Why I skipped blogging in July, or my big news

I've been a little busy.

Read to the end to find out why this enigmatic photo is here.

Since I last wrote, I've traveled to North Carolina, Wisconsin, Missouri and California. Only the last two of these trips were for storytelling. In Missouri, I did six performances in two days for the Daniel Boone Regional Library, always a good time. I didn't have any pie, but I did have excellent ice cream from Sparky's in Columbia. They make it right there. Yum.

This last weekend was the National Storytelling Conference in LA. The conference is like a happy family reunion. Nobody says, "Storyteller? You mean you read books to children" or "Storytelling? You can make a living at that?" There are workshops on the art and craft of storytelling, keynotes to inspire us, and endless conversations at meals, in the lobby and in the pool. Oh, and dancing. There's always dancing.

I was fortunate that my name was drawn for a Fringe performance, at which I told "Queen Berta and King Pippin" at 9:45 p.m. (to my central time zone body it felt like 11:45 p.m., and I'm not a night owl). I got a good response to it and it felt pretty solid. Look for news on whether the video and audio recordings I attempted came out or not.

But there's more. The big news is that I'll be moving. I've sold my house (gulp!) and will move to Kansas City, KS with my beau. We decided to do this so he wouldn't have to drive an hour each way to work. The house we found (pictured above), if all the inspections and the appraisal go well, is only a 30-minute drive for him. I was signing and faxing the contract from the hotel in LA, a surreal experience.

I don't have much storytelling work in August, so I'll be sorting, tossing, packing and moving. Wish me luck!

P.S. The yard sale will probably be on August 14.

NSN Conference in brief

Sigh. I had good intentions of writing about the conference in detail, but it's not going to happen. Today I attended the first of a two-day workshop for teaching artists, led by a Kennedy Center master teaching artist, from 8:30 to 5:00. My brain is mostly fried.

Here are a few high points of this year's conference in Gatlinburg (I'm sure I'm leaving out about half):

• Seeing the tribe. It's so fun to be with other storytellers. We never have to explain what storytelling is, we don't apologize for our artistic quirks, we just settle into conversation with everyone.
• Meeting new storytellers or folks I just hadn't connected with before. It's a friendly group. I am hugely thankful to Faye Wooden, who gave me and Joyce Slater rides to and from the airport (about an hour away) and introduced us to her cats. Also, she gave me one of her new business cards. Yup, you guessed it: a wooden nickel!
• Hanging out with Joyce. We get along well, as friends, as colleagues and as roommates at conferences and retreats. She's a gem.
• Spending time in the swimming pool with my good friend Marni Gillard. We do this at as many conferences as possible. My motel had a pool, hers didn't. It was lovely, and well worth missing a session at the conference.
• Attending (and helping out at) Olga Loya's intensive on Going Deep. First, she did a stellar job on the Aztec Creation myth. Then we did some of the exercises we've done at Going Deep (the long traditional story retreat). This gave the crowd of about 40 storytellers a real taste of the experience. It was thrilling to see how many people were drawn to the idea of a long traditional story retreat.
• Telling in the regional concert. I wore my swishy new dress and a net shawl I bought at the conference store. The Portraits went smoothly--though I've told it for about 17 years, I made a couple of small tweaks to it that afternoon. I think they worked.
• Brook trout at a restaurant after the regional concert with Marni, Olga, Joyce and Leeny. Great company, great food.
  
• Listening to stories at the Saturday night concert. See my last post about Doc McConnell.
  
• Singing (or accompanying the singing on my harmonica) in the lobby of the conference center, with about fifteen storytellers. Elizabeth Ellis lined out all the words to Amazing Grace. Beautiful. Dustin Loehr tapdanced along. Music is important to this conference.
• Dancing in the closing ceremony. It's not a true conference without dancing.

Big thanks to the NSN staff of two and the Board of Directors, who pulled this conference together despite giant obstacles. And a special thanks to Yvonne Healy for herding extra cats everywhere they needed herding.

Doc McConnell, RIP

(photo by Tom Raymond, Fresh Air Photographics)

Storyteller Doc McConnell died yesterday, August 16. He was one of the old guard, an Appalachian storyteller who was an integral part of the storytelling revival.

He performed last Saturday night at the National Storytelling Conference. This was the first time I ever witnessed a standing ovation before and after a performance. Doc had been sick, but he walked without assistance onto the stage and perched on a stool. His story was strong and funny, perfect in Doc's tongue-in-cheek style.

I think the first time I ever saw Doc was in Jonesborough in the early 90s, where he performed his old-time medicine show. His storytelling fame took him all over, from the National Storytelling Festival to the Tonight Show to Hee Haw (!). I didn't know Doc well, but often found myself in conversation with him at the conferences. He'll be missed.