WELCOME to the first issue of The Forest of Distraction, a weekly Magic & Ink newsletter where I share some of my most fascinating finds from around the internet.
As a writer of fantasy, I am always challenging myself to fill my invented worlds with magical details, but it turns out the real world is far more magical than anything I can imagine. I would never put something as twee-sounding as a “moonbow” on the page unless I was writing My Little Pony fan fiction — except it turns out that moonbows are a real phenomenon, and now I’m wondering where my characters would have to travel in their world to encounter one.
If you’re like me, then you’ve got a file folder somewhere stuffed with interesting tidbits like this – I hope you’ll find some more here to store away. Along with idea-generators like moonbows and white olives (see below), I’ll share inspiration for the writing life, great craft articles, and anything else that happens to catch my interest for more than a few seconds. I hope you enjoy what you find here enough to stick around!
Moonbow Magic
"A moonbow (also known as a moon rainbow or lunar rainbow) is a rainbow produced by moonlight instead of direct sunlight. Apart from the light source, its formation is no different from that of a solar rainbow: it is created by light being reflected in water droplets in the air caused by rain or a waterfall, for example. They are always positioned on the opposite side of the sky from the Moon relative to the observer." (Beauty of Planet Earth)
Authors are People
“It can be odd to imagine the lives of the people who write the books you read, like running into your teacher at the supermarket. But authors are people. They are born and they die. They fall in love and they fall in love again. They go to the supermarket to buy tomatoes, which they keep in the bottom drawers of their refrigerators, even though tomatoes should stay out on the counter. But which of these things is important? And to whom?”
From The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown by writer Mac Barnett and artist Sarah Jacoby. (The Marginalian)
The Forest of Distraction
“Writing a novel—actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs—is a tremendous pain in the ass. Now that TV’s so good and the Internet is an endless forest of distraction, it’s damn near impossible. That should be taken into account when ranking the all-time greats. Somebody like Charles Dickens, for example, who had nothing better to do except eat mutton and attend public hangings, should get very little credit.” (Source unknown.)
Trees Strung with Pearls
“Later that year, she saw an Olivo della Madonna for the first time. The tree was about 50 years old and adorned in abundant, resplendent white olives. ‘I understood then the sense of the sacred,’ says Rotella. ‘Any Calabrian that has the fortune of encountering one does not see anything that appears different from the other olive trees for the whole year, then one day passes by again and they perceive the transformation.’
“‘No, not the transformation,’ she muses, after a pause. ‘But the magic, the miracle of this thing that should be black, but instead becomes white.’” (Atlas Obscura)
From Magic & Ink: Sharpening Tools Against Writers Block
“First published in 2002, The War of Art is a small book (with bite-sized chapters) that delves into the topic of writers block, or creative blocks of any kind. Pressfield’s main thesis is that creative blocks are real, and that they have an external source.
“They’re like gravity, he says. A force of nature — or at least the psyche — that act against any effort to create something new. What’s more, the more a creative project pushes your limits or raises you to the next plane of understanding/skill/innovation/success, the more resistance you are going to experience.” (Magic & Ink)
Thank you for reading all the way to the end of the inaugural edition of The Forest of Distraction. I hope you’ll share your own magical finds in the comments!
Hey Stace! I came across your substack form your comment on Priya;'s post. The name was intriguing. When I came here I realised that you are a fantasy writer. Writing a fanatsy book has been a dream ever since I consumed Enid Blyton's fantasy books as a child. I thought I'll start at the beginning. I didn't know about Moonbeams! That is fascinating! This is why I love fantasy genre. Takes my breath away. Looking forward to reading you and connecting with you here. Hugs from Kerala <3
White olives & moonbeams...huh, I learned something new today. Thanks! (Great inaugural issue btw!)