Cryptid Cookout Series: Ozark Howler Realness Greeting Card

Designed by Christopher Box, printed and assembled with love in Eureka Springs Arkansas (these are not mass produced greeting cards).

The Ozark Howler isn’t hiding in the woods today. She’s front and center at the Beaver Lake cookout, fully in her power and completely unbothered. Ozark Howler Realness is about confidence earned the hard way and joy reclaimed on your own terms.

Rooted in regional folklore and reimagined through humor and affection, this card celebrates chosen family, resilience, and letting yourself be loud when it matters.

Blank inside so you can howl your message however you see fit.

About the Cryptid Cookout Series

The Cryptid Cookout series was born at the crossroads of place, memory, and imagination.

I grew up in Northwest Arkansas, deep in the Ozark Mountains. It’s a land rich with beauty, folklore, and quiet mystery — and for a long time, not a place where being openly LGBTQ felt safe or celebrated. Like many people from rural regions, I learned early how to read a room, how to hide parts of myself, and how to find belonging in quieter, sideways ways.

Cryptids felt familiar for that reason. They live on the edges. They’re rumored, misunderstood, whispered about. And yet, they persist.

This series imagines a different ending to those old stories. What if the cryptids weren’t hiding? What if they gathered openly, joyfully, in daylight — at Beaver Lake, no less — for a cookout where everyone was welcome?

High heels. Rainbow swimwear. Laughter. Chosen family.

The Cryptid Cookout is a love letter to being weird, to finding your people, and to the truth that love is love — even (and especially) in places where that hasn’t always been spoken aloud. It’s a playful reimagining of Ozark lore through a queer lens, blending regional identity with celebration, humor, and heart.

The response at Eureka Pride 2025 made it clear this story wanted to keep going. What started as a single scene has expanded into a growing cast of characters, each with their own personality, relationships, and evolving mythology.

Everyone is invited to the cookout.
You don’t have to explain yourself.
You don’t have to fit the old story to belong.

Pull up a chair.