IN
Side
Story
The e-zine of the Florida Storytelling Association
The Scary Story Edition
Sept/Oct 2016
Welcome to Autumn!
Welcome to InSide Story, the new name for the growing bi-monthly FSA magazine.
In this issue, we spend a little time exploring scary stories.
Take a quick look at answers to the question Why Do We Love Scary Stories? On page 3.
What are your thoughts?
On pages 4 & 5, it’s my pleasure to take you to a few stops on the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery tour.
Nothing scary here. Just food for thought. But if you hear hoof beats….
We are fortunate to be able to share Neil Gaiman’s take on why we like ghost stories. See page 6.
Storyteller Ingrid Nixon, who will be a featured teller in Jonesborough this year, lends some insight
into the weird workings of the Grimm brothers on pages 7 & 8. Those of us who heard her at the
Stone Soup Storytelling Festival became big fans!
Page 9 lists a few popular Story CD’s, Scary Stories to Go. Just for you. And read one version of an
urban legend that was voted “most popular” (so to speak) by a group of teens.
Carrie Sue Ayvar’s conversation with the late Rosyln Bresnick-Perry shows us the wise and tender
insights that earned this storytelling leader our deep gratitude. Pages 10-12.
This month, Mary Lou Williams deconstructs the distinctive work of Janice Del Negro on
pages 13 &14
My Storytelling Journey on page 15, was contributed by our own Melinda Ann Munger, an outstanding wordsmith.
Your marketing questions will be answered on pages 16-21, as Don “Buck” Creasy launches the
first in a six part series of no-nonsense articles on The Business of Story.
Pages 22-24 feature a piece by Regi Carpenter, as she walks us through the challenging, and
of course, funny process of having her family stories published in her
first book.
With kind regards,
Linda Schuyler Ford
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WHY DO WE LOVE SCARY, SPOOKY TALES?
Scary stories? They are a total escape! We lose control just enough. We become
safely vulnerable, and that is such fun. I think they’re cool when you can visit the
place where they happened.

Brian Mitchell, Haunted Pennsylvania Tour Guide
Our minds love a challenge, and ghost stories provide them in spades. A good ghost
story leaves our minds busy with possibilities. Was the person dreaming? What did
they really see? How could such a thing be true? And, even more deliciously frightening, could it happen again?
Many ghost stories also provide “education by stealth,” as I call it. History, geography,
and cultural references are often woven throughout the tales as these provide the
framework on which the stories hang. Listeners leave with a better understand of the
time and place in which the events purportedly occurred.
Lastly, we like to see good triumph, to see an evildoer get his or her due, to see some
old sadness put to rest or at least to empathize with a spirit that does not rest. We
come away with the bases of our convictions of good and bad confirmed and
strengthened. We, unlike the poor beings in the tales, are survivors.

Susanna Connelly Holstein, Storyteller
We have an innate desire to flirt with death Scary stories safely take us over the edge
for a glimpse of the afterlife, the spirit plane will will all cross into one day. Ghost stories often hold a key to our past. They often reveal powerful emotions like live unrequited and other passions.

Jonathan Kruk, Storyteller
Scary stories are a safe thrill. We go someplace dangerous together.

Colleen Diller, Cemetery Docent
I think, in the modern world, we’ve gotten away from many emotions. With Storyespecially scary stories-we can experience the gamut of emotions. Think of how the
hair on your arms stands up in fear. Scary stories make us feel more alive.

Connie Regan-Blake, Storyteller, Educator
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Stories On Purpose
Sleepy Hollow: The Legends Live On
By Linda Schuyler Ford
A young woman nervously rocks side to side, her
eyes locked with mine. The eerie lantern light flickers
across the faces of the crowd. It’s late October;
people draw closer together. I don’t think it is just
because of the chill in the air.
I am leading a late night lantern tour of historic
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and
the Headless Horseman is very much alive tonight!
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery tour Linda Schuyler Ford
We make our way down the very gravel path he rode, on the
heels of hapless Ichabod Crane. We stop at the oak plank and
twisted vine bridge that Crane thought would lead to safety.
The bridge where the school master hesitated just long enough
to glimpse the terrifying creature rise in his stirrups to hurl his
own head at the poor man!
In this place, history is so palpable that many visitors swear
they can hear the Horseman gallop away. They shudder in delicious fear. (No matter that some believe The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow is merely a work of fiction!)
Painting by David Wilgus
Stories told in their actual locations are a mighty thing! The air crackles, as Story becomes a
truly organic, living entity. I think that is especially true of scary stories. Urban legends, like
The Hitchhiking Bride, or Hook Arm always take place in your town. These stories become a
rich part of our cultural history. Dread and delight intermingle. They also beckon.
At six years old, I wandered along the banks of the Pocantico River, looking for the Headless Horeseman’s head. In
school, we learned the layered history of local landmarks.
Patriot’s Park in Tarrytown, NY was where we played on
swings, rode bikes and strolled over graceful stones bridges.
Go back a hundred years, and it was Wiley’s Swamp, the
Bridge over Pocantico River in Sleepy Hollow
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very place where the Headless Horseman first shadowed Ichabod Crane. A hundred years before that, a British spy was captured here by three local militiamen. It’s those layers of history,
layers of Story that give us such deep, sweet roots. Those stories live in our imaginations,
color our perceptions.
You don’t need to come from a town steeped in the mystique of a famous tale. There are lessons to be learned in cemeteries everywhere. Lessons, and stories!
The Sleepy Hollow tour continues with a visit to The Bronze Lady, a statue that walks around
the cemetery at night.
The Helmsley mausoleum. Leona Helmsley, often called “The Queen of Mean”, disinherited
two of her grandchildren and left millions to her dog. She adored her husband, terrorized her
staff. Good or bad? A few people on the tour crack jokes. Some shake their heads. One
woman shrugs. “Hard to say, isn’t it?”
We visit the grave of a controversial Victorian abortionist whose burial
monument is topped by the soft, white marble figure of a sleeping toddler. Her own grandchildren all died in childhood. There are twists and
turns to her story that leave the tour group speechless, then animated in
conversations that go off in many directions. The group concludes, none
of us are just one thing. And that life holds many gray areas we must work
through on our own.
We pass statues by famous sculptors. (Those Victorians had money to burn!) Mausoleums
bigger than most houses. The modest grave of two brothers who fell through the ice while
skating.
A small mausoleum holds the remains of a family of four, a Tiffany window
gleaming down on their burial niches in rich jewel tones. Someone comments
on how snobby that family must have been. Until they hear their story. A train
wreck, a crippling heart attack, a fire. Awareness, changing perception.
Through story, in a dark graveyard at night. Yes, please.
Do you know the stories of your own dead? The people who built your town?
Of generations past? I invite you to go exploring! Digging. So to speak.
It’s like Willy Wonka said, “Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous.”
Unless, of course, the Headless Horseman is afoot!
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Why Tell Ghost Stories?
A Reflection by Neil Gaiman
(reprinted with the author’s kind permission)
Why read them or listen to them?
Why take such pleasure in tales that have no purpose but, comfortably, to scare?
I don’t know. Not really. It goes way back. We have ghost stories from ancient Egypt,
after all, ghost stories in the Bible, classical ghost stories from Rome (along with
werewolves, cases of demonic possession and, of course, over and over, witches).
We have been telling each other tales of otherness, of life beyond the grave, for a
long time; stories that prickle the flesh and make the shadows deeper and, most important, remind us that we live, and that there is something special, something
unique and remarkable about the state of being alive.
Fear is a wonderful thing, in small doses. You ride the ghost train into the darkness,
knowing that eventually the doors will open and you will step out into the daylight
once again. It’s always reassuring to know that you’re still here, still safe. That nothing strange has happened, not really. It’s good to be a child again, for a little while,
and to fear — not governments, not regulations, not infidelities or accountants or distant wars, but ghosts and such things that don’t exist, and even if they do, can do
nothing to hurt us.
And this time of year is best for a haunting, as even the most prosaic things cast the
most disquieting shadows.
The things that haunt us can be tiny things: a Web page; a voicemail message; an article in a newspaper, perhaps, by an English writer, remembering Halloweens long
gone and skeletal trees and winding lanes and darkness. An article containing fragments of ghost stories, and which, nonsensical although the idea has to be, nobody
ever remembers reading but you, and which simply isn’t there the next time you go
and look for it.
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Got Grimm’s?
By Ingrid Nixon
At some point, most tellers will consider telling Grimm’s stories. If they haven’t looked at
Grimm’s stories for a while, they’ll flip through a thick tome. Some of the character names will
feel as familiar as old friends, such as Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Cinderella,
and Rumpelstiltskin. Other plots will be familiar, such as the bride groom who turns out to be
a serial killer or the father who cuts his daughters hands off or brother who kills the other
brother only to be ratted out by a singing bone. At this point, tellers may find these stories deliciously dark or a turn off. If you’re one of the latter, I encourage you give these folktales a
fresh look.
During the 19th Century’s Romantic Period, linguists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm roamed the
deep, dark forests of the German countryside recording stories shared by the locals. (It’s important to note that the peasants had shared these stories orally for many, many generations
before the Brothers Grimm put them to paper.) The first Grimm’s collection of folktales, published in 1812, contained 86 stories. In later revisions, it grew to contain over 200, and some
plots and characters changed slightly, e.g. evil mothers became evil stepmothers – perhaps,
scholars believe, because it was a little too gruesome to think that mothers would, say, murder their own flesh and blood.
Knowing how tales vary from teller to teller and how certain elements drop out in time, it’s
intriguing that these stories survived through the centuries. For example in the case of The
Robber Bride Groom, why would people would find it necessary to pass on a story in which a
key message seems to be that those who come a-courting are not always what they seem?
Before wondering what was up with those German peasants entertaining themselves with
stories of abandonment, infanticide, and murder, it pays to make a broader survey of folktales
from around the world. In the case of the Grimm’s The Singing Bone, where a bone sings the
truth about one brother killing another, it’s notable that in the Italian folktale, The Peacock
Feather, sibling murder is exposed by singing reeds, as it is in the Russian tale, The Miraculous
Pipe. In the Celtic tale, The Three Sisters, the murdered sister’s breastbone-cum-harp reveals
the truth. A dancing skeleton points out the murderer in the Japanese story, The Skeleton’s
Song. Discovering that the dark motifs of Grimm’s stories are shared in stories from cultures
around the world raises the question as to what these themes reveal about what it is to be human.
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The added beauty of Grimm’s stories with their complexity and proven staying power is
that they are in the public domain. As tellers we are free to work with them and their
characters in all sorts of imaginative ways – a fact not lost on Hollywood. Through the decades Walt Disney’s animated films have done much to keep a few of the stories and characters in our cultural consciousness. Recent films, such as Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and Hansel and Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft have introduced the characters to new
generations.
Finally, Grimm’s collections are arguably just about the easiest and least expensive collections of folktales to find. I’ve listed some sources below.
It has been said, “everything old is new again”. But in the case of Grimm’s stories, it seems
they have never been allowed to get old. These stories and their ideas have been with us
through the ages, shared with each generation in relevant, creative ways. So now it is our
turn to thoughtfully examine them, and perhaps give them our own twist. Happy telling!
Easy sources to satisfy your Grimm’s itch:
Check your local library, especially for works by scholar Jack Zipes who has translated several collections of Grimm’s stories. His most recent collection, The Original Folk and Fairy
Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Compete First Edition, was published 2015.
Project Gutenberg offers free ebooks of Grimm’s stories.
Apple users will find numerous collections of Grimm’s stories at iBooks, from free
downloads to audio books.
Ingrid Nixon is a world-traveling storyteller currently based in Washington State, who will be performing
Grimm’s stories (and other tales) at the National Storytelling Festival this year. Learn more about Ingrid,
including how to order her CD or download, Grimm’s with a Twist, at her website: ingridnixon.com. She’s
also on Facebook: Ingrid Nixon Storyteller.
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8
Scary Stories To-Go!
Check iTunes, CD Baby, your favorite music source, or the artists
themselves for these scary storytelling recordings!
Urban Legend Award (a dubious honor)
We polled 15 teens in an after school creative writing class.
They listened to or read over 25 urban legends. This was
chosen as their favorite.
Two college roommates were in the same English class. The professor reminded them about
the midterm the next day, and anxiety rose in
their throats. But on the way to the dorm, one
of the girls were invited to this big bash by the
hottest guy in school. The thought of study
went out the window for Maggie! Cora, on the
other hand, declined, determined to ace this
big test.
The Janitor’s Closet : : Occupied
Megan Hicks delivers two deliciously spooky tales on this CD.
High school students learn (the
hard way) that there is danger in
breaking the rules. As if being a
teenager isn’t hard enough. A
second story will have you lookThat afternoon, Maggie spent hours getting
ing over your should the next time ready for the party while Cora started studying.
you visit Jonesborough.
Maggie tried to get Cora to go with her, and
Cora was tempted. He took every ounce of
discipline to refuse.
Late. Night. Stop.
Florida’s own Robin Schulte
delivers here with the flawless telling of a Ray Bradbury tale, as well In the end, Maggie went alone. Cora made a
pot of coffee, and got to work.
as an award-winning personal
story, and the creepy, droll AppaMaggie finally returned to the dorm around 2
lachian folktale. Tailypo.
Grimm’s With a Twist
Twisted into dark, ominous, and
sometimes comical re-tellings,
Ingrid Nixon’s version of five
Grimm’s tales are clever, riveting.
At First Glance
Original stories by John Johnson
include the story of a ghost in
the basement of a new house,
a dead teen in homeroom, and
a hunter, lost in the woods.
a.m. and decided not to wake Cora. She went
to bed nervous about the midterm and decided she would wake up early to ask Cora for
help.
Maggie got up before dawn and went to
wake Cora who was lying on her stomach, apparently sound asleep on the sofa. Maggie
turned on the table lamp and rolled Cora over
to reveal a bloodied, slaughtered body.
Maggie fell to the floor, shrieking!
Then, she looked up to see, written on the wall
in Meg's blood: "AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU DIDN'T
TURN ON THE LIGHT?"
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Through The Looking-Glass: Reflections on Storytelling
A dialogue between Roslyn Bresnick-Perry, 83 and Carrie Sue Ayvar, 49
“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice. As we peer into the mirror we are sometimes
surprised to see a face older than we expect looking back at us. “How did my Grandmother
get into the looking-glass?” we wonder. “And why is her voice coming out of my mouth?”
Here are some of our reflections and observations on storytelling, our elders and becoming
a “Senior Storyteller.”
Carrie Sue Ayvar: Beginnings do not always seem momentous but their significance and impact are often
seen over time. How and where did we first hear stories?
Who told them?
Roslyn Bresnick-Perry: My stories began in my shtetl, my village
in Belarus. I don’t ever remember NOT hearing stories. My father was in America and many members of my family and my
mother’s friends would come to keep us company. They would
read aloud, talk and tell stories long into the night. I went to
sleep listening to them. They weren’t telling bedtime stories for
children. No, they told stories to each other and read aloud
from books and newspapers like the Forward, a Yiddish paper
sent from America by my father. I didn’t even realize that I was
absorbing the stories until many years later. When I became involved in storytelling I heard these folktales and they seemed so familiar. I suddenly realized –
I KNOW these stories! I had heard these stories all my life from the adults around me!
CSA: For me too, it was a part of my everyday life, at home, in school and especially during
the summers, which my siblings and I would spend with our maternal grandparents. Each
night we would be invited to travel around the world through a story. I thought Grandma
Selma had been everywhere! Turns out that she was just well read! Best of all, though, was
Grandpa Nat. A Talmudic Scholar, he told us stories everyday, to make us laugh, think, stop
fighting, pass the time, problem solve and learn. Most afternoons he would gather us and
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nearly every other kid in the neighborhood and tell us adventure stories of Dick Raynier, a detective who was always getting himself into impossible situations. For example, he would be
locked in a room, no one to hear or help him get out, the water rising, getting higher and
higher… and my grandfather would leave us hanging until the next day. I didn’t realize for
years that he did it not only to bring us back the next day but also to give him time to figure
out how to get poor Dick Raynier out of those impossible situations! Why did you start telling?
RBP: Having lost all the family I left behind in Europe during World War II,
I felt I had to say their names and tell their story so that they would be
remembered and not be lost forever. I don’t even like to say “the Holocaust” – it’s too huge, too big and impersonal. I tell the stories of individuals, real people sharing our shtetl life, their hopes and dreams and
even the mischief my cousin and I got into!
CSA: For me it began when I went away to college and met adults who had never experienced
storytelling. They were well read but had never actually heard stories told. I was so shocked. It
was so much a part of how I viewed and interpreted the world. I wanted to share the same
kind of experience and connection that older people had always shared with me. That desire
hasn’t changed, though my life experiences have certainly given me new perspectives.
RBP: Yes, as we grow older we see things differently. You can speak as both a daughter and a
daughter-in law, while I can also speak from a mother-in laws perspective as well! Our stories
change as we mature.
CSA: I understand, we and our stories evolve. Our points of view
change. Seniors say that I remind them of their children and grandchildren. I’m considered young – rather a nice feeling for a middleaged woman! Telling humorous folktales and historical accounts
both seem to work well, especially when it draws out their own innate knowledge. One good story begets another and I usually get
to hear as many as I tell. What is it like for you as a senior teller to
tell to other seniors? What kind of stories do you choose?
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RBP: When I speak to seniors we share familiar memories and similar experiences. Elders like stories of old
times but not about being old – it hits too close. Most
seniors don’t want sad or difficult stories. “We’ve lived
through enough bitterness!” they say. They want to
laugh. They like light-hearted, nostalgic or romantic
tales. Sentimental or sexy senior citizens stories are
always a hit with them. Seniors can be very challenging, tough critics – they will call you on everything!
Sometimes they don’t want to listen, they just want to
tell their own account. Middle age audiences see me differently. They recognize and respond
to stories that seem familiar but are only half remembered. They see white haired and expect
wisdom… well, age and wisdom don’t always go together but we do learn from our experiences. Most of all, they are impressed but my energy and vivacity. I’ve become a role model
who makes it less frightening to get old and I like that!
CSA: Roz, you give me hope! Fortunately, there is no upper age limit to storytelling! It reminds
me of my grandmother who at 92 decided to learn a new language. When asked why she replied, “If not now, when?” My mother, 83, just started a new job. She is a Certified Financial
Planner and uses stories to teach and make clients more comfortable. “Money is often harder
to talk about than sex!” she says.
RBP: There are many things that are difficult to talk about but I have found that as I get older, I
get bolder and braver. What I tell and how I tell, have certainly changed over the years.
CSA: And certainly how we see things. After all what once was a current event is now history.
RBP: It is an amazing, satisfying and unexpected joy to me to know that I am now considered
a primary source.
CSA: You are that and an inspiration to us all!
Carrie Sue Ayvar is a bi-lingual storyteller and teaching artist who
travels around the country with her wise and whimsical programs. She
serves of the FSA board.
Learn more about her storytelling programs, workshops and merchandise at
http:www.carriesueayvar.com
Roslyn Bresnick-Perry was a leader in the world of storytelling. She
passed away one year ago.
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Deconstructing: Janice Del Negro
Making the Old New Again
By Mary Lou Williams
“I am a storyteller who excavates and decorates the bones of traditional folk and fairy
tales as an invitation to others to do the same.”
This is how Janice Del Negro introduces herself on the website of Illinois Storytelling, Inc., of which she is a member. In a radio interview with Eric Wolf on
his show, The Art of Storytelling, she talked about her passion for re-telling
folktales. She is passionate about excavating old tales that have survived for
centuries for emotional truths that resonate with contemporary listeners. She
writes original stories based on the motifs of the folk and fairy tales. Filtered
through her own experiences, she tries to make an old tale new. Folktales change over time
in order to survive, she says, and re-telling folktales for present-day listeners is a contemporary offshoot of what is popularly understood as the oral tradition.
How does she do this re-telling? We need to start with the original stories, she believes. The
original tales have to be there or the modern re-telling of them has no resonance. Re-writing
the tales is an expansion of them, not a replacement. Then she asks herself how she can
bring to the fairy tale a modern perspective, how she can make the plot of this story emotionally sensible to a modern audience, how she can answer the questions that are not answered
in the folk tale. As a woman teller, she is interested in the women in the traditional tales and
often tells the story from their point of view. What did they do? How did they do it? Why did
they do it? She gives “Rapunzel” as an example. In the original folk tale, Rapunzel is a completely passive character and, therefore, completely uninteresting. In Janice’s revised version,
Rapunzel is active. She is not cast out by the Wicked Witch; she takes the initiative and leaves
in search of her prince. The Wicked Witch is also revised. She is understandable and loves
Rapunzel as her own child. Janice tries to find a balance between what is familiar in the story
and what is different.
The re -visioned version of the story has to stand on its own without the audience needing to be aware of the original tale that it is a re-vision of. Otherwise, it is not a story at all. But she does make it clear that it is not the traditional tale she is telling, but a re-telling of it.
She also tells traditional folk tales just the way they are. The original tales
have a tremendous amount of power in them as they stand. The plot, the
characters, the language can be the same as the original with not a word
different, but the impact is completely different.
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How does she achieve this? By her delivery. By the arch of an eyebrow, the shrug of a shoulder, the role of the eyes, an inflection of the voice, a knowing look. She conveys a modern
perspective that is not in the written words.
I saw her tell a folk tale at the 2016 Florida Storytelling Festival
in Mt. Dora this spring in which she did just that. The story was
called “The Best Wish.” It was about three brothers who were
granted one wish each. The two elder brothers wished “that
every time they put their hands in their pockets they might pull
out a piece of money.” The youngest brother wished “that every
woman he saw might fall in love with him as soon as she saw
him.” The brothers then went forth to make their way in the world. She told the preposterous events that then ensued in a matter of fact, conversational tone and, except for the subtle body language mentioned above, in a dead pan style. This gave the story a tall tale effect
that was quite hilarious and gave it a modern perspective by her reactions to it.
She seemed to enjoy telling the story as much as her audience enjoyed hearing her tell it. I
think this story was interesting to her just as it stood because of the role of the women in the
story. Who do you think fared better in this tale, the brothers with the deep pockets or the
brother whom all women fall in love with? You couldn’t call this a feminist story; the concept
of feminism was not around when this tale originated. But it is a story that recognizes the
power of women and their value.
I found this Norwegian folk tale on the internet. When I read it, it was
exactly the same story, it seemed to me, as the one I had heard told,
incident for incident. The language was much the same. Yet it seemed
entirely different. What made the difference was the delivery. In the
delivery was the perspective and the humor that made this old tale
new. Her delivery was a wordless commentary on the content.
What makes Janice Del Negro unique is her delivery. She could make the telephone book interesting with her delivery. She has, by the way, a beautiful speaking voice that adds to the
effect. Her art is a testimony to the power and importance of delivery in great storytelling.
______________________________
Mary Lou Williams is an educator, a public speaker and a storyteller.
Mary Lou regular feature “Deconstructing….” offers keen observations about storytellers
and storytelling styles.
She lives in Fort Myers.
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My Storytelling Journey by Melinda A. Munger
I became a children's librarian in 1977. My purpose was to entice children to
read... no.... to ENJOY reading. I could NOT understand children in my purview
not liking to read, thinking it was boring. I came to see it as a failure of imagination. It seemed that some young brains couldn't imagine themselves into a written story. Often poor reading skills are to blame. But it takes practice to develop
that ability. And without the ability to be “in” the story, who wants to practice?
Sharing picture books works wonderfully... for the youngest children. Any
teacher or parent who has made reading to their kids fun has set them well on
the path of life-long love of reading, even in the age of television and thumby electronic entertainments of all sorts. But what about the older children? Children with less adult attention? Picture
books are “baby-ish”. Yup. But one day in a tiny branch library in North Carolina I saw two teen boys
sidle by, mosey closer and finally slouch down in the back row to hear the saga of Wiley and his
nemesis the Hairy Man. !!!! A trip to the 7th annual National Storytelling Festival and the inspiration of
the Folktellers set me on the path of something I knew would work. And I was right.
In 1988 I took over what became the Imagination Factory, a storytelling outreach program of the Miami-Dade Library System, The Factory reached over
1,000,000 children with large audience programs featuring storytelling and
library commercials. And here is where the glorious challenge came in. Those
1,000,000 children were NOT all cut from the same cookie-cutter. Neighborhoods, cultures and languages differed broadly from school to school. It became my purpose to make sure the ”library” welcomed every single kid in that
audience. It worked beautifully. The most illiterate child can “see” a story that
is told aloud and with eye contact from the storyteller ,Yes, even in an audience of three hundred.
I developed a repertoire that included stories from just about every country represented in our
schools. It was especially poignant when children began arriving from Haiti. They were not welcomed
in many places. I went to those schools armed with wonderful Haitian folk tales. It was wonderful.
The Imagination Factory is long gone. The last twenty-five years have been a struggle to find that
golden purpose again. It seems my storytelling needs to be of service. I can't just be performing for
the “Woo! Woo! Look at me! I'm a Storyteller!” type of sharing stories....although sometimes that can
be a LOT of fun..... and then there are all the little nature stories I've been writing.....and there are still
kids out there in smaller groups.....Hmmm, maybe I need to think about this.
Melinda Munger is a highly regarded storyteller and author.
Someone recently said “ A folktale in storyteller Melinda Munger's hands is a thing of
beauty. She distills the tale down to it's raw truth, embodies and breathes comic life into
its characters and then offers it up with powerful understanding.”
She serves on the FSA board of directors, and oversee the festival bookstore.
Melinda is also a naturalist, and has been known to wrangle Burmese pythons
in the Everglades. This is not one of them.
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THE BUSINESS OF STORY
A Storyteller Marketing Series
by Don Buck P Creacy; Corporate Storyteller, Toyota Motor Mfg
Part 1
Where do I start to market my craft?
Marketing; Oh yes, I do have one tiny word of warning, if you choose to start down this path.
Some of this information will cause some deep soul searching, irritating personal development, frustration, comfort zone crushing, anger, long periods of staring off into space, and no
small amount of lost sleep. And on that cheerful note, let’s get started.
Imagine finding the remains of a ball of yarn that a kitten has been playing with all afternoon.
If you can imagine that then you have a good visual of my marketing journey. Just follow the
string… “Oh, you need a newsletter!” and off I dashed to create a newsletter. “Post cards, you
don’t have postcards!?” “You have to make cold calls and make sure you get “20 no’s a day.”
“Why aren’t you blogging?” “Vlogging?” “YouTubing?” “How many days a year do you
work?” Truthfully, I didn’t have a lot of things, no website; no platform; basically no clue, almost all of my performance work came to me by word of mouth and my marketing structure
really resembled spaghetti, more than a strand of yarn. Finally, over a period of years, some
difficult choices and eliminations, the tangled yarn began to untangle and I could begin to
gather it back up into a nice neat ball. Do I know all the answers? Law no! But I will do my
best to bring, in the next six newsletters, the structure, books and tools that have helped me
and hopefully this discussion will help you too. Oh yes, and I promise there won’t be any posturing. You know all that; I’m the fountain of knowledge and wisdom bologna. Let’s just ponder these ideas together, use them if you can or don’t if you choose. I’m not trying to make
disciples, just sharing and trying to help.
Storytelling is a business first; yes it is art. But ask any successful artist and they will secretly
agree with me that art is a business, first. Starving artists don’t know this simple truth. We
are artists and our art must be placed square in the light of business. So for the moment, let’s
lay not take the blue pill, let’s take the red one and see just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
If you are willing for the moment, let’s agree on a few axioms. 1. Storytelling is Art. 2. Storytellers need Money. 3. Businesses make Money. 4. Charities plead for money to spend on
their causes. 5. Storytelling is a Business, not a charity. 6. People need Storytelling. 7. Story
is a commodity that can be packaged and purchased on the open market.
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I recently googled “marketing books” and got 352 million hits; in a half a second. These six
articles cannot be exhaustive on the topic and I don’t intend them to be. Please don’t expect
that, but what you can expect is a framework that may help you in your marketing efforts. I
can’t promise 80% increase in sales or anything like that. I prefer to suggest that slow and
steady wins the race, and that a well thought out structured plan is better than a sharp focus
of a fuzzy concept.
I love www.hubspot.com. Are you a subscriber? They talk constantly about Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Agencies, and Sales. They have lots of ideas, and some of
them are terrific. Everyday there is a new flavor of marketing and a new “it” process. I have
to admit, I would rather rope with the same horse and lariat I know than try to change ponies
and ropes in the middle of a roundup. But HubSpot does have a lot to offer and one of those
things is a list of Marketing Terms. Here’s the link: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/
inbound-marketing-glossary-list and for the rest of this series I will do my best to adhere to
these definitions and terms. Of course because of my association with the second largest
automobile maker in the world, I will have some different terms along the way. But all in all, I
hope to show you how to pick a pony and a good rope. The roundup is up to you.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, If you have not done so already, find your nearest Small Business
Administration and S.C.O.R.E. Chapter. The latter is a free service of the US Government to
help small businesses and entrepreneurs become successful. The Service Corp of Retired Executives Mission is: “Fostering vibrant small business communities through mentoring and
education.” Their Vision is: “Every person has the support necessary to thrive as a small business owner.” Their Goal is: “Help 1 million clients by 2020.” I cannot sing this group’s usefulness enough. Make an appointment, keep it, pack up your ideas and dreams and fearlessly
share them with your new Mentor. All of these people have succeeded, they are ex: CFOs,
CEOs, Presidents, Managers, etc. I will admit that my first Mentor didn’t get me or my efforts.
So I just asked for a different one and Tim Benincasa has been my hero for several years.
The first book they stuck into my hands was; “Duct Tape Marketing” by John Jantsch. Wow,
what an eye opener. So this seems like a great place to mention several other books that
have been very influential to me and my work.
“Duct Tape Marketing”, by John Jantsch
“Getting to Yes”, by Roger Fisher
“Launch”, by Jeff Walker
“Platform”, by Michael Hyatt
“Business Model Generation”, by Alexander Osterwalder
“Value Proposition” (sister book #1)
“Business Model You” (sister book #2)
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I am ashamed to admit that early on, I felt that I wasn’t an “honest to God” storyteller, partly
because I hadn’t performed on any large platforms like that little festival in Utah or Jonesborough as a headliner. What silly rubbish, I’ve been telling since I was 14, shining shoes and
swapping tales at the barber shop. My goods and services were the funny stories and jokes,
the rhythmic popping of my shine rags to accent the tales and the glossy sheen of the boots
and shoes that moved through my chair. My stories and happy patter made me a lot of
money for a 14 year old kid. The only things that have changed are my markets, skills, venues,
products, services and pricing. Hey wait a minute; it looks like everything has changed. I
wonder just how much?
Let’s take a moment and address our ideas about markets. As a first effort, get a pencil and
paper and write down every place you have ever performed; then group them into types.
Categories like Festivals, Retirement Parties, Schools, Corporations, Civic Events, and Social
Clubs and so on, try not to leave anything out. Now go back through the list to each of these
places and try to remember what you did there; Perform stories, teach, coach, sing, standup,
judge, lecture, or anything else you did, whether you were paid or not. Wow, that has got to
be some list. Now just for fun and I’m a little serious here, make a list of every place you’d like
to work as an artist.
Now, right this moment it might seem odd. But what do you call, Success? Now don’t start
whining about subjectivity. I asked you. What is success? Clearly this is not a one size fits all
definition. What I need to feel successful is not, I suspect, what others consider a clean definition. Can you write down a definition for success for each place on your performance list?
What does success look like in each of those circumstances? Perhaps, achievement or acclaim, fiscal stability, monetary gain, recognition, or artistic excellence or is success, something else to you all together? Perhaps on this list of past performance, you could write a
short sentence that defines your overall idea of success as an artist and as a person. We need
to know if we are succeeding and to do that, we need a standard of what success looks like in
our lives.
And while you are at it, consider this definition of a customer. “A customer is a person that
continues to do business with your company even though both of your situations are changing.” And now think about this definition of a Sale. “A sale is a person who has made a single
purchase from your company.” Can you think of a difference between a customer and a Sale?
Which would you prefer a long prosperous and mutually beneficial relationship with growing
list established customers or a parade of strangers each buying only one item? I know, it depends on the length of the parade right? Just kidding, however there is some merit in the
salesman’s dream of selling just one item to every person in China.
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If you made your own list, you have begun to discover three important things. One: who
might be your key partners; Two: what might be your key business activities, and Three: what
are your key resources, goods and services? Do you know who your key partners are? I can
name a few of them; your cell phone provider, internet services, domain provider are just a
few. But consider this; every venue has the potential to become a partner with you in business. What about your friends and family, associates, peers, churches, and countless others?
Could these people be partners? Yes.
Now look at the list again. Can you see any key business activities? How about PR, performance, networking, CRM (customer relationship management), booking, traveling, teaching,
mentoring, and this list can get quite long too? The fantasy is that you are sitting at your desk
and the phone is ringing constantly and you or your agent is booking events left and right.
And it is all because you are the storyteller with the resources to meet the needs of all these
groups. That’s your list; you did it once and you can do it again. What would happen if you
called everyone you ever performed for and asked for a gig? I can answer that question from
here in Kentucky. Not much, because “a gig” is not very definite, kind of squishy and not
worth much money either.
I once took a personal inventory and not actually out of vanity. Some might think it is pointless information I know, but how many stories do you know? How many subjects do your stories address? How many of those subjects are currently in the news? How many packages of
historical characters can you legitimately shape into performances? How could you bundle
my workshops and performances into package deals and how many of those can you offer?
Now looking at your list, how many of your past “sales” could become future “customers” because you have these packaged offerings with defined outcomes?
Creating standard vital tools for marketing success
There are those who believe that creativity is like magic. In Kevin Ashton’s book, “Creativity”;
he makes this claim. “Creating is not Magic; but work.” The greatest artists in the world
grounded themselves in the fundamentals prior to experimenting with the structure and principles that organize their craft. Whether it is music, literature, dance, sculpture or any of the
myriad painting or folk arts, including storytelling, there must be a foundation of skills already
in place. There is a myth that art is instantaneously created, in a flash, without edits and it
simply isn’t true.
In order to have a successful business plan, you must have a foundation built for that plan. As
I mentioned earlier there are millions of ideas about how marketing should be done. Let me
introduce one foundation, you can create your own later if you don’t like mine. But you
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should document its elements and try to adhere to them. No horse rides easy with the saddle
on backwards. Here is my foundation. Look at the target for a moment. Notice the arrows
point out from the inside.
If your target is to make a sale, get a gig, pitch a concept, book a tour; our natural reaction is
to start with our needed results.
Results = I need money; if I can get this sale, I will
have money.
What = I need to sell a gig, sell a CD, tee shirt,
bumper sticker, etc.
How = I will use; CDBaby, Craigslist, Amazon, a
Great Sales Letter, Hook, Beg, Cajole, Pitch 3xs at
my next concert, website, etc.
Why = because I need money.
First I need to know WHY, then I need to know
HOW, then I need WHAT and then I get the needed
RESULTS.
But what if you started your marketing by aiming at
the center of the target?
Why = does this customer need my products and offerings?
How = will it help them reach their goals, solve their problems, promote them, enrich their
lives?
What = is the best way to deliver these goods and services to meet their needs in their situation?
Results = I get money, they are happy to give it to me, and they want to give me more.
TCRI; Targeted Customer Reputation Initiative or
Targeted Customer Relationship Initiative; because each hand complements the other,
your reputation and relationship with your market makes or breaks the deals. There is a lot
more to say here than I have pages to tell.
For further reading please look up the following concept: KANO ANALYSIS is a product evaluation tool & S.M.A.R.T.E.R Goals is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic,
Time-based, Evaluated, Reviewed often Goals. One gentlemen just this morning told me he
wanted to make $X dollars a year telling stories. I responded; “Don’t tell me what you charge.
Divide that $X figure by what you charge per gig and that tells you how many paid gigs you
need in a year.” This invites a discussion about revenue streams but I believe that it is too
early in our chat to begin addressing that topic. Let’s look at goals.
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So what are our goals? They need to be:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-based
Evaluated
Reviewed
The following topics will be discussed during the series. Market(s), Success. Presentation,
Customer(s), TCRI Initiative,, Kano Analyses, and Product(s).
We will explore Creating a Sales Playbook, Cost Structure, Value Propositions, Cost Revenue
and Revenue Streams. We will also evaluate many marketing tools, from cell phones, to
CD’s, and from postcards to blogs.
Then, a discusssion of performance, followed by evaluations.
Testing, testing, testing? Yes! The proof is in the pudding! See you next time!
Editor’s note: This is the first article in a six part series.
Do you have marketing questions?
Please send them to Linda Schuyler Ford at [email protected], and reference
“FSA Marketing Question” in the subject. Your questions will help shape future
marketing columns.
Buck Creacy enjoys a unique position in the storytelling world.
His “day job” is as the Corporate Storyteller for Toyota Motor
Manufacturing in North America. Telling stories for at least
thirty years, Buck has chops and has told stories in all kinds of
events in church, corporate, conference, keynotes, radio, television, and print. He loves the Lord. Buck has taught storytelling
for years, produced CDs, broadcast from his own radio station
and promoted storytelling traditions with his Professional Storyteller organization of almost 2500 members. He has served on
the Boards of the Kentucky Storytelling Association and National Storytelling Network.
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Where There’s Smoke, There’s Dinner:
Writing the Spoken Word
by Regi Carpenter
Good news: My first book is being published!
Bad news: I had to write the book.
On September 6, my first book “Where There’s
Smoke, There’s Dinner: stories of a seared childhood” will be available for sale on Amazon, at
Barnes and Noble, regicarpenter.com, and at
venues and festivals across the states. “Where
There’s Smoke, There’s Dinner” is a memoir of
linked short stories connected thematically
rather than chronologically. The seveteen pieces
work together to build an emotional arc that
culminates with the final story “Diving and
Emerging.” The largest body of my storytelling
work focuses on being the youngest daughter
and a fourth generation St. Lawrence River
“river rat.”
My pieces celebrate the glorious and gutwrenching lives of my family on the river. I became committed to writing a book about my life
and my parents’ life in Clayton after they both died six months apart in 2008. It’s been a
long process from the spoken word to the written word and from the written word to a finished book.
Each step required me to learn a new and unfamiliar language and a way of working that
required a different kind of determination and discipline than creating a single spoken piece
that I can perform at a festival. Honestly, I had no idea how to write a book because I don’t
write my stories down.
I speak them instead. I knew I could write a book but I didn’t know how to do it. The entire
process seemed daunting and nearly impossible until I read this section from Abigail Thomas’ memoir “A Three Dog Life.”
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I didn’t start writing until I was forty-seven. I had always wanted to write but thought
you needed a degree, or membership in a club nobody had asked me to join. I thought
God had to touch you on the forehead, I thought you needed to have something specific
to say, something important, and I thought you had to have all that laid out for you from
the git-go. It was a long time before I realized that you don’t have to start right, you just
have to start. (p.149)
I was a “woman of a certain age” when I decided to start writing. I needed to “spend some
time living before writing,” as Annie Proulx suggests. I wrote down the stories I told as performance pieces at the time. The process of turning breath, tone, gesture, and silence into
commas, semi-colons, italics and paragraphs didn’t make sense to me but it was a translation
process I had to learn if I wanted to publish.
I read scores of memoirs to hear the story as the author wrote it out on the page. I took a
writing class. (I didn’t really like it because it’s way less fun than storytelling.) I joined a writing group that was “very serious.” I practiced Elmore Leonard’s advice “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” I didn’t want to sound like a formal writer. I wanted to maintain my own
quirky voice and perspective. I am the only one who can write my story so why try to be like
legions of other people? The most important part of this process was to be open to input and
to learning new ways to share my work so that more people would get to know my parents,
the river and our experience as a family. I let my devotion to my family lead me into unfamiliar
and sometimes unwanted territory so I could publish the book.
After writing the pieces I shared them with a book developer to see if they would be viable as
a book. She thought so and insisted I read the book “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book
Published.” She taught me how to write a proposal, how to do a market analysis, a cover letter and which excerpts to include if requested. I learned from her that you don’t have to have
your book finished or even started to get a publishing deal! You have to have a proposal that
tells the publisher your book is worth the money they are going to invest in it. Familius Publishing said they wanted to publish the book and now the real work began of editing, rewriting, editing, rewriting and writing new material. This entire process took about one and a half
years.
My editor, Kelsey Cummings, taught me so much. She was able to show me that how a piece
works in performance isn’t always the best way to write it and that reading a story and experiencing it live are two different mediums. She kept asking me to look at the material differently. Her consistent but gentle pushing, questioning, and feedback deepened my relationship to my stories and helped me shape the stories into a continual narrative arc that tied the
pieces together and resolved them at the end one story at a time.
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She was also my bulldog when I needed one. The publisher wanted to change the ending of
the main story in the book to “something happier” and soften the subtitle. She defended my
work and it was resolved to keep things as they had been originally submitted. I learned from
experience that if I don’t defend my work others might change it into something that no
longer represents my intent. This issue never comes up in a performance venue because performing solo isn’t a collaborative venture.
Once the contents of the book were done I began consulting with the cover designer.
I
always had the cover in my mind as a “church lady goes awry” look and in one very fun and
easy day the cover photo was shot, submitted and approved. All it took was a lot of makeup, a
period costume, and one meatloaf baked at 500 degrees for two hours to make it happen.
Now that the book is a finished product a new stage of work begins. The book is being submitted for reviews. I am doing book launches and signings. I bought sunglasses because my future
is just that bright. I carry a felt tip pen for spontaneous signings. I think the biggest lesson for
me in all of this besides that hard work is …hard is that hard work is also its own reward. I
don’t know if my book will sell well or how it will be reviewed. I do know that I felt compelled
to tell the story and to keep pursuing it until I had a published book to show for it. If you feel
that you have a book in you and you don’t know how to get started, just start. If you show diligence and discipline it is going to happen.
References: (Thomas, Abigail. A Three Dog Life. Harcourt, Inc. Pub. Orlando, Florida (p.149)
To pre-order go to Amazon: /www.amazon.com/Where-Theres-Smoke-Dinner
www.regicarpenter.com
Find Regi at www.RegiCarpenter.com
Regi Carpenter is a storyteller, educator and, now, an author.
She grew up in Clayton, NY, and has taught storytelling at Ithaca
College for the past several years.
This fall, Regi begins a new adventure as she relocates to
Ashville, NC. There, she will write, teach, learn, perform, and continue her story.
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Florida Storytelling Association
Administrator
Kathleen Williams
Florida Storytelling Association
PO Box 258
Mt. Dora FL 32756
800-327-1796, ext. 1
[email protected]
Your Board of Directors
Robin Schulte, President
Carrie Sue Ayvar
Linda Schuyler Ford
Melinda Munger
Madeline L. Pots
Joyce Sabbato
Wanda Violet
MEMBERSHIP
Members enjoy many benefits!
FSA Membership is open to everyone.
Receive Inside Story, Florida Storytelling Association’s bi-monthly e-zine.
Receive one vote on all matters decided by the membership.
Receive member rates for all Florida Storytelling Association events.
Receive FSA News: Information on grants, workshops, storytelling festivals,
and other events, via our listserv
 Listing in the online Directory of Storytellers (optional).
 National Storytelling Network: Receive a 10% discount on membership.
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Up For Discussion
Would you find it beneficial to buy a 1/8, 1/4 or full page ad in Inside Story?
Please email responses to Linda Schuyler Ford at [email protected]
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