Storytelling is a great adventure for everyone from the person that hires the teller to the audience. The adventure can go anywhere and do anything but sometimes it goes off the tracks!

Recently I was telling a story about Thomas the Tank Engine and his Very Noisy Day AKA Clackety Clack. The basic premise is that at every stop an animal gets on the train and makes it nosier. It’s a great participation story that I adapted for Thomas and it is a cumulative tale.

Now this particular week I had already told this story at three other places but all of these were morning shows at libraries or schools.  This show was in the early evening after school and the kids were wound UP!

First I brought out the Monkey puppet to get on the train. All went well with that. I brought out several more puppets and that ran smoothly too.

When I bought out the Tiger puppet though, the kids went NUTS! They were so enthusiastic with LOUD roars, that the parents and library personnel looked alarmed! It was also clearly going to distract from the being able to hear the story. I had to think fast!

Putting my finger to my mouth I waited for the parents and caregivers to shhh the kids a bit and then I said, “Mr. Conductor told the Tiger he was MUCH too noisy for even the very noisy day on the train and could NOT get on the train.” With that I put the Tiger puppet back in my bag. The parents giggled. The kids looked confused but they were game to play along anyway.

We went on to find out what the Little Girl puppet did that was so noisy. The story train went off the tracks but together we put it back on the rails and finished with a lovely, fun story.

I remember a few summers ago, I had traveled up to a library in North Alabama. I made the cardinal mistake of asking a question I shouldn’t have to an audience. Why was it a mistake? Because there is always ONE who is disagreeable. Anyway, I said, “Do you want to hear another story?”

One little girl very loudly said, “No!”

I smiled and looked at her as the story train screeched off the rails for a few microseconds.

“Well then, I suggest you put your hands over your ears like so,” I said, demonstrating, how to cover your ears to block sound. “Because I’m going to tell another story for those that do want to hear one. I wouldn’t want you to hear it if you don’t want to.”

Again the parents laughed and the train was put back on track.

In life and storytelling, I’ve found that being flexible is so important. If we are, and we all work together, we can always get the “train back on the tracks" whether it is a story train, life, or anything else.

Dodging Road Gators:

Brr! It’s sure cold around here today.  Considering that we are in a drought, we sure are getting a lot of rain as well! In Alabama you never know what the weather will be from one day to the next!  I’m not thrilled when it is cold.  Even so I’d love to see some snow that didn’t cut the power off!  The ideal snow would be good for building snow people, making snowballs and for sledding.

My husband loves the cold. Recently we went on a trip to Gatlinburg Tennessee.  There my husband claimed the weather was more like Alabama winters of old.  We did see a little snow. Three times that week the flakes fell but there wasn’t much accumulation.  I was grateful there wasn’t.  My teens wanted to see snow. That was one reason we went up to the mountains.  So I guess it was just what they were hoping for.

I have to say I prefer Alabama. It may be unpredictable but it seems be sunny and warm more often!  In Tennessee I could barely see sunsets or sunrises for the mountains and fog.  It seemed beautiful but a bit dark and gloomy.

This week I did a Wild Wacky Weather program. Maybe that’s another reason why I’m thinking about the weather so much.  The kids that came to my program pretended it was snowing. In fact, we had a lot of fun imagining all kinds of Wild Wacky Weather!

As I write about snow, cold and weather, I’m reminded of my daughter’s grammar school academic expo project.  It was about blizzards in Alabama.  She soon found out that we’d never had an official blizzard in Alabama at all, not ever!  The last time we had significant snow was in 1993. She was around two and a half years old.  She can’t really remember it at all but we’ve certainly told her lots of stories about the “thunder snow” that fell that year.  I’m sure I must have called it a blizzard at some time. It seemed like one to me.

Not long ago I went to a Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference with my daughter. We have written some picture books together.  Some of our books are about our rescued cats.  Others are based on stories I tell. In addition, we are both working on various solo novel projects. Now we are looking at taking the next steps toward those picture books being published.  The link for the conference we went to is here:

http://www.southern-breeze.org/contests/2007/contest07winners.htm

This was a great conference. We learned so much. I recommend it to anyone interested in publishing or illustrating Children’s books in any form. They have contests for writers and illustrators.  The organization also puts together critique groups, which can be invaluable for a writer.

During the winter holidays, I always enjoy telling so many different types of stories.  From the spooky ghost stories of Halloween, to the warmer Thanksgiving, Multicultural Holidays and traditional Christmas stories, they are all fun to tell. 

There is an ethical rule in storytelling that makes ghost stories a real challenge. It is that yes, you take the audience on a journey, but you also bring them back safely.  The thing with ghost stories is that you often leave the audience hanging and imagining some gruesome things.

That’s the fun of it. You don’t take them back to a safe place at the end of the story at all.  This incongruence is something I’ve been working on because some people love to be scared with stories!  I quite enjoyed listening to Joseph Buchac at the National Storytelling Festival during the Ghost Stories last year. I learned a great deal from him.

He also has some great picture books published. You can find many of them at your local library or bookstore.

http://www.josephbruchac.com/

This year for the holidays I got a book about combining storytelling and yoga.  The book is Storytime Yoga: Teaching Yoga to Children Through Story by Sydney Solis. This is a great resource.  Now I’m ready to start creating these programs for clients!  I think they are going to be really fun as well as great exercise. 

As I read through this book and my source materials, I found that I could easily imagine yoga being integrated into so many wonderful stories that I already tell. I also enjoyed reading the stories in the book that I’d not previously encountered.  I’m so excited about the possibilities!

I also got a wonderful storytelling CD by Willy Claflin.  The title is The Uglified Ducky. You can listen to clips from the cd here:

http://www.willyclaflin.com/store.php

I had the honor of watching Mr. Claflin perform live at the National Storytelling Festival. He is just so talented and absolutely hilarious! 

I also was gifted with two Kamishibai sets. 

http://www.kamishibai.com/store/stories.html

Though this is actually one method I’ve used to tell stories for years.  I didn’t know about Kamishibai sets that you can buy, until I saw Dianne de Las Casas at a local storytelling mini conference.  I immediately put some of the sets on my holiday wish list!  She has a great storytelling website here:

http://www.storyconnection.net/

Kamishibai is an old Japanese way of telling stories using, in part, pictures. The Kamishibai or Candy Man would come into a village on his bicycle.  He’d lower the “picture stage” on the front of his handlebars.  Capturing his listeners for a fascinating story, he would refuse to tell the end until the next day. In doing so he would ensure return customers and sales of candy!  That’s almost diabolical isn’t it?  It leaves the listener dangling just like the “cliff hangers” of TV shows today!

When I use pictures as part of telling stories, I promise you I finish the stories!  Usually I use pictures for the younger audiences.  I don’t’ encourage the use of them, or any other props, with older groups or when teaching storytelling.  One can get too wrapped up in using props particularly if they are just learning how to tell stories.

Not long ago I really enjoyed creating a Pompeii Program. We had a Pompeian Feast provided by the library.  They also prepared a mosaic craft. I brought in the stories; games, songs and a volcano that we made explode!  In my research, I found that 80% of the Pompeian’s actually left before the big eruption and therefore, survived.  You rarely hear about that. You only hear that nearly everyone there died.  You hear they didn’t know the mountain was a volcano.  That’s very misleading.

I just didn’t understand how, there would not be time to reason the situation through and flee the area. The falling rocks and ash went on for days before the big eruption.  The answer is that all those pre eruptions signs did give them time to leave! 

Some people, around 2000, stayed behind. Perhaps they stayed out of duty. Some may have stayed out of fear or worry about property.  Perhaps some didn’t have a way out.  Still the majority, some 18,000 people left and lived.

This information was new to me.  It makes the fact that the survivors could have eventually forgotten the entire city of Pompeii even more mysterious, in a way. With so many survivors you’d think that someone would remember and keep telling the old stories.  In that way, they could have kept the memories of what went on and the loved ones lost there, alive.  Researching and crafting a program like this is always a joy.  There are pictures of the event on my pictures page at my web site here:

http://pub5.bravenet.com/photocenter/album.php?usernum=370697973&album=45834

As I continue to Travel Around the World in Stories in this New Year, I hope to hear from and see more of you!  It’s a wonderful, story rich, world out there. I’ve found great wisdom, humor and participation stories from every country I’ve researched.  I think we can all learn so much about one another through stories.  I believe the more we know about each other, the better we can all get along.  It’s fascinating to see how alike we all are.  It’s also interesting to discover in what ways our countries are different.  I hope you’ll join me at a story program soon!

 

Hi! I've been so busy telling stories! I can't believe it's already November!

In August I went to the Jefferson County Storytelling Mini Conference.  I so enjoyed the conference and fellowship with the other storytellers / librarians.  There are always great ideas presented at these conferences.  Each conference has different presenters and formats.

Sometimes my skills and boundaries in the art of oral storytelling are tested and stretched.  Often I am intrigued by different methods of presentation or have my thoughts provoked about issues in the storytelling arena.  I pick up on great, new (to me), stories to tell at most of them.

At the end of a very busy summer reading program schedule I often feel creatively drained.  That wasn’t the case this year but even so, going to these conferences inspire me.  I enjoy the fellowship of other storytellers. As well as the ideas, experiences and stories the presenters share.

 The presenter this year was, Dianne de Las Casas.

 http://www.storyconnection.net/

She is a warm bundle of energy and joy.  I truly enjoyed watching her perform.  I loved the story of she told about the, Kamishibai Story Theater.  I plan to employ that method of storytelling more in the future.  I’d like to work together with some school art groups to make that happen!

Her ideas about "Story Fest: Crafting Story Theater Scripts" were timely for me.  I’m writing a script of that sort for this year’s summer reading teen and young adult theme. I am calling it “participation theatre.”  I hope to get her book on it soon.  It’s on my Christmas list!

Her C.D, Jump, Jam & Jiggle is great!  I particularly love the Billy Goats Gruff Rap!  What a wonderful contemporary take on this old, well-known, story!  I love seeing an old story get a new treatment so that it feels new and energized like that!

All of that is leading up to a T shrt I saw a librarian wearing at the workshop that day.  It said “What Happens In Storytime, Stays in Storytime.”  I found it amusing.  After asking where he got the shirt, I was thrilled to discover the clever web site source!

http://www.unshelved.com/

It’s a comic strip set in a library.  It also sells reading and library T shirts.  In addition there is a hilarious page of comic strips about book selections that book clubs might use.

Though I find the shirt amusing it goes directly counter to my personal beliefs about story programs.  I want what happens in “story time” to NOT stay there!  I want it to extend to the rest of a person’s life!

The art of oral storytelling is fun but it’s not just fun.  It should be memorable.  Storytelling to my way of think is about life.  You can’t isolate anything in life that doesn’t have a story.

Story programs are fun but they are also about memory, history, learning, art, and so much more.  I always tell people that come to my programs to share the stories that touch them with others.  They can change the stories anyway they like when they tell them too.  Like money, and manure, stories don’t do much good if they are not spread around and shared!

Just today I was talking with a lovely little girl. She really seemed to have something she really wanted to tell me.  So I simply stopped what I had planned in that moment and listened to her.

She said, “For Halloween I was Little Red Riding Hood.”  At first I thought, why was this so important to her to tell me?  I was at her house for Halloween so I’d have thought she’d know I’d seen her in her costume. Why is she telling me this now? Then it dawned on me, why!

She had been at my “Travel the World In Stories: Germany / Oktoberfest Program.”  In that program, I’d told my version of Little Red Riding Hood among other stories.  That’s why she wanted so earnestly to share that costume choice with me.

In my version, Little Red makes some mistakes but she is very assertive too.  She also resolves the situation herself, with just a little of her Granny’s help.  My Red, thinks outside the box. She doesn’t get scared so much as mad.  She also doesn’t get eaten.  I guess that character resonated for that wonderful little girl. 

It’s those moments that make me so happy to be a storyteller.  When you know you’ve touched someone’s heart it just feels so good.  Though they may change the story and share it with others, they will carry that vision and your version of the story with them forever! 

My story programs are not designed to “stay” in story time.  They are created to help us participate, have fun, learn and think.  I want these stories to be a part of your lives!

There are some wonderful quotes I once read that talks about how fictional stories can in some ways be more “true” than people think. Why you might ask? Because, the quote explained, stories often carry the emotional truth of human experience.

Here are a couple of those quotes:

"Fairy tales are more than true:
not because they tell us that dragons exist,
but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
~G.K. Chesterton

 "Of course it's true, but it may not have happened."~Patricia Polacco's grandmother

My Travel the World In Stories programs are such fun to research, design, write and perform!  I started this year off with quite a compliment.  My first “travel the world” program was on Australia.  At the end of it, a man came up to me.  He shook my hand, smiled at me and then said, “Are you originally from Australia?” What a grin that brought to my face.  He made my day!

In September, I finished preparing the promotional materials for library programs Summer Reading 2008.  I think it's going to be a very fun set of programs!  In addition to my teaching storytelling workshops and camps, this year I will transform into "The Bug Lady!"

For Preschool audiences, I'll be doing a Miss Spider's Tea Party program. For mixed ages audiences I'll be doing Get Your Antennas In a Twist and a La Cucaracha and Friends Party! 

Young Adults and Teens can enjoy my Creepy Bug Stories of Horror! Program! That will include, Bugs From Outer Space, an original, “participation theater” story. 

Also in September I actually got to take a vacation! Oh, not one from stories of course, not! Who would want that? I literally took a box of books with me! My family had a great time on the white sandy beach, dancing in the waves, swimming in the pools, and floating on the lazy river!

In late October, some of the leaves on a few of the trees finally started turning into beautiful fall colors here.  Some days we even have a mild cold snap.  Other days it is still hot as the dickens.  It’s nice to finally get a few signs that autumn is actually here!

Seeing tree leaves in glorious shades of red, gold, yellow, orange and/or purple, against the backdrop of the sky, makes me just stop and feel joy!  I always want to take a picture or paint one, of these marvelous trees!  It’s so nice to finally see these glorious signs of autumn!

The Teen Book, Language, Art and Social Club has really taken off!  Last month we had so many people show up for our meeting, it was great!  I do like the small groups too though.  Each has it’s own magic!

The reading selection was Jennifer Government by Max Barry.  The November 2007 selection is Poison by Chris Wooding.  In December 2007 our selection will be The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman.  We plan to read it, see the movie, then compare and contrast them.

Lately, I’ve been thinking of offering a book selection for the younger siblings of the teens.  We always have a few younger siblings show up. I’m waiting to find out if there is an interest in that.

Meanwhile, the Parent’s Reading Club has taken off as well!  Our selection for September 2007, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger disappointed our readers.  The October 2007 selection, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant drew raves and much discussion from all of us!  This month we are reading Little Bitty Lies by Mary Kay Andrews.

As the wind makes music in the trees outside my window, it calls me to come out from behind my computer.  I think I’m going to go on a “story walk” right now!  Would you like to story walk with me? Great! Ready! Set! Let’s go!

          As the month of August is coming to a close, I find myself preparing for my autumn story programs.  Outside it's often over one hundred degrees.  It feels like the deep “dog days” of summer to me.  This even though most schools around here have already started two to three weeks ago. 

 Today it rained so hard it was a bit difficult to remember we are in a severe drought.  I heard a saying that was new to me.  Someone called the downpour a “toad strangler.”  Isn’t that a colorful way of putting it!

Looking back on July and August so far, it was much busier than I expected it to be. I remember looking at my calendar thinking it would be nice to have a slow summer.  When does life ever truly feel like it slows down for you?  For me, that so rarely happens, but busy can be fun too!

I've got so many things to work on right now.  It's exciting and fun.  Everyday I get more bookings.  I love fitting together all the various elements to make the best story programs I can for my clients!

This fall I'm finally doing Stories From Around the World.  It's great fun researching and preparing these gems.

I'm also preparing programs and materials for Summer Reading 2008.  I plan to have those ready to send out mid September for the libraries that are interested!

My co writer, Destin Hicks and I, have gotten the first picture book based on a stories I tell finished.  It is titled, The Rain Frog. We’ve also finished the first picture book in our rescue animal series.  That title is Star’s Forever Home.  Both are finished except for illustrations, editing by the agent and/or publisher and actually getting them published. 

 We would love to find the right people to our publishing agent, illustrator and publisher. That’s something we will be researching in the coming months.

I’ve also started up a Teen Reading, Literature, Arts and Social Group this month.  Our first book of the month for August 2007 is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. We will be meeting up to discuss it, share literature or art we’ve done and just hang this Friday.  It’s open to any teen in the Birmingham area that is interested.

 
Next month, September 2007, the book selection is Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Contact me for more information about this club if you are interested.

 I am considering starting Parent Book Club in September to meet along side the teens since most of us drive our teens around anyway.  We will see how much interest there is in that.

In just another week or so the official autumn programs will start.  I hope to see you all at one of my private or public programs soon!

I'm taking fall bookings now!  Already I've got quite a lot lined up but I can still find room for a few more.  I'll be adding the public venue gigs to my calendar along with the themes when my summer gigs slow down a bit.

This summer has been a fun challenge. Why? Because the theme, Get A Clue At Your Library, for fifth grade and lower and YNK, You Never Know for twelfth grade and under, has made me look at doing some types of stories I don't often do.  Except for Halloween, I don't usually do ghost stories.  I also don't do mystery stories very often.  So this has been interesting for me to craft some programs around these sorts of themes!

I love the sort of Rubik's cube work I do when I work on a theme that is nearly or completely new to me.  It's really a great creative exercise that really gets me going!

Summer isn't over yet.  Most summers I feel overwhelmed with the number of gigs I have but this summer I'm feeling pretty laid back.  Maybe I have the perfect number for me this year.

Usually by the end of summer (July) I'm creatively drained.  I recharge my batteries and get ready to start telling again by the end of August (for schools) and the beginning of September (for Libraries).  This year I started out being drained way too early (January) but now, I feel full of creativity!

I'm working on fall programs, which will include Travel The World stories, Holiday stories including Halloween Stories to Make You Shriek, and Curriculum stories for some of my school clients.

I'm also already working on the next Summer Reading programs.  I expect to have materials sent out to local libraries about those by mid September.

The next project I am planning to work on will be writing a picture book based on one of the stories I tell.  If you know any publishers looking for a great picture book let me know.  I have quite a few ideas for picture books I'm going to be working on eventually.  I also have a novel I want to write. Finding the time and mental space to do so is a challenge though.  This first picture book story will be a great one to tell or read!

I also want to research "healing" stories.  The idea of creating programs to help individuals in a group setting with difficult life issues is work I'd like to get into.

I think it will be an exciting year this year.  I can't wait to get started!