Fall Updates

It’s now Fall: the second-best season of all. As the days grow shorter, I find myself longing increasingly for winter.

What I don’t find myself doing is blogging. Here’s my latest set of excuses for why you haven’t seen me:

Excuses

Excuse 1: Travel Article

I’ve been working hard on an article about my recent trip to 3 Season’s Camp in Quebec. I’ve now completed my second draft of that piece, and I’m ready to start submitting it to magazines and websites.

Unfortunately, I have no idea who might publish it.

This article isn’t like anything I’ve written on The Jaguar; it’s edgier, featuring bad jokes, sarcasm, alcoholic references, and a bit of mild profanity. Since most nature writing is squeaky-clean, this might be a problem.

I need to find a platform that’s a little on the bold side, or self publish on Medium.com. If anyone has ideas of publications I should look up, please let me know!

Excuse 2: Archaeology

I’ve also been volunteering for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History‘s (CMNH) archaeology department.

I assisted with the CMNH’s field digs this past summer, and now I’m working behind-the-scenes in their archaeology lab. Most of what I’ve done is move heavy boxes around, since one of the problems in archaeology is finding enough space for all the artifacts that researchers uncover.

I’ll let you know if I find the Ark of the Covenant while sorting through storage boxes. I’ll just have to pop the lid open to be sure…

Excuse 3: More Archaeology

Speaking of archaeology, I landed my first paid writing gig a few weeks ago.

Rob Nelson – science filmmaker, marine biologist, and lead producer for Untamed Science US – is launching a new website that’s focused on understanding where we come from as a species, so that we can move forward in healthier ways. I’ll be writing a few intro-level posts about archaeology for that site, which is an awesome opportunity.

I’ll link to those posts on The Jaguar when they go live, and share more info about Rob’s new site when the time is right.

Excuse 4: Fishing Cat Conservancy

My next excuse for being offline is that I’ve been helping the Fishing Cat Conservancy (FCC): a non-profit that uses community-based conservation to protect fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus) and their mangrove habitats.

I’ve mostly been helping the FCC develop a system for sending out regular email updates to their followers as a volunteer, but they’ve recently informed me that they’re going to start paying me for my efforts. I guess that makes two freelancing gigs?

Note: I was not affiliated with the FCC when I wrote my articles about them. My volunteer – and now paid – role started after I’d published those posts.

Excuse 5: Life

The final reason why I haven’t been blogging much is that I have a day job. However, that position will expire on November 1, and I’m not sure what I’ll do after that.

Since I was able to land two freelancing gigs without much effort, I’m tempted to try and do that full-time. I’m not convinced that’s a good idea, though.

What’s Next?

Despite everything that’s going on, I’m not ready to abandon this site. I do have new posts on the way, including a Q&A with one of the first big cat “insiders” who acknowledged my existence when I started this blog.

Stay tuned!