What an extraordinary storytelling year this has been!(And yes I know I am repeating myself from my last post - but truth is worth saying twice!)As I write this in the last few hours of 2010, I am amazed at how many doors have opened this year, how...

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The land of once-upon-a-time has surrounded me this extraordinary storytelling year!Rediscovering many old childhood favorites, I have inhaled fairy tales and folk tales by the bookload as I climbed a steep story-world learning curve.  So it seemed perfectly natural to find that the theme of this year’s Frederick’s 72...

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Just before Thanksgiving I received a wonderful greeting from Mirielle McKell on Facebook wishing me joy and family delight during the upcoming festivities.Mirielle is one of my many new storytelling blessings in this wonderful year that has been awash with stories.She is the mother of Bill Mckell, the...

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This has been a season of firsts! In the past months I have experienced many storytelling firsts – but the most thrilling of the lineup was going to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough Tennessee.  This festival began in 1973 when 60 people sat on hay bales to hear Appalachian tales told...

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Last week I stepped into a living fairytale.Or that’s what it felt like when I went to a house in University Park, Maryland that resembled an illustration for a children’s story.In my mind this is how the tale started."Once upon a time there was a cottage on the edge...

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In storytelling things go in threes it seems - three blind mice: three wishes: three bears. So I shouldn’t have been surprised that I was strongly impacted by three things last week. FirstOn Thursday and Friday I went to the two-day Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit where a yearly changing roster of...

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This evening, at the Germantown, Maryland library, I experienced another side of Storyteller Nick Newlin as he brought to life his alter-ego Nicolo the Jester. And what fun he was!The room was heaving with dozens of tiny toddlers, their older siblings and watchful adults and Nicolo kept them all...

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I am delighted to report that the recording of my one woman story show “Destination? Slammer!” on Sunday evening was a great success.Thank you to all who came out.  Thank you to all who prayed. Thank you Lord for answering those prayers!Beans in the Belfry, a defunct Brunswick, Maryland...

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The last ten days – all oppressively hot - swirled past me crackling with creativity.A SpeakeasyDC open mike; as many Capital Fringe shows as I could stuff into my schedule; rehearsing my upcoming show “Destination? Slammer!” and discussing plans for another show, a possible collaboration with Storyteller Ellouise...

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I raced back down the road yesterday evening to see SpeakeasyDC’s Capital Fringe entry, “Showcase Showdown.” Before leaving, absorbed in an article-writing. word-induced haze, I was oblivious that I had long passed my planned time of departure. On seeing the clock I hurled myself into the car, praying furiously.Fringe...

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The Fifth Capital Fringe Festival has begun! 132 shows will take place in the last three weeks of July!The excitement has been palpable.  And now, like much anticipated rain after a long hot dry spell the Fringe is flowing theater into the streets of Washington DC.Many of my friends...

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I have had a lovely time playing with Storyteller Ellouise Schoettler this week.  Every first Wednesday of the month at 7.30pm she hosts a Story Telling Salon in Kensington Row bookstore not far outside Washington DC.Last Wednesday was my first visit and as I drew up outside I...

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This is my fourth July fourth as an American!  To my great delight I was naturalized on January 5th 2007 and spent my first Independence Day as a citizen while staying with a wonderful friend, Liz Carpenter - which I thought was very appropriate. Over two decades ago when I...

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A funny thing happened on the way to the conference….On Saturday I was headed towards Washington DC to be a storytelling groupie at the American Library Association Conference, where friends Linda Martin and Kim Weitkamp were going to be performing with Southwestern Storyteller Joe Hayes at an evening...

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A friend I haven’t heard from in a long while called me the other day to ask what I was doing and I told him all about my headlong plunge into the world of storytelling. He phoned back yesterday to ask if I was still busy reading books....

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Since leaving my position of Protestant Chaplain at the Maryland Correctional Training Center in January 2010 I have plunged into the deliciously different world of storytelling rekindling a passion that was too often put on the back burner during my prison years.   I discovered SpeakeasyDC – an award-winning...

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