THE SLEEPING STORYTELLER TV SERIES: She writes stories in her sleep!

I am set to start quite likely one of the most exciting adventures ever; one that I could not have dreamt would even be possible. The immensely popular Internet TV Station, Showboat TV, have offered me a 6 part pilot TV series, with my own Storytelling Show! I am going to be on the telly box for the run up to Christmas, the last story being aired on Christmas Eve! 

My show is called 'The Sleeping Storyteller' and I will be telling the stories that I write in my sleep. Yep, that's right, in my sleep!

As some of you will have read already, since becoming hearing impaired, my tinnitus keeps me awake all night. I do not go into deep sleep for a very long time. In this twilight zone, I have been writing stories, poems and songs by recording them onto the voice recorder of my mobile phone IN MY SLEEP!!! Yep, I know, it's out there, even for me, which is why I haven't really stepped into it, until now. I didn't even know I was doing it, until I happened to look on my mobile phone and found literally 100's of recordings.

My first book, Soul Ink for the Morning, contains 100 little poems from my voice recorder and has been received very well throughout the Summer at the Book Fairs, so I decided to start typing up the stories that I have also spoken into my phone whilst sleeping, too. It is these that will form my new pilot, The Sleeping Storyteller TV Show.

It's absolutely unbelievable, isn't it? But it has just sort of happened and so I am embracing it. I am going to be a television presenter! Oh my days! I am smiling from ear to ear, just typing it.

Fate had a BIG hand in it and as you come with me on this adventure, you'll find out why I believe it is all meant to be. Be sure to FOLLOW my blog by adding your email address in the box provided, top right of the page, that says 'Follow by Email', that way you won't miss out on the fun.

Right now, there are all sorts of exciting things happening behind the scenes, like designing a new website and making the characters into toys, as I prepare for filming at the end of this month!!!!!!!! GADZUKES!

MAHOOSIVE thanks to the very lovely John & Maxine Rolls at Showboat TV for opening this incredible opportunity for me to share my stories in a deaf friendly environment. I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me. Thank you for your faith in me and for believing in me. I'm going to stop now, or else I will have to go and get the tissues. All love to you, dear ones.

Experimenting with Story

If you read my last blog post, you'll understand why I was inspired to start writing a story about my beautiful rag doll today. 

Here she is before she retired from storytelling in schools.

Thing is, as a storyteller, I find it easy to make the words reach out to people through spoken word. I have been doing it for years, it trips off the tongue but I can no longer go into schools since my hearing conditions. In response, I am trying to capture the thrill of storytelling in written word. But once typed, my stories lose something and I get really despondent about the piece.

A parcel came today, wrapped in lovey brown paper, so I decided to experiment with writing the story on this more interesting medium.

I am not sure why, but knelt on my slate kitchen floor, writing onto recycled brown paper captivated me, excited me. 

I need to find a way that my story books become cornfields filled with poppies rather than cages for words. If you have any suggestions or advice, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks.

Storyteller Jess Wilson at Quiet Space Studio

Jess Wilson and I met as part of the same team working for the Storytelling for Health International Conference earlier this year and we just sort of clicked from the get go. So, you  can imagine how excited I was that she  drove all the way from Pontypool to Llandysul to welcome me to my new Quiet Space Studio.

Jess will be the featured Storyteller for July in my Poet's Corner at Quiet Space. I have recorded her telling me a beautiful Selki story and will edit it tomorrow.

But before telling the Selkie story, she had brought with her a very special story just for me, one that she had fallen in love with as a child. I won't say too much about it here because I was so utterly moved by her telling, that we have decided to do a Story and Sansula collaboration with the piece, next time she visits. 

I used to accompany storytellers, poets and other musicians all the time before I lost my hearing but it is difficult to jam along when you can not hear properly. With my hearing aid and sat opposite Jess, I could hear her clear as day, so I am hoping that I can play along. We will record it and see what happens. Truth is, however it sounds, it will be beautiful indeed to collaborate with Jess.

Native American Story Stones : Unleashing the Story Telling Child Within

As the Creative Digital Developer at Stories for Change / the Storytelling for Health International Conference, I have found myself completely reconnected with Storytelling but I spend most of my time on the project indoors, sat at my computer, online designing the website, managing the Group page on Facebook and devising creative evaluation techniques.

So, when the sun came out today, I decided that I wanted to do something storytelling based outside and completely hands on.

I looked up some Native American symbols as a basis for a storytelling prompt. I thought I might like to make a little bag of stones decorated with Native American symbols and pull them out of the little bag randomly, to see what stories the stones tell on their own.

We were very lucky because the sun was shining and even more lucky because we live half an hour from New  Quay, West Wales.

Jeff sat on the rocks living dangerously, eating his chips while I went onto the beautiful beach to find potential pebbles.

It was such good fun choosing & then washing the sand off in the sea, whilst chanting to the waves. It really felt as if I were unleashing the storytelling child within.

There was plenty of evidence on the beach that other child-like souls had been dancing on the sand here today.

I wrapped up my precious treasure and when we got home, I couldn't wait to draw the symbols onto the stones. I'm not very good at art but it was such fun drawing them all from the chart and then pulling out stones from the bag and listening to them.

I then took photo's of the stones and on the computer put the story words with the image to create an illustration.

This activity is such a lovely thing to do as a grown up but I couldn't help but think how wonderfully educational it would be for a group of children and/ or young people. 

• Multi Cultural Symbols and Language
• Storytelling Oracy
• Literacy Skills
• Environmental Awareness
• Information Technology
• Artistic Expression

But most of all, great fun. So much fun they may never even notice the skills being taught.

Storytelling Empowering Dementia

The strength of Storytelling as an empowering tool for the older community living with dementia, is far reaching. Storytelling can quite literally change, not just how we perceive ourselves, but how others perceive us. It can change strategy & make the world a better place. Sounds like a tall story, doesn't it, but I know this first hand and present to you here, some personal reflections regarding my work.

I have just returned home from a Storytelling workshop at Llanelli Leisure Centre kindly funded by Artscare Gofal Celf & Communities First. It was not an ordinary Storytelling Workshop. Let me give you some background as to why.

I first met Louie at a Dementia Friendly Care Home in Llanelli in my Storytelling & Music Workshop, where she asked me if I would 'save her story'.

At 92 years of age, with her memories falling like autumn leaves to the wind, we set about creating a resource that would not only help her to remember herself, but be a beautiful reminisence resource for those who, like Louie, grew up in a different era.

Together, Louie, her son, daughter in law and I, created a book & a talking CD, where Louie tells her stories & I sing them as folk songs, as well as a Story Map of her memories. 

The family very kindly gave permission for me to use the work as part of my MA Drama, where I achieved a Distinction & won an Outstanding Contribution Award from the University of South Wales.

Postcards from Louie book & CD became part of the RNIB talking book service, and is now held by all Carmarthenshire Libraries, as well as archived at The National Library of Wales. There is also a Welsh Language version held at the People's Collection Wales.

We held a performance sharing of Postcards from Louie at Greenspace Gallery, Carmarthen, just up the road from where Louie's Dad use to park up the horse and cart for Llamas Fayre.

I went into Primary Schools with Postcards from Louie and trained children how to collate life stories with older people living with dementia in the local Old People's Home.

I went back the The Atrium, Cardiff and lectured to undergraduates and told them Louie's Story.

We held a Postcards from Louie tea party for the local children & the older people living at the home and their families, who listened and smiled and laughed and cried along with Louie's Stories of her childhood in Rural West Wales. 

What Louie and I had created, was not just a story but a methodology that empowers an older person with dementia to carry on contributing to their community in a meaningful way, in keeping with who they are,  and who they have been throughout their life.

In addition, we could see how Postcards from Louie changed attitudes and stereotypes within wider circles about Dementia. People opening up and talking for the first time about how dementia had affected their families.

I was invited to give a talk about our book at Llanstephan Historical Society where many members of the community came to hear about their friend that they had lost touch with since her dementia. Storytelling re-connecting communities with their older members.

And Louie's Story did not end here. I was approached by Nick Andrews from Swansea University and began a contract with his team for the Development of Evidence Enriched Practice: A Better Life, collating research on better ways of working with older people. 

Now Louie & I were changing strategy through our storytelling. I worked with 2 further older people creating Storytelling Resources and won a Gold National Care Award for Excellence in Dementia. Louie's daughter in law Jill came with me to the Celebrations in Cardiff.

I went onto create a Dementia Friendly Online Radio Station making and sharing digital life stories with the older community as well as sound maps of places people could no longer get to.

Louie set me on a path that I really did not expect to take. She chose me to save her story & in so doing, we are changing the story of dementia. All this, and  I am a songwriter, a storyteller, a poet, an author. I am a creative. I am not a scientist or a medical professional. I am living proof that the Arts is not just to entertain, it is not just to engage, it is a powerful tool in enabling older people to retain their dignity & empower their own well being & can provide tremendous support for each other.

And today, Jill and I were invited to tell Louie's stories again. It was really quite moving. There were 8 people in the Storytelling Group. 3 little ones, 2 Mums, an older person living with dementia, a teenager & a carer. The 10 of us were transported & I saw again first hand the power of storytelling.

The woman with dementia began the session calling out seemingly inappropriate things but as Louie's stories and songs began to unravel, so she started to shout out her memories instead. I showed her Louie's old collection of postcards that Jill had kindly brought along. 

'Do you remember these stamps?' I asked. 

She ran her fingers over them and looked me straight in the eyes.

'Yes, I do. But I don't know who this is?'

'I think it's King George.' I replied.

'Yes, it is. It's King George.' and her furrowed brow relaxed for the first time.

At the end of the session, I went over to thank her for coming. She held out her hand.

'Hold my hand.' she said and so I did. 

We held hands looking into each others faces, smiling for quite a while. There was no need for words.

On the floor were 2 little ones, sisters. They were drawing their own Story Map like Louie's putting onto it all the things they would like to still remember when they are 92.

There was Nanna and Granpa's house in Scotland, thier home, school, all the family in the car  ...  & London.

'Have you been to London?' Jill asked the children.

'No, but I think it is an important place and so I am making a note to remember it when I am 92.'

As we packed up, I found myself looking forward to our next Postcards from Louie Adventure at Llanelli Library next week. This feels like more than Storytelling or perhaps it is the true essence of what storytelling really is.

We are donating the proceeds from Workshops to the re-launch of the 'Postcards from Louie' book & CD later this year. If you would like to book a workshop, make a kind donation to our work, or pre-order your copies feel free to email  me : -cherylbeermusic@gmail.com

Our Sound Memories Group Page on facebook is:

www.facebook.com/groups/soundmemoriesradio/

Our Gofundme page is ...

https://www.gofundme.com/sound-memories

Thank you for reading,

Cheryl Beer

Sound Memories

Founder