Rosa Mira Books and Melissa Green

If we are fortunate or paying attention, beauty dances across our path more times a day than we can count.  I will take this occasion to share a bit.  Before I link you to the announcement by Rosa Mira Books of the newest work from poet Melissa Green, I wanted to include DAPHNE IN MOURNING, which was printed in the New York Review of Books.

Daphne in Mourning

July 19, 2001

Melissa Green

Palm fronds have woven out the sky.
Fog has infiltrated every vein.
My hair has interlaced with vines.
Cobwebs lash their gauze across my eyes.

I’ve stood so since the world began,
and turned almost to stone some years ago.
Who passes by perceives a lichened post,
my girlish features, ghostly, nearly gone.

My bark is warmer than the dead’s.
Human blood still lulls the underside of leaves.
My fingers hold the very dress I loved
to dance in, when dancing mattered—and it did.

And now, the unveiling of Rosa Mira's and Melissa's collaboration.  A gift for us all.  Hooray to everyone concerned.

Rosa Mira Books: Melissa Green, poet extraordinaire, writes memoir

Rosa Mira, Ratty and the studio assistants

Ratty illustration by Penelope Todd.

In August, Penelope Todd and Rosa Mira Books offered an illustration of Ratty, the publishing house's sales manager, with any purchase. One could select from existing art or have a personalized work created. I was happy to choose Ratty aboard a raft of color pencils. Instead, Penelope drew the clever rodent juggling for the amusement of my studio assistants, old toys whose photo I had posted. He is only appearing now as it took me this long to figure out how to reduce him to a blog-friendly size.  Don't even ask.

A visit to the Rosa Mira blog will introduce you to their catalog, outstanding reviews and close views of Ratty, his home and work lives.  Please visit, comment, shop, become a blog follower and tell your friends about this New Zealand-based company.  Ratty's adventure, and they are not timid, have only begun.  Penelope's drawings, even before Ratty's emergence, charmed me and called me back to delight in the depth of personality she can bestow on the most functional household objects.

Able assistants, helpmeets and muses

We of the cottage industries have specific requirements for amiable assistants.  Since they and we are here, together,  throughout the livelong day, possibly squeezed up tight in conditions un-roomy, mutual regard and compatible tendencies are essential.

Denise Litchfield has shared photos and some background on her helpers, especially the ones recruited during a recent European stay.  Her current blog banner features two of them.  Others may be found in the newest post or at her Facebook page.

Photo from grrl + dog, Denise Litfchfield.

The rat awaits your instruction.

Taking an even more active role in the day-to-day of a small business is Ratty, sales manager for Penelope Todd's Rosa Mira Books. Yesterday they made a "reckless" offer to which I could only say an enthusiastic yes. I hope you decide to do the same. How would you like to find The Rat perched on your letter box? Drinking from your favourite mug or hunkering down in your armchair? Flying a copy of your book cover, or a friend's? Reading your grand/child's favourite bedtime book, or disguised as an unopened magnolia blossom in your garden? For the rest of August, anyone buying an ebook from Rosa Mira Books is entitled to a free copy by email of Ratty holding, wearing or doing something pertinent to the buyer. August buyers will be contacted by email within 24 hours of purchase, to discuss rodent manoeuvres.Check out a few of Ratty's previous antics here. Rosa Mira ebooks can be read on any kind of reading device, including a Kindle. Or they can be downloaded as PDFs for comfortable reading on a computer screen.

My own muses come in all dimensions.  The flat, yellow Button Bunny is press agent, stunt double and licensed to practice law in California.  Here are the most elderly, but by no means the least enthusiastic.  Where would any of us be without someone to play Amelia Pond to our Dr. Who?

Borrowed delight and birthday wishes

As it is now Dec. 8 in West Australia, I can wish my brother Mike a Happy Birthday. And I have just the new acquaintances to help launch his celebrations.

Penelope at Rosa Mira Books has obtained the assistance of Ratty as the whole of her Sales Department. In words and engaging illustrations, we learn that Ratty and his exotic Lily, a Pink Fairy Armadillo, have increased the customer roster and shared adventures.

Images, characters by Penelope/Rosa Mira Books.

The warmth and whimsey of Penelope's inventions have the capacity to charm, as a friend of mine says, the ginger out of a gingersnap. That they help promote her publishing endeavor as it nears its first birthday makes them all the more inspired. Please visit Lily, Ratty and Penelope at her blog, discover her titles and authors, leave comments and bookmark the site for return visits. As we in America are clubbed senseless by uninspired advertising, offering new automobiles as the Christmas gift of greatest choice, an entirely different approach has been minted in the southern hemisphere.

And to my brother, who will find kindred spirits, I know, as each new chapter of Ratty's and Lily's story unfolds, the best of all years. From our Los Angeles childhoods, here is Sheriff John with a portion of his unforgettable birthday song. May you sing and play the day away.