News Archive Sept 09

BLOG UPDATED: 3rd September 2009

September 2009

Dear Storytelling Fans and Friends,

Over the summer I have been working hard at telling stories, learning new ones (The True Story of Goldilocks seems very popular with ALL ages - no exceptions - and that came out of when I had finished a folk story and a young member of the audience said: "what about a faerie story?" When I suggested a few like Snow White and the like and I kept getting "NO!" I suggested the True Story of Goldilocks! I was met by a stunned kid. "What's the 'true' story then?" he asked. Talk about winging it! It was a lot of fun, though.

I have been lucky to be able to go to some of my favourite communities as well as to some wonderful new communities. One of many favourites this summer was Lyndonville, VT. The librarians (I was out numbered by far) were all wonderful and made me feel very at home there. Also there were almost no big chain stores there. Most of the businesses seemed to be mum and dad - it just doesn't sound right - mom and pop operations including one very wonderful bookstore called Green Mountain Books and Prints. They sell all sorts of books, and the new and old are all together. I spent some money there, something I tried to avoid. I found a great book which had been recommended to me only a few days before - an out of print book, I might add! Well, I spoke with the owner Kim, and she was very nice and I noticed that they also sold CDs. To cut a long story short, they now carry my CDs! Totally unexpected! I have another point of sale in Bradford, to add to my friend Robin and her sister at Booked Solid, with Bradford Yarns and Crafts, also known as North of the Falls. And when I visited with another wonderful community in Newport, I stopped in this truly amazing store called Wider Than the Sky. If you are in te area - go there. My CDs are being shipped today (3rd Sept), so wait a week or so and they will be on the shelves!

http://cdbaby.com/cd/simonbrooks and http://cdbaby.com/cd/simonbrooks2
iTunes
Booked Solid, Bradford, VT 802-222-5826
Bradford Yarn / North of the Falls, Bradford, VT 802-439-5833
Green Mountain Books and Prints, Lyndonville, VT 802-626-5051
Norwich Bookstore, Norwich VT 802-649-1114
Mini Corp Kids, Lebanon, NH 603-643-2633

Blog
If you want to gain easy access to my blog, you can now subscribe to it and/or become a follower and that way you won't miss anything you might want to be privy to! I am reading some new books (well, some are library, some are used, you know what I mean) which I am enjoying. The most recently finished is The Shack. Apparently it is a very popular book and it is a spiritual read. I am still thinking about it. It was good, but I am not sure if I really enjoyed it. I don't want to give any of it away, which is probably what everyone has said and therefore why it is so high on some readers lists! I also re-read, a while back, Allan Campbell McLean's "Year of the Stranger" which I read back when it came out in paperback in 1973. It is juvenile fiction about prejudices in Scotland , set in the mid-eighteen hundreds. It talks about the tinkers, the locals and the English lords of the area. It is a great read. You see what else I am reading on my blog.

News
Summer has been and gone, it seems, and all too soon. Due the recession I have not been as busy as I have in previous years, but it has allowed me spend more time with my son and daughter. My wife Sarah and I have read so many to them and we have done many day and weekend trips together. I once again did some storytelling at Camp Exclamation Point, but this year I ended going for the whole week working on a workshop with the kids. It was great. I think I told my best ever version of the Real Story of Goldilocks there. For more info on that, please visit my blog. I also visited Stonewall Farm again, telling stories with Angela Klingler, who is not only a good friend of mine, but also a ripping good storyteller. I was invited back to the Producers Faire at the Lebanon COOP, here in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont and had a great time. I told a good many stories over the course of the two hours I told for, and had a lot of fun. I was one of a number of other performers there and I think we can all say we had a great time. One child over the summer turned to his grandfather excitedly and said: "It's like watching a movie!" For a photo from the Producers Faire and more details on that, please visit my blog.

Over the next few weeks I am working on a brand new version of Sleeping Beauty which I will be premiering at Artworks! at 384 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford, MA on the 26th September, beginning at 7pm with an open mic. I am very excited about this. It is a new venue that has just celebrated its first full year offering adult storytelling to the public. The numbers of folks attending keeps rising and rising and rising. It is the place to be. So if any of you are in the Bedford (Boston) area of Massachusetts, or want to make the trip, I would be Thrilled if you came.

I am also excited about another big event, which is the First Ever Granite State Story Telling Festival. This festival will feature 24 tellers and will be a day and evening long event with storytellers from all over New England, although mostly from New Hampshire. If you go to my blog you see all the details and links there. Honestly, it is a day not to miss, there are four venues in New London, NH that will be hosting the performers and there are some Big Names coming. I am going for the day, because there are so many folks I want to see.

Free Stuff
http://www.diamondscree.com/downloads.htm

CDs
Support your local storyteller, and buy a few extra copies of Second-hand Tales and More Second-hand Tales.
Here's where you can find them:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/simonbrooks and http://cdbaby.com/cd/simonbrooks2
iTunes
Booked Solid, Bradford, VT 802-222-5826
Bradford Yarn / North of the Falls, Bradford, VT 802-439-5833
Green Mountain Books and Prints, Lyndonville, VT 802-626-5051
Norwich Bookstore, Norwich VT 802-649-1114
Mini Corp Kids, Lebanon, NH 603-643-2633
Wider Than The Sky, Newport, VT 802-334-2322

or you can get them from at:
Public Gigs and Performances:

Saturday, 26th September
Story Café at ArtWorks!
384 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford, MA
(508) 984-1588
$: Pass the hat!

Saturday ,17th October
Granite State Storytelling Festival
Tracy Memorial Library
New London, NH
Day tickets - pre-buy: adults $12 children $8
after 12th Oct: adults $15 children $10
http://www.granitestatestorytelling.com/Home.html

Don't forget that September the 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Share the stories you love and know (with an "arrgg" and a "scurvey dog", a "land ahoy, shipmates!" and "avast behind!"

For more information on recent stuff please go to my blog: http://worldofstories.blogspot.com/