Hello! I do continually use this blog! But here are my other accounts if you want to follow.
Instagram: RollTheBones
TikTok: RollBones
Flickr: StrangeBiology
I'm also working on a book about carcasses, so I have a few accounts dedicated to that process:
Twitter: BestCarcass
Tumblr: @carcassafterlives
Facebook: Carcass: The Afterlives of Animal Bodies
Instagram: CarcassAfterlives
You can read my writing here.
I love social media, I use it all the time and have a lot of followers! I love how you can communicate with the public without such strong gatekeepers, and I love talking to the community of people who like my book topic (@carcassafterlives.)
But the majority of people trying to "grow their readership" by starting a TikTok/Twitter/etc account they don't really enjoy are just wasting their time. Write articles for actual professional outlets first; if you're a writer, write, and the outlet will have their professional marketer do the marketing. Same with a traditional publisher for your book. Notice people selling "social media marketing for authors" courses will happily take your money but they NEVER tell you the ROI from their customers.
From this piece:
"If anyone tells you they are successfully using Twitter to sell books, ask to see their recent sales numbers and then watch them clam up."
"While many unpublished authors spend lots of time sharing advice and guiding each other on social media, bestselling authors spend that time writing."
Some things you didn’t know about buffalo jumps!
Vore Buffalo Jump and Tatanka: Story of the Bison.
I'm running a panel on vertical video (like TikTok, Instagram Reels etc) in October and I'm going to be the change I wish to see: I'm going to actually include the money/ROI situation that no one ever wants to talk about
Man I've been to a lot of panels and read so much writing advice online, and no one talks about money. If they're asked, they just spout "this isn't a get-rich-quick scheme" Like OK great. Is anyone making a living wage ever? Is the average person? Is the person giving advice here making anything off of this? I have bills to pay, and yes I do lots of fun and charitable things for free, but money is a factor in everything so you should be discussing it if you're getting up on a podium and promoting it! And make sure the numbers are useful to the audience: just talking about the success of a handful of people is not relevant to most people. Averages can be ok but the more specific, the better.
I'm gonna dedicate like 20% of this talk to money. Maybe once I get a nice document together with exact numbers I'll post it here.
Once I posted my salary here and I got a message saying basically "you're so rich and privileged" and then others amounting to basically "aren't you ashamed that you're in your 30's and still making so little money? If you weren't so entitled you'd give up your career and do something more practical." So, admittedly I understand why people don't want to say anything about money because there is literally no number that will stop people from having extreme opinions about it.
But, I'm going to share anyway because it will help people make choices and maybe mitigate some pay discrepancies.
Antler Rendezvous in Alpine, Wyoming
More pics in my Antler Album on Flickr (newest pics at the bottom)
Some pictures I took of the sheepie sheeps. The Wyoming Sheep and Wool Festival was right here in Kemmerer and they let people come see the actual sheep moving!
Some of these didn't upload but you can see a lot more here on Flickr.
The little baby boys I was fostering, Tik Tok and Flip Flop, went to a bigger rescue yesterday, so I did a photoshoot with them before saying goodbye! If you are anywhere near Sheridan, Wyoming, and want the sweetest little crazy dudes ever, go adopt them! They are brothers and best friends!
My newest article for LiveScience is about a ton of Pleistocene bones found in a cave in Siberia!
We're talking:
All the bones are chewed up too
(Image credit: V. S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy)
My first article for LiveScience. Look at the teeth on that (extinct) dolphin!
The scientists examined the bones and made some educated guesses as to what, and how, they ate...
There's been a lot of rain here lately. Caught a shooting star on camera last night.
I'm writing the "preservation" chapter of my book about dead animals right now and I keep using the word "process" to mean "make a carcass into bones and/or other preserved body parts."
"Process" is such a vague word. What else do you say? I guess I can say "skeletonizing" sometimes. Makes me sound like a piranha.
Look at how the little guy’s eyes are changing colours!
Also they play hard and they sleep hard. Look at Bijou over there giving the Bombastic Side Eye.
My mom was gifted a cow skull and some miscellaneous bones by some friends who found them on their property. They're obviously a few years old and seem to have some demineralization going on.
My mom asked me to do what I can to clean them, as she would like to display them. I'm concerned about the fragility of the bones. All the resources I've found online assume you have somewhat fresh bones. Any advice for strengthening the bones? Can I still do a peroxide soak or would that be too risky?
Hi! Well if they’re clean, that’s generally enough. If they’re disintegrating that could be from being improperly cleaned. Peroxide can do a little damage. Maybe just make sure you’re applying it to the parts you want clean and not parts that are damaged?
Some people strengthen bones using glue or this thread on Reddit suggests Polaroid B72.
Someone was telling me there is no way you could eat dandelions, otherwise they’d all be harvested and sold in the market and you’d never be able to pick any
I mean that is some Grade A capitalist brain rot
Something a bit less heavy for today, haha. This is a color theory exercise that I did a while back. Each of the six sides of the cube depicts an extinct species, using a different formal color scheme. It was a fun challenge to figure out ways to make the scenes ‘interlock’ along the edges! Featured are:
I love this!
If you're interested in science writing, I've recommended The Open Notebook before and I'm recommending it again! And in turn, here is a list of things that they recommend for science writers. There really are tons of resources out there!
Full disclosure, I was looking at this site because they just put my group on there, Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress. Most of the attendees are science writers, but if you're writing (or seriously about to start writing) a non-memoir nonfiction book with an educational element, you'll benefit.
So I think I can post this field of dead sheep now that they look kinda like piles of wool. I counted 51 in a baseball-field-sized field the first time I saw them. Video here. I also found a dog and if you gave me a few hours I'd probably be able to count 50 more in nearby fields. Maybe more.
If you're wondering what killed them, my three guesses are:
I’ve been taking pictures of deer and other animals caught in fences. I have to say I kind of like these ones, where you can’t see the body but you know what happened.
I made a Flickr Album specifically of dead animals caught in fences, including the wider (ie more gross!!) version of this one.
