MY EXPERIENCE
My mother and I lived for several years with my maternal grandparents after my father died when I was 13 months old. During his earlier years my grandfather delivered mail for the Hudson Bay Company. He moved to Detroit to start a family and had his own radio drama that featured on his wilderness experiences. He also wrote several books that were never published. Like a lot of dads I loved to read books to my two children. As a parent educator and speaker I believed the best teachers were also great storytellers.
The drama of storytelling was an important part of my professional life as a speaker and workshop leader. Carolyn Foat and I wrote Once Upon a Mind that focused on about 80 picture books. Several years after it became out-of-print, I wrote From Wonder to Wisdom that was published by New American Library/Penguin.
Storytelling can take many different forms. For two years I had a children's tv show on our Topeka NBC affiliate called Butterberry Hill that featured puppets interacting with an audience of young children and their grandparents. I conducted storytelling concerts for public school children in groups of 15 to 600. I also conducted storytelling concerts throughout the country. I also wrote and conducted a one-man play called My Grandfather, My Son in several midwestern states. More recently, I have written several online interactive fiction stories for both adults and children.
Stories and storytelling have always been an important part of my life.