestesses Marie Laveau and Julia Brown are already there, along with the Phantom Whistler and the Axeman of New Orleans. Folklorist Alan Brown educates and entertains with tales of the unseemly, bizarre and otherworldly, like the legends of the Rougarou, the Lutin and the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
Alan Brown teaches English at the University of West Alabama in Livingston, Alabama. A transplanted Yankee from Alton, Illinois, Alan has written primarily about southern ghostlore, a passion that his taken him to haunted places throughout the entire Deep South, as well as parts of the Midwest and the Southwest. As a rule, his wife, Marilyn, accompanies on these trips and occasionally serves as his "ghost magnet" when they spend the night at haunted hotels and bed-and-breakfasts. Some of her encounters with the spirit world have been incorporated in a number of Alan's books. In 2018, Alan decided to explore another abiding interest of his--mysteries and legends--in books like Eerie Alabama and The Unexplained South. When he is not teaching or writing, Alan is watching old movies, reading thrillers and playing with his two grandsons, who keep him young.