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!

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