New puppets!

I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to buy that ballerina puppet last week. Really. I thought I might look at the baby puppet at the toy store again, and possibly, just possibly buy it. Not the ballerina.

But she leapt onto my hand and that was it. I didn't know what her voice was until I was driving home. We had quite a chat in the car. Her name is Pirouette, and she is French and Senegalese. I've never had a hand and rod puppet before, so I'm learning just how flexible she is, in her little toe shoes and tutu. Like so many of my puppets, she has a giant ego and isn't afraid to flaunt it.




Then on Saturday, my friend Stacey's daughter Molly had a present for me. Molly is 9 and has been a groupie for years (Stacey says "stalker" is more appropriate). The present was the very baby puppet I had considered in the toy store! In the store, she didn't fit me right, but as a present from Molly, she's perfect. Molly bought this puppet with her own money because she likes my puppets, but then she realized that in the end, it was still her own hand (only slight pun intended). It wasn't satisfying.




Puppets are funny. I don't plan what they say or how they say it. I don't know how to describe what happens--they just take on lives of their own. This baby, for example, is a tough cookie. I'm hoping she'll stop sounding quite so much like George Burns. She already looks like him. The other day I was showing her to a friend, and somehow the baby got hold of a pretzel stick (the fat kind) and then she really looked like George Burns chomping a cigar. Weird.

My sister Mary has promised me another new puppet, a black crow made by Folkmanis. I've tried one of these out before and they're lovely. She got him on a trip and mailed him home with some other stuff. I'm looking forward to meeting him and finding out what his character is.

One of the issues I have with puppets is keeping the voices distinct. Mavis the monkey sounds too much like Stephanie, so I try not to have them both in the same program. Confusing. The ballerina is a bit like my dragon puppet Belle, but Pirouette's French accent is a little slower, a little deeper. I don't expect them to attend the same events.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a puppeteer who used his own voice for all his characters. He also didn't understand that the puppet needs to make eye contact with the audience when it's speaking. It was terrible. Who was talking?

The new DVD and CD

The Bully Billy Goat and Other Stories DVD and The Best (and Worst) of Beasts CD are here! Over the top of my laptop I can see the boxes holding 1000+ CDs, most of which will join the DVDs in the storage area, as soon as I get the stepladder in off the porch.

I've been slow getting the word out about these recordings. Today I'll write a press release for the paper and I'll start to e-mail the libraries and individuals who have bought my earlier recordings, just to let them know. I'll also send them out for review. Storyteller.net will have them up on the site probably within the next few days, and CDBaby is on the verge of having the CD ready (I just emailed them to ask if they'll carry the DVD). If you're interested in ordering, you can e-mail me directly or check the above sites.

In preparing to send out info about the new recordings, I finally realized it's time to get more organized about PR. When I have performances coming up for the public, I send out e-mails to people on my mailing list, when I remember. I always feel vaguely guilty about this, worried that people might not want these notices--even though I always say in the e-mail that I'll remove addresses from the list. Also, my ISP thinks I might just be a spammer for sending messages to more than 25 people. With all this in mind, I just started a yahoo group newsletter, PriscillaHoweUpdate. I'll try to be good about sending notices of upcoming events, with maybe a few storytelling tips and other miscellany.

Miscellaneous thoughts

It's a beautiful day today, so I spent some time bringing my plants indoors. Every fall, my house gets a little smaller, despite the extreme haircuts the plants get. I've got thirteen plants in my office, soon to be fourteen when I find the courage and strength to bring the China Doll in off the screened porch. I was given this plant in a three-inch pot in 1995 or so. It's now over six feet tall--it would have been taller, but I snapped off the top as I wrestled it in the porch door. A few years ago, I thought it was dead, so I whacked it way down. I figured I'd use the pot for something else. Ha! It flourished!

I couldn't bring this tree into the office yet earlier this afternoon, because of the 1000+ DVDs in front of my desk. I got out the stepladder and put 900 of these in the storage space above the puppet closet (yes, the puppets have their own habitat). That's all well and good, but tomorrow 1000 CDs will be delivered from OasisCD, and I'll have to figure out where to put them. I've still got some kitchen cabinets available.

In heaving the DVDs up into the storage space, I had to take stock of what was there. Do people still listen to cassettes? I sold a few at libraries this summer, to my surprise. I've got plenty left, but not so many that it feels oppressive.

Work has started up again. Yesterday I told stories at Cornstock, the Anderson County Corn festival in Garnett, KS. Though it was windy and cold in the morning, windy and sunny in the afternoon, the audiences were great. They sat on the tennis court and listened to my stories and to Alan Cunningham's music. It was fun to perform with Alan, who does some wonderful original songs.

Tuesday will be my first performance of a series at Wonderscope Children's Museum. This is an experiment: I'll be performing on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 9:30 a.m. through May (with a couple of breaks in December and February). I'm looking forward to having a regular gig!

Advance notice of CD and DVD

Last week I finally sent off all the info and discs for my new CD and DVD to Oasis CD Manufacturing. Whew! It has been a long process, starting in April with the live recording at Sunset Hill Elementary School. I also did bonus tracks at the Lawrence Arts Center and at the Fort Scott Public Library. I'm completely thrilled with the graphic design by Annie Tichenor, who pulled everything together wonderfully. This is the third time I've worked with the folks at Oasis--they're really easy to work with.

The next step in the process is to okay the proofs when they come in. In a couple more weeks, 1000 CDs and 1000 DVDs will be delivered on my porch. Storage? Some of you have seen my very tall kitchen cabinets, all the way to the 12' ceiling. Now you know what goes in the top cupboards. And yes, I do have to stand on the counter or a stepladder to reach them.

The CD is called The Best (And Worst) of Beasts. The DVD is The Bully Billy Goat And Other Stories. Some of the same stories are on both, but there are differences. The DVD has intermediary stuff with my puppet Trixie and a bonus track of The Ghost with the One Black Eye. The CD has some stories not on the DVD, and a bonus track of The Kansas Three Little Pigs.

One of the things I like the best is the shots of the kids on the DVD. These younger elementary school children react as most do, with enthusiasm and attention.

I expect to sell these at my library and festival performances, on storyteller.net and on CDbaby.com. In case you're wondering, the DVD will be the same price as all my CDs. I like to keep things simple.

On November 12, I've scheduled a release performance at The Raven bookstore in Lawrence, KS. Stop by for a few stories--and if you're too far away, you'll be able to listen to at least one story from the new releases on my website, www.priscillahowe.com.