Speaker 1: Hello and good morning. How are you.
Speaker 2: Hello, Good morning, I'm good happy to be here.
Speaker 3: Oh, here we go again with another wolf story. And
you know me, I love me some wolf stories. I'm
from Montana. I understand the wolf because I grew up
around the Yellowstone National Park and you're putting focus on
the Yellowstone Wolf.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm so excited about it. I had the most
amazing opportunity to watch wolves with Rick McIntyre, who's he's
like the Jane Goodall of wolves. Honestly, he's watched wolves
more than any other person I think. And so I
got a chance to get up very very early in
the morning before sunrise and get out there in the
Lamar Valley and watch wolves. And I got to see
the oldest wolf mother they have ever had in Yellowstone.
She's eleven years old, and she gave birth to three
pups and I got to see her bring them out
of the den for the first time. It was amazing. Oh,
it was so cool.
Speaker 3: I love the way that you're connected to the wolf,
the way that you are, because through storytelling, then that
helps us embrace the wolf itself because a lot of us,
you know, we see the were wolf movies and we
see the scary movies of the wolves, but yet you
give us the opportunity to get to know the wolf,
especially with a wolf called Wander and of course now
a wolf called Fire.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's really been fun to dive into their
world and their way of thinking. And you know, there's
social animals like we are, and so we share a
lot of the same emotional experiences and motivations that wolves do.
I mean, if you in talking to Rick McIntyre about
the wolves, honestly, I think you could write an opera
based on the lives of those because wolves have relatively
short lives, right the five to six years on average
for a wolf, So there's a lot of churn and
turnover in the leadership of their packs, and so there
is a lot of drama there. I can tell you.
Speaker 3: How did you locate this love for the wilderness? Because
I live in a forest. I love every single animal,
including the snakes that that bless my day every day
to be here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've It's been my great fortune to spend most
of my life in Oregon, and so so I love
all the different ecosystems in my home state, and I've
hiked and camped and skied and sailed and paddled around
my state my whole life, and I feel so grateful
for it, just to have that access to the wilderness.
And I really, I really want young readers to feel
a connection to the wilderness, you know. I mean human beings,
we are hardwired to defend what we love, and so
I want them to love the wilderness and feel some
kinship with it, so that they'll get out there in it,
you know, in their life and do the work of protecting.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad you said that, because there's a big,
gigantic promotion right now that's introducing listeners to radio to
the forest. I mean, the whole entire commercial is about
getting into the forest and writing your own story. And see,
in a book like this, this is exactly why we
need to get back into the forest, because there's so
much that we're missing and it's not on the smartphone
right exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you really got to get up there, you know.
Like when I was when I was out researching for
this one, I was up in the Walaa mountains and
walking around and like the feel of the forest floor. Yeah, seat,
I like to take off my shoes sometimes and go,
what does this really feel like because it's got centuries
of needles and leaves falling on it, so it's spongy,
and you know, you put your foot down on it
and this little poof of dirt smell comes up, right,
But then you just drop down into the zoom wall prairie,
which is a bunch grass prairie, right, and it's pretty
high elevation, it's like five thousand feet or so, but
there it's clumps of grass tight together and then dirt
that's much harder packed and kind of gritty, easier to
see a track, but not nearly a souce, right, very
different like feel different smells like I love to really
dive into all of that and go, what is it
really like? What if I lie down in the dirt,
what will that be like? So, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That's so amazing.
Speaker 3: It's almost like you've stepped into my daily writing, because
I have a podcast that's called Forest Stories, and that's
exactly what I talk about. The wild grass, the slow
moving stream. I talk about how how tall the hill is,
and who's coming here to visit and why are they here?
And what are we all writers coming here to get
a story? And I just feel like that if you
sat in this forest, you would go I feel it
there is something here.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And even in my yard in the summertime,
I work in a treehouse in my yard, and like,
there are squirrels in my yard, and I could just
see like random, like, oh, look, squirrels live here. But
then when I'm up whatever, twelve fifteen feet up in
a tree, I can see that there are regular paths
that they tay, yes, and those are not obvious to
me when I'm at the ground level, but just that
little bit higher, I'm like, oh, look, here's a path,
and I can see, you know, how they get from
from tree to tree, defense to rooftop to thistle thing
over there. And it's really fun to see. It's like
an invisible highway from there the old time.
Speaker 3: With your connection to the wolves, do you also have
a passion for the coyote, because I mean, it seems
like the coyote is getting a bad rap these days.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Coyotes, man, they survive like nobody else. They're I'm
hard pressed to think, well maybe some birds, but they
can survive in almost any environment. They can still vibe
on the tundra, they can survive in the mountains on grasslands.
They can survive in the desert, and they thrive quite
well in an urban environment too, And that's remarkable that
they're that flexible.
Speaker 3: Who did the illustrating of your book? Because I mean
the illustrations in this book, I mean this, These are
works of art.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know, I'm completely gobstacked myself. I can barely
draw BAF so I'm I'm always like dazzled when I
see good illustrating. Her name is Monica Armigno, and she
is from Madrid, Spain, and she's just amazing, amazing to
work with and just so brilliant and faithful to the
actual animal. I always make sure when I'm communicating with her,
we always put the common name and the scientific name
of the animal, because, for example, in Europe, what we
call a moose they call an elk what, So I
know it's weird, So a little extra care in the
clarity of communication is needed. But she's a brilliant artist
and I couldn't be more grateful that she agreed to
do another one of these.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the book we're talking about is a wolf
called Fire. I believe that humans adapt and and and
basically and bring in the inner wolf as well, because
I believe in the silent wolf theory. Do you get
to get into that where it is great to be
a silent wolf by just sitting here and watching, just
patiently watch?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, and there It is interesting to watch any animal,
even your own pat just watching what they're paying attention
to and what they're seeing. Right, a wolf's visual system,
it's not that they can't see color, it's that their
brain doesn't care very much what color thing is. But
they're much more keyed into movement. Right, So the tiniest
little movement in the grass in their peripheral vision is
captures their attention immediately, right, and is captivating to them
in the way that a beautiful color or something is
captivating to a human being. Right. So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Your Wolf series really truly is something that has been
fun to really become a part of. And I realize
this is for ya readers, but as an adult, I'm
telling you, I really love what you do. What is
your next project and what is that wolf going to
be named?
Speaker 2: Well, my next project, actually, I'm super excited I'm going
to be writing about from the point of view of
a raven.
Speaker 1: Next what, Oh my god, wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that fascinates me because I study animal
totem totems, and the thing is is because I believe
there's energy in all the in the animals. And crows
and ravens are birds that I have studied like left
and right, because they bring such amazing energy and they're
very They want to keep the planet clean, is what
they want to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And and ravens are companions of wolves in
the wild, right, They have that symbiotic thing going on
that they they help each other. Wolves help open a
carcass so that ravens can eat it more easily. Ravens
help wolves find likely hunting opportunities. And they play with
each other too. I mean that is also fun. You
can see ravens coming in and like pulling the tails
of wolves and you know wolf pups, you know, chasing
after they'll see a group of crows on the ground
and they'll be like, ah, something to pounce on, as
if they ever could. But that's pretty that's pretty neat
to see too, that that interspecies interaction. So yeah, yeah,
and so and it's been a whole new challenge to
think about the world in the dimensions of flying and
so yeah, I'm super excited. We don't have a date
or anything on that one yet because I'm still writing it,
but yes, the Voice of the Wilderness books will continue,
so I am super excited about that.
Speaker 1: I love it. Where can people go to find out
more about you?
Speaker 2: I have a website, It's Roseanneperry dot com. Pretty basic,
and I'm on Instagram also, just under my name, so
pretty easy to find.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the door is always open.
Speaker 3: You've got to come back and talk to me again
in the future, especially when we start talking about Ravens exactly.
Speaker 2: I would love to thank you.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much. YouTube take it