Fiction Writing Blog Challenge: Teaser Video

I will be co-hosting, in October 2011, a month long Fiction Writers Blog Fest called The Rule of Three. We created a shared world set in the town of Renaissance, gave the setting, some of the history, the potential for the future…but the stories of the inhabitants of Renaissance, ah…those we’ll find out together. (For my teaser story, click HERE).

All the information will be unleashed on Wednesday, August 31st. Plenty of time to sign into the project. The Basics: create a 3 person story arc, one posting per week for three weeks (with prompts provided if you need them), each posting dealing with the story you are building towards through the POV of one of your three characters. There will be one more posting, the culmination of the story you’ve been telling week by week, one final burst into the story you’ve set in Renaissance.  Yes, very Rashomon.

The Shared World: Renaissance

An outpost town in the middle of nowhere, but many routes pass through or by the town. The desert is encroaching on one side (to the West), a once lush forest lies to the East and South. A large river runs through the forest, but it is not close by. Mountains are to the North, far, far away, and when you look towards them you don’t know if they are an illusion or not. Closer by are the smaller hill chain that fed the mining, creating caverns and passages underground.

The town has had a number of identities throughout it’s history: A trading post; a mining town; a ghost town until it was rediscovered; a thriving community; the scene of a number of great battles; the scene of one great tragedy (that led to it’s Ghost Town standing); a  town of great joys and celebrations, and so much more.

At this point in time, there is a general population of 333. A mixture of a community. It boasts families that have lived there for generations upon generations, but they are in the minority, and are not in positions of power. There are traders who have come back here, at the end of their many travails, to settle in. The new families and power players have taken this as a last refuge for themselves, hoping to rebuild lives torn apart on the way here.

EVERYONE has a secret!

Welcome to Renaissance.

Enjoy your stay.

Full Details Released On Wednesday, August 31st, here and on Tale Spinning

What Sparks The Writer? (The Spark Blogfest)

My good friend (and co-conspirator in our Rule of Three Writers Blog Fest) Lisa posted on her blog Flash Fiction something that intrigued me: When Dreams Come True-A Post for the Sparkfest.

Sparkfest is the invention of Christine Tyler of The Writer Coaster, and this is my first introduction to her writing blogging world. I am sure it won’t be my last as I just subscribed. SUPPORT WRITERS AND OTHER ARTISTS. End of soapbox.

The prompt for this blogfest:

What book made you realize you were doomed to be a writer?

What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress?

Or, Is there a book or author that changed your world view?

Christine has a whole set of “rules” on her page: check them out, and enter as you will. Me, um…well,  if you’ve been reading me at all, you should have an idea about how I feel: Rules? Rules? We don’ need no stinkin’ rules!  Her basic prompt was to choose one of the three above.

By The Way: if you don’t know, I am also a Fiction Writer, and write on my Tale Spinning Blog. This probably should have gone there, and it might still, later. Thought you should know, if you have only known me for what I write about in Education.

I’m going to try all three. Just to be…me. (Thank you, Gene Simmons. I hope she says yes, and I hope you are better).

What book made you realize you were doomed to be a writer?

This is a tough one for me. I am not sure there is one book that did that. The first thing that comes to mind, really:

Comic Books

I have been involved with reading, collecting, cherishing comic books since way before I could read. My mother used to buy me a few when I was very little (Gold Key; Harvey; Classics Illustrated; Disney;  and Archie comics) and I loved the whole thing. It was more than pictures and words. Comics took me on a journey across the world and into imagination. When I discovered Super Heroes, that was it: Hooked 110% all the way. My imagination knew no boundaries from that day forth. I also understood very well that with great power comes great responsibility.

My memory may play tricks with me, but besides wanting to be a scientist (not with MY grades!), I had always wanted to write for the comics. Always. Still do.  I used to write my own little things in school when I was bored out of my mind. Always drawing my little thumbnails (didn’t know I was story-boarding then), creating characters, writing dialogue, etc.

So…doomed to be a writer? I don’t think I’ve ever thought of writing as a doomed thing. Exciting, creative, expressive, exploitative, demanding, challenging…yes. Doomed? Never.

What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress?

My current work in progress is Agent driven: I asked her “what do you want from me?” when all she had previously said was she wanted to see a novel from me (she won’t handle short story writers). Her answer: “I want a great love story.” So, that is what I am doing right now. For those of you that have read my published short story in Dawn of Indie Romance, you’ll see I do have that in me.

The author who set me afire in inspiration overall is Roger Zelazny. I do have a few other things in the works besides the “great love story,” and I feel that I owe them all to the late Mr. Zelazny. He was, to me, THE writer to look up to, to want to be compared to. He broke down big heavy walls in his speculative fiction and fantasy writing.  He explored ancient mythologies putting his own twist  on things.

• Lord of Light was the first book of his I read, and will reread it as long as I can read. Hinduism, scifi, fantasy: you name it.
• A Rose for Ecclesiastes just an amazingly beautiful story, melding Christian mythos with science fiction AND it’s a love story too.
• The Chronicles of Amber is probably what Zelazny is best known for. This fantasy series has everything in it: great stories; great characters; great mysteries; great love; great horror and tragedy; and a lot of Zelazny’s humor.

He was diverse in his writing styles. He had a love for language. He had a diverse referencing skill in what he drew upon as a writer. If I ever had to grow up, I’d want to grow up to be a 1/10 of a Roger Zelazny in my writing. My The Kistune-Mochi Tale (working title) is inspired by his work. Thank you, Mr. Zelazny.

Is there a book or author that changed your world view?

This is the book that blew away my itty, bitty mind when I was around 16/17. It was written/published in 1972, and I still have my copy. So, yeah…16 or 17. I remember reading it, having to put the book down, close my eyes, and my head just swam/exploded with all the complexities I was experiencing from the book. No: I was not on any drug. I don’t do drugs. Never did. This book was enough.

RD Laing’s knots was a psychological poetry brainf**k for me then, and it still retains all of that for me now. Not a fiction book, per se, as I’m normally driven towards fiction. But,it is life presented in an infinity loop of desperation, longings, desires, needs, destructiveness, love, hate, and “what are we doing to ourselves and each other?” wanderings.

Amazon’s description of the book is:  “A series of dialogue-scenarios, which can be read as poems or plays, describing the “knots” and impasses in various kinds of human relationships.” I think they do it a disservice.

I think my questioning of “why” someone does something, not as judgment but as wanting to just know to understand, has it’s roots from reading this book. It does help me as a writer/playwright: all characters want something. My question is: why?

Hope you liked this one. Bit on the long side, but…I never did promise you brevity.

You should join this one, if you are serious about writing too.

Storytelling to me is…

Let me tell you about storytelling.

Storytelling is the oldest form of communications. We told stories in gestures, painting in caves, in dance, in song, and from guttural uttering to languages, to finally the written word. “How did the hunt go?” led to many tales of bravery and “…you should have seen the mammoth that got away. It was THIS big!” (yes, the first lies too).

I have a Masters of Arts Oral Traditions, but that alone does not make me a Professional Storyteller. I tell (performance: my definition of storytelling) as one way of making a living.  There are a variety of styles of storytellers and ways to tell stories as there are genre’s of books.

Most people associate storytelling with something you do with the kids. You crack open a picture book and hope they go to sleep happy. That is only one way of telling.It is not just for children, and it’s time people really realized it. It’s a community based sharing of cultures and morals and mores; stories were ways of giving out news, passing histories, commentary and caution (Red Riding Hood: watch out for strangers!).

There is: conversational storytelling; telling true stories (The Moth, etc);  digital storytelling; picture book telling; corporate/organizational storytelling; and performance storytelling, where the teller orally presents a story from memory and heart, most often NOT memorized word for word, but beat by story beat. This type of storytelling allows for interpretations, mood and energy of the audience or events of the day, and takes into itself the personality of the teller. There are a few more, but these hit the major oral tradition points.

I’m a performance storyteller. Not always in costume (I do that for certain thematic shows), but I am always investing of myself into the tales I tell. I create my own, love traditional fairy and folk tales, really get into global tales, improvise many, and on occasion will tell a personal story. I take pleasure in the pleasure of the telling, and the reception of my audience. I am not a favorite of the “quiet, breathy”  tellers. That’s OK. I’m boisterous and energetic, and I often try to find humorous spots in the story I tell, if not completely humorous. If Shakespeare could insert a bit of humor into his most tragic of tales, why shouldn’t I?  He was of and for the common man, not some  highfaluting (I never knew that was one word until now-FUN!) ways and prim and proper stuff. (OK..mini rant over).

So, Storytelling to ME is…

FUN

Pleasing

Energy

Sharing

Creative

Laughter

Touching

Adventurous

Connecting

Fulfilling

Stress Reducing

Mesmerizing

Sweat Worthy!

Exhilarating

Pleasurable

 

If you like storytelling, go find a storytelling event in your area. Create one yourself. It’s not hard: check out my article in the top menu here on World Storytelling Day. I set up one in less than a month.

If you like my writing, check out my fiction at Tale Spinning. I think you’ll enjoy my attempts at a variety of genres.

For some amazing storytellers, check out:

Jonathan Kruk

Lou Del Bianco

Rivka Willick

Dangerous Linda

Harvey Heilbrun

Bobby Gonzalez

Lisa Hicks

There are plenty more around the country. Check them out.

April Blog Challenge

Ultimate Blog Challenge

Came across this on FB, and thought it’d be a fun challenge: post one blog a day for the entire month of April. It’s open to anyone, doesn’t cost anything but the time it would take to write at least a 100 word blog, and it might help increase traffic on this site and my website? Put me in coach, I’m ready to play. (Not sure what that line keeps coming up for me…I’m not a sports person by any means).

So, I’ll be rambling on about being a Teaching Artist, about Arts in Education, about the silly things students say and do, about the wonderful things students say and do, the injustice in the world, joining global communities, why diversifying in today’s market is important for an artist, trying to book shows, why sometimes it just feels like I’m just hitting my head against the wall, why I still like traditional stories over true stories, and whatever is necessary to make the Blog Every Day In April a reality.

You can join in too. The link is above. Have fun.

Performers Showcases: Some Observations

I recently had an opportunity to do a fifteen minute presentation of storytelling at a library Performers Showcase.  The last time I did was years ago with my company, The Brothers Grinn. We were a fast and furious (no drifting) improv storytelling  theater company. We ALWAYS got bookings from those showcases. Now, we didn’t book everyone, as I know we were not for everyone in the room. Some never got the idea of what narrative improvisation really was.

We actually had one librarian tell me, after a performance  where we had the audience in our hands every second, that we were NOT storytellers. The ONLY time she felt we were telling a “real” story was when we did a gimmick game: We would tell any fairy tale in a minute and a half, then in a minute, then 30 secs, 10 secs and 1 sec. THAT game..and it’s nothing but a gimmick game, in my opinion, was the only time she considered we were storytellers. Forget the fact that our stories had beginning, middles and ends, overcame problems, saved the day, etc. Nope. A gimmick game was TRUE storytelling.

What I learned from this example, and the above showcase, is that ones own perceptions, ones POV, when close ended and blinder driven, doesn’t allow much room for other  interpretations. What I forgot was that exact thing at the showcase: I went in thinking like a performing artist, not looking at what  I did through the eyes of the buyers, in this case librarians. Other times it was PTA/PTO moms: same difference.

I asked for feedback from the performance. I knew I hadn’t sold everyone, and the results that came back agreed with my assessment. Some loved me and would hire me, some would never hire me (about the same who definitely would), but  the largest portion were in the middle, which usually means no jobs. In the space of 15 mins, I told three different stories to show range of what I can do. Any performing artist I’ve talked to, who has seen my videos of that day, say the same thing: great range, can see your telling skills, etc. What some of the librarians saw? Disjointed, what did one story have to do with the other, TOO DRAMATIC (love that one), etc. So, everything that someone in the arts commented on, it was what I was going for. Some of the comments from the librarians showed they did not get me.

It was a learning experience once again. As artists, we get rejections time and again.  I took the good, bad and indifferent ones and saw what I need to do for the next showcase. That’s on my end, and I’m grateful for the feedback.

A word to the “bookers” at showcases:

1. Please leave your own tastes at home, and really see what your patrons/school community likes.
   1. You are not purchasing for your own entertainment but the library or school.
2. When a performer asks for some interactive help, PLEASE help them out.
   1. I felt I had to jump up and support a few other performers who kept asking and asking, and you could see them sweat.  It’s not fair to the performer. It may have looked like I was grandstanding, but.. suffer not a performer to sweat when they don’t have to.
3. Say “Thank You” to a performer when walking by them, whether you are going to hire them or not.
   1. Ignoring them, or walking over to another performer & engaging them in your presence, is just rude and tacky.
4. Leaving your seat while another performer is on to talk to one who just finished? One woman in particular ignored an entire room of performers, booked someone who just came off stage, and never saw the person who was on at the time.  She did that THREE times.
   
   1. We all just looked on, and all felt one thing: very, very tacky.

What do you think?

What type of Storytelling do you prefer most?

I’ve had discussions with many people about what constitutes Storytelling to them. Many have preferences over others, but they can accept other forms as legitimate. Some, sadly, in a field where we should embrace ART and have open minds, can be as close minded as anyone else.

We CAN appreciate an art form (such as music) but have differing tastes…and it should all be OK.  In a creative field I feel ALL the forms within that discipline should be accepted for what it is, not relegated to a lower standing, if any at all, in the discipline.

I’m not asking if what type of teller (if teller ye be) you are…just anyone: what type of storytelling do you enjoy most?

The Performance Storyteller: Guest Lecturer/Workshop

Tonight I had the privilege of working with a class of students in the education department at PACE University in Pleasantville, NY. These potential teachers are working towards elementary certification and are doing their student teaching during the day. My task was to bring them a way to approach storytelling in their classrooms, how to engage their students, and to prepare them on how to bring out the best of their charges for presentations, thinking on their feet, decoding and interpreting written material, focus skills, finding a creative voice…and, oh yes..how to tell a story that is engaging.

We began by my modeling some do’s and dont’s:

After this, the students formed four groups (three groups of three; one group of four) and were given copies of various Aesop’s Fables. They had five minutes to read the short fables to themselves. They had to find the main points that they would use to retell and share their story with the other members of their small groups. I also instructed them on how to critique the piece in a positive manner that would instill good feelings and allow growth and revisions to happen. You’ll hear that in the below videos.

After everyone in the small groups told and got feedback, they picked one member of each group to come up front and tell their fable.I think that what they did, in little more than an hour total, was amazing.

The Lion and the Mouse #1

The Lion and the Mouse #2

The Fox and the Stork #1

The Fox and the Stork #2

Their feedback at the end to the work they did was extremely encouraging. They felt they learned some skills that they can actually use with their classes. One of the non-performing students asked if this model of small groups and critique would also work with Poetry; my answer was  of course it can, with the only difference is that poetry needs to be memorized word for word, where storytelling allows you the chance to tell in your own words, and add your own personality to the work being told. Poetry allows that creative expression in many ways, just not in the freedom of going “off script”.

I had a great time with this group. What do you think about their work.