Things I have Done While Researching My First Novel

Started collecting every beer can I could find with a wolf on it, regardless if I liked the type of beer or not. This bag of cans has now moved with me. Five times.

Searched North Alberta for the creepiest place to camp I could find. Camped there in January.

Got my car pissed on by a forest spirit (that’s what I choose to believe he was).

Took an extended road trip, sleeping exclusively in my car, to the Northwest Territories in October, two weeks after having major abdominal surgery because once I was fully healed, I would have to work again. (Real talk, it’s gorgeous in October and the bugs are all gone. And Yellowknife is cooler than you think.)

Got a PAL and then learned enough about hunting to challenge the CORE exam.

Set raw meat on fire.

Contacted Mackenzie County twice with questions about their zoning map.

Set raw intestines on fire.

Read the Poetic Edda cover to cover about three times.

Read absolutely all the Dene material I could find. Realized half of what I’d read wasn’t actually from Dene sources. Started again.

Learned way more about the Lumberwoods mythos than is good for you.

Watched over a hundred hours of youtube videos in which slightly unhinged old men explained their offgrid builds (a disconcerting glimpse into my future).

Spent enough time in High Level, AB that I now have a preferred gas station there.

I would still really like to go to Nahanni Valley and Wood Buffalo National Parks. The former is extremely regulated because tourists keep provoking the cryptids, and the latter is still recovering from having been on fire.