#wildcraft writing

[dutiful-wildcraft]

This one is for all my retail pals

John Price has never worked retail in his life and it shows.

Price x reader, meetcute? if this qualifies

-

You're scrambling, have been since you walked through the door. They were already calling your name by the time you clicked your radio on.

From that moment forward you were hustling back and forth across the store, helping who you could, pulling orders for customer pick ups, trying to answer questions for the seasonal team members who got thrown to the wolves with slap dash training. 

You're tired, you're hungry, and you've been listening to the same 5 christmas songs on repeat since the 1st of November. 

You're trying to make it back to the break room for a quick snack, walking at mach speed, head lowered, praying that those you passed could see the sheer overwhelmed energy radiating off of you in waves and not ask you anything.

But there is always one.

“Excuse me!”

Your blood pressure shoots up immediately. 

You stop short, try to school your expression into something friendly. He's a big man, shoulders wide enough to fill a doorway, with mutton chops that strike you as odd, but suit his face. The man hustles toward you, holding an expensive jacket out to you like a toddler.

“Can you tell me the price of this?”

Everyone thinks you have a scanner.

The chops age him, but a closer look reveals that he must only be a little older than you, pretty blue eyes scrunched apologetically. You think this grown ass man should be old enough to see the scanners staged on every other aisle, the big signs attached to the ceiling highlighting their location. Irritation wells up like a geyser as you pull the garment from his hand searching for a tag. 

You search and search, even fishing around in the pocket to see if some kind soul accidentally yanked it off and put it back.

“Must be free!” Chops chuckles, and you think you should be able to pass out one free throat punch a day for simply working under these conditions. 

It takes effort, not to shrivel up like a raisin over the monotonous comment. Trying desperately to focus on finding the fucking price and ignore the way the big bastard bores holes into your face. He could have looked it up on his phone, you're certain, but instead he's standing a little too close, watching you flounder, at least his cologne is nice. 

A painful silence falls between you when you don't even giggle at his joke. But you must have a scrap of patience left in you because the angel of good will tugs on your ear, reminds you that not everyone stares at this shit day in and day out like you do, and he probably would have trouble finding it online anyway. 

You suck in a deep breath, fish out your own phone to pull up your company's website. 

“M'sorry for the trouble sweetheart” he murmurs, rolling almost sheepishly on his heels, hands reaching at his shoulders as if to grab something that isn't there, falling uselessly at his sides as he hovers over your shoulder. 

The pet name should piss you off, but the rumbly timber of it tickles you somewhere in your monkey brain, he is a handsome thing, and something about the way he crosses his arms, peers over your shoulder like this was a problem he's helping you solve is kind of endearing. 

You feel bad immediately for your bitchy attitude toward the fella. 

“Sorry It's taking a second, I'm trying” 

“I can see that, I appreciate you. I know you lot are busy, think I've seen you make a few laps now.” he teases, nodding to the bustle of people about the store, rummaging through once neatly folded tables like it's a yardsale. 

You type in the style number with a little amused huff. “You have no idea, I get in miles trotting around this place” you joke, scrolling through site’s workwear options to match the jacket in your hand. It's one of the nicer one's the store carries, a sturdy brown canvas with a fleece lined collar and interior. You try to make small talk that you're notoriously terrible at.

“You must work outside.” 

“Something like that” he muses, “been meaning to get the house prepped up for winter, I waited a bit late.”

You snort, “Hell me too, I barely have enough wood left for the stove myself, I'm just going to pile on blankets this winter!”

“Well that won't do.” 

The hard tone of Chop's voice breaks you from your searching. A quick glance confirms he's serious, brows pinched as his posture has shifted to looking directly at you. Chin tucked to his chest.

“What?” 

“You've got no one taking care of you?”

Nosy fuck. You don't know why you get defensive. “I take care of me just fine.” you retort confidently, finally pulling up the stupid jacket and telling him the price. 

“Negative.” is all he replies, looking at you with the same stern gaze. You suddenly feel like a child, wanting more than anything to prove to this man you were more than qualified to handle yourself. You work retail for fucks sake.

He cuts you off before you can smart off again. “You're going to write down that number for the coat, and your number, so I can bring a load of lumber by. I won't have a pretty thing like shiverin’ in the night.”

Something inside your brain purrs at the idea. The idea of somebody looking out for you when you barely have time to keep your clothes washed and body fed was…appealing. Especially coming from a pretty gorgeous stranger. And yet?

“I'm not giving my number to a stranger, sir.” you retort with some semblance of authority. 

Chops is having none of it, he makes a pointed show of raking his eyes down to your nametag dangling against your chest before flickering back up to your face. Your name rolls off his tongue easily, and you can't help the little shiver up your spine at the timber of it.

“John Price” he offers after, big paw curling around your own to shake playfully. “Not strangers now are we?”

[crushedrosewitchcraft]

And one more tag post!

[buggywiththefolkmagic]

Book Review: Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer

TW: Alcohol mentions and tallow mentions. Poison Path things as well. This is: Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer Rating: 9/10 Pros: An amazing outlook into animism, herbalism, and foraging in a safe, sustainable and non-appropriative way! The instructions on how to garden were very to the point and explained some complicated ideals in an easy to digest way, I think one of my favorite quotes from the book that stuck with me while reading was,

“Just when I think magic has been cut down and paved over; a dandelion has pushed it’s way out of the cracks in the cement.”

I hope that quote helps you understand what sort of writing to expect out of this book! As someone that grew up learning planting from my Papaw who took classes on the subject after getting out of WWII through a governmental program and was a farmer before that, some of the information on growing was things I already knew. But for a beginner just looking into ‘wildcrafting’ or foraging or just plain growing your own herbs for witchy things?

Get this book.

The author, while an herbalist, breaks down each plant she mentions and includes plenty of warnings and suggestions for use both magical and holistically. She covers the poison path in a very easy to understand way while making sure you understand it’s not a beginner’s thing, and certainly not one to take without serious consideration first. The author takes careful note of Indigenous practices and makes sure to drive it home that their voices are to be heard over anyone else’s when it comes to taking care of American land. There are so many rituals and remedies included in this book that I have a feeling I’ll be referencing it quite a lot, and not just for the gardening and foraging tips!

Did I mention the entire 11 pages of a bibliography in the back?? No? Well there’s that too. My academic heart is thrilled.

Cons: Honestly? The only real con I have is that the author spends a chunk of time going over the Wheel of the Year which is a wiccan construct in a book that otherwise doesn’t have any wiccan imagery or practices up until this point. It feels…weirdly thrown in? But she also includes multiple folk traditions that were common amongst those particular time periods so…it is worked in but it still feels a little odd and jarring to me.

The author also mentioned the use of tallow as a commonly used oil for salves, which is correct but some people are uncomfortable with the idea and I understand that! Since the author has tincture recipes as well she does mention the use of alcohol in steeping purposes.

Overview: Animism, foraging, herbalism, and being safe to the environment. Good stuff all around!

[albinodino]

Legendborn Chapters 17&18

bree and alice's friendship is so well established even though we haven't had much of them together. yesterday 'Alice would love this' and today "You can tell me if something happened. I'll believe you." and then the conflict resolution !! i love them

i forgot this is where the root comes in ohohohohoho we've already had a multiple threatening fights but this is where the action starts for me

'I think about the restlessness I'd felt at the cliffside[...]. The pressure under my skin. The desire to explode.' absolutely adore the way tracy writes bree's mental state. knowing that her dad and alice are trying to help but she can't escape the feeling of being attacked, sooooo sixteen years old

i looked up the unsung founders memorial to picture it better (photo from wikipedia):

also read a short article with opinions from Black faculty which i thought others might find interesting too

i can't wait for tomorrow's chapters, it's wildcraft time baby!!!

[lightningwolf900]

ABOUT ME :3

Hello I'm Lightning and I'm moving over to tumbler because of the TikTok ban and I want to know some of the things you would like to see on this page because I really don't know what to post but here's about me... I'm a Arctic Wolf otherkin who loves to write story's and goes to hot topic almost every three weeks -_-...I'm not emo...anywho anyone is welcomed here everyone but Ped0s and Zoos

Pronouns: He/Him/They/Them Sexuality: pan? Identity: Demi-boy...i think... favorite things: music: Stalkers tango-Autoheart, anything by Alex G or TVGirl or Mac DeMarco and Cigarettes After Sex, Games: Minecraft, wildcraft and Roblox. Colors: Yellow and black and green. TVShows/Movies: SOUTHPARK!, ARCANE!, wolf walkers and Muderdrones and The Amazing Digital Circus

[lupinedreaming]

Title: Feral Beauty

Chapters: 1/?

Rating: M, MDNI!

Summary: Roni Wildcraft, a two-bit thief and smuggler, has now become an imprisoned lab experiment.

She just wants to get the hell out of there — and so does the alien trapped in the room next to her.

See the story on AO3 for tags and warnings.

Story preview:

The peeling patch of skin on the back of her hand had worsened.

Roni had only noticed it after washing her face and getting ready to warm a pre-prepared meal.

Read on AO3.

Other links: AO3 profile, writing sideblog

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Happy 2024, y'all! It's a sunny day here on the SW Washington coast, and I'm off to a slow, sleepy start after managing to stay up until midnight in spite of myself. I hope you all are having a good start to the shiny new year.

I thought this would a good moment to reflect on the accomplishments of 2023, and look forward to what 2024 might hold.

Last year was, well, a lot of good stuff! Here are a few highlights:

--In addition to keeping my regular roster of online and in-person classes for various community colleges and libraries, I added a few new teaching venues. By far my favorite was the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, where I had a marvelous time teaching my two-day Nature Identification for the Everyday Naturalist class amid an incredible coastal forest (they're bringing me back this year, too!). I also got to teach in my hometown in Missouri, with a mushroom foraging class at Rolla Public Library and a lichen walk at the Ozark Rivers Audubon Nature Center, both of whom I hope to work with again in the future. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the series of classes I taught for Wildcraft Studio School in Portland--I'm looking forward to my next round of classes with them for 2024!

--I launched my guided nature tours business, offering ecologically-focused walks and hikes throughout the Pacific Northwest. This was very much a year of "throw things at the wall and see what sticks." Both scheduled hikes and private bookings were successful, though sometimes people thought I only did one or the other, so it was a bit of a challenge getting the word out that nope--I offer both! I'm hoping to expand the scheduled hikes to more locations, since I primarily offered them in the Long Beach, WA area, and I'm hoping to get some private bookings in places I haven't had a chance to explore yet. I do have to say I had a lot of fun taking people out onto some of my favorite trails, as well as some new places, exploring all the amazing flora, fauna, and fungi we met along the way. Here's to more excuses to get outside in 2024!

--With the help of my amazing agent, Jane Dystel of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC, I landed a contract with Ten Speed Press (a division of Penguin Random House) for my book The Everyday Naturalist: How to Identify Animals, Plants, and Fungi Wherever You Go. This is an opportunity well beyond anything I had imagined, and I am super excited for the book to be released in Summer 2025. I've already gotten some excellent editorial feedback to help me make this book the best it can be, and I'm looking forward to this continued journey as I kick off the new year with a big writing session.

--I kept up on my quarterly chapbook schedule, producing four new chapbooks in 2023. It's a lot of work, but people really seem to enjoy them, and I relish the opportunity to dive deeper into topics than I can do in a single article. Speaking of articles, I didn't quite keep up with writing one weekly on my website, but I did alright. And I also kept up a good roster of articles in my Rainy Rambles column for the Coast Weekend paper.

And that's really what I'd love to see in 2024:

--More opportunities to teach and reach new audiences who are interested in learning more about nature identification, foraging, and other natural history topics. Since I do a lot of online teaching, I have plenty of options outside of my local area. And as I make my twice-a-year peregrinations to Missouri, I'm planning to do some teaching along the way.

--More tours, please! 2023 was a really great start, and I had such a great time that I just want to increase the number of days I'm out on the trails with folks. I need to do more promotion, especially outside the Columbia-Pacific region, and really work on getting the word out. Some of that will be online, but there will also be some time spent out in the world, too. It can be a very time-consuming thing, but here's to those efforts paying off.

--I already need to have the manuscript for The Everyday Naturalist turned in this April (I'm going to aim for getting it done early, but we'll see.) A lot of the process beyond that will be out of my hands, other than edits and feedback. Still, this will be another thing that I want to make more people aware of, so you can expect me to keep chatting about book stuff all year. And, of course, I'll keep those article sand chapbooks coming for those of you who can't wait for 2025 to read my work.

--I have some other projects behind the scenes that I'm planning--keep your eyes peeled here for updates! (Or you can join my monthly email newsletter here.)

Wishing you all an excellent 2024!

[jenny-dreadful]

tagged by @incomprehensiblelentils . thanks!

15 Questions for 15 Friends

-ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

hmmm i share mom’s middle name! she changed the spelling for mine, though

-WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

hoo hoo hee hee he he ha hah ho heh ha hee hee don’t WORRY about it

-DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

no. this is for the best

-WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED?

is “trying very hard not to let gym class ruin my fucking report card and get me yelled at at home” a sport?

-DO YOU USE SARCASM?

of course not

-WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

i don’t know, and i’m not sure i understand the question, because sometimes people will say “their shoes!” or some shit, and that can’t POSSIBLY be literally/consistently true, but it seems to make sense to other people. i don’t think i have anything i take specific note of like that—heights, maybe, but that’s only applicable if there’s something notable

-WHAT'S YOUR EYE COLOR?

hazel!

-SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

false dichotomy on multiple axes, but i’ll watch a thousand deeply mid horror films (and have, probably!) before voluntarily experiencing a hallmark movie, if that answers the question

-ANY TALENTS?

mmmm i’m a pretty good singer, pretty good writer (sometimes. not lately), and i think i’m a decent teacher!

-WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

there

-WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?

i watch a lot of movies. i cycle through/sample a lot of arts and crafts. i play ttrpg with friends online. i cook and bake a bit. i try out foraging/wildcrafting stuff where i can. huge into writing, except for when i’m not

-DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?

nawww

-HOW TALL ARE YOU?

i’ve been five feet tall since about the fifth grade. lemme tell you: the other day, i ran into a lady shorter than me* while getting into an elevator, and now the clock’s reset and i don’t anticipate encountering another in the next two years or so

*grain of salt. i’ve believed this to be true at a glance of people who i was later informed were as tall as 5’2”

-FAVOURITE SUBJECT?

always was huge into english! really i liked all academics pretty well (most of the time) growing up, though

-DREAM JOB?

i don’t fuckin know anymore, dogg, get outta here

-

HEY! i’m not gonna tag anybody, because i get really in my head about maybe slighting people who’d have liked to be tagged, or pressuring people who didn’t, so—if you saw this and at ALL wished you’d been tagged, consider it done! do it! tag me at the top and make sure i see it (:

here’s the questions again, compressed for easy copy/paste:

15 Questions for 15 Friends ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? DO YOU HAVE KIDS? WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED? DO YOU USE SARCASM? WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? WHAT'S YOUR EYE COLOR? SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? ANY TALENTS? WHERE WERE YOU BORN? WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS? HOW TALL ARE YOU? FAVOURITE SUBJECT? DREAM JOB?

[elminx]

I haven't experienced this much inspiration to write in quite some time.

I'm looking for topics - astrology, witchcraft, wildcrafting, kitchen craft, deathwork - what do you want to read about?

Give me some ideas, Tumbles.

[titleleaf]

This is factual info and important for how Americans conceptualize their public spaces and how they approach foraging and wildcrafting but I need to point out for folks reblogging this like “ok wtf” that “make the golf course a public sex forest” is a slogan with reference to a specific golf course (Minneapolis’ Hiawatha Golf Club) and a specific question pertaining to its fate, how it might be reimagined as a public space. (A park, a community food garden, or yeah, a pollinator garden.)

You can read the piece by that name here at the Anarchist Library. The manifesto and the slogan are ultimately as much or more about the “public” part — the criminalization of public spaces, and the act of retaking a space that’s subsidized by taxes and constructed with a damaging, exclusive form of private recreation in mind at the expense of the land itself and the general public — rather than the “sex forest” part. The sex forest part is tongue in cheek. But also real. It’s been weird seeing this go nationwide. I didn’t write it and I take serious issue with it for reasons unrelated to the public sex forest part (or the golf course) but I don’t want to see the slogan become purely a meme.

Loving reminder from your land history auntie:

North American golf courses have had 50-100 years of arsenic and mercury based fungicide and herbicides applied to their soils.

Do not eat anything that has been grown on a golf course or downstream from a golf course. I know it sounds cool and radical, but you are too valuable to poison yourself with heavy metals.

Protect each other, turn your local golf course into a pollinator garden, not a sex forest or community garden.

[dutiful-wildcraft]

I thought to myself, ya know? There isn't enough Gaz/Ghost. So I fixed that problem.

Fluff, 1K, unedited, enjoy <3

It starts with the pair laying together, soft and sweet in the afterglow.

Never in a million years would Gaz guess that Simon would match his touchiness. Scarred hands massaging and petting almost incessantly at Gaz’s warm skin. It’s reverent, eyes and hands roaming over his body with a soft curiosity that had Gaz shivering in his arms.

Simon's eyes flicker up from where they were trained on the curve of Gaz's waist, tries to withdraw his hand when he catches Gaz's look of amusement.

Gaz snags him or course, gives his palm a squeeze and replaces it firmly back at his waist, squirming in closer to Simon's bulky frame, like a cat demanding pets.

Simon continues after a moment, shifting to draw patterns with his fingertips over his skin that has Gaz biting back ticklish laughs, he peers back up at him, finds eye black stained eyes trained back on him, an almost confused furrow to his brow as his fingers stroke back and forth.

“What's on your mind doll?” Gaz murmurs, pressing a small kiss to his shoulder. 

Simon pauses again, flattens his palm back out to slide down his hip, grab a handful a plush ass that has Gaz biting at his shoulder in playful retaliation.

“How are you so bloody soft?” Simon finally rumbles out, curling an arm around him to squeeze him close, bury his face into Gaz’s curls and inhale the warm scent that constantly clings to the man. 

Gaz laughs, rich and sweet, presses a trio of kisses over Simon’s heart in a quick rhythm. 

“I’ll show you.”

-

Gaz half thinks the big boy was going to back out as he corrals Simon into his bathroom. Simon stands there,  still and quiet as Gaz moves around the small space, void like eyes watching him as he unloads a small collection of hair and skincare products he’d picked up specifically for gentle giant.

It isn't until after a sufficient amount of steam is billowing from the shower and Gaz is guiding Simon’s old band t shirt off of his shoulders does he notice the stark blush creeping up his chest, red creeping up his neck. 

“Gettin’ shy on me?” Gaz teases, placating him with another kiss as he tugs off the ratty balaclava, revealing Simon’s full glare.  His hair has grown out, blonde curls sad and dry. Gaz would take care of that too. 

Gaz sets to work as soon as they climb into the shower,  guides Simon under the warm spray and pours a sweet smelling shampoo between his palms, working Simon’s curls over with gentle massaging. It’s powerful Gaz thinks, to see his lover like this, at peace, eyes closed as Gaz draws swirls in the suds of his hair. 

He applies a light leave in conditioner to sit next while he works his way down to clean away the remnant eye black from Simon’s face. Rubbing away the stubborn paint from his eyes and cheeks with gentle hands. Simon is putty in his arms, practically leaning on him as he works an expensive soap over his curves, thoroughly massaging the sweet smelling scent into skin as he works him over from head to toe.

After he’s finished he props Simon up against the shower wall and subtly gives a little show of lathering himself down. Simon’s hands are on him almost immediately, his hands playing in the bubbles against his skin as he steals kisses under the warm spray. Gaz just barely gets him pried off to wash his own hair, almost giddy with the way Simon watches him. Eyes following the rivulets of water that slide along his skin. 

It’s a challenge to coax his cold natured partner out of the hot spray, but Gaz can barely fight off his pleased grin as he finally pulls Simon free, his lover red faced and dreamy as he pats him dry with a soft towel, and works another lotion into his pale skin. He can tell Simon is valiantly trying to will away the blood flowing to his groin, chubbing up his length as Gaz sits pretty on his knees, working over Simon’s calves and thighs. 

“Like being pampered don’t you doll?” Gaz purrs, pressing a cheeky kiss to his thigh that has Simon’s fingers curling into his hair in warning. “Be patient.” he reminds. 

Simon complies, of course he does, lets Gaz coat is hair with a light curl cream, fingers carefully taming and reshaping the short curls that Simon has neglected for years. Sits quietly on the toilet seat while Gaz shaves away the stubble that he knows Simon hates , lines up the back of his neck to keep his curls from touching there, applies cool feeling creams to face to battle any razor burn of acne.

By the time it’s all said and done, Gaz can’t help but admire the man. 

Simon is glowing. 

Pretty blonde curls so soft and shiny. Face clean and cheeks pink. Gaz runs his hands over his skin, preening happily at the silky glide of his fingers over Simon’s muscles, the way Simon’s own scent mingles beautifully with the honey almond scent Gaz painted him with. A little treat Gaz is more than happy to have all to himself. 

He’s never seen the man drunk, but Gaz thinks this must be pretty close. Simon’s eyes are half-lidded, dopey with the way Gaz caresses his face, pets over his skin like he’s the most precious thing he’s ever seen. Kisses him sweet and slow, chuckling as Simon’s big paws find him again, pulling him in close by the hips, former chub now full and hot against his thigh. 

“Come along sweets, not done with you yet.”

[mortuarywriting]

Hope y'all don't mind further tag reminders!! Sorry for the pings if you didn't need em!

@391780 @pfhwrittes @ceilidho @ohbo-ohno @luminousbeings-crudematter @charliemwrites @sentientcave @dragonnarrative-writes @greatstormcat @syoddeye @dutiful-wildcraft @alwaysshallow @stuffireadandenjoy

attention all writers! tumblr is rolling out a new feature that allows our work to be used in ai training processes!

be sure to opt out of this in your visibility settings immediately! and remember, you have to opt out for each blog, not just your main!

go to your blogs’ settings (again, you have to do these steps for each blog, not just your main blog)

scroll until you see “visibility” and choose that

in your visibility settings, choose “prevent third-party sharing for (blog name)”

you may opted out already but we don’t take chances with ai around these parts *insert angry cowboy*

tagging some mutuals to get the word out — @multifandomsimagine @pegxcarter @moremaybank @gladerscake @goldenroutledge @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles @drewstarkeyslut @drudyslut @tangledinlove @rafeandonlyrafe @mvybanks

[mysticbloom]

“A Witch is a person who has honestly explored their light and has evolved to celebrate their darkness.”

Dacha Avelin

Artwork

Medea an der Urne - Anselm Feuerbach 1873

[lupinedreaming]

Peeps, I need help deciding which writing project to work on once I’m done with the first part of Azzy and Jane’s story 🙏

Summaries of the different ideas are under the cut

Option one is Silver Wires, a WIP that I’ve been waffling on finishing because of lack of motivation and worry that the FMC is too unlikable. Here is my summary for that one:

1. Astrid is the only survivor of a colony mission sent by the religion the Children of the Lost. Now without any friends or family, she is left to warily trust the crew of the Sparrowhawk. Among the crew is an illegal android named Brom, who rescued her from her damaged ship, and who seems determined to take care of her every need.

Option two is an alien romance I abandoned and would rewrite. Despite wanting to rewrite it, the basic premise is still this:

2. Roni Wildcraft, a two-bit thief and smuggler, has now become an imprisoned lab experiment.

She just wants to get the hell out of there — and so does the alien trapped in the room next to her.

Option three is something I haven’t started but the idea popped into my brain largely fully formed a few days ago. It is very much I inspired by f’d up cannibalistic families, like in TCM and also the novel Brother by Ania Ahlborn, plus a little bit of the movie Near Dark which has a “family” of backwoods vampires. 

3. This summary will be rambling because I haven’t slimmed it down like the other two:

This story would deal with a mother, sister, and brother. They are bear shifters. They are the last of a small community of bear shifters who believe that, in the 1800s when the community was starving, a bear in the shape of a man came to them and told them that they could survive if they ate human flesh, and if they ate it, they wouldn’t just survive but prosper and have the power of the bear with them, and so would their descendants if they kept up the same practice. This small family has kept up the practice and take a human once or twice a year to eat, believing that doing so allows them to “prosper” and continue to change shape.

Story starts where the brother, who has been the most isolated of the family, is scoping out potential prey in his bear form. He sees a beautiful young woman, and despite the family usually being careful about their targets, he takes her. Various things happen, but TLDR; he quickly falls for her and starts wondering if the family’s practice is even necessary, and he’s trying to figure out how to keep her from being food

So … yeah!! I need help 🥲 Comments letting me know what people would be most interested in are very appreciated

[rebeccathenaturalist]

I am finally home after another busy few days in the Portland area. Thursday I got up SUPER early to make it to Scappoose by 10 for my PCC birdwatching excursion. As always, the east end of the Crown-Zellerbach Trail is a superb place for birds, and we were lucky enough to see plenty of migrating sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis), among many others. Then that evening it was over to the Cascade Park Library in Vancouver (WA, not BC) for my introductory mushroom foraging class, which was very well attended.

I had Friday off, which was much-needed. So after sleeping way later than anticipated, I headed over to Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge for a nice ramble. The highlight of my day was FINALLY getting to see a pair of Pacific mink (Neogale vison energumenos) in the wild! They were having a blast leaping around on semi-submerged trees and swimming in the shallows.

Then yesterday was my Introduction to Mycology with Wildcraft Studio School. This is where I get to go in-depth about how cool fungi are, their biology and ecological roles, and other good stuff. I do get into mushroom identification, but we aren't just focused on edible species (though we did find a few of those, along with a western destroying angel (Amanita ocreata). I was super excited to uncover a couple of slime molds, too--honeycomb coral slime mold (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa), which I've encountered before, and a new-to-me species, yellow carnival candy slime mold (Arcyria obvelata).

Today is a Writing Day (TM). My goal is to have my first set of deliverables for The Everyday Naturalist done and sent in to my editor by end of day, and then I can buckle down on the whole rest of the manuscript. Wish me luck!

[wildjuniperjones]

(I just read your intro and followed immediately. I too have an interest in D&D and fiction writing.)

But, per your comment, this ask is about Plants and Magic. You mentioned that you had some suggestions about Herbalism and/or other reference materials after my ask on a-witch-named-crow's blog, and I would love to hear them.

I recently turned a rather critical eye to the sources that I originally learned magic from, namely books and my mother, who was very into Native American Shamanic things. I believe we have some ancestry and family history, but we are not culturally involved or members of a tribe. I decided it really wasn't right for me to continue many of the beliefs and practices I had learned because what I knew was likely from closed practices, and frankly I had no right to them.

But I felt that kind of left me in a bit of a lurch where learning more about plants was concerned. I studied Botany in college, and even back then I knew it was only part of the story, really. I love using what I grow for tea and food, and I am totally getting into foraging, so -crow's suggestions there are on point. What -crow said about working with the spirits of plants seems kind of the way I want to go. I am a Service Member, so I cannot take their latter suggestions. (constantly subject to the possibility of urinalysis when you are the property of the government).

I would love to know what you have to add!

So, most of my training is in medicinal herbalism, as a lot of the correspondences you'll find in older texts are actually code to describe the medicinal functions of certain herbs (like St. John's Wort being associated with Leo and the Sun, referring to its heating properties when applied topically (it causes sun sensitivity) and the joy that returns from taking it internally). But if you mostly want to get into herbs for your own purposes, I have some books to recommend.

First up, get a Peterson's Field Guide to Medicinal Plants & Herbs for your bioregion. I have one for the western US, but there are others. It will make all the rest a helluva lot easier if you're going to wildcraft (forage) your herbs.

Next, get a copy of The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook by James Green. It is THE book for creating your own tinctures, salves, etc. I never had success with making salves (they would mold) until I followed his instructions.

These two are required reading, from my perspective. But hey, you might want to know more about plants that are readily available in your local grocery, perhaps! For that, check out:

Kitchen Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal, Matthew Seal Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine by Ronald F. Schmid

But I take conventional medication, how do I know what will interact? For that, check out Delmar's Integrative Herb Guide for Nurses by Martha Libster. Mine isn't the most up-to-date, but you might be able to find useful info in there nonetheless, especially if you do your homework and know what category of medicine any newer medication falls into.

Part of my training was with the East West School of Planetary Herbology, which included Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnostic techniques that I still use, like tongue diagnosis and pulse diagnosis. Understanding the theory and structure around TCM opens up a lot more resources, and the best book I've found for that purpose is The Web That Has No Weaver by Ted Kaptchuk.

A history and theory-based look at Western herbalism that really changed the way I viewed herbal medicine is The Herbal Lore of Wise Women & Wortcunners by Wolf D. Storl, which I highly recommend. I was having a hard time reading anything when I got it, but plowed right through anyway.

Lessee, honorable mentions go to Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West by Michael Moore (I believe there are a few other bioregions in that series), 300 Herbs by Matthew Alfs (especially useful if you already understand TCM and Ayurvedic theory), and my absolute favorite (which is sadly out of print) the two-volume set of The Energetics of Western Herbs by Peter Holmes. Just the most comprehensive guide to European and American herbs out there, explained very clearly, using both Western and TCM theories. There's a companion two-volume set by the same author called Jade Remedies that covers Chinese herbs exclusively, but is also out of print.

Most of these can be found on free sites like libgen or Z-lib, except for the last two, which as I said are out of print. These are just the books I kept, you understand. This is a tiny fraction of my original library, the ones that I considered too essential or rare to sell.

On the more spiritual side of plants, I'd recommend The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Buhner. And if you're looking to grow herbs, especially woody herbs, I cannot recommend The Medicinal Forest Garden Handbook by Anne Stobart enough! Permaculture + herbalism? Yes please!

I wrote a few blog articles on the subject looooong ago, when I was trying to make a go of being a professional herbalist but I didn't yet have the confidence to see people. I didn't want to promise success when I was still so uncertain about my abilities. So I decided to catalogue every western herb I could and cross-reference their entries with the books I had at the time (which conveniently is also a listing of all the books I used to have, more or less).

This is the glossary, and this is the cross-referenced list, while this folder contains the few articles I completed. There's also this spreadsheet, which has links to the PubMed entries for each herb (if available) and the wikipedia entry for each herb (if available). It was a huge, obsessive undertaking at the time, and I'm still tempted by the organizational possibilities... The original plan was to have a blog/book that condensed dozens of books worth of information, including conventional science and traditional wisdom, with growing patterns/techniques, preparation methods, etc., etc.

I hope this helps and wasn't too overwhelming! I honestly held back a lot (I could talk about the East West program, for instance), so let me know if you want to hear more about any particular topic!

Best of luck, and happy herb hunting!

PS: If you do want to go mushroom hunting, the best book ever for the purpose is All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora. Seriously, such a gem.

PPS: If you're a service member, you may want to do a bit of research on herbs that mimic the presence of illicit substances on drug tests. California poppy is a great choice for headaches, but if you're getting urine tests, it will show up as an opiate, despite being a mostly unrelated species.