Get the word when I publish new work
For folks who may not see it otherwise
Howdy, this substack is an email list I keep to let you know when I publish essays and articles elsewhere. Don’t expect lengthy shanks of writing here.
Much of my work is published in the Key Peninsula News, the small and mighty newspaper in my corner of the world (the center of the universe), where I get to interact with my in-paper readers at the hardware store, the local cafe, and the woods.
Now I hope to be in touch with readers beyond the KP. If you subscribe, you’ll get a monthly-ish email with a teaser and a link to my latest piece, plus a photo or two from my world as a naturalist-at-large, critic, and guide.
A big part of my practice as a naturalist, beyond tramping endlessly through landscapes like this, is talking to people. If you subscribe I hope you’ll riff on what I’ve written and send me your stories, observations, questions. Over time I hope to get more of my work online.
Incredibly for such a tech-skeptic, I do have a long-running Instagram account — strictly natural phenomena, often minutiae — which you can find at @chrisrurik.
Lately my writing focuses on the many things that make land into landscape: seasons, niches, the self-worlds of animals, odd plants, ranges, waypoints, emotion, not to mention land use and policy. It’s always heavily seasoned with scientific research and local lore. Hell, even scraps of poetry find their way in.
I invite you to come along on my rambles and paddles. Every place is a deep landscape of overlapping lives, human and nonhuman, and every place needs folks who pay close attention. I hope my writing gives you examples of how to pay attention.
You’re guaranteed to learn about our wild neighbors along the way.