Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

This is the final day of my Lone Wolf virtual tour. I’m visiting Sara York’s blog and talking about authors, life experience and characters. Is there a connection between an author’s life experience and their writing?

Don’t forget–if you comment on my post at Sara’s blog you’ll be in the draw to win a $20 Amazon voucher.

Yellowstone was the very first National Park. Established in 1872, the park hosts millions of visitors per year. The park is located in the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho and has a wide range of habitat ranging from grasslands and forest to lake, rivers and mountains. Note: I think the people who set the land aside had great vision, and I’m proud to say that the second park in the world was a New Zealand one.

Animals that live in Yellowstone include bison, elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, mule deer, grizzly and black bears, moose and a few years ago, wolves were reintroduced after being previously wiped out in the area. There are also lots of different birds.

Yellowstone is also famous for its volcanic activity. Huge volcanic eruptions occurred here, the last around 640,000 years ago. The central portion of the park is actually a large caldera (basin) and the area is still very active with many geysers, mudpots, and hot springs. The most famous of these is Old Faithful geyser, which erupts to a schedule and thrills many a tourist.

Yellowstone is vast, yet parts of it are very accessible to the daytripper tourist. I’ve been fortunate to visit twice, and during my last visit, a story idea popped into my mind. My husband and I stayed at Tower-Roosevelt in a small cabin and spent two days exploring as much of the park as we could manage. We went animal spotting and saw loads of wildlife including a grizzly bear eating its kill. I really wanted to see a wolf. I didn’t see one in the end—they’re actually very hard to spot during the summer months—but early in the morning, not long after we woke, we heard the wolves calling. It was an eerie, magical sound and provided the final inspiration for my story. Lone Wolf is the result of my visit to Yellowstone.

Have you visited Yellowstone National Park? What is your favorite outdoor spot to visit? (any part of the world)

Experience wolves and the wildlife in Lone Wolf, an m/m romance coming from Samhain Publishing on 23 August. Available now for pre-order at a discounted price.

Picnic (1748) ~ an excursion or outing with food, usually provided by members of the group and eaten in the open.

I have lots of fond memories of family picnics. During the summer months we’d go to the beach, agricultural shows, rodeos and sports days. My mother would make delicious sandwiches with egg and lettuce, ham and mustard or salmon. There were club sandwiches and sometimes rolls filled with salad. We’d have bacon & egg pie and fresh fruit, usually apples or oranges. For drinks there would be a thermos flask of tea and sometimes fresh lemonade. The food always tasted better when eaten outdoors.

When my husband and I visited Yellowstone National Park a few years ago we also had a picnic. We stopped at one of the park stores and purchased a salad each. Yellowstone has so many beautiful picnic spots and we found one to eat our meal. There are signs everywhere about not feeding bears and other wild life and disposing of rubbish correctly in the bear proof bins. We were both hoping for a glimpse of Yogi and Boo Boo, but it wasn’t to be, although we did see a grizzly bear later in the day. We did come across one of the downsides of eating in the outdoors. Bugs!

Do you like picnics? What are your favorite picnic foods? Do you have a favorite picnic spot?

Experience wolves and the wildlife in Lone Wolf, an m/m romance coming from Samhain Publishing on 23 August. Available now for pre-order at a discounted price.

I took this photo of bison in Yellowstone National Park. They’re very big up close and dangerous, yet many of the tourists we saw were busy stalking them with digital cameras.

To view more animal photos visit Camera Critters

Today’s blog entry comes courtesy of Mr. Munro:

Last night, Tuesday, we went to the rodeo. Great fun. Very professional. It only lasted 2 hours but there was bareback, saddle, bull riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling, roping and there were kids chasing calves that had ribbons on their tails. There were also clowns. The cowboys and girls travel anywhere up to 48 hours to compete at the Cody Nite Rodeo.

We drove into Yellowstone from Cody where we passed a large meadow full of fire trucks, tents, porta loos, and firemen to fight the forest fire on the border of the park. We later found out that they are going to let it burn out naturally, unless it posses a risk to the Park or buildings. It was exactly 20 years ago to the day that a huge forest fire decimated Yellowstone, over one million acres of forest destroyed. The re growth is very slow. Luckily the wind was kind and it hasn’t affected our stay in Yellowstone.

We’ve seen bison, lots of bison [no threat of extinction there] to the extent that they roam across the road holding up traffic. They are not tame, each year a number of stupid tourists get the ultimate close up and are gored in the process. We saw a fox, coyote, badger, bald eagles/osprey, trout, bambies and tourists. We did see a grizzly bear that was sleeping off its meal of bison. That carcass was about 20 metres from the bear which was hidden by long grass. Every now and then it would stick its head up and did get up and wander around for a few seconds before laying down again. There must have been about 40 cars parked along the verge of the road trying to take photos. Waste of time as the bear was more than 100 metres from the road. The Park rangers were trying to keep the traffic moving but sightings are rare so everyone wanted to see. They have their own policing within the National Park service and watch out if you exceed the speed limit. Besides, if you travel too fast you’ll miss the scenery and wildlife.