Welcome to Issue #5 of my Ree-Writes newsletter.
Ree-flections
This issue is landing at the start of spring in the southern hemisphere.
The days are stretching out a little bit longer each day, the sun is gliding slowly back to its summer rising spot on the horizon, and the cold is ebbing like the outgoing tide. The many tiny, bitey, flying bugs of Brisbane are starting to return, and always, always, we get to celebrate the return of the melodious and cheeky butcher birds.
Five issues in feels a bit too soon to be asking this, but if you’re enjoying anything in particular about the newsletter, please do feel free to drop me a line and let me know!
I hope my words find you well in your world, and I hope you enjoy this issue.
Writing & Creativity Cool Finds
This is a fascinating blog post on creativity and your intellectual property (IP). I know it sounds dry, but I promise you it isn’t. It covers the examples of Elvis and Top Gun – two very different situations, how they’ve each been handled, what went well and what went … not-so-well.
Imagine a publisher in India whose books include retellings of folk stories, illustrations in traditional art styles by the owners of those art styles, and hand-printed, silkscreened pages. Tara Books have done this successfully for 28 years. Their birthday blogpost looks at how and why they make their beautiful books, and is so worth a read.
It’s all just a drop in the ocean. But have you ever seen a drop land in water? Have a look at some water drop photos. They make some delightfully anthropomorphised shapes.
Last issue, I mentioned the rise and rise of audio books. This is a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at the making of audio books – including a sneak reveal of one of the biggest hazards for narrators (unexpected, but also not surprising).
Something I created
The Sun and the Moon
The Earth was in darkness. She had been shrouded for what felt like a very long time.
The Sun no longer appeared cleanly in the sky, and day and night had been reduced to tired changes between dark grey and clear black.
The Tree Man was in the middle of a large forest, his loyal truck, Arigo, beside him. The Tree Man and Arigo were both worried.
They knew they were both worried, but they did not speak of it. There was nothing left to say.
The Tree Man had left his village far behind in search of glow branches – light trapped in trees – any forms of light to help them in the Sun’s absence.
They had searched hard and found enough branches with enough of a faint glow to help The Tree Man’s village last a few more precious days.
But they still needed to make their long way back to the village. Arigo, loyal truck that she was, was feeling very faint. Arigo too, needed light. She was doing her best, on so very little light. And the Tree Man loved her for it.
He rested a hand on Arigo’s door in silence and they both looked up into the night sky, frosty with stars.
The stars at least were shining brightly; enough light to see by, but too cold, too distant to help.
The Tree Man inhaled, and patted Arigo’s door again before climbing into the cabin. Arigo started up quietly, faintly. They rolled forward slowly, their precious cargo glowing lightly, a heavy burden in the back.
Read the rest here.
Backstory: I’ve got a huge soft spot for this story. It was written way back in 2014 and was my first ever story attempt in a fantastical world (I think the genre is called ‘fabulism’.) The story was originally based on a piece of tweeted micro-fiction in an active-at-the-time micro-fiction community called Friday Phrases. I’ve explained the full back story in the link.
The illustration is by a very talented friend on Twitter, Kiz, who enjoyed the story enough to make this delightful drawing of it! It is a wonderful illustration and I still adore it. You can find out more about Kiz’s art here, and on Twitter and Instagram.
A Book or Piece of Art I Love
Fox’s Garden by Princesse Camcam
Fox’s Garden is a perfect example of why Enchanted Lion Books are one of the most amazing publishers out there.
Fox’s Garden is the sweetest story of a fox who is looking for shelter on a snowy night, and is helped by a kindhearted little boy.
On the face of it, it’s a children’s book. Except that it isn’t, because it can resonate just as much (if not more), with big people too.
The story is wordless and is all made with painstaking paper-cut illustrations, and with clever use of lighting. It’s a book you want hold and hug and look through again and again, to find the ever more amazing details that went into its making.
Even the format is unusual – the book is short in height (think: the same height as children’s board books), but it’s wide (the same width as a full-sized magazine).
It’s all wonderfully out-of-the-ordinary. Including the author’s delightful name of Princesse Camcam. And if you couldn’t tell she’s French by the spelling of ‘Princesse’, then the author photo is definitely a clue!
Fox’s Garden has been made with exquisite detail. It’s delicate, it tells a wonderful, heart-hugging story, and it’s such a beautiful book to exist in our world.
Randomly Interesting Inspirations for Stories
Stonehenge was for sale once. This is what happened, but there are endless ‘what might have been’ possibilities.
In India, there is a place where you can map the journeys of the stars via centuries-old astronomy architecture. Oh, the places we can go.
Want to listen to a whale’s heartbeat? Of course you do. Breathe deep.
Thank you
Du fond du coeur, thanks for reading x
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Ree-Imagined Worlds 
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