You know it’s summer when you lose track of the date, then look over and realize you missed sharing your newsletter to the blog until it was almost time to write the next one *nervous laughter*

Anyways, there’s owl pics in the Nature Notes this month, so don’t skip that. I’ve mostly spent my month tearing my hair out over my Binding of Spellwork and Story book, which I’m writing thanks to a lovely creation grant from artsnb.

I’ve rewritten my first chapters multiple times and just couldn’t get them right. The typical advice I get in this situation is that I should just leave them and go back and fix them later, and that’s good advice that never works for me. When I get blocked and start mentally fretting over a section, there’s a reason. And until I figure it out I’m that ridiculous fly that keeps bumping into the window when there’s an open door right beside him.

So after a solid week of fretting, I took the problematic character by the arms, shook him, and begged him to tell me what he wanted. “I wanted [REDACTED] to remain a secret until a later part of the book,” he admitted, mid shake.

“Oh.” I said. “Huh.” I crossed my arms. Paced a little. “You know, that could work. It would take care of that cringe-y part that was bothering me, too.”

“I know.”

My eyes widened. “Oh, wow, you know, that adds so much potential drama to your connection with that other character, too.”

“I know.”

So now that I’ve got THAT figured it out, I took the original and the rewritten chapter, and sort of frankensteined the best parts of them together into a new chapter, without revealing character’s secret. All the fretting evaporated and my mind has given me the green light to proceed. Phew.

had a bit of a mini side quest when I wrote a writerly advice article written by one of my witch characters in the Binding book. It was actually a really fun little exercise that let me push the envelope of my theme. It was inspired by a submission call, and I sent it in, so we’ll see what happens. If it’s not accepted, it will absolutely be a fun freebie to send out with the book, as bonus contact, and I’m thinking it could also be a fun little tiktok series that would give me a fun excuse to dress up like witch to promote the book.

My other side quest is that I’ve been sharing a photo of my book, Care and Feeding of Your Little Banned Bookshop every day on my author facebook page because books are still actively being banned. Here is one of my favourites from the series:

The typewriter is a lawn ornament at my friend Tiffany’s house. Someone welded the old beast to a base with legs, which is a pretty creative use of an old typewriter. But I’m not showing this to my beloved old Underwood just in case it gets offended.

I got to see a barred owl up close and learned that they are absolutely fascinating:

Those grippy feet! I’m going to imagine dragon skin is textured like this from now on. Also, these owls have feathers with hearts on them:

I wrote a poem about barred owls a while back. Rattle Poetry has a “Poets Respond” feature whereby a poet can submit a poem based on a news article released in the past week, and every Sunday, they publish the best one online. I’ve never had one published with them, but I like that the possibility gets me writing a poem about a news article that strikes me in a particular way.

The following poem was written in response to a news article about a culling of barred owls in the U.S. It’s a bit of a complicated conservation subject, but when I read the number, half a million barred owls to be culled if this plan was approved, the number just staggered me. Here’s the poem I wrote, unpublished as it was except for on my social media, but heed the subject matter as a CW:

Half a Million Owls

Barred owls call back and forth across the forest

And something inside me stills

Something reverential, primal, superstitious,

That insists this is a mystical moment

Maybe it’s the darkness, the gleaming of the stars,

The way the rummaging sounds in the leaf litter cease.

“Half a million owls will be culled…”

My mind stumbles over the number. Glitches.

Stops rummaging through the litter of my thoughts.

“Hoo-hoo. Hoo-hoo,” call the owls, all unknowing.

“Who cooks for you?” I learned as a child,

The same barred owl call I’ve taught my children,

“Who cooks for you? Who cooks for y’all?”

Half a million dead barred owls. Shot.

I try again to grasp the scale and fail

Instead, I imagine feathers scattered across a clearcut

“Who kills for you? Who kills for y’all?” the corpses call

And something rummaging through bullet casings stills.

That’s it for this month’s newsletter, Enchanted friends. I’m currently working on a quilt square for the Nova Scotia Grief and Solidarity Quilt for Palestine, a bit outside my wheelhouse, so hopefully I’ll be able to share that next newsletter. I’m stitching a poem onto it, which is proving the most challenging aspect, naturally.

Wishing you lovely summer weeks,