Artists' studios have always been a repository of works in progress, unfinished works temporarily set aside, and sketches preserved for "some day" works. Inevitably, the mix also contains so-called rejects which the artist cannot quite bear to throw away.

It is the same for writers, of which Bermudian Joan Aspinall is one.

In fact, she is both a professional artist and a writer, and the story of her new Christmas book, 'The Tree Frog and the Poinsettia', begins with artwork, some of it water-damaged, which she has preserved for 33 years because "some day" she wanted to write a book based on her award-winning story in the 1975 Royal Gazette short story Christmas contest, for which the prize was $100.

"It was the first story I had ever written, so you can imagine how elated I was to win," she says.

So elated, in fact, that, along with her desire to turn her story into a book, she also created rough page layouts with thumbnail sketches of where she wanted her artwork to go.

Two things, however, held the young woman back: she knew nothing about the publishing business, and she had no funds.

Thus it was that she put her pen and ink drawings and one watercolour away in a filing cabinet "where they have been smouldering for all these years".

Today, Ms Aspinall proudly notes that all of the long-stored artwork has been used in her newest, full colour story book, including the watercolour of a rainbow scene, originally produced while attending the Art Students League in New York.

"Quite early on, the original tree frog images became badly water-damaged, and the inks ran," she says. "The only colour illustration was so badly damaged, and the paper so deteriorated with mould, that it began to shred.

"However, when I scanned it, the dark brown areas of mould produced a wonderful shading effect to the art."

Clearly delighted with the finished product, Ms Aspinall believes time and patience have proved a virtue for, as with her previous publications, she is not only the writer-artist but also does her own colour separations, and self-publishes, all of which give her total control over her product.

Had she been able to publish decades ago, her black and white pen and ink drawings would have meant a book without colour, and therefore of diminished impact.

Instead, 'The Treefrog and the Poinsettia' bursts with riotous colour from beginning to end, although some of the original black and white drawings of the traditional Christmas flower deliberately "bloom" on various pages — a decision by the artist "to show the reader how delicate and beautiful pen and ink drawings can be".

Published in hardback on glossy stock, the book is dedicated to the memory of Ms Aspinall's good friend, the late Annette Fairbanks Gibbons, "who so loved this story, and every magical day of Christmas".

The richly-descriptive text of the Bermuda Christmas story tells the tale of a tree frog who shares his home with a potted poinsettia.

Forming a deep attachment to the plant, named Miss Poinsettia, he showers her with gifts of nature in the tradition of the 'Twelve Days of Christmas', only to end up with a broken heart.

The exotic red flower learns that love is the most precious of all gifts when she passes on her gifts to the Christ Child.

Vibrant art supports the text, with the background colour of each page carefully chosen to temper the eye.

Mermaids, fish, moonbeams, waves and whimsy are all parts of the illustrations, while the banana leaf faerie elves are a tribute to another friend, Ronnie Chameau, herself an artist and well-known maker of banana leaf dolls.

An embedded foil mirror cleverly ties in with a point in the story where Miss Poinsettia becomes narcissistic on seeing her reflection in the 'mirror of sunbeams' given to her by the besotted tree frog.

Other nice touches include space on the frontispiece for writing the names of the donor, the recipient, and the date of the gift.

The book ends with glossaries on poinsettia facts, the legend of the poinsettia, Bermuda's whistling tree frogs, and Bermuda's Christmas traditions, each on its own, scarlet-edged page embellished with poinsettias, of course.

"I feel that I have given an old friend a new beginning," Ms Aspinall says of her 1975 award-winning story. "I knew that it was too beautiful to let it die.

"A burial of a manuscript is a burial of a life. Now, it will go on for years to entertain new generations of Bermudians long after I am gone, and as I hope for, it will become a Bermuda Christmas tradition."

• 'The Tree Frog and the Poinsettia' retails for $22.95, and is being delivered to book stores, Dockyard Linens, the Craft Market in Dockyard, and in St. George's to Robertson's Drug Store, the Book Cellar, and Bermuda Memories this week. It will also be available at the City Market at Bulls Head on Saturdays. Ms Aspinall's e-mail address is: pina@ibl.bm.