Ecofictology

Hey ecofictologists! Welcome to episode 67 of the Ecofictology podcast. I really enjoyed my chat with DSG Burke, author of Mean Higher High Water, a dystopian speculative fiction novel that she was kind enough to send me. I hope you enjoy it too!You can find more about Deborah here: https://www.dsgburke.com/

Hey ecofictologists, welcome to episode 65 of the Ecofictology podcast. This week we are chatting with Midge Raymond and John Yunker from Ashland Creek press and we are talking about their new book Devils Island, which launched in September, published by OceanView Publishing. We cover their inspiration, the experience of co-writing with your spouse and using environment as atmosphere in your writing. Enjoy! Links Devils Island: https://midgeandjohn.com/  Book events: https://midgeandjohn.com/events.html  John Yunker: https://www.johnyunker.com/  Midge Raymond: https://midgeraymond.com/  Ecolit Books: https://ecolitbooks.com/  Ashland Creek Press: https://ashlandcreekpress.com/

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 64 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week we are talking to a younger audience with our guest, Angela Mills, the author of the beautifully illustrated book Bobby the Brown Long-eared bat. I came across Angela while listening to a panel talk that the Bat Conservation Trust was putting on along with other authors who wrote childrens books about bats. And there were a few children on the call and it was absolutely heartwarming to see them engaging so much. I was excited to talk to Angela about what she thought was important when writing for kids and wanting to spark that bit of excitement in them for whatever species you’re writing about. Bobby did the job. You can find her book on her website and a portion of the profits go directly to The Bat Conservation trust so it’s doubly for a good cause. You can find the link in the show notes. I hope you enjoy.  Angela’s website  https://www.bobbythebrownlong-earedbat.co.uk/  Bat Conservation Trust https://www.bats.org.uk/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 63 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week I’m introducing you to Kaitlyn Elverson, the engagement officer for Bug Life in the UK, who I found through the talks she gave for Buglife on the folklore of insects and on myth and mystery of folklore in the history of wildflowers and trees. I was fascinated and excited as I always am to find someone who turns to storytelling as a way to find connection to nature. Kaitlyn is also an musician and I will be linking all her various social medias below and i highly recommend you check her out. She sometimes uses her music to convey a particular message about nature, so see if you can spot them. I very much enjoyed my interview with kaitlyn and i hope you do too.  Folklore of Insects https://www.buglife.org.uk/events/folklore-of-insects-with-kaitlyn-elverson/  Myth, Mystery and Folklore Guided Walk https://www.buglife.org.uk/events/myth-mystery-and-folklore-guided-walk/  Kaitlyn’s music: https://soundcloud.com/kaitlynelverson  https://kaitlynelverson.bandcamp.com/album/ep-kaitlyn-elverson  Kaitlyn’s social media: https://www.instagram.com/canwefollowalice/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 62 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week you are getting a twofer as my dad likes to call them. You’re getting a little bit of a book review and then right on its heels, an interview with the author, one that i was downright giddy to do. The book? A Murder of Crows, the first book in the Nell Ward Mystery series. The author? Sarah Yarwood lovett, an ecological consultant who has put her knowledge and her experiences into a murder mystery novel. Can you see why i was excited? This book turned out to be my favourite book of 2022, i devoured it completely. And i loved nerding out with Sarah during our interview so prepare to learn a thing or two about bats. Or four or six things. I’m too excited for you to dive into the world of Nell Ward so i’m going to keep this intro short. As usual, you can find the video versions of these parts on my youtube channel, links are down below, i hope you enjoy. August and September reading wrap up | Monthly reads | Favourite ecofiction novel of Quarter 3!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTY8cf6eRk&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqIJaGfibZuk8YZvCggE68O&index=47  Bats, bats, bats! | Interview with Sarah Yarwood Lovett | Author of A Murder of Crows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQohlTk_WZc&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=25  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 61 of the Ecofictology podcast! This episode was really just a giant brain dump of things that I had been thinking about, lots of ideas and mostly questions about how important is scientific accuracy in fiction. We’ve all had that experience where we read something outside of our field of expertise and think it’s really cool and well researched and then read something inside our field and think, well this would never happen its entirely unrealistic. But how much artistic license could we give the author in order to make it a compelling story? Where do we put those boundaries? And it probably depends on what the purpose of the piece of fiction is: to teach or not to teach? I filmed this collection of questions in two parts but have combined them together here so you can be overloaded with questions all at once, you lucky ducks, and I first talk about fiction where science communication is the goal and something called the CSI effect, and then about fiction that really isn't trying to teach you anything, but might have unintended consequences anyway of not being accurate or realistic. I talk about environmental disaster films and films that demonise predators like Jaws. In fact, I go on a bit of a rant about it. If you’d rather watch me do that than listen, you can find parts 1 and 2 linked in the shownotes. Also, if you have thoughts on this topic, please reach out to me because it’s something i really enjoy talking about! Enjoy the rant How important is scientific accuracy in fiction? | Science Communication | CSI effect | Part 1  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOoOTtKGh_k&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrrcYOqiDbHPufF5XR3sr94&index=20  Scientific Accuracy in Fiction | Anti-Ecofiction | Demonisation of predators | Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKIo0wBY6sw&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrrcYOqiDbHPufF5XR3sr94&index=21  CSI Effect papers  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1163231  https://www.jstor.org/stable/29762978   https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/7381446/stith_roane_the_csi_effect-_us_news_and_world_report-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1645362650&Signature=LBN6D1TpQD7LDReCEI0jrtaty1n6x2NexOD1ARFzP3Rpu7dw~tNid8IToaTdoelXRgS21JZK0lvZ8-J7Jk9VaQWdqULiqz31WJYu4YUI0hi83Fgw0AKTfBw8EoDy13HP0JpVtStAGan10uEkid~jLLwgF0MXDaW-qFolPobH-X3wUftnvGi5kHc8shEKXLj7LpNvhYuquu4FQ0B-~NpeWXOB~pcxpfJsezIl~J9ki2EAZBB5H8khiM6V5SKeEvKF7obE4CjPhXXKgrKUdzAqBvEx~zKanFVyc4MZo2NmIyHQclhD6Y3eAvuLEQ5TsY9xSd7nRQjtaCSGQrpS-ONb0Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA  https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=themis   https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/csi-effect-does-it-really-exist  Environmental Scientists on Vanity Fair  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz42l-KZgJo   Article on the effect of Jaws  https://daily.jstor.org/sharks-before-and-after-jaws/#:~:text=The%20blockbuster%20Jaws%20(1975)%20provoked,think%20of%20sharks%20before%20then%3F&text=It%20lives%20to%20kill.,A%20mindless%20eating%20machine.   Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 60 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week I am introducing you to a wonderful author, AE Copenhaver, who I had the great pleasure of talking to. This interview is a little different than others I have done because I wasn’t only interviewing her about her book, My Days of Dark Green Euphoria, which was published by Ashland Creek Press, you’ll recognise that publisher if you’ve been around for a while...but i wasn’t only asking questions about that, what i really wanted to talk to Athena about was the strength of messaging in ecofiction. When i first read the book which Ashland creek press sent to me, i was a little unsure whether i enjoyed it because the vegan messaging was so intense, until i realised that it was supposed to be over the top and satirical, more of a commentary on the angry vegan than actually saying this is how people should act. And then it became funny and more powerful. But it was such an interesting discussion and we really enjoyed ourselves, so i hope that comes across here. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you want to watch us have this chat, which i would almost recommend because we laughed a lot and Athena is very engaging to watch, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy My Days of Dark Green Euphoria by AE Copenhaver https://www.ashlandcreekpress.com/books/darkgreeneuphoria.html  Finding your audience with AE Copenhaver | My Days of Dark Green Euphoria | Strength of messaging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF2lhOslPYQ&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=24  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 59 of the Ecofictology podcast! This is the final part of our Spells and Specialists episode with mauricio garcia and i have thoroughly enjoyed learning about perfumes and smells and all the wondrous things that he has taught us in previous parts. This part 4 is where we brainstorm a story to communicate all that wondrousness to the world and i have to say, i immediately want to write this story. I feel like i say that every spells and specialists episode but i got really excited about this and the story just came together so nicely! We explore themes of coming of age, fighting oppression, finding yourself, and all the while we teach readers about perfumes and smells. It’s fantastic. And of course i am joined by my wonderful cohost Clark Rowenson, the magic engineer, so be sure to check out his channel on youtube for more cool stuff on magic systems and his blueprint method we used in the last part. Get your storytelling hats on and enjoy. Mauricio Garcia’s website https://www.herbcraftperfumery.com/about-mg-2020  Coalition of Sustainable Perfumery https://www.sustainableperfumery.org/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 58 of the Ecofictology podcast!  I’m sure you’ve been waiting for this part of our Spells and Specialists episode with Mauricio Garcia where we build a magic system based on the art of perfumery and our seed crystal of “magically infused perfumes can gently alter aspects of reality as well as creatures, minds and bodies”. What a cracker of a seed crystal! And we do come up with a cracker of a magic system as well, and we totally don’t control ourselves when it comes to not jumping forward to part 4. In fact we finish this part with quite a lot of the plot already figured out so next week’s episode is going to be slightly strange. But of course this part 3 revolves around the magic system which we develop using the Magic system blueprint which my cohost clark rowenson developed and you can find more info on that as well as the video version of this episode on his youtube channel the magic engineer. This part does have the visual component of tweaking the blueprint as we go through the steps so i do recommend checking that out if you’re interested in how it all works. But i think you get most of it just by listening too so i’ll shut up now and let you get on with it, I hope you enjoy Mauricio Garcia’s website https://www.herbcraftperfumery.com/about-mg-2020  Coalition of Sustainable Perfumery https://www.sustainableperfumery.org/ Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 57 of the Ecofictology podcast!  This is Part 2 of our spells and specialists episode with Mauricio Garcia, the perfumer and aromatherapist who blew our minds last week teaching us all the cool stuff. As a recap, our main messages from part 1 were that smell is form of pseudo psychic messaging, that industry and scent create global connections, and that the process of perfumery is resource intensive and we have a responsibility to do it ethically and sustainably. Part 2 as you know by now is all about finding our seed crystal, which is a concept that my cohost Clark Rowenson came up with to distill all our thoughts down to a single sentence from which our inspiration will take off. You can find more about that and about magic systems in general on Clark’s youtube channel, the magic engineer, which is also where you will find the video of this episode. The link for that is in the show notes along with the link to Mauricio’s website and all that good stuff. Honestly i love the seed crystal we came up with and i hope you do too. Enjoy! Mauricio Garcia’s website https://www.herbcraftperfumery.com/about-mg-2020  Coalition of Sustainable Perfumery https://www.sustainableperfumery.org/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 56 of the Ecofictology podcast! It is that time again, we are in for another treat and honestly I am so excited about this guest. Say the name of the show, Lovis, say the name of the show! This is a Spells and specialists episode and our guest is Mauricio garcia who is a designer, perfumer and certified aromatherapist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Honestly, the stuff we teaches us about perfumes, how to build them, analyse them, all the different concoctions you make with the plant matter, it will blow your mind. There is so much to know and so much that i’ve never thought about when putting on perfume and i thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Mauricio was an absolute joy, i could have stayed learning stuff about perfume from him for hours. And of course my wonderful cohost Clark Rowenson is with me, be sure to check out his youtube channel The magic engineer to find everything you could ever want about magic systems. And of course the videos for parts 2 and 3 of this episode. But i’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll stop now and let you get on with it, i hope you enjoy. Mauricio Garcia’s website https://www.herbcraftperfumery.com/about-mg-2020  Coalition of Sustainable Perfumery https://www.sustainableperfumery.org/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 55 of the Ecofictology podcast! Today I am welcoming Cynthia Zhang, author of After the Dragons, and Mehitabel Glenhaber from The Greenhouse Affect, to the show. I absolutely loved this interview with Cynthia and Mehitabel, I learned SO much! We talk about non-Western fantasy tropes, eco-messaging across media, the power of comics to do climate communication and so much more! I have included links to their works in the show notes so please check them out, i highly recommend! As always, you can find the link to the video version of this interview on my youtube channel in the show notes, that is the edited version to make it match more the length that youtube viewers are willing to sit and watch but i have given you the full version here on the podcast, one of the reasons I wanted to start this podcast in the first place! I hope you enjoy Interview with Cynthia Zhang (After the Dragons) and Mehitabel Glenhaber (The Greenhouse Affect) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqSGJsYVLak&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=20  Cynthia Zhang https://linktr.ee/czhang  After the Dragons https://www.stelliform.press/index.php/cynthia-zhang-after-the-dragons/  ARG game http://www.patrickjagoda.com/projects/terrarium  Mehitabel's website https://www.mehitabelglenhaberart.com/comics  Greenhouse Affect https://greenhouseaffect.tumblr.com/  Future Myopia https://reallifemag.com/future-myopia/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 54 of the Ecofictology podcast! This minisode Monday, I am super excited to review After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang, it's an ecofantasy novel that I just fell in love with! It's published by Stelliform press, a small independent publishing press focused on stories about climate change, ecological destruction and our relationship with each other and nature in these times of change. It’s a near future dystopian novella about climate change, it has queer characters, and oh yes, there are dragons. On Wednesday, I will be welcoming Cynthia to the show to talk about her novella and we will also be joined by Mehitabel Glenhaber of the Greenhouse Affect so check back in for that! This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang | Ecofiction Book Review | SPOILER FREE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPFJvg6uUO0&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqIJaGfibZuk8YZvCggE68O&index=37  After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang: https://www.stelliform.press/index.php/cynthia-zhang-after-the-dragons/  Stelliform Press website: https://www.stelliform.press/index.php/books/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 53 of the Ecofictology podcast! As we delve further into ecofantasy, there is a genre that I haven't quite been able to place: Ecological Weird. Today I am sharing with you an interview i did with Mary Woodbury from dragonfly.eco, a wonderful resource if you are looking to learn more about ecofiction from around the world. You will recognise her from a previous episode, she’s been a great help to me as I made my way into this community and of course she and I started the rewilding our stories discord server, which you’ll find a link to in the show notes. She has done much more digging into what ecological weird fiction is, and has even written some of it herself and written articles on the subject, so I thought I'd better get her back on the channel to discuss this topic! This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes and I have listed lots of resources and links to the books she mentions in the description of that youtube video, more than I can include here so if you want a particular link, go and find that video and hopefully i have included it there. I hope you enjoy Resources: Weird fiction on dragonfly.eco 's database https://dragonfly.eco/category/books/eco/weird-fiction/  What is Ecological weird fiction? With Mary Woodbury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AjqflhhyUs&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=15  Weird fiction on dragonfly.eco 's database https://dragonfly.eco/category/books/eco/weird-fiction/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 52 of the Ecofictology podcast!  If you caught my book review of the ecofantasy novel The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson, you will know how much I enjoyed it and hopefully you are looking forward to hearing from the author himself! I had such a wonderful time chatting with him, he had so many wonderful insights about what fantasy can bring to the ecofiction conversation, how important it is to have this conversation across genres and how the heck do we market these books? You will find links in the shownotes to Joshua’s website and to his books, since the second in the series, The Endless Song, has been published now too. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer to see as well as hear Joshua talking about his books, you can find the link in the shownotes as well. I hope you enjoy Interview with Joshua Phillip Johnson, author of The Forever Sea, an ecofantasy novel! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0r1Xc2Ieos&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=18  The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53285570-the-forever-sea  The Endless Song by Joshua Phillip Johnson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60224574-the-endless-song?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=6ZAcAcvUwy&rank=5  Author's website https://www.joshuaphillipjohnson.com/ Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/gzMUy7vBJM  and become a member. If you’re an ecofiction author, feel free to join our weekly writing sessions, get some community motivation! 

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 51 of the Ecofictology podcast! This minisode Monday, i am bringing you my book review of The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson. It is an ecofantasy novel that I got super excited about as soon as I heard about it, I think it was mentioned on the Writing Excuses podcast which I absolutely love and all but tripped over myself to grab it once i heard that it had a magic system involving music and had an ecological message. I am always looking for more ecological themes in epic fantasy and this book has pirates, monsters, a cool magic system, and water shortages due to finite resources. It’s perfect for me. This wednesday coming up, I will be sharing my interview with the author, Joshua Phillip Johnson, which was so much fun, he was great to talk to, so check back in on wednesday if you want to know more. As I am posting this on the podcast, the second book in the series, The Endless Song, has been published so you don’t even have to wait between book 1 and 2, you can just follow Kindred’s journey. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. The one I posted there was the edited, highlight reel version as it were, but this is the interview in full so I hope you enjoy. The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53285570-the-forever-sea  Author's website https://www.joshuaphillipjohnson.com/  Ecofiction Book Review | The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson | SPOILER FREE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3NcO0LMGPg&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqIJaGfibZuk8YZvCggE68O&index=35  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 50 of the Ecofictology podcast!  This week I am digging into one of my favourite genres...fantasy! I love reading fantasy and I also love to write it. Pretty much all of my works in progress and ideas that are percolating in my head would fall into this genre. When i set about making this video I made the mistake of thinking there weren't that many examples of ecofantasy and am so happy to tell you that I was wrong! There's loads! This episode is a bit of an introduction and I really wanted to address the issue that some people have, thinking that fantasy isn't a "serious" genre because it is escapist. What's wrong with ecapism?! And I don't agree that it hinders the genre at all in being able to send some really important messages!  This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Where is all the ecofantasy? Oh...there it is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NECdUor-vEs&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrXVSX7CA8F43XjQV9W50z4&index=1  Ecologists in fantasy: where are they?? How can they be used in ecofantasy? https://youtu.be/EJPTtFTC6Co  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 49 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week, I am doing a short review of the book Sphinx by Andrea Dejean, immediately followed by an interview with the author herself. I really enjoyed my chat with Andrea, her experiences in French Guiana which is where this book takes place gives it such depth to the novel and teaches you so much about the ecosystem, the societal element of it, and the species of sphinx moth that ties it all together. So before i give away too much of it, i’ll just let you get on with it. This episode is one of the last that I posted on my channel, I think, so you can just about still catch the video version of this interview over on the ecofictology youtube channel. I hope you enjoy Find the book at Middle Creek Publishing: https://www.middlecreekpublishing.com/sphinx  My FAVOURITE ecofiction novel in 2022 | Reading roundup October, November AND December https://youtu.be/AdR1EvC3OeQ   Interview with Andrea Dejean | Author of Sphinx https://youtu.be/_zrOdyptwic Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 48 of the Ecofictology podcast! In this part 4 of our Spells and Specialists episode with veterinarian Max Farmer, we brainstorm a story using our magic system and keeping in mind everything max wanted to communicate about his field of veterinary science and animal nutrition. I feel like this magic system, maybe more than any we’ve come up with so far, lends itself to SO many stories. We brainstormed one in this episode but i have several others bouncing around up there and i know that Max was quite inspired to use it in a project himself. And that is really rewarding, i would so love to have several stories using the same seed crystal, the same magic system, but be wildly different in plot and character. So if you, dear listener, feel inspired by one of the seed crystals or magic systems we create in these episodes, please feel free to take them and run with them, all we ask is that you tell us about it so we can gush about it. We do these episodes to inspire as well as to communicate so if they have done that for you, please do let us know! The video version of this episode can be found on my youtube channel if you prefer the visual medium, and you can find the link in the shownotes. I do show the storytelling chart on screen with the character, conflict, goal stakes and action columns but really, i dont think you need them to follow along. I hope you enjoy. Find and Follow Max at...  His website: https://www.maxwellfarmer.com/  On Discord: https://discord.gg/DEdypYwn47  On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maxwellfarmerauthor/  And On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Maxwell-Farmer/author/B0865Q4VF4?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true  Treason, assassination and a senior dragon | Spells & Specialists with Max Farmer Part 4 https://youtu.be/2-kWxbyfU_k  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 47 of the Ecofictology podcast!  This week is part 3 of our spells and specialist episode with Max Farmer who has taught us all about his work as a vet and animal nutrition, we’ve created a seed crystal for our inspiration to start to play and now we get to dive into building the magic system out of that seed crystal. To refresh your memory, the seed crystal was that people can bond with animals and monsters to gain their traits powers and weakness over time but they must maintain the health and wellbeing of their bonded, so you can already probably imagine that we had heaps and heaps of fun using the Magic System Blueprint, created by my cohost Clark, the magic engineer, to develop a magic system around it. As with all the part 3’s, this episode has a visual component, we play with levers and dials on Clark’s screen showing the blueprint, so if you want to follow along visually, you will find a link to the video on clark’s youtube channel in the show notes. However, i think you will be able to follow along just fine with the audio. Let’s build a magic system! I hope you enjoy Find and Follow Max at...  His website: https://www.maxwellfarmer.com/  On Discord: https://discord.gg/DEdypYwn47  On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maxwellfarmerauthor/  And On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Maxwell-Farmer/author/B0865Q4VF4?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true  The Magic Blueprint for Our Chibi-Menagerie || Spells & Specialists w/ Max Farmer Pt 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siH4GwApTEY&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=19&t=140s  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 46 of the Ecofictology podcast!  It is time to take everything we learned from Max last week about animal nutrition and veterinary science and distill it down into a seed crystal. If you want more detail on what a seed crystal is, either listen to earlier episodes of Spells and Specialists on this podcast or head over to Clark’s youtube channel, the magic engineer, where you’ll find lots of resources on this. I love the seed crystal we come up with in this episode, so many ideas flying through my head already! The video version of this episode can be found on clark’s channel as well, the links will be in the show notes. I hope you enjoy Find and Follow Max at...  His website: https://www.maxwellfarmer.com/  On Discord: https://discord.gg/DEdypYwn47  On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maxwellfarmerauthor/  And On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Maxwell-Farmer/author/B0865Q4VF4?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true  When Pokemon Meets Veterinary Medicine || Spells & Specialists w/ Max Farmer Pt 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzCHgkNu_Po&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=18  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 45 of the Ecofictology podcast! It’s that time again, Spells and Specialists is back with another series of episodes, this time with veterinarian Max Farmer and he is going to teach us all about animal nutrition and his particular area of interest, dentistry. Of course, as always, i am joined by my wonderful cohost, Clark Rowenson, the magic engineer, and we had a lot of fun learning all about this and Max, being an author himself, was just brimming with ideas so the rest of these episodes are just busting at the seams with storytelling potential. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes, and you can also check out clark’s youtube channel for more goodies all about magic systems. I hope you enjoy Find and Follow Max at...  His website: https://www.maxwellfarmer.com/  On Discord: https://discord.gg/DEdypYwn47  On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maxwellfarmerauthor/  And On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Maxwell-Farmer/author/B0865Q4VF4?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true  Veterinary Medicine and Animal Nutrition with Maxwell Farmer | Spells and Specialists Part 1 https://youtu.be/JakF4MMHneI  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 44 of the Ecofictology podcast! This minisode monday kind of wraps up our mini series on Conservation in Ecofiction which I have enjoyed doing SO MUCH! I didn’t include them all here but if you want more recommendations of books that incorporate conservation into their plot, head to my youtube channel, there is a playlist for this series, the link is in the shownotes. Apart from the two reviews you got on here, My Last Continent, The tourist trail and Skydance, books I reviewed on the channel were Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom, Ivory Ghosts by Caitlin O'Connell, The Dragon keeper by mindy mejia, all of which i thoroughly enjoyed so go check those out if you wish. I also really enjoyed the guests I've had, from scientists like Francesca Trotman from Love the Oceans, Sally Snow from Lamave, and Dr. Diogo Verissimo from Lost and Found to authors (John D Burns, John Yunker and midge raymond) have really been wonderful! I have learned A TON during this series so I wanted to make a video talking about what I learned about how to write conservation in ecofiction, what is working well and what could we do better to really make the most of ecofiction's potential. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy What I learned about HOW to write conservation in ecofiction | Series wrap up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzGVeu8GME&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqiqXXl-iORnFfE5k8Xk_A8&index=13  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 43 of the Ecofictology podcast! We are continuing in our Conservation in Ecofiction series and I am INCREDIBLY excited to introduce you to Dr Diogo Verissimo from Lost and Found and On the Edge Conservation! I had such a great time talking with Diogo, it is always inspiring to meet someone who is so active and really makes you feel like one person can make a difference so why not try something yourself? There are many links in the show notes today so be sure to check them out, Diogo has so much going on and mentioned lots of cool projects. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer to watch as well as listen to Diogo, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Ecofiction, Storytelling and Conservation: interview with Dr. Diogo Veríssimo from Lost and Found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf7P5ZO8mQs&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=11  Resources Dr Diogo Varissimo’s website http://www.diogoverissimo.com/ Lost and Found http://www.lostandfoundnature.com/blog/2017/04/21/lost-and-found/  On the Edge Conservation http://www.ontheedge.org/ The Ugly Animal Preservation Society https://www.uglyanimalsoc.com/ International Social Marketing Association https://isocialmarketing.org/# Funders of Lost and Found Society for Conservation Biology https://conbio.org/  British Ecological Society https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/  Alongside Wildlife Foundation https://alongsidewildlifefoundation.org/ Amy Gallagher, Cartoonist for Lost and Found http://www.amiluu.com/  https://www.lostandfoundnature.com/blog/2017/04/21/meet-the-lost-found-team-amy-gallagher/  Convention on Biological Diversity https://www.cbd.int/  Ten Friends to Remember https://books.google.com/books/about/Ten_Friends_to_Remember.html?id=9JynSemAC8gC&redir_esc=y  https://www.amazon.com/Ten-friends-remember-Diogo-Ver%C3%ADssimo/dp/1468023772/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g4368549507?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&ie=UTF8&redirectFromSmile=1  Centre for Eco-Cultural Studies Sri Lanka http://www.cessrilanka.org/  Captain Planet theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiYjTb3opAA&t=0s  Conservation Optimism https://conservationoptimism.org/  Good Natured Podcast https://conservationoptimism.org/our-resources/conservation-optimism-podcast/  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 42 of the Ecofictology podcast!  This week I am delighted to welcome John D Burns to the show! He is the author of Sky Dance: Fighting for the Wild in the Scottish Highlands, which I reviewed in the last episode on Monday and absolutely loved! John had so much fascinating information about the highlands, how they came to be the way they are, and what can be done to restore them to how they should be! I learned so much from my chat with him! You can find out more about John and where to get your hands on Sky Dance or either of his other books, The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales, at his website: johndburns.com There, you can also find the episodes of his podcast Outside In, which are fascinating! This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Interview with John D Burns, author of Sky Dance: Fighting for the Wild in the Scottish Highlands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq1eFy6gQyY&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=5  Here is also a link to the book John mentioned, A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1075635.Ring_of_Bright_Water?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=0NddLlt589&rank=1  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 41 of the Ecofictology podcast! This Minisode Monday I am beyond excited to review SkyDance: Fighting for the Wild in the Scottish Highlands by John D Burns. This is a hilarious book that still conveys important messages about land management in Scotland, human wildlife conflicts surrounding the grouse hunting industry, and the push to rewild the highlands, starting with the reintroduction of the lynx.  Since I live in Scotland and spend time in the Highlands, I was immediately drawn to this book and was not disappointed! Loved it, highly recommend! I’m bringing you this short episode now so that on Wednesday when i invite John onto the show for an interview, you all have the context and know what I thought of the book. We have a wonderful chat, he’s a very funny man, so check back in for that on Wednesday. A small EDIT: in the video I say the subtitle of the book is "The fight for the wild in the Scottish Highlands" but it is actually "FIGHTING for the wild...". Apologies!  This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy John Burns’ website  https://www.johndburns.com/   John Burns’ Sky Dance podcast https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/john-538burns/episodes/2019-07-12T05_52_17-07_00   Vertebrate Publishing “Inspiring Adventure” podcast: Episode 4: John Burns talks bothies in a bookshop https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/blog/v-publishing-blog/2019-11-14---inspiring-adventure-podcast/#:~:text=Inspiring%20Adventure%20from%20Vertebrate%20Publishing,the%20great%20outdoors%20through%20literature.&text=Rae%20is%20joined%20by%20Tough,Appalachian%20Trial%20in%20100%20days.   E6 (Inspiring Adventure) John D. Burns at Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieTa7TFKfJQ  Ecofiction Book Review: SkyDance, Fighting for the Wild in the Scottish Highlands by John D Burns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcsj6gMY5tc&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqIJaGfibZuk8YZvCggE68O&index=14  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 40 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week we are doing things a little differently. After reading The Overstory by Richard Powers, I was at a loss as to how I was going to condense this immense book into my usual book review format. Turns out, Forrest Brown (creator of the Stories for Earth podcast) was too! So we decided to get together for a "little chat" which turned into a 2hour therapy session. This is the most spoiler free, shortened version I could cut it down to because 2 hours is kind of insane. The full audio is available on Forrest's podcast, Stories for Earth https://storiesforearth.com (and I highly recommend listening to his other episodes as well, they're excellent!). I hope you still get a lot out of this version but I won’t hold it against you if you prefer the long version, but Be warned, there are massive spoilers in that one and we both go through highs and lows !  This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer to watch us try and digest this book you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Stories for Earth  https://storiesforearth.com/category/episodes/  The Overstory by Richard Powers http://goodreads.com/book/show/40180098-the-overstory?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=bSiQ1dP56g&rank=1   The Overstory by Richard Powers | a therapy session with Forrest Brown from Stories for Earth  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eVdNThqE8Y&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqIJaGfibZuk8YZvCggE68O&index=22  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 39 of the Ecofictology podcast! You all know by now that while i love all the parts of a spells and specialists episode, i love part 4 the best. We take everything we learned from Rachel Rowenson about systems science in part 1, the seed crystal we distilled it down to in part 2, the magic system we developed out of it in part 3 and now we brainstorm a story to communicate all of that in part 4. By the end, i was just about ready to drop all my other projects to write this thing it was so cool and has so much potential. I still might very well write these spells and specialists projects out of order so i can get to this one quicker because it was that exciting to me. But find out for yourself. This episode does have some visual components to it, i show a table with character, conflict, goal stakes and action on it to help us create a pitch and guide our brainstorming, so if you think it would help you to follow along with the video, you’ll find the link to my youtube channel in the show notes, but hopefully the audio alone gives you everything you need to sit back and enjoy.  Ghosts, secrets and family drama, oh my! | Spells and Specialists with Rachel Rowenson Part 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt4c-iv9RhI&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrif1Vn3uDole07p_C4EILb&index=9  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 38 of the Ecofictology podcast! For all you magic system lovers out there, this episode is for you because it is part 3 of our spells and specialists episode with Rachel Rowenson and we run our new seed crystal through the Magic System Blueprint, developed by Clark. If you want to have more detail and information on the blueprint, you’ll find everything your little heart desires on his youtube channel, the magic engineer. This episode was so much fun, it never ceases to astound me how different all these magic systems turn out to be and these episodes bring me so much joy. This episode does have some visual components to it like turning dials and sliders and things on the blueprint so if you feel like seeing it would help you follow along, you can find the video on Clark’s youtube channel and the link is in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Solidifying Our First Soft-Irrational Magic System || Spells & Specialists w/ Rachel Rowenson Pt 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FpIefrt7PY&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=15  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 37 of the Ecofictology podcast! It’s time for part 2 of our spells and specialists episode with Rachel Rowenson, a systems scientist. Last time we learned about system sciences and now it's time to find the seed crystal for our upcoming magic system. I love seeing how people approach this method differently, Rachel is very driven by theme so Clark can adjust how he leads his episode accordingly and I love how flexible it is to meet everyone’s creative process. This episode can be found on Clark’s youtube channel, the magic engineer, the link is in the show notes. I hope you enjoy Finding a Fantastic, Theme-Based Seed Crystal || Spells & Specialists w/ Rachel Rowenson Pt 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QQJ9aFdxI0&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=14  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 36 of the Ecofictology podcast! It’s time for another series of Spells and Specialists episodes with my wonderful cohost Clark Rowenson, the magic engineer, and this time we are welcoming a particularly special guest, Rachel Rowenson who happens to be Clark’s wife and has been watching our storytelling shenanigans and wanted to get involved. She is a systems scientist and she’ll tell you exactly what that means in this wonderful episode where our brains explode from all the cool stuff and we collect information that we will distill down into a seed crystal next week in Part 2. Get ready to learn some stuff!   This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Systems science and saving the world with Rachel Rowenson | Spells and Specialists Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiMWhJDInfY&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrif1Vn3uDole07p_C4EILb&index=8  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 35 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week I welcome Midge Raymond onto the show as we talk about her beautiful novel My Last Continent. I reviewed this book on Monday so check that out! We talk about publishing ecofiction, taking inspiration for stories from the world around us and using ecofiction and storytelling as a form of communication to reach people. I had such fun chatting with Midge, she and John Yunker, who she founded Ashland Creek Press with, have been so welcoming to me and some of my favourite ecofiction titles have come out of that press so keep them on your radar.   This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Midge Raymond's website https://midgeraymond.com/   Ashland Creek Press's website https://ashlandcreekpress.com/   EcoLit Books' website https://ecolitbooks.com/  Interview with Midge Raymond | Author of My Last Continent | Cofounder of Ashland Creek Press https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-aRM9f-IP0&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=19 Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 34 of the Ecofictology podcast! This Minisode monday I am reviewing My Last Continent by Midge Raymond, the co-founder of Ashland Creek Press which I've mentioned before on this podcast. This book has everything, it has penguins, ecologists, the Antarctic, impending doom and a romance. What more could you want? I loved it and I am sharing this short episode with you today so that you’re prepared for Wednesday when I post an interview with Midge where we talk all about her book and what she hoped to achieve with it and ecofiction in general so check back in on Wednesday for that!  This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Ecofiction Book Review | My Last Continent by Midge Raymond | SPOILER FREE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRSD1HxeYnQ&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqIJaGfibZuk8YZvCggE68O&index=36  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 33 of the Ecofictology podcast! Today I am delighted to introduce you to a very good friend of mine, Sally Snow, one of the executive directors of the Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines, affectionately shortened to Lamave. She is a zoologist and filmmaker with a passion for conservation filmmaking and telling stories from local perspectives that often go unheard. I worked with Sally for a year in the Philippines as I ran one of the whaleshark research sites with my partner and it was a glorious experience, I told it very close to my heart so it was great to touch base with Sally again. I had such a wonderful time talking with Sally and she had such wonderful insights into storytelling which she has also made some forays into.   This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (Lamave) https://www.Lamave.org/  Jackson Wild https://www.jacksonwild.org/   The Ivory Game https://theivorygame.com/   Sea of Shadows documentary on the vaquita https://films.nationalgeographic.com/sea-of-shadows   Conservation Media Group https://www.conservationmediagroup.org/  Ecofiction, storytelling and conservation: interview with Sally Snow from Lamave  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V991PHV_a0&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=7  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 32 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week I am very pleased to introduce you to Francesca Trotman from Love the Oceans, a marine conservation organisation operating out of Mozambique. If you’ve been around my youtube channel at all you’ve probably heard the name several times because this was the organisation that I donated a portion of my patreon earnings to when I still had a patreon. By the time i stopped patreon, we had donated over £300 to Love the Oceans which I am very proud of. Chess is a friend of mine, we spent some time together in Mozambique and I have watched her in awe as she just went out and did the thing that so many people probably say they want to do, go and start an organisation to do some good and she just went and did it. So impressive! I enjoyed talking to her about storytelling in conservation and where she thinks ecofiction can bridge some gaps.   This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Love the Oceans: https://lovetheoceans.org/  Photographers without Borders https://www.photographerswithoutborders.org/  Ecofiction, storytelling and conservation: Interview with Francesca Trotman from Love the Oceans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqNY_PbgUJE&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=1  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 31 of the Ecofictology podcast! For the next couple of episodes, I wanted to dedicate time to exploring the power of storytelling in conservation and the representation of conservation in ecofiction. This is something that is very close to my heart and something I would love to see get more attention in the genre! I approach my research from a conservation perspective or at least a sustainable management perspective where possible and I started to notice that some of my favourite ecofiction titles were focused around conservation issues so maybe there was a bit of catharsis around seeing my fears reflected on the page. So anyway, this monday’s minisode is a bit of an exploration of that. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Conservation in Ecofiction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dQUCHjKYbE&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqiqXXl-iORnFfE5k8Xk_A8&index=2&pp=gAQBiAQB  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 30 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week I am so excited to talk to Mary Woodbury from dragonfly.eco which is an absolutely wonderful resource for anyone wanting to learn a bit more about ecofiction, get some recommendations, keep on top of news etc, Mary has published "Birdsong: a Novella" under the pen name Clara Hume and has several other titles under her belt as well. I learned so much from my chat with her, all about the ways people categorise ecofiction and how the stories themselves should be our focus rather than the term itself. You’ll remember some of these topics from an early episode I did on the definitions of ecofiction and dangers of categorisation, so if you want more context you can go back to episode 1 i believe, actually.  This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. It was recorded via zoom so the audio is not amazing, but you’re probably used to that by now. I hope you enjoy Dragonfly.eco Birdsong: a Novella by Clara Hume https://dragonflypub.ca/bird-song-a-novella/  Back to the Garden https://www.moonwillowpress.com/back-to-the-garden/  Round the World in 80 Books on Medium https://medium.com/@EcoFiction/around-the-world-in-80-books-a-guide-to-ecological-and-climate-themes-in-fiction-a24e1e9b9e64  Interview with Mary Woodbury: author of "Birdsong: a Novella" and founder of dragonfly.eco  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9BGeX36n7U&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=13  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 29 of the Ecofictology podcast! This is the final part of our Spells and Specialists episode with Navarre Bartz where we brainstorm a story to communicate all about energy materials, solar panels and how electrodes work using the magic system we created in Part 3. If you missed that, i highly recommend going back and listening to it, its a treat! I love Part 4, i mean i love all the parts but part 4 might be my favourite because we turn it all into a story and it is always a story that is so much better than if i were to try and come up with a story on my own to communicate these things, i really value the collaborative storytelling framework that we’ve got going on here. It brings me so much joy. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. There is a visual component to this part 4 as I am refining the process, it’s a table that lists out our ideas so they don’t get jumbled, but i think listening to it gives you all the information you need too. I hope you enjoy Find and Follow Navarre Here: - His Website: ⁠https://solarpunkstation.com/⁠ - On Youtube: ⁠   / @solarpunkstation  ⁠ - Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/BartzNavarre⁠ - Tumblr: ⁠https://www.tumblr.com/solarpunk-gnome/⁠ - The Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures: ⁠https://wvupressonline.com/node/905⁠ Nuclear plant meltdown and buddy cop comedy duo | Spells and Specialists Ep3.4 with Navarre Bartz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpzrrrdqFrs&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrif1Vn3uDole07p_C4EILb&index=7  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 28 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week we take our awesome seed crystal from the last Spells & Specialist video with Navarre Bartz and put it through Clark’s Magic system Blueprint! This blueprint is so much fun to play with, we always end up with something unique and intricate, and this time we ended up with a system that can explain both the old magic of earth as well as some crazy advanced technology for a solarpunk setting. You can find the video version of this episode on Clark’s channel, the magic engineer, link is in the show notes and this time there is a visual component because he’s sharing his screen and fiddling with dials and sliders on his blueprint which is pretty fun so check that out if you want to picture what it looks like, but i think you still get heaps of helpful info just by listening, so I hope you enjoy.  Find and Follow Navarre Here: - His Website: ⁠https://solarpunkstation.com/⁠ - On Youtube: ⁠   / @solarpunkstation  ⁠ - Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/BartzNavarre⁠ - Tumblr: ⁠https://www.tumblr.com/solarpunk-gnome/⁠ - The Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures: ⁠https://wvupressonline.com/node/905⁠ A Scientific Magic System for Old Magic and Adv.Tech || Spells & Specialists w/ Navarre Bartz Pt 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-PFXoE-TL0&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=11  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 27 of the Ecofictology podcast! The conversation with Navarre Bartz continues in this video of Spells & Specialists. It's time to take what we learned in part one and find our magic-system seed crystal. We had to approach things a little different this time around, but we sure ended up with a good one! This episode is led by my cohost Clark Rowenson the magic engineer, his concept of the seed crystal is so useful and i always enjoy whittling our ideas down to a single point from which our inspiration can grow. This is an archived episode from Clark’s youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Find and Follow Navarre Here: - His Website: ⁠https://solarpunkstation.com/⁠ - On Youtube: ⁠   / @solarpunkstation  ⁠ - Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/BartzNavarre⁠ - Tumblr: ⁠https://www.tumblr.com/solarpunk-gnome/⁠ - The Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures: ⁠https://wvupressonline.com/node/905⁠ A Seed Crystal of Fictional Quanta and Science || Spells & Specialists w/ Navarre Bartz Pt 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjeJTCLXcsg&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=10  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 26 of the Ecofictology podcast! It's time for another month of Spells and Specialists episodes! I love doing these, they are so much fun! And this time, Navarre Bartz talks to us all about energy materials, batteries and what it all has to do with solar panels and renewable energies. I learned a TON! Of course, I am joined by my wonderful cohost Clark Rowenson the magic engineer, check out his channel on youtube if you want more information on magic systems, how to build them, and all that good stuff. We had so much fun listening to Navarre and I hope you come away knowing a little bit more about batteries...because I know you’ve been wondering about it right? This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Find and Follow Navarre Here: - His Website: https://solarpunkstation.com/ - On Youtube:    / @solarpunkstation   - Twitter: https://twitter.com/BartzNavarre - Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/solarpunk-gnome/ - The Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures: https://wvupressonline.com/node/905 Batteries and Solar Panels with Navarre Bartz | Spells and Specialists Episode 3 Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdm7RDzB40Q&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrif1Vn3uDole07p_C4EILb&index=6  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 25 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week I am welcoming a very special guest, Sally Cole-Misch, the author of "The Best Part of Us", which I reviewed in this Monday’s minisode! If you missed the review, have a look at that. It was so much fun talking with Sally, I feel so lucky to have gotten the opportunity to connect with her. I think we had a great conversation about sense of place and especially how inspiring that love for a place can inspire behavioural change too, that you protect what you care about. I think that’s so powerful. Many more wonderful tidbits in this interview, let me know what resonated the most with you. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Interview with Sally Cole Misch, author of "The Best Part of Us" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My1gYnLdCLM&list=PLErvk5p2-eWoC2qkqDRKjUm-eLzChdx0o&index=3  You can find more information on Sally and "The Best Part of Us" at her website sallycole-misch.com , I highly recommend!  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 24 of the Ecofictology podcast! Happy Minisode Monday, today I am sharing with you my thoughts on the book The Best Part of Us by Sally Cole-Misch. I thought this was an interesting book to feature as ecofiction because depending on your definition, this may or may not be on your radar. It is a book with a strong sense of place and appreciation for nature but there is no activism or commentary on climate change necessarily. For me, this is ecofiction, it makes you care about a place. Let me know if you agree or not. Wednesday’s episode will be an interview with the author herself and we go into that a little bit more so check back in for that. As usual, This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy Sally Cole-Misch’s website https://sallycole-misch.com/ The Best Part of Us https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53498113-the-best-part-of-us?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=9QRuMUoQ1K&rank=1 Book Review: The Best Part of Us by Sally Cole-Misch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej5N2q7IScs&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqIJaGfibZuk8YZvCggE68O&index=13&t=2s  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 23 of the Ecofictology podcast! This is third and last interview with the teenage winners of the XR wordsmiths solarpunk storytelling showcase 2022, a short story writing competition that I was a judge for. This week I am talking with Reb about their story Blood Oil, I really enjoyed this chat, they had such great insights into what the ideal future looks like and I was so impressed with how involved they were with Extinction Rebellion DC! Check out their story on the XR wordsmiths website, see if you’re as impressed with their use of imagery as I was. The term fossil fuel vampires still sticks in my memory. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy https://xrwordsmiths.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/xr-solarpunk-storytelling-showcase-now-open-for-entries/ Interview with Reb Spring | Teenage Winner of XR Solarpunk Storytelling Showcase | Blood Oil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGkc1vvMn_s&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqnP7C0JMz5G3IW6aCQ3B5w&index=3  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 22 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week I am sharing a truly inspiring interview I did with Katrina Eilender, another winner of the teenage category from the XR wordsmiths solarpunk storytelling showcase short story writing competition 2022! I have to say, I was so impressed when speaking with her, she has such passion when she talks about the climate crisis, activism and the power of solarpunk and storytelling in general! I thoroughly enjoyed this chat, it gave me so much hope that these kids know what their doing, I think I had a moment in this interview where i was like ok, i trust you to save the world, no problem. Anyway, Katrina was a joy so check out her story on the XR wordsmiths website and check out 2023’s winners too because they are equally fantastic. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy https://xrwordsmiths.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/xr-solarpunk-storytelling-showcase-now-open-for-entries/ Interview with Katrina Eilender | Teenage Winner XR Solarpunk Storytelling Showcase | City Starlight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUlwNtclPC8&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqnP7C0JMz5G3IW6aCQ3B5w&index=2  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 21 of the Ecofictology podcast! This week, I am SO excited to introduce you to Aël who was one of the winners of the teenage category in the Extinction Rebellion Wordsmiths Solarpunk Storytelling Showcase short story writing competition 2022! His story "The Old Man and the Bird" is published on the XR wordsmiths website so you can check that out! It was such a joy and a pleasure to speak with him and he had such a beautiful way of talking about solarpunk and what it means to him. I hope you enjoy! This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy https://xrwordsmiths.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/xr-solarpunk-storytelling-showcase-now-open-for-entries/ Interview with Aël Magnard | Teenage Winner of the XR Wordsmiths Solarpunk Storytelling Showcase! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CoiT_Ui4vc&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqnP7C0JMz5G3IW6aCQ3B5w&index=2  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 20 of the Ecofictology podcast! This Minisode Monday i’m just really going to be gushing about my experience being a judge for the extinction rebellion wordsmiths solarpunk writing contest in 2022. This was an honour for me to be a part of and honestly it really gave me so much hope and so many energy pennies. It was a wonderful experience and actually I was asked to do it again in 2023 and had an equally rewarding and fulfilling experience so, yeah. I’ll stop this portion of gushing and let you get to the official gushing part. As usual, This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy https://xrwordsmiths.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/xr-solarpunk-storytelling-showcase-now-open-for-entries/ https://www.solarpunkstorytelling.com/ My experience being a judge for the XR wordsmiths Solarpunk writing contest! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0sggFYGqw8&list=PLErvk5p2-eWqnP7C0JMz5G3IW6aCQ3B5w&index=4&pp=gAQBiAQB  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 19 of the Ecofictology podcast! This is the final part of our Spells and Specialists episode with Corri Moss-hunter and we have created such a cool magic system so now it’s time to brainstorm a story that will communicate all that goodness to the world. Think we can do it? I do too. Of course i am joined by my wonderful cohost Clark Rowenson, the magic engineer, while we come up with a delightful middle grade novel that will teach you about what the heck functional behaviours are anyway. This is an archived episode from my youtube channel so if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy If you want to contact her for more information, or request information about joining her wait list for her to be your therapist or consultant, feel free to email: [email protected] Corri does not answer psychotherapy questions in email. Middle grade novel about functional behaviours with E. Corri Moss-Hunter| Spells and Specialists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ZvNQWUSKM&list=PLErvk5p2-eWrif1Vn3uDole07p_C4EILb&index=6  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 18 of the Ecofictology podcast! We are finally at the point in our Spells and Specialists episode with Corri Moss Hunter where we can build out our magic system using Clark’s Magic system blueprint. I love these episodes, this is a great tool and it’s cool to see how flexible it is and how much you can learn about your magic system. In our case, our seed crystal was all about those functional behaviours Corri taught us about and how people are using magic automatically and instinctually which shows us their emotional state. So we dig into that a little bit more in this episode to figure out what that really means and how we can make that a bit more detailed. And then next week we brainstorm a story all about it! The video version of this episode can be found on Clark’s youtube channel, the magic engineer, if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy How Does Our Emotionally Influenced Magic Work? || Spells & Specialists w/ Corri Moss-Hunter Pt 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j9lsNH3D0I&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=8  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!

Hey ecofictologists and welcome to episode 17 of the Ecofictology podcast! We are continuing our Spells and Specialists episode with Corri moss hunter today and finding out what kind of seed crystal would work best to build a magic system teaching you all about therapy and functional behaviours which we learned about last week. It’s really interesting to see how this process is different for every person and Clark and I have a lot of fun digging into the inspiration that we can take forward into Part 3 which is building the magic system with his magic system blueprint.  The video version of this episode can be found on Clark’s youtube channel, the magic engineer, if you prefer the visual medium, you can find the link in the shownotes. I hope you enjoy What Kind of Seed Crystal Does a Therapist Need? || Spells & Specialists w/ Corri Moss-Hunter Pt 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY0RGlQtUQI&list=PLbLBMlI_GY5K9bywwltAwXjtDZR8h37fI&index=7  Join the Rewilding Our Stories discord server! If you want to find more ecofiction lovers like yourself, get recommendations and share resources, head over to https://discord.gg/zbMz59UNdm and join our community!