Friends:

What a busy week it’s been. There is always so much going on! In addition to completing revisions and updates to The Story Biz Handbook: Managing Your Storytelling Career from the Desk to the Stage, I have been working on updates to my website (check out the front page). I have also been working on new story theater scripts for a residency I am doing in February. This is what my desk looks like when I am doing story research…

Story Research

Sticky notes on pages, notes in a notebook, not to mention the research on the Internet…

I am working with a school in my local area doing a “Louisiana Story Fest” residency. It’s based on the story theater methods from my book, Story Fest: Crafting Story Theater Scripts. It will be so much fun working with the third, fourth, and fifth graders at this school. Each class will be performing one of my story theater scripts, all based on Louisiana folktales. The residency will culminate in peer group performances (the classes in each grade will perform for each other - a third grade class performs for the other third grade classes, etc.).

Louisiana stories I worked on include: “Take Care of my Cabbage” (a cumulative story much like”The Old Woman and Her Pig”), “Elephant and Snake (a story with a Compair Lapin [Louisiana's equivalent of Brer Rabbit] cameo), “Jean Sotte” (A “Foolish John” story), “La Petite Fourmi” (”The Little Ant” - another cumulative tale like “The Mouse’s Wedding” or “The Stonecutter”), “Petit Pouce and His Dogs” (a Louisiana version of “Wiley and the Hairy Man”), and Poucette (A “Tom Thumb” tale that is reminiscent of both “Hansel and Gretel” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”). In addition, the students will also be performing “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby,” which is in Story Fest.

It was so much fun working on these stories. Once I started writing, I was on a roll. I finished them all in one night! Whew! In another blog, I’ll post one of the finished tales. Now, on to the next project on my million-mile long to do list!

Happy Tales to You!

Warmly, Dianne

Love Note Boxes

Dear Friends,

A few years ago, I started a Valentine family tradition. I thought it would be sweet to exchange “love notes” during the Valentine season. We start one month before Valentine’s Day on February 14. Last year, I found the cutest mini mail boxes at my local Target store for only $1.00 each! Eliana, my then 6 year old, and I decorated about a dozen mail boxes with Valentine stickers, and gold and silver Sharpies. Antonio, my husband; Soleil, our teen daughter, Eliana and I all received one. In addition, we gave love mail boxes to cousins, grandparents, and friends. Each of those boxes were filled with a week’s worth of love notes.

It’s so much fun to wake up each morning with a love note in your “mail box.” It just helps you start the day off “filled with joy.” This is the note I received this morning from Eliana:

Love Note from Eliana

Creating your own “Love Mail Box” is easy. You don’t have to have mini mail boxes like we do (I just got lucky when I found them). Decorated coffee cans, oatmeal boxes, shoe boxes, and tissue boxes work equally as well. In fact, those are the containers we used previously. If you have a box with a lid, cut a slit in the lid so that it can accommodate larger envelopes or thickly folded notes.

Our love note giving has grown to include small treats such as a couple of chocolates or box of candy sweethearts. It’s fun to see how creative you can be. The greatest joy is waking up knowing that you are loved. So yes, Eliana, my angel, Mommy’s heart is filled with joy. Friends, may your hearts be filled with joy this morning!

Warmly, Dianne

Friends:

This is my first blog post on my very own blog. I am very excited about having a blog on my website. Here, I will provide you with information about my products, tours, and travels. I will also provide articles, useful information, together time activities, book reviews, crafts and more. I may also ramble a bit about what interests me. If you like Story Connection Express, you’ll have an even more intimate connection with me here on my blog. I hope you’ll join me and subscribe via the RSS Feed. If you don’t have an RSS reader, I recommend Google Reader. Thanks for reading. Best wishes and Happy Tales to You!
Warmly, Dianne