StoryFUSION

It all starts today.  See you when it's over.

KBWT

Who can think about Kids Book Website Tuesday when the phone keeps ringing and I have to make nametags for StoryFUSION and I haven't collected enough media cords for my workshop yet?????

I can!!  Ta Ra Ta Ra!  I can think about Kids Book Website Tuesday.  Of course, right now my favorite KBW is Battle of the Books.  DUH!!  With amazingness happening at every cliff-hanging turn!  Today, Judge Jewel Parker Rhodes chose Drawing from Memory to move to the semi-finals.  I have hope for Inside Out and Back Again to rise from the dead in the final round.

I was hoping to share a Reading Rainbow site but since the show was taken off, PBS no longer hosts a site for it.  But, never fear, Reading Rainbow fans.  I have heard from very credible sources that Reading Rainbow will come out with an app for your iPhones this Spring!!!  YAY!  Take a look!  It's in a book!  Reading Rainbow.

Here you go.  Stone Soup, the magazine, has been publishing stories, poems and drawings of young people for decades.   So Stone Soup, though not actually a book website, is my choice for this week's Kids Book Website.  Sample the writings of children and teens.  This magazine never publishes the work of grown-ups.  NEVER!  Stone Soup is Peter Pan's favorite reading material, I've been led to believe.  I'm sure that's true.

Make sure you check out the video on the magazine's home page.  Very cool.


Back to BoB: Tomorrow, Life: an Exploded Diagram goes up against  Wonderstruck.  My first lackluster prediction is that Wonderstruck  will head to the next round.  But Chris Lynch is the judge and that changes things.  Must....think... ... ... I am going to predict Wonderstruck.  Just because I feel I should predict something.  Is that lackluster enough for you?  Both good books.  Both worthy opponents.  Just not A Monster Calls.

Story in a Snap Workshop

Months ago, we sat around a table in a nice conference room on Northampton Community College's campus and brainstormed student workshops.  "Why not have a workshop where the kids use their cell phones to collect pictures and create stories out of them?"  I suggested brightly - (or dimly, we will see.)
So the germ for the Story in a Snap Workshop was born.

Thursday afternoon - 2 days away! from 1 to 3 pm in Richardson 20 at Northampton Community College, Susan Petrole, English professor extraordinaire, and I, idea monger, will lead a story creating workshop using found objects and/or photos as inspiration to create original stories.  For instance, what would you do with that picture of chairs? Or this one?

Are they as happy together as they seem?  Hmmmmmm?  How come only one of them has arms?

Join Susan and I as we lead you in an exercise of spontaneous story creation.  It will be fun.  And we'll tell some great stories, too.

I forgot!  This workshop is free and open to older teens and adults.

Sunday - a long week ahead

Tomorrow - over at BoB - Chime goes up against Daughter of Smoke and Bone.    Now that the book I thought would go all the way has been kicked out, is it a little, um, self-pitying for me to pout and say I don't care which book wins?  YES!!  Yes, it is.  I do have an opinion about this match.

Chime was the second most difficult book in this year's Battle for me to get into.  (I still haven't finished Life.   I will. I promise.)  Briony's stream of consciousness, anxiety-ridden narrative is so confusing.  But I was so glad I persevered because none of her rambling is wasted.

On the other hand, I slipped into Daughter of Smoke and Bone like I was sinking into a fragrant long-awaited bath.  Ahhhh, what a lovely setting, ahhhh, what intriguing characters, ahhhh, blue hair.  Isn't this indulgent?  And then.... there was the battle-y part.

Very Short Digression:  I am getting really really REALLY tired of battle-y parts.

Back to BoB;  The battle-y part was followed by the heart-breaking romance part and the WHAT??!!! ending in Daughter.   That's a lot to pack into one book.

So, there you have it.  Hard to get into but satisfying Chime goes against seductive, action packed Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

I could toss a coin as one of our esteemed judges did.  I could use my Chobani Oracle Cup and pull out the name.  But this time, I think I will just predict that....  Oh, my, this is so hard.

I choose Chime over Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  I think it was the battle-y part that pushed me over the edge.  I suspect that excellent judge e. lockhart, will have a more intelligent take on this match.  And, as I say over and over, I will not be disappointed in either book moving on. 

StoryFUSION!!!  So much StoryFUSION prep work going on.  If you don't hear much from me this week, that is why.  Check the Storytelling page for updates and schedules and stuff.

Elizabeth Ellis - Storytelling Thursday

With StoryFUSION just around the corner - met up with Susan Petrole at NCC today to talk workshop plans.  So much fun! - ANYWAY, with this festival of storytelling awesomeness speeding towards us, it only makes sense that Her Own Self, Elizabeth Ellis, be the featured teller on Storytelling Thursday.  Even if I have featured her before - have I? - she deserves more exposure and recognition.

You can read all about her storytelling activities at her website.  Go to this page on the StoryFUSION site to listen to a story and interview.

Elizabeth is a fount of storytelling wisdom.  Her down home, laid back telling style is deceptively simple.  She uses her voice in powerful ways and her performances NEED to be experienced.

Zeus Radio interviewed Elizabeth last Fall.  Listen to that interview here.

A librarian, a mother, an author, a professor, and the member of a family with stories galore - all these roles inform Elizabeth's telling.  All of the hats she wears make her stories relevant, funny, touching and perceptive.

There are still tickets available for her Keynote address on HOPE: Storytelling in Financial Hard Times on Friday evening, March 30th AND for her Storytelling Performance on March 31st.

Elizabeth's workshop for teachers, librarians and performers on Saturday March 31st also has a few spaces left.  Please click here to register for any or all of these events.

These events and more take place at Northampton Community College - at StoryFUSION - in Bethlehem, PA.

I hope to see you there.

BoB- WRONG!

I am crushed.  I was sure that A Monster Calls would take this match.   It is a masterful portrayal of the pain of watching a loved one suffer - the guilt, the fear, the resentment, the sorrow, the.... Of course, my personal situation may have made me overly appreciative of this book.  My Dad hasn't died but cancer changed him.  Sigh.

As for Life : an Unexploded Diagram I can't say much.  I could not get into the book.  Was it written well?  Yes.  Was I a teeny bit intrigued by the characters? Um, no.  So now that it has earned a Match 2 slot, I will have to trudge through it.  Friends who read it tell me they are very glad they did.  Hopefully, the second half is better than the first.    This is the allure of BoB.  I am encouraged to read books that I normally would eschew in favor of OTHER books because there are always OTHER books, aren't there?

It's Whatever Wednesday - a Wet Whatever Wednesday.  I have a slate full of stuff to do today so...
I will just remind you to reserve your tickets for StoryFUSION now. 

OK, here's my prediction for tomorrow's round.  I liked both of these books but I wasn't enamored with either of them.  I am going to choose Okay for Now over Wonderstruck.  I felt that Wonderstruck felt wooden compared to Selznick's triumph of The Adventures of Hugo Cabret.    That's probably a little unfair but life is not always fair and neither am I, I guess.

That said, Scholastic has put together a lovely webpage fore this book.  Click here to learn to fingerspell and to learn about constellations, too.

Too many neat coincidences in Okay for Now, I thought.  Funny how coincidences are fine and wanted in one book (The Grand Plan) but can feel hasty in another book.  HOWEVER, the librarian in Okay is totally cool.  Totally.  And the artwork connection was intriguing.

So, which?  Get on with it.   Hmmmmm.  Coin toss?  Nah.  I predict that Okay for Now will move on to the next round.  But now that I have been proved fallible I would not put any money down on this.  Hey, is there a board in Vegas for this Battle?  Does anyone know?

KBWT - Book Week Online

The people at the Children's Book Council have opened the polls for the Children's Choice Awards.  Are you a child?  WERE you a child?  Well, click here to vote for your favorites from the past year.  There's a nice little place for teachers, librarians and booksellers to vote.  That's us, adults.  Vote there.

I picked Inside Out and Back Again to win in the Battle of the Books for a couple of reasons.  One, I did not like the narrator's voice in Heart and Soul.  I felt it fictionalized the telling and this history is too important to be fictionalized.  But, I am pretty sure that is just me.  That voice also makes the story immediate, which might be more important.

Second,  I liked Ha's story.  I liked how Ha and her brothers overcame bullying and managed to fit in.  This was a story of a victory.  There is a truth to this story of assimilation that transcends one culture.  And yet, I appreciated reading about how Ha and her family kept parts of their culture alive.

Once again, both books had such merit and are so well-written that I would not have been disappointed either way.  BoB gives me a reason to wake up and race to my computer every morning!  Squeee!!! (as the middle schoolers might say!)

Please check out the storytelling page for the latest on StoryFUSION.

BoB flows on

Drawing from Memory by Allen Say is victorious in SLJ's Battle of the Books.  I was right again.  For some reason, I am a bit nonplussed.  I wish there was some way that The Grand Plan to Fix Everything could get the recognition it deserves.  Well-written FUN books lack respect in the world of books.  And that is not right because the fun books, the so-called "light" or "fluffy" books, are what keep a LOT of kids reading.

Anyone who has ever watched and delighted in the coincidences of a Bollywood film (or "fillum") will understand what is happening in The Grand Plan.  The heroine MUST reunite with her jilted lover.  The friends MUST stay tight.  And the lovely postal worker on his honeymoon MUST find a job in this Eden like village.  Barbara O'Connor, the judge in today's BoB match-up, mentioned these coincidences and I think she was not sure she liked them.  I LOVED them. These coincidences lifted me from my rather coincidence free humdrum existence to a place where the sun shines and birds sing and the crowds break into dance with colored scarves and bells on their ankles.

HOWEVER, Drawing from Memory is, as Barbara O'Connor so aptly puts it, an "experience".  I had tears in my eyes as I closed this book about Allen Say's journey to become the great artist that he is.  I felt enriched and enlightened after I read Drawing from Memory and I feel it would best almost any other book on this list.  But I am at a loss for words to describe it.  It needs to be read and studied and felt.

Both books take American readers into other cultures and climates.  Imagine!  A twelve-year-old is given his own apartment so he can go to school!!!!  Monkeys take over a bakery!!!  Reading is the cheapest way to travel. 

Tomorrow's match is between Kadir Nelson's Heart and Soul and Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.  My vote goes to Inside Out and Back Again.  Let's see if I am right.

Maelstorm of Storytelling Excellence

Happened today.  So very much fun and such good stories.  Larry trotted out the "burning book" - oooooohh!  and his favorite card trick - aaaahhhh!  And I messed around on the accordion.  Oh! Uh, oh!

While we were taking storytelling prisoners, the weather was, too.  Such a lovely, balmy, non-March like day.  My March poem doesn't fit anymore.

Here is my March poem, Spring Cleaning

March comes in with brush and broom
To clear away the winter's crust
Of highway salt and auto rust
And other scraps of icy gloom.

And then March turns and starts to groom
The tangled branches of the trees;
Combs snarls out and gently frees
The buds to swell and burst and bloom.

Story Madness

Larry Sceurman and I will make Story Magic and Madness tomorrow at Godfrey Daniels.  You have to come.  No excuses.  If you are within driving distance of Bethlehem, PA, this is a show you can't miss.  Because Larry and I are - individually - super tellers.  But together we are a maelstrom of storytelling magnetism that is not to be believed.  About things like this, I do not lie.

Here I am playing with George, my fave!

The date is March 18th, 2012.
The time is 2 pm.
The place is Godfrey Daniels, 7 East 4th Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018

The event is the Children's Storytelling Series with Larry Sceurman and Karen Maurer.  And my accordion.
The cost - a mere $4.50.  

Here's a little added fun.  If you stick around for an hour or so, there is an Irish Band playing at Godfrey's, so plan for a day and a night of stories and music.

Random Stuff

Readergirlz and Figment are planning a Rock the Drop event on April 12, 2012.  It works like this.  Get a book.  Put the bookplate, below, in the book.  Drop the book somewhere that someone might find it.  It's like International Book Giving Day but more subversive.

So do it.  Easy enough to share a good read with an unknown "friend".

Battle of the Books:  Daughter of Smoke and Bone won its first round - as I predicted.  I am buffing my chipped nails on my lapel as you read this.  Don't forget to read the commentaries after Sara Zarr's thoughtful judging. 

One of the comments to BoB's post mentioned the artwork for today.  I like the little bomb shelter sign that Dead End in Norvelt so ineffectively uses as a shield.  Thanks to RB for drawing attention to these graphics.  So read EVERYTHING on the Battle's page; the decision, the commentaries and the comments.  All fun, all worthwhile.

Monday's match.  Hmmm.  I haven't read The Grand Plan to Fix Everything.   It's hard to imagine that it is better than Allen Say's Drawing from Memory.  So I'm going with Drawing as Monday's winner.  HOWEVER, I might change my mind.

So what happens next?  Come on March 31st to see!

I still have two passes to the Elizabeth Ellis performance on March 31st at Northampton Community College.  Listen to the interview and story at the link above.  Honestly, she is so good we should charge TWICE as much as we are charging.  Try something new. 

Free Storytelling Webinar

Sean Buvala is offering a free webinar on using stories in business, education and entertainment.  Check out the little trailer.

Go here to register for this event.

Storytelling Thursday - ME!

Well, I have two passes to Saturday, March 31st show at StoryFUSION.  Any takers?  This is no longer a blog Giveaway.  This is a First Person Gets It Giveaway.  Just post a comment and the passes are yours.

The Battle of the Books update is at the end of this post.

I am performing - with Larry Sceurman, who is amazing and magical, - on Sunday afternoon, 2 pm, at Godfrey Daniels, 7 East 4th Street, Bethlehem, PA 18105.  I will bring my accordion, just for fun.  Larry will bring his magic.  We plan to tell a story together, too.

So, my storyteller of the week is...ME!  I am awesome.  Actually, I am pretty good, even if I say so myself.

Here I am as Monsieur Maurer (Mah-ray)

Here is my storytelling history.
30 years ago,  I had only seen two actual "storytellers" at that time, Kathy Pierce and Ed Stivender.  The idea that anyone could actually make money doing something I just did naturally - honestly, try to shut me up when I get going - was amazing!

So I began to tell stories everywhere I could - in storytimes, to church groups, at Halloween bonfires.  I made up a flier and sent it out - cut and paste since design software was very expensive back then.

A year or two later, a F(f)riend asked me if I would be her storytelling partner, and Ollie Ollie Infree Storytellers was born.  We told at schools and camps and church groups and retirement dinners and ladies' clubs, in PA, West Virginia and Ohio.  We even told at Mayfair, which was a brand new festival back then.

Before or during this partnership, I started an intergenerational storytelling troupe at the library where I was the YS librarian.  Storytellers' Circle, the group was called and it was a lively fun group.  We put on shows for the library, visited senior groups and nursing homes and nursery schools and day cares.  We had parents and children join together.  And children who joined without parents and parents who joined without children.  We were all learning together.  Chaz Kiernan and his daughter, Emily, were members of this troupe.   YAY!

This is how the Black Rose Tellers began - and that is Kelly on the right!

  I started the Black Rose Teen Tellers in 2004.  And it continued until I resigned from that library in 2011.  The Teen Tellers did reader's theater, planned and performed for Dr. Seuss Birthday Parties and Teddy Bear Costume Parties, Tellabration, for benefit events, and BEST of ALL, these teens helped plan and carry out annual workshops for younger tellers.  In Fall 2010, I started Tellers2 with tellers in grades 3 through 5. 

Over the years, two of the Teen Tellers qualified to compete in the National Youth Storytelling Showcase, Aleah Goldin and Josh Langman.  (Three if we count Emily Kiernan but she wasn't a member of any troupe when she competed.)  Two of them starred in the YouTube below, the amazing Kelly Fitzpatrick and Erik N.

Me?  I tell stories with and without my accordion. I have visited West Virginia, Ohio, Texas and PA, telling stories at festivals, schools, parties, church groups and leading workshops for young tellers and teachers.  Like reading and reviewing children's books, storytelling is what I do, who I am.  Join me - at StoryFUSION, at Godfrey Daniels. I will gladly tell you a story - anytime.

BoB Update:
 Chime goes on to the next round, just as I said it would.  Tomorrow's winner, I predict, will be Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  However, Dead End in Norvelt did win the Newbery and just might win again.   

BoB Whatever!

I called it!  See my post yesterday if you don't believe me!  I picked Between Shades of Gray by Ruth Septys and Gayle Forman agreed.  Here is my guess for tomorrow's BoB match between The Cheshire Cheese Cat and Chime.  As much as I adored the cheese-loving cat in the first book, I am choosing Chime as the winner.  I may well be wrong.  But I won't be disappointed.  Both books have a lot to offer to their readers.  By the way, don't forget to visit The Cheshire Cheese Cat's website for a lot of London and Dickens fun.

Buried Life Book

What do you want to do before you die?  Four friends set out in a big bus to complete their list of wishes - and to help others.  The book about their adventure comes out this Spring.  Check out their trailer.

BoB - KBWT

In the Battle of the Kids' Books, Amelia Lost went up against Anya's Ghost today.  The judge is Matt Phelan.  I could prove my own clairvoyance and tell you who I predicted would win but....you know I already looked and you wouldn't believe that this is the way I thought it would pan out.

The winner is... Amelia Lost  by Candace Fleming.

So, tomorrow, Between Shades of Gray meets Bootleg and Gayle Forman must decide which book moves on to Round 2.  I predict that Between Shades of Gray  will win.  Let's see if I am right - tomorrow.

As for Kids Book Website Tuesday - go around to Mo Willems website for fun for all ages. Piggies, Elephants, Pigeons, Frogs and all manners of creatures abound.  Mo Willems is always fun.

Storytelling Thursday

The Giveaway is still on.  Check your calendars.  I am giving away two tickets to Elizabeth Ellis' storytelling performance on March 31st - 7 pm -  at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, PA.  Larry Sceurman will open for Elizabeth.  If that doesn't get you all fired up to win, I don't know what will!

This promises to be the best performance of StoryFUSION 2012.  That seems like saying a LOT though.  There are the students' performances on Thursday.  They are shaping up to be impressive, fun and thought-provoking.

Then there is Elizabeth's keynote address on Friday night -HOPE: Storytelling in Financial Hard Times.  We can all use more hope.

Friday during the day, Dear Mr. Lincoln is going to be a great program.  And then there are the Saturday workshops and Saturday afternoon events.

So here's how you win.  Comment on this blog post - or on yesterday's post.  Include your town and state and a name - it can be a user name.  Share this blog post on Facebook and come back and comment SHARED for a second chance to win.

Make up a new adjective for "most excellent art festival" like tell-erific, or artawesome and add that to your comment for a THIRD chance to win.

Looking forward to your comments

GIVEAWAY!! Whatever!

It's Whatever Wednesday here and I have so much on my mind that if I did not control my flailing fingers - Wow!  Be grateful for my reticence.

 I uploaded a story fragment on Scribd.  Take a look and let me know what you think.  There is a story behind the names in this story.    Someday, I might share the story-behind.

And now to the main event!

  I have a giveaway.  TWO FREE PASSES to StoryFUSION's  Saturday Evening Elizabeth Ellis performance on March 31st at Northampton Community College's Lipkin Theater.  This is an awesome giveaway made possible by the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild.

Here is how you enter.  Comment on this blog.  Add your town and state.  For example, if your user name is watergirl and you live in Cranston Ohio, just put that in.  I am guessing that local people are more likely to enter.

You have until next Wednesday, March 14th,  to enter.   I will put all the entries into the Chobani Cup of Oracleness; pull out the winner; and announce that winner here on Thursday, March 15th, (The Ides of March), as part of Storytelling Thursday.  You will then email me at an address to be disclosed at that time and tell me where to send the passes.

You get another entry if you share this post on your Facebook page and come back and comment SHARED here.  Thanks so much.  StoryFUSION is - I need a new word that indicates a level of excellence that is rarely achieved by local arts festivals - artawesome? Fantasabulous?  Tale-errific?  Help me out here.

Get yet another entry if your comment includes a new word that describes a truly excellent art festival experience.

That's THREE possible entries for each of you.  Put on those thinking caps.  Share this post with everyone and get them to comment, too.

Book Aunt - KBWT

Thanks to the folks over at School Library Journal's Battle of the (Kids) Books, I discovered Kate Coombs' blog, Book Aunt, "Because OTHER people give you clothes and video games for your birthday. "  It looks like I'm a Book Aunt, too.

Author of such fun books as The Runaway Princess and The Secret-Keeper, Kate's blog chronicles her writing adventures and adventures in the world of books for kids, such as her excellent review of "BIG numbers", highlighting books about large numbers written for young children.

To learn more about Kate Coombs, her writings and her writer-ly activities, go to her official website.  It's visually attractive and offers resources for parents and teachers. Kate has developed activities for each of her books, including a sampler of secrets from The Secret Keeper.  Hidden treasures are revealed with just a click.

Starters - a review

Lissa Price's Starters dropped on my doorstep yesterday.  I disappeared.  Maybe you saw me yesterday afternoon, but really?  I was in a future version of southern California.  I followed Callie Woodhill as she tried to "sell" her body to an elderly renter in the hopes of raising enough money to get medicine for her dangerously ill 7-year-old brother.

In this future world, many people between the ages of 25 and 75-ish were killed during the Spore Wars.  Children and the elderly had been vaccinated and they survived.  But lifespans have increased to upwards of 200 years so employing the young is against the law to insure that the Enders - as older people are called - can continue working.  Children and teens, (Starters), who do not have older relatives to claim them become slaves to the state until they reach 19.

The chasm between the rich and employed and the unclaimed and poor is vast and ugly.  Enter Prime Destinations, a company that exists under the radar of the law.  Rich Enders, the really old ones, can rent the bodies of teens while the teens' brains are put to sleep. The Enders' bodies stay behind in a coma state.  Callie takes a chance that Prime Destinations will keep their promises, and agrees to three rentals, each one longer than the last.

If I could give some advice to Callie here?  RUN!  Away!  FAST!  But then the story would be about surviving and possibly her brother's death and squalor, etc., etc.  Callie doesn't run.  When she wakes up in her renter's clothes, she starts getting telepathic messages from her renter - who has dire plans for Callie's youthful body.  Dire, dreadful, dangerous, desperate plans.  The plans depend on Callie's extraordinary talents as a markswoman.  Not good.

Another piece of advice for Callie - stay away from rich handsome Starters.  I don't think she takes that advice either.  Sigh.

Expensive cars and fashions, clubs, VIPS, lifestyles of the Rich and Ender-ly, cat and mouse chases, and nasty villains combine with the mystery of just who is behind Prime Destinations to create a page turner.

This is the first in a proposed series.  I have some awful suspicions about who The Old Man - Prime Destinations' founder - is.  Awful, cringe-causing suspicions.  So I am anxious for the next installment.  Go, Callie, go.  And stay away from that rich Starter! (Oh, I so hope I'm wrong.)

Re-Seussification

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.  Happy Read Across America Day to everyone!  Happy birthday, childhood's favorite Muse!  A man of myth, and words, and wonder, and fun!

From @gallerynuclus by way of justpicturethis.tumblr.com

OK!  From Fuse#8 Productions we have a the results of Elizabeth Bird's  Re-Seussfication Project.  She challenged illustrators to re-illustrate a Seuss classic in the style of another illustrator, honoring both - I hope. I particularly like the last illustration. 

Jarrett Krosoczka re-seussified The Cat in the Hat in Bernard Waber style.  This is NOT the last illustration referred to above.

StoryFUSION

Storytelling Thursday, here!

StoryFUSION!!  STORY - fusion.  A fusion of all the ways story can be told.  Well, maybe not all the ways. But a whole SLEW of ways.  The whole thing happens at Northampton Community College, one of my alma maters.  And it happens from March 29th through April 1st, 2012.  That's THIS month.  Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild is a MAJOR contributor to this event - as in we make it happen.

So I promised you I'd give you the low-down on this event.  But there is really too much to tell.  Here's a link to the schedule.  

Elizabeth Ellis is the featured teller.  She is intelligent and mesmerizing as a performer.  She sweeps people up into her stories.  She is a fantastic educator.  I <3 Elizabeth Ellis - could you tell?

So many other people are involved.  The workshops alone are amazing - and that's NOT just because I am co-leading one of them.  Here is a nice description of all the workshops.

The student performances promise to be wonderful.  I saw a minute or two of the multi-media project. I am in love! 

So here is YOUR cost analysis (smirk) of this event:

Free events:
Thursday afternoon and evening - all FREE! 
Friday's "Dear Mr. Lincoln" Reader's Theater event at 10 am and 1 pm - FREE (10 am is pretty full, though.)
Saturday afternoon - Film shorts, Story Jam - Free but donations are gratefully accepted.
Sunday - Sacred Stories - Free

Admission events:
Friday night - Keynote Address - $10
Saturday workshops - $35 each
Meals -$12 for lunch and $18 for dinner.  Nice menus, I promise!
Saturday afternoon Children's show - $5!  A bargain!
Saturday evening performance - $10
Sunday afternoon:  Elizabeth Ellis workshop for performers - $50

Pick THIS to save money:
ALL FESTIVAL PASS  - $60
This includes all performances on Friday and Saturday, 1 workshop and both meals.  This does NOT include Sunday afternoon' workshop.

Register HERE.

Comment if you want to sign up for a Thursday workshop.  Since there is no cost, there is no online way to register in advance.

See you there.