All posts tagged: Wolf

Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore

Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore

Published by Jenni Sidey

There is an author’s note before chapter one, and it is worth reading first because it explains the whole book. A version of this novel came out in 2023 as A Curse of Blood and Wolves, written under Gilmore’s other name, Melissa McTernan. It was her way into traditional publishing, and it came out before The Pumpkin Spice Café made her a bestseller. Now she has been given the rare thing a novelist almost never gets: the chance to take an early book apart and put it back together with everything she has learned since. Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore is that rebuild, and the seams are visible in a way that is more interesting than tidy. What Big Bad Wolf Is, Underneath The plot is the plot she wrote three years ago. Ruby Bellerose tends bar in a place so small the only pub in town is called Bar, on a sign in flickering red neon. Her twin sister Lena has started losing time, going somewhere behind her eyes that no doctor can …

The Wolf Queen’s Curse by Kaylee Archer

The Wolf Queen’s Curse by Kaylee Archer

Published by Jenni Sidey

A seamstress in Leeds is helping a new bride out of her dress when she sees dried blood on the corset and finger marks on both arms. She lowers her voice and says there is no reason for a husband to be rough. The bride swears on her mother’s grave that her husband did not do this. Which is true, in the sense that matters, and completely false about the handprints. The Wolf Queen’s Curse by Kaylee Archer builds a whole novel on the gap between those two answers. Where The Wolf Queen’s Curse Comes From Worth knowing before you start, because nobody is putting it on the cover. The copyright page assigns the text to KLA Fricke Inc., which is Kelley Armstrong‘s rights-holding company, and the acknowledgments thank Lucienne Diver, Armstrong’s longtime agent. The supernatural taxonomy is hers too: cabals run by sorcerer families, half-demons sorted into subtypes by power and strength, necromancers who raise as well as listen, witches who cast with words while sorcerers cast with their hands. Anyone who came up …

The Wolf in Grandmother’s Clothing

The Wolf in Grandmother’s Clothing

Published by Jenni Sidey

There is nothing quite like a grandmother. In archetypal terms, a grandparent figure is someone who offers care without control, attention without surveillance, and concern without conditions. In the world of Jungian archetypes, she is a combination of The Sage and The Caregiver. The archetype functions through reassurance rather than discipline: “Are you eating?” “Are you well?” “Let me help.” The archetypal (if a bit transparent) Grandma even makes sure companionship needs are met: “Are you seeing anyone?” That’s why it’s so insidious and so dangerous when predators take on archetypal characteristics to lure their prey, and why the Big Bad Wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale is especially frightening. It does help explain why some individuals with unmet emotional needs (often, but not always, young women) are drawn to men who don’t have their best interests at heart. We are also mystified by how ill-intentioned, transactional predators manage to attract high-functioning people into their circle. These targets may seem successful on the surface, but their emotional vulnerability draws them into the …

Yellowstone’s ravens may memorize wolf hunting hotspots—to feast

Yellowstone’s ravens may memorize wolf hunting hotspots—to feast

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. When wolves are on the hunt, a kill rarely goes unnoticed for long. In the elk- and deer-rich areas of northern Yellowstone National Park, ravens are often among the first scavengers to arrive on the scene, swooping down to feast on scraps left behind by the howling canines.  Field biologists have long assumed that the birds simply follow wolves as they track and take down their prey. However, a study published today in the journal Science provides evidence that ravens may be remembering hunting hotspots and scavenging for food, rather than chasing wolves.  “Ravens are known for their remarkable intelligence,” Matthias-Claudio Loretto, a study co-author and wildlife ecologist at Austria’s University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, tells Popular Science. “They have excellent spatial memory and are very good at learning from experience. Our study suggests they use those abilities when scavenging. In other words, they’re not just opportunists—they’re planning where to search.” The study tracked about 70 common ravens (Corvus …