5-Star Reviews
Reviewed by Jamie Michele, for Readers’ Favorite
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Creative Provinces: A New World of Enchanting and Empowered Communities by Valerie Ann Larson Haynes introduces the concept of Creative Provinces. These are self-sustaining communities united by shared visions. These provinces allow individuals to retain property ownership while linking their resources voluntarily, offering flexibility for members to leave if their vision shifts. Each province is centered around a Primary Vision, with supporting visions that shape its environment, culture, and industries. Haynes speaks on ecological sustainability, historical preservation, and creative expression. Haynes specifically describes four types of provinces: transportation, industry, environment, and culture. Governance models are diverse, ranging from monarchies to barter economies, underpinned by principles of transparency and accountability. Creative Provinces are designed to complement sovereign states, promoting localized, creative communities, mixing artistry with practical, collaborative community-building.
In Creative Provinces, Valerie Ann Larson Haynes offers a thorough and well-structured blueprint for establishing unique, sustainable communities grounded in heritage and innovation. The book's strength lies in its comprehensive framework, with Haynes giving a near-encyclopedic wealth of ideas for creating the provinces. Haynes has a very simple and straightforward writing style that is clear and accessible, making some of the more complicated concepts easy to digest. Implementing the ideas would require considerable resources and commitment, and while the vision of a Creative Province is pretty exciting, the realistic organizing and maintaining of such a community, ranging from infrastructure to cultural cohesion, demand careful planning and long-term dedication. I would love to see this implemented on a smaller scale and see it slowly spread. Overall, I think that Haynes has done almost all of the preliminary heavy lifting in this thoughtful and innovative guide. Very highly recommended.
Reviewed by Leonard Smuts for Readers’ Favorite
All too often, we accept the status quo and believe that we are powerless to alter our living conditions. Valerie Ann Larson Haynes has an unusual solution and shares it in Creative Provinces: A New World of Enchanting and Empowered Communities - an inspired look at establishing what she calls “intentional communities.” These are small groups of like-minded folk who band together with a shared vision of how they want to live, away from the confines of conventional society. These can take any form from being heritage-based or futuristic to something involving ecology. The author outlines eight principles for developing the creative provinces. Themes are broadly divided into transportation and travel, industry and agriculture, the environment, and culture. A full chapter is devoted to each of these, laden with fascinating ideas on what can be achieved. Real people will live, work, and travel there. The result can range from practical to ambitious or even humorous and whimsical. Creativity, art, and imagination play a key role, and we can become living works of art. The author explains how to create and manage your province, starting with a primary vision, adding supporting visions, and planning live activities. This will manifest your dreams and enrich your life.
From her childhood during the 1950s, Valerie Ann Larson Haynes drew plans of places where she wanted to live. These were a vast improvement over the urban environment that had developed, which neither respected nature nor provided a healthy space to thrive. The author does not advocate another theme park or spiritual retreat, although there are some superficial similarities. It is rather about like-mindedness and a shared vision that has endless possibilities. There will be individual land ownership as opposed to communal property rights. In effect, it's the best of both worlds. From birdsong to stargazing, the options are varied. The Sitchin Antediluvian Research Province and Spoken Word Province were particularly appealing to me. Whatever the choice, the focus is on living in harmony with the planet. Participants will adopt the beliefs, codes of behavior, attitudes, manners, and dress code of their Province. They will abide by the law but can make additional rules to suit them. Visitors must conform, and a worldwide network is envisaged. Now, in a revised edition, the book is beautifully illustrated. Creative Provinces challenges readers to create “a vast, decentralized, living empire” from the roots up, not from the top down. It is an opportunity to create your reality. The next step is yours.
Reviewed by Frank Mutuma for Readers’ Favorite
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In Creative Provinces by Valerie Ann Larson, people with similar visions connect themselves and their properties to create a community vision. These communities must be based on various principles, such as being built from the roots up and being limitless. Creative provinces can achieve anything they want to achieve and are not constrained even by sovereign borders. The four main types of creative provinces are Transportation and Travelway, Industry, Environment, and Cultural. Each province is founded on one primary vision, but it can also have support visions, which most often end up including the four endeavors. Travelways are founded with a primary vision of focusing on one means of transport, while environmental provinces are formed to promote a certain environment.
Creative Provinces by Valerie Ann Larson shows the endless possibilities that can be achieved when people open up their minds and cooperate toward a united vision and purpose. The thought-provoking narrative got me thinking about how often people are pushed to accept what is termed as the new normal without looking at the consequences in their lives and communities. I loved the message of hope that shows we are not helpless and that even the poor can have a say in how they want to live their lives. The pictures provided by Valerie were amazing, and they not only added to the overall beauty of the work but also helped pass on the intended message effectively. This was a good read, and I look forward to reading something else by this talented author.
Reviewed by Liz Konkel for Readers’ Favorite
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Creative Provinces by Valerie Ann Larson Haynes is an intriguing exploration of community and imagination, creating a world that blends cultures that represent the past and cultures that we envision in our imaginations. Inspiration is drawn from incredible places, from the Roman Empire to Middle Earth to Camelot to even the North Pole. These places - some real and some fictional - have enchanted societies and captivated imaginations with their unique blend of industries, environments, religion, and more. Each of these categories is broken down into three parts that use detailed examples to explain eight principles, types of provinces, and basic guidance. The book centers on four basic types of provinces: travelway, industry, culture, and environment. These are then analyzed with sections that provide examples and creative visuals.
Valerie Ann Larson Haynes infuses a sense of empowerment by creating a resource that lets you develop a creative province thanks to five steps, primary and supporting visions, rules that define those visions, and chronicling heritage treasures. The structure is well-organized, so it’s easy to read, with each section devoted to the analysis of a different type of province. The examples featured are vivid and give you a visual of what that type of province looks like. Haynes takes time to analyze and explain each concept, which avoids making the writing bogged down in confusing explanations. The primary vision is at the core of every province, and each section makes it clear why it is necessary. Through the examples and explanations, everyone will be inspired to create their unique province, which can be used in writing, creating, and even dissecting culture to understand it better. Creative Provinces is a unique resource that delves into the topic with information you may know, facts you don’t, and examples to inspire you to create your own.
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Reviewed by Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite
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Imagine living in agricultural towns full of small family farms, valleys where air travel is by balloons, or futuristic cities that seem straight out of a science fiction novel. What if you could build these places with like-minded people who share your vision, grouping yourselves and your properties together to create communities where living becomes art? In Creative Provinces, Valerie Ann Larson Haynes provides a blueprint on how to live, work, and travel according to your desires on your own properties alongside a closely-knit community. Additionally, you will discover the eight principles of Creative Provinces, ideas for different types of Creative Provinces, and basic guidelines on how to start a Creative Province. Join your friends to create your unique community, travelway, industry, or environment, and live out your dreams.
Creative Provinces is a comprehensive guide for people who seek to live life on their own terms in places that not only resemble but actively function as medieval towns, religious and spiritual villages, seaside fishing towns, or settings with economics as the primary driving concept. With clear-cut examples and thought-provoking insights, Valerie Ann Larson Haynes shows that it's possible to build cozy sanctuaries where you can actively live out the life of your dreams. Furthermore, you will learn about protecting heritage treasures, enacting a democratic system within a Creative Province, the two types of sovereignty, the relationship between a sovereign state and its Creative Provinces, and oversight and accountability. The book also explores provinces based on concepts such as energy and manufacturing. Modern living is quite often monotonous and hectic. This book will help you build your own Shangri-la. Highly recommended!
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"Creative Provinces is built around an extraordinarily creative idea, and Haynes delivers a wealth of innovative examples that will enthrall her audience."
BookLife Prize Review
Plot/Idea: Haynes's idea is clear from the start of her work, and she promotes a well-defined, expository concept throughout. She covers her premise remarkably well, with little deviation from the purpose of the guide.
Prose: Haynes writes fluently, with vivid examples that will draw in her target audience. Her prose is direct and readable - alternating between academic and inspirational in all the right places.
Originality: Creative Provinces is built around an extraordinarily creative idea, and Haynes delivers a wealth of innovative examples that will enthrall her audience.
Character Development/Execution: Haynes structures her guide meticulously and follows through on her promises. There are a handful of sections that veer slightly off-topic, but she expertly melds these into a detailed and engaging work that will leave readers enlightened, with a solid grasp of how to implement her concept.
Review by Ginnah Howard, Author of Night Navigation and other books
5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful and Startling Book
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Valerie Ann Larson Haynes’ Creative Provinces: A World of Enchanting and Empowered Communities opens with a preface that vividly describes what inspired her to spend many years working on the innovative ideas developed in this beautiful and startling book. Valerie and her twin brother’s love of the natural world began in the 1950s. They grew up in a part of Minnesota where there were endless forests, meadows, marshes and streams. They and their friends spent their days building huts and tree houses and exploring the shores of Medicine Lake on their skates. They especially loved a nearby pond that teemed with life. They learned about the indigenous tribal nation that lived in this region as hunter-gatherers.
Beyond Haynes’ love of the natural world, she early developed a passion for drawing all kinds of plans for places to live: ranches, farms, and estates… As an adult, she and her husband and her parents took a road trip to her ancestors’ homestead in South Dakota. How sad it was to discover that much of the natural world of both South Dakota and where she grew up in Minnesota had been destroyed.
When she returned home, she began to form the ideas for “creative provinces.” This book is the result of years of research and planning. She felt that many of the problems of the world were related to unimaginative thinking about structure. What was needed was to create structures that allowed people to live the lives they really wanted. This book, Creative Provinces, explores ways that groups of people could develop many different kinds of empowered communities that would allow that.
5.0 out of 5 stars Many creative possibilities for ways to live together in the future
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This book creatively explores the possibility of intentional communities, or provinces as the author calls them. I was particularly drawn to the Living Earth Raw Foods Province where residents share a common interest in Raw Organic Food and create schools, restaurants, family farms and local markets to support this vision. Her artful description of many different ways of peacefully living together belongs on the bookshelf of every creative person.
Review by Walter Gurbo, Artist
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5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and timeless
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Timely and timeless. An important book for this time in history. A completely enjoyable, inventive and thorough view of alternative ways of living. Sparked with insights into our current situation and filled with solutions. With the author's grace and humor and the accompanying beautiful artwork this 'how to" for a better world can be the handbook for a magnificent future. Highly recommend this!
More Reviews
Creative Provinces: A fascinating study of developing alternative communities that are more compatible and sustainable to its citizens. Instead of just "existing" in a community, Ms. Haynes suggests alternative societies that citizens are more likely to become involved in. Inhabitants are encouraged to participate in community activities that will hold their interest. Some examples: communities focused on environmental issues; cultural issues; local agricultural issues; arts and crafts interests; to name a few.
Jody Hughes