Chiles' Play CD Release Party

On Saturday, April 7, at 7 pm, at 707 N. 4th Street, (you thought I was going to say 7th street, but no!) - that's 707 N. 4th Street, Allentown, PA 18102 - the site of Coffee House Without Limits - we will hold a CD release party for our baby, "I Can Make It Myself", music for kids and their grown-ups.

I am so choked up with emotion.  I NEVER thought I'd see the day that I would actually put out a CD.  I could not have done it without Dan Chiles, my sibling and co-conspirator.  Actually, Dan did MOST OF THE WORK - including the production and the design and the backing tracks and some song-writing and vocals.  I did some song-writing and vocals.

We will have games, crafts, CDs for sale, A Skype session with Dan, who now lives in Sapporo, Japan. 

Please come.

The CD is up on Bandcamp.  You can listen to it there for free.  You can download the songs, one by one for $1 a pop, or the whole CD for $9.

Or you can go to Amazon.com and purchase the CD there.  The CD will be cheaper at the CD release party! Just saying.

Open Mics - Speaking up

Last night, I went to an open mic at Coffee house without Limits in Allentown PA.  My youngest brother and I offered up three children's songs we have been working on.  And we had FUN!

He stayed until closing.  I hung around for the next few artists.  Overall, awesome!!  Musicians sang and played original music - and they played and sang very well.  Poets spat words that wove the air around them with images.

Getting up and strutting your stuff - it's the subject of a lot of middle grade fiction.  Finding the nerve to weather possible ridicule, possible embarrassment - just thinking of it can give a person a wiggly stomach, and a dizzy feeling.

Catching a Storyfish by Janice N. Harrington focuses on just this problem.  Keet has moved from Alabama where she was a world class storyteller.   In her new home, her accent amuses her classmates no end.  Soon, Keet is as quiet as a mouse.  Fishing with her grandfather becomes her refuge.  How she finds her voice again is a touching story.