A storyteller's life is divided up into two main parts. Those days spent on the road performing and those days in an office. I'll be in my office mode for the next two weeks. 
    Here's how my typical "office days" will play out:

8:00 am - Warm up and work on new kids song My Grandpa Likes Sardines.

9:00 am - Work on new Swiss folktale The Three Sneezes. When working on a new story based on a folktales I usually start by rewriting it in my own words on my computer and then get up and start retelling it orally using my printed version as a guide. This printed version will be revised over and over again as I continue telling the piece over the next few weeks.

10:00 am - 15 minute snack and watch fifteen minutes of my guilty pleasure The View. This is kind of like my coffee break with the girls if I were working in a regular office.

10:15 - Work online figuring out how to get my new blog onto my website...had to call Website Tonight to get some guidance but finally got it on.

12:00 - Lunch

12:30 - Banjo practice. Learning the four basic Scrugg's style rolls and a new song from my banjo instruction video

1:30 - Work some more on rewriting The Three Sneezes and Practice getting up and telling to myself my new original story Jump, Jimmy, Jump!

2:30 - Snack and Read from Twyla Tharpe's book The Creative Habit. Getting lots of good ideas on how to go about the business of being a performer.

3:30 - Box up my storytelling CDs to mail to Ireland for the performances that I'll be doing there in October.
    Send e-mails to folks in Ireland telling them that I'm sending my storytelling Cads.

4:30 - Run color copies of book covers and glue them to cardboard stands to use for library programs in Ireland.

5:30 - 7:30 Break for supper and general down time.

7:30 - Work on telling the Jump, Jimmy, Jump!  story to myself while I'm on my 45 minute walk in the neighborhood. (sometimes the neighbors catch me talking out loud to myself but I just pretend that I'm on my cell phone)

Well, that's basically it. I'll repeat the above again tomorrow substituting new stories and music to work on as they develop. Exciting stuff to me because I know the hard work will pay off with an entertained audience in a few weeks.

     

Hello. My name is Rosie Best-Cutrer and I am a storyteller. Someone once said that to tell people you are a storyteller is kind of like saying "I am a shepard!" It just seems like an occupation out of place in our century. But there you have it and yes it is possible to make a living at this art. 

    I placed the sunflowers in my blog because I hail from The Sunflower State...Kansas. My main source of employment is in schools, libraries and museums but I occasionally have the privilege of performing at festivals such as The Cape Giradeau Storytelling Festival in Missouri or The Land Run Festival in Choctaw, Oklahoma. This January I'll be a featured teller at the Winter Tales Festival in Kearney, Nebraska.

    I started this blog mainly because I'm going to Ireland in October to tell in libraries and also at some schools with Irish teller Liz Weir and I wanted to have some way of keeping a record of my travels for folks to read. I also will be doing some family research into my Irish heritage which I will share with you as I get closer to going on my trip.
    Thanks for reading and keep