My Summer Reading

At the beginning of the summer I began a list of books I had every intention of adding to. A list of books I read over the summer. I have been so busy, which has been great, I have read all of two books!

The first was a kids book, The Search for Wandla by Tony Dizilla. You might remember Tony Danzilla from the Spiderwick Chronicles (which I much preferred to A Series of Unfortunate Events (although those were a lot of fun). Because of my love for the Spiderwick Chronicles I truly looked forward to The Search For Wandla. This book, too, is a lot of fun. The world creation is amazing. The story is well thought out and a rollicking good read, but in places the writing seemed a little off. Only a little. The book is one of three, I believe, and I am still hemming and hawing about reading the others. The characters and world are really good. It is about this young girl, Eva Nine, who lives in this pod, and is being trained to become ready for the outside world. We get the impression this is post apocalyptic. The escape to the outside world is something the heroine is ready for mentally, even though her robot "MUTHR" (Multi-Utility Task Help Robot) thinks otherwise. The entry to the outside world is jump started by an incredibly violent creature we learn later is called Besteel. This creature invades the pod and pretty much destroys everything. Eva escapes into a world which is nothing like the world she was preparing for. She has only her suit (which is able to monitor her health and hydration), an Omnipod, and what we believe is a torn photo showing a happy family complete with a Muthr and the words Wond La in the image. Eva Nine wants to find others like her, and find and become part of this happy family. We suppose all other humans have these devices called Omnipods which scan the world and creatures around them to tell them friend or foe. However as Eva scans the world around her, the Ominpod finds nothing in its data banks which match the things Eva finds.
The book is about her finding her way through this strange and worrisome world. Eva meets and make friends with some of the creatures of this planet, but also finds, along with Besteel, others who might harm her. Eva finds a city, and hoping to find humans, finds only other creatures and that the ruler of the city has a museum which featured some of the items (such as an Omnipod and jacket) which are part of Eva's world.
We learn which characters we can trust, and which ones we cannot. We find beings who want to help Eva, and those who would like to see her as an exhibit, and of course there are creatures we are not sure of yet.
The Search for Wandla is lightly illustrated with Tony's amazing artwork giving us a true glimpse of his world, allowing us to imagine the rest. The book reads well on the most part and as it is a science fiction book for children, they should love it. In fact as I wrote this, I have decided to read the others! I try to encourage boys to read what might be perceived as a book for girls - 'It's about a girl, why would I want to read it?' The main protagonist in this book is a girl, but there are male characters boys could possibly identify with, and there is so much adventure I think everyone would enjoy this book.
UPDATE: 4th September 2016 - Just finished the second in the series - A Hero for WondLa. Eva has a sister! Eva grows a lot and becomes a Very Strong Young Woman. And the plot thickens.

The only other book I have read all summer, is another juvie books, This graphic novel I would suggest for slightly older young readers, younger teens apposed to tweens, as it implies sex with boyfriends (although does not talk about it) and mentions girls periods. I read it because I give books away to young people and wanted to see what this was about, that and I have an 11 year old daughter.
Chiggers is really well written and beautifully illustrated by Hope Larson. Hope also did A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel, and I have to say from what little I have read (these two) I really like her work - a lot. Chiggers is about girls at summer camp (my daughter's first was this summer) and all that goes on there. From boyfriends in rock bands dumping their girl friends in letters, to chiggers (of course) to back biting between groups of girls and that painful part of trying to fit in.
The story centers around Abby who in the past has been great friends with Rosie. They are looking forward to hanging out with one another, despite the three year age difference, only Rosie is now a cabin assistant and has no time to spend with Abby. Abby's other camp friends seem to have become too cool for Abby (with piercings and 'proper' boyfriends), but when one leaves, they get a new cabin mate, Shasta. Shasta is very different and takes to Abby, but Shasta has a few things she keeps close to her chest. Can Shasta be trusted, is she a true friend? Shasta and Abby become friends of sorts; they definitely become confidants. Despite the others in the cabin calling Shasta weird, Abby stands by her. Years ago Shasta was struck by lightening and strange things happen to her when there is strong electrical fields. The girls give one another new haircuts. Abby hears who she thinks are friends put her down. The story jumps about, but in a way that works well. It is like taking the boring bits out, and keeping the pertinent parts only, which is what makes it work. It is a touching story of girls getting on and not getting on at summer camp, and shows how some people grow, and others, well, they are who they are!
It is a warming book in a way, almost a form of poetry about girls growing up. I will be looking for more of Hope's work. I think I will try Larson's Mercury next.

The other book I am in the middle of is Homer's Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics). As I said I am half way through, and it is a great story and a wonderfully readable translation. I have to say Agamemnon is a total arse. As is Priam, but in a very different way. It seems Troy brought it's problems unto itself with Helen. It goes to prove, to me at least, that humans do go to war over the most stupid of things. All those lives lost for what? Pride?

I hope you got some good summer reading in and got more in than I.
Watch out for the next blog coming very soon.
Peace,
Simon

Random Acts in Story - For the Love of Art

As someone who has and does paint and art-work recreationally, photographs for recreation and professionally (https://simonbrooksstoryteller.wordpress.com/), played in bands trying to make a living, as well as making a living as a storyteller currently, I do these things, these art forms for the love of the art itself. For me, and this is not the same for everyone I am guessing, a lot of randomness comes about when creating. All of the following is how I come about an end result. With song and music, especially working with another, there is a bouncing of ideas, you play a piece, and one person might go in one direction,which sparks a random idea in someone else, and so on. With art, I sometimes let the pen or brush run around and something comes from it, sometimes it does not. I might make a scribble, or add an element from someone else's work to see what happens.

Bird in bush of blue blobs

With stories, there is much randomness in how I work and present. Some might call it sloppy, but it really isn't. I play around a lot with my tales - having done all the research I want to do (usually way more than I would EVER need). I goof with them. I give the characters body shapes, ways of walking, speaking, how they scratch their face, or lean to one side when talking. I play out scenarios with the characters which are not in the story. I put them in odd, current, and traditional situations, or add another character from another story to see what happens to them all. Sometimes, during a performance, something random will happen, a sound or noise, a distraction, a kids comment, the way an adult is looking at me, someone walks in late and a thought pops into my mind, and I will play off it. I am not trained in improv, I simply goof around. Sometimes an ending might change. Usually not, but it has happened. Sometimes a story that might be 10 minutes long in a 'normal' situation suddenly takes 5 minutes, or 15-20 minutes to tell, because of what is going on around me. It is the way I am. I can be polished and refined, but I love to goof around.

Show at summer camp, 2015

Try finding a copy of Elvis Presley performing in Vegas, doing Suspicious Minds - the movie is called Elvis: That's The Way It Is. He has rehearsed, and practiced, but there is such freedom in what he does, not too choreographed, there is some looseness and randomness - play.

Not everyone does that, or can do that, or maybe more accurately: chooses to do that. Compare Frank Sinatra to Dean Martin, or Elvis! And it is not about drugs or booze, at least for me it's not. It's playfulness. For me it is opening myself up to what might happen. Taking a tale to the edge, holding it over the edge, and then bringing it back - to see what happens, what random things may occur.

For me, it's not the time one spends on writing a song, or album's worth of material, it is not the research which goes into writing (fiction and non-fiction), or the time it takes to put layer upon layer of paint, or paper, or other media together, or the versions we read (or I read) of stories, what research into the culture I do when working on a story, (even if I never use any of it) - it is done for the finished product. I read or hear something, and think about what I can do, what I would add, do differently, to create something new and then work towards it. I hope it will come out, and if it fails, try other tricks, acts of randomness, to see what I need to do to make it better, or to get closer to how I want it, or envisioned it.

 And sometimes it just happens. But isn't that just totally random too?

Same place, this year - 2016!

Not sure if this is a right way of doing things, really these are just some thoughts. It works for me! I hope the thoughts inspire you!

Simon
© 2016

Poem in July

The silence of the early morning
And the solitude of dawn comes
With groaning trees, and wind whispers,
Light that is low, shadows long, and highlights bright.

The call of an unseen bird,
The scent of an unseen animal,
Linger in the air with the soft footfall
Of my leather boots, and dog’s steady trot.

Staying close to me, her ears and eyes look for the unseen.
My own mind making up stories of this place once peopled,
Now left to the trees and plants, reclaiming
What has always been theirs – the waiting now over.

Stone walls outline where fields once lay.
Holes collapsed reveal old cellars, foundations.
Nails in trees which might have once held a gate,
Or fence, barely visible, consumed by the trunk slowly, slowly.

Flat land, cleared of rocks now populated
With tall grass, and bright field flowers,
Hiding a rusted fender or engine from the 40’s
Reminders of a garden long gone, and family forgotten.

The silence of these early morning rambles
With my dark canine friend loping beside me.
We investigate together, making up our own stories
Of who was here and who will come after.

Photo by Simon Brooks, © 2016

Copyright (text and image) Simon Brooks, 2016 ©

Something about the water

There is something about the water:

I want to slowly fall in

There is something about the rock

That makes me want to sing

There is something about the moss

The softness of sleep.

Copyright Simon Brooks © 2016

A tree's embrace

Becoming a storyteller - Beginning and beginners

I'm the one in green tights getting ready to be Peter Pan!

My mother says I came out of the womb telling stories. I wrote stories all through my teens and in to adulthood and still do. When I began telling stories to strangers and non-family members in 1990 at Youth Hostels on the South Coast of England, most were my own written tales. I learned a few folk tales, and fairy tales and told those too. Then a school group took me to a storytelling presentation by Eric Maddern in Battle, Sussex where the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. Eric brought history to life to everyone there. It was brilliant. So brilliant I bought a three tape cassette pack of his Stories in Historical Places. I still have it. Eric Maddern opened the door to storytelling for me and was to a degree, my first inspiration in that direction. And then I bought Northern Lights, stories,myths and sagas by Kevin Crossley-Holland. He too, was another great inspiration to me with storytelling. I was in love with the old traditional stories.

Avebury, England © Simon Brooks 2016

A few years later, I crossed the Atlantic and a good few years after that, in 2003 I got a job as a children's librarian in Thetford, Vermont.  I told stories again to non-family members and children of stranger and not friends!  The mommy circuit spread my name to other libraries and the dozen stories I told became too small a repertoire. So I began learning new stories.

For me, telling tales to kids was easy, but then every once in a while we would do a community event and I would tell tales to kids and grown ups and I got very nervous.  At first I would have a cheat sheet, or crib sheet near me that I could glance at it if needed.  Then I would break stories down to their main bullet points, reduce them to an essence and tell from those bullet points. And then I was told about Odds Bodkin and got to see him.  He made noises, sound effects, and great character voices.  This was a first for me.  He became my third inspiration and opened a new door for me.  I already used voices, but sound effects!  When I read to kids I used sound effects and voices, especially with my own kids, but never when I told stories.  Odds Bodkin 'gave me permission' to try something new with my storytelling and I took to it with gusto! A new dimension was added to my tales. The stories became more alive for me in my mind and that reflected outward to the audience who also came into the stories with me more easily and more willingly.

When I met Eric Maddern, he was standing telling his tales to a large group.  He might have used a couple of sound aids, in the form of a bull roarer, and maybe bells.  He did straight telling and when I later read the picture books he published, I could hear his voice telling them in his soft lyrical, yet powerful manner.  I still love listening to his tapes, which I was able to digitize, as do my kids.

When I heard Odds for the first time, he was all out - go-and-get-'um type of thing. But he softened his 'attack' with the instruments he used (harp and acoustic guitar), which lulled us as he spoke.  I also got hold of recordings of Jim Wiess who told in a soft gentle manner, occasionally using guitar.  His style made you feel you were sitting all cozy in a room, drinking hot chocolate with the kids on his lap. Odds was the only one, really, to use character voices and vocal sound effects.  The actor and mimic within me liked that, and as I was already reading to kids like that, had told stories and jokes since school like that, so it was a great step to make and very natural for me.

Some tellers use character voices and some do not.  Some use musical instruments, some do not. Some stand or sit and tell with their voice, some, like me bounce all over the place. I did not use musical instruments, as I only played the drums and taking a full kit to a storytelling performance would not work. I could not play guitar, or any other stringed instrument and my harmonica had rusted up, along with the very little skill I had of playing it. I decided to buy a bodhrán.  I did not know how to play it, but figured it could not be too hard as I was a drummer.

I bought a cheap drum, in case I did not like it, or decided not to go with it.  It took three days to learn how to play a steady beat, torture for all in my house at the time. I am still learning new ways of playing it today, more than six years later. I now have a very nice bodhrán! I can play it quite well with and without other musicians! When I set up and people are coming in and before I am introduced, I can pat away on my bodhrán and it helps get me into story space and takes my mind off the audience. It allows me to go to a place in my mind where the stories live and wait to be told, or jump out demanding to be told!

After I heard Odds Bodkin a few times, I thought I would never be as good as he is at telling stories. But then I realized I didn't have to be as good as he is, I needed to be as good as I could be. I had to be the best Simon Brooks I could be. Everyone has their very own style and voice. Sometimes when you start to learn anything new, you mimic those you love, those you read, listen to, etc.. But after a while you find your own voice. This goes for singers, musicians, writers everyone.

Me and Papa Joe

You might use a musical instrument, you might not. You might use character voices, you might not. You may jump about like a maniac on the stage, you might not. You might use mime, you might not. You will do what feels right for YOU. You will do what you do best. What you don't do best, you should drop like a hot brick. Or work at it, until you have it perfected. Or not.

The most important thing to do though, the two most important things you should do are:
1/. Tell stories that you LOVE. That will come over to the audience when you tell a tale. It comes across if you don't really love the tale too!
2/. Have fun with it. If you have fun, so will everyone else.

Oh, and a third thing: Don't beat yourself up if you make a mistake. We all make mistakes (even the very famous ones!). Those of us who have been doing this for a while cover it up well and you will too.

Peace,
Simon

Stories in Nature

When I was a kid having a fertile imagination sometimes got me into trouble. But it has kept my mind looking at things differently. It is odd when a thought pops into your head and you wonder if you're the only one who sees things like this. An idea for a band name popped into my mind the other day and my darling cousin thought I had lost my marbles!

If you follow me on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Simon-Brooks-storyteller-199703383428200/) you may have seen what might be turning into a larger project, or maybe a new story! In case you do not follow me on facebook, here are a few of my musings - stories in nature.

As she made her way through the trees, she could feel the invisible, gossamer spider webs brush against her face and hair. She knew from this no one had passed through here so far that day. Raising her hand, twitching her fingers, and saying some unintelligible words, the spiders set to and repaired the damage she had done. It was a long shot, but there was a legend of a woman, one of the great elders, who lived in a small stone house in the forest. This woman was supposed to be the wisest of the wise, but it was a long shot. If she found the house and the woman, it was likely she was close to 90 years of age. She wondered how anyone could live alone in the forest and survive to that age. It was then she found what she was looking for. The stone house beneath a tree. But the door was collapsed.

When it landed, the huge talons grabbed the rock as if to turn it to dust. Instead it stood there towering over everyone gathered between the trees instilling fear and awe.

And here's a new one not yet on FB! Yes, we all know what they are, but...

The rumbling passed. Silence filled the forest. He sat leaning against the tree trying not to breathe in case whatever had just made its way by the man, did not hear him and return. He felt as if his body was about to pour out of itself, and if he died then and there, anyone who found him, would find some fish egg mess next to the tree and not even his bones would be left solid. He listened until even the distance crashing had vanished into the air. Then just before him, not three feet away, something, or four somethings, pressed up through the forest floor. As they broke through the earth, and shook off the needles and leaves, he saw three fuzzy green creatures. Their heads were curled over and their eyes appeared to be in the center of the curl, on either side of the head. They opened slowly and blinked. The man stayed motionless. They turned and twisted slowly around as if they too were making sure the coast was clear, or at least the forest was free of monsters. With a popping sound the furry green somethings jumped from the leaf litter, not seeing the man so close to them and lit off. This was the strangest day the man had ever had.

What do you see in the woods or on the street? What lurks hidden from all but you?

Peace,
Simon

Words and photographs are copyright, Simon Brooks 2016 - Do not copy, right click and save, redistribute - it's against the law and uncool!

Is Older Better?

Raven, artwork by Simon Brooks
 © 2016

I'm not talking about me here! I'm talking stories!
There is much stress is made on the Greek Myths in education.  I suppose there is very good cause for this.  Many of the places in these tales are real places and can be traced and taught. But there are so many other cultures whose myths and stories we should be exploring and sharing.  After my own cultural mythology of the Norse Gods, I discovered the Native American stories. They really spoke to me on a deep, deep level.  And I have found the same with Chinese and Indian (Asia) tales.  Much of this I want to explore and research more.

The Old Tales were for grown ups, not children. Let's face it, Grimm's stories contain infanticide, murder, theft, cannibalism, and yet more murder, as do many folktales from other cultures.  Look at the Baba Yaga stories, and some of Australia's traditional stories. In Australia there are tales where babies are eaten, of people setting fire to each other and the animals killing each other in horrific ways.  Many European stories have been watered down over the years, more recently and heavy-handedly in the last 40 years.

I think the stories from former Eastern Block countries were able to keep their strength and power, as they were less touched, as it were, by the French Romanticism and the Victorian era idea of cleaning everything up prim and proper! Some of these are not tales to tell or read to children, at bedtime or other times! But they are great for adults. It irks me a little that the Norse and Germanic pantheon of myths are often overlooked.  Huge units are taught on the Greek Myths, why not the Norse Myths and Sagas? Why not the Indian and Buddhist, Hindu tales too?  I have nothing against the Greek myths, although if children were taught the full story of Zeus and his philandering, the tricks he played in spite, and fear of wrath from his wife Hera, they may have a little less respect for these gods. And Hera always took out her revenge on the innocent, who Zeus had already mistreated!  The Norse gods always held themselves accountable, they seem like real people - "oops, messed up there!"  Very human.


I love the older versions of the Old Stories and take great pleasure from sharing them.  They are so strong. The messages strike harder and deeper.  I love telling these stories.  With all the personal stories being told and being listened to on The Moth and the like, there seem to be few kindred spirits in telling folk tales for adults.  I think if people took the time to sit and listen to the Old Stories we would find a medium in storytelling that is more intimate than theatre, more powerful than the movies and just as healing at times as a much needed call to your parents, trip to the therapist, or a snuggle with your Gran!  As Cassandra Cushing put it in the Bay Express on-line: "...part of the appeal of these stories is how they provide more concrete and straightforward ways for thinking about life's complications."

If you want to explore some of these tales, check out my beginners list of books on folk and fairy tales, myths and legends by clicking here: http://www.diamondscree.com/Booklist.htm
Enjoy!
Simon

Watching people on devices

This is somewhat about story. It's part of my story. From a long time ago!

I have never really been into video games. Ever. To me Pong was interesting to play once or twice; by the time the Sinclair was set up with the tape machine, I was bored and ready for something else other than staring at a screen. I was never still for long growing up. Now I look around and it seems everyone has their heads facing down at a device.

I was talking to someone who seemed to me, spending a lot of time just racing and crashing a car on their phone. I told them that we did not have that sort of distraction when I was a kid - in the UK we had three channels, or stations to watch on the telly, and at 11pm (well, maybe a little later than that when I was a young whipper-snapper) they would shut down and a picture of the Queen appeared and the National Anthem played. And my Grandad always stood up when he heard it. Then t.v. ran later at night, then all through the night and we got Channel 4! The fourth t.v. station! Two (BBC1 and BBC2) were commercial free. So we had that, the movies, and playing for what we would do. I remember making a tube radio set. It wasn't very good, but I made it and at the time it was a sort of magic. We made forts. We made a go-cart and raced it with the one my step-dad had. I think that spurned a couple more on the street. My step-dad had a rel-to-reel Grundig tape machine which my brother Colin and I would play with for hours pretending to be police, or radio d.j.'s. When someone got a new bike on our street, we all rode it. That's how I got the chip on my two top front teeth (another story for another day). We walked everywhere, or I ran everywhere, and when it was too far to run, I would ride my bike or take the bus.

Forts and go-karts

I got to thinking about what I did on my own. I wrote stories. None from those early years are still around. Same with the first poetry I wrote. I would go on these clean-ups and thrown anything out I thought was rubbish. Apparently I thought most of it was rubbish, and probably was! But I would also draw and paint, and make things. I played the drums and fantasized about being in a famous rock band. I wanted the band to be mine. I came up with titles for songs and write sleeve notes about the songs. Then I would SOMETIMES write the lyrics to these imaginary songs. Then I worked with some musicians and we put music to some of the lyrics. I would also make fake album covers. I still have a few of them, and some other pieces of art which were concepts for these fake albums.

I was talking to my son about time being lost playing video games. They are fun, and they are stimulating, but there is nothing to show for it, apart, maybe, a score on the web which shows your best game, and rarely people know, or care, who you are. I pulled out one of my double album gate-fold covers  I had made - one of my fake album covers. (Yep, I did a daddy thing!) It was for a real band with real people - my friends and my brother. The band was short lived, but quite good and was called Grover Bass (as in base, or bass guitar). We never made it into a studio, and I think we played, in that incarnation about twice! But that's not my point.

With a 35mm Yashica camera (or maybe by then it was the Pentax Spotmatic), some Letraset (letter transfers - each letter painstakingly placed and transferred from the film to its its proper place, or rubbed out and done again), a photostat camera, an old typewriter, and scissors and glue, after a few prototypes I created this:

 

 

The front cover and...

The back cover

Yes, the chap in the white shirt at the front of the very top photograph is the same young man on the front cover - my brother, the latter photo taken around 1983. This work, to me, was something I loved to do - create. I loved my camera and taking photos and processing the films and printing in our cold cellar. It wasn't until I went to college when the art of printing came easy to me - it clicked one day, and I could print! And there was something I had created, something I had made. It was not just me, but other people around me were doing the same thing. Painting, pottery, writing plays, songs, poetry and stories. Creating.

Playing games on devices is fun, but you don't get time back. There is nothing added to your existence, or to the existence around you. You learn nothing but reflexes and hand-eye coordination. I have some mediocre artwork which I quite like (the inner photos of the gate-fold were not all that great!) which I made with friends and family. I can still hold it in my hand and show my kids. My son went and dove into his sketch book. I smiled.


There are still some songs/poems I have not written yet from the titles on this album cover. One day I might have them done!

Read Across America

I thought I would put up some information about Read Across America. The date, as always is the 2nd of March, this year, a Wednesday, the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904).  There are all sorts of things you can do to celebrate Read Across America, but a great place to start is at the National Education Association Website and their own page of http://www.nea.org/grants/886.htm They have some resources there such as official guidelines,  a reading pledge, a poem, and booklists.  They also have a list of things to do at: http://www.nea.org/grants/20122.htm

Other dates 'celebrated' in March are: Town Meeting Day in Vermont, St. David's Day (Welsh patron saint), Texas Independence Day, Casimir Pulaski Day, International Women's Day, Shrove Tuesday (also known in some countires as pancake day!) and Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, Daylight Saving Time starts, Evacuation Day (who knew?!), St. Patrick's Day (patron saint of Ireland), Vernal equinox (look out for those pools), Purim, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, World Poetry Day (you don't  say?), World Water Day (are water balloons allowed in your school or library on March 22nd?), World Meteorological Day, World Tuberculosis Day (I'm not making this stuff up - really!), Maryland Day, International Day of Remembrance of Slavery Victims and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Day, Seward's Day, and César Chávez Day!

Wow, that's a busy month!  23 days to have something to shout about!  I had to look some of these up to see what the heck they were.  It turns out that evacuation day is 'celebrating' when the Brits were kicked out of Boston during the revolution. Casimir Pulaski, was a Polish born soldier who is remembered for his contribution to American independence and his day is an annual holiday in Illinois. Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole is one of the best-known leaders in Hawaii’s history, born in 1871 and started the process that led to Hawaii being admitted as a fully fledged state of America. (Having done a little study on how Hawaii joined the USA, I am not sure that Kalanianaole was a hero to Hawaiians!) This happened in 1959, 37 years after his death in 1922.  And World Tuberculosis Day is a day to raise awareness of the disease and is promoted by organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO)!

Art, sort of, in multimedia by Simon Brooks, © 2016

So there are some things to look forward to next month! And I have a bunch of stories to share celebrating story and reading!

Peace,
Simon