Putting Your Proposal Pieces Together

Each year offers us new opportunities to submit proposals for storytelling, business and educational conferences. I have been fortunate to serve on numerous proposal review committees for a variety of organizations. Those experiences helped me appreciate the process, and also taught me about the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to writing a proposal.

Whenever I attend conferences I often hear, “I wonder why my proposal wasn’t accepted.” I don’t claim to be an expert, but I thought I would offer some insights based on my committee experience. Please consider the following suggestions, offered with a gentle hand, the next time you submit a proposal.

Ask Yourself

• Is it well written? If a reviewer knows nothing about your work or the subject, would they understand your process?
• Have you submitted the same proposal for many years without offering anything new?
• If the conference has a theme does your proposal complement it?
• Did you check your spelling and grammar?
• Did you avoid profession specific terminology that might confuse a reviewer? Example: A non-storyteller might not understand the definition of OLIO.
• If you presented at the same conference in the past, were you flexible to work with, both before and during the conference? 
• Did you follow through? Examples:

1. Sending your signed contract back on time.
2. Registering for the conference on time.
3. Did you respond to queries from the conference coordinator in a timely fashion? 
4. If it was a requirement of your contract did you promote the conference, and your workshop? (Organizers do notice.)

Submission Guidelines

1. Did you provide a workshop outline?
2. Did you provide a timeline breakdown for your presentation? For example: % of lecture,
3.  % for Q & A, % of participation. (Note: One and two are not the same.)
4. Is your math correct for the above? Do your percentages equal 100%?
5. Did you adhere to the word limit for your bio/outline/workshop description/resume?
6. Did you offer complete references, including their contact information?
7. Did you indicate where you have presented before if requested? Don’t state, "I have
8.  presented at conferences around the country” and assume that is sufficient.
9. Did you request equipment the organizers stated it could not provide?

Conversely

• Don't send a resume if it is not requested. Reviewers do not have the time to read more.
• Don't add quotes from other workshop participants unless requested. Again, reviewers don't have the time to read more.
• Don’t submit a four-hour proposal and state, “I can also do this as a 90-minute presentation if necessary.” Instead, send in a second, full proposal for the 90-minute time slot. Reviewers want to know what will be different in a shorter and/or longer time slot.
• Don't ask for a deadline extension.  The conference organizers are usually on a very tight timetable and the deadline is there for a reason.
• Don’t use a variety of ink colors, fonts, and font sizes on your proposal; it makes it difficult for the reviewers to read.
• Don’t offer a link to your website in place of requested information; answer the questions.

Additional words of advice from two experienced conference coordinators:

• Send your proposal in at least a week before the deadline when possible. Organizers dread receiving a flood of applications on the last day. (Shared by Karen Wollscheid)
• Send your entire proposal attached to one email. Do not send each page separately. (Shared by Linda Gorham)
  
  

Before You Submit 

• Review it again.
• Make sure all of the questions are answered.
• Check the spelling, word count, and grammar.
• Ask someone who doesn't know your work to read over your proposal. A second set of eyes is always helpful to catch spelling errors and ambiguities. 
• If you have time, let it sit for a day and then review it again before you hit the 'send' button.

Examples from Actual Proposals

Applicant: 

• ran out of room on the first page, which was handwritten. Instead of attaching a second page they wrote around the edge of the first page, in circular fashion, numerous times.
• attached a letter indicating their displeasure at not being selected the previous year.
• offered only names in the reference section stating, “You know how to reach them.”
• stated “If you don’t like this proposal, I have others” and offered only the titles of the other workshops.
• stated they deserved to be selected because “I am a long-standing member of the professional community.”
• chastised the conference organizers, on their proposal form, for not offering expensive equipment they needed for their presentation.
• submitted a poorly written, very incomplete proposal assuming their previous work and reputation would suffice. This was submitted after the deadline.

Your proposal tells reviewers a lot about you as a presenter, your professionalism, and the way your workshop might flow. If you are not paying attention to the proposal guidelines, deadlines, and other requirements, what else might fall by the wayside? Remember, there are always a number of reviewers on the committee, and they may have no knowledge of you or your work. Always assume you are making a first impression and make it a good one.

You may do everything right and still not be selected to present your work. Don’t take it personally. Some years your proposal may not be a good fit with the overall arc of the conference. Other times you may need to ask yourself, what can I do differently next year?

SOMETHING EXTRA

Remember, when you do receive that coveted acceptance letter your work has just begun. These articles will help you prepare and polish your presentation!

5 Surefire Ways To Ruin Your Presentation
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-surefire-ways-ruin-your-presentation-duane-cummings

18 Tips for Killer Presentations

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/18-tips-for-killer-presentations.html

Developing a Presentation: Design & Delivery

http://www.naepnet.org/page/NAEPSPKRResource3

Presentation Tips
https://www.washington.edu/doit/presentation-tips-0 

Presentation Tips: 20 Tips from 20 People

https://outwittrade.com/presentation-tips/

Top Tips for Effective Presentations

http://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/presentation-tips.html

Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and web links may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links.  At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

Karen Chace 2016 © Updated 2023

Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to this blog post via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.

Slicing Up Your Story: Story Board

Children Eating a Pie
by

Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1670-1675

I like to use a variety of both written and interactive tools to help my students learn the art of Oral Tradition, telling stories! There are already several wonderful books with useful ideas, however, because many of my students return year after year, I always want to have something new and fresh for them to try.

While I use the traditional story board to help students break down their tales, and also created, What's Driving Your Story? (Available in my book, Story by Story), this year I designed another type of story board, Slicing Up Your Story. I use this towards the end of the program, long after they completed their initial story boards and were very familiar with their stories. I wanted to see if anything new bubbled to the surface and also how succinctly they could now describe different elements of their story, i.e. setting, character, events, etc. Below is the handout I used along with some of the answers the students shared.

Please feel free to use this in your own personal work; however I do request that you respect copyright, offer attribution, and do not publish it in any form without my permission. Note: You may share the link to this blog post with your colleagues.

SLICING UP YOUR STORY INSTRUCTIONS

Before I pass out the worksheet I go over the instructions with the students, using Little Red Riding Hood as an example.

1.      Who is the main character in your story? (Red Riding Hood)

2.      Describe one character in two words. (petite, brave)

3.      Describe the story setting in three words. (dark, damp, ominous)

4.      Describe the main event/problem in four words. ( Girl meets dangerous wolf)

5.      Describe something in your story using ONLY ONE of your five senses. Describe the wolf using the sense of touch: hairy, dry, coarse, solid, muscular) Note: Be careful to clearly explain that you are looking for descriptive words.

6.      Describe the ending of your story in six words. (Woodsman rescues girl and grandmother.) *Of course this might be different if you are using another variant of the story. 


WORKSHEET

COMMENTS FROM ACTUAL STUDENT WORKSHEETS

#2. Describe the main character in two words.

• Tiny/Forgetful
• Cross/Selfish
• Prankster/Beggar
• Greedy/Thoughtless

#3. Describe the story setting in three words.

• Sweet/Warm/Stone
• Pretty/Colorful/Fragrant
• Cold/Winter/Damp 
• Green/Glistening/Well

#4. Describe the main event/problem in four words.

• Sister, spell, fairy, curse
• Monkey loses his tail.
• Cat wants delicious cake.
• Girl won’t share bread.
• Tom wants leprechaun's gold.
  

#5. Describe something in your story using only one of your five senses.

• Taste: Frosting: vanilla, sugary, delicious, rich
• Sight: Cloud: high, white, fluffy, drifting
• Taste: Bread: sweet, warm, buttery
• Touch: Bucket: cold, smooth, shiny
• Smell: Farm: animals, manure, flowers, fresh air

 #6. Describe the ending of your story in six words.

• Tries to chase his baby donkey.
• Sadly Tom doesn’t get the gold.
• Nasty sister turns into an owl.
• Be careful what you wish for.
• Happy monkey gets his tail back.

Extra Bonus: Leave a comment on the blog and I will send you the actual worksheet in a .doc file so you won't have to make one up yourself. (I am not above bribery :)

If you are interested in more innovative storytelling tools and games, you will find them in my award-winning book, Story by Story: Creating a Student Storytelling Troupe.I hope you will have the opportunity to try this out with your students or even when you are learning a new story. If you do, please let me know, I would love to hear how it turned out for you.

Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and web links may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links.  At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

Karen Chace 2016 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you

Step Up to the Story Plate! Interactive Storytelling Game

Personal photo: My son playing

baseball as a young child.

"I believe that learning and play go hand in hand. Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood."
  - Fred Rogers 

I agree with his sentiment and add play to all of my storytelling residencies. Each week, when I meet with my student storytelling troupe, I add an interactive game that is fun and also reinforces their storytelling skills. Over the years I have created a number of original games but I am always trying to come up with a new idea, and sometimes inspiration strikes in the strangest places!

Last week I was in the Dollar Store, picking up craft items for my Mass Humanities program when I spotted a set of baseball bases and began to think, “How I could use them as an interactive storytelling game?”  On the next aisle I noticed some white felt Easter baskets with a baseball design; this was too much of a coincidence! I bought the bases and buckets.

Over the weekend I brainstormed a bit and created the following interactive relay game, Step Up to the Story Plate, which my fourth and fifth grade students played for the first time this week. The game was an enormous success! The students were wildly cheering each other on; we had time to play it twice and they asked to play it again next week. It is a great game for helping them think on their feet, while reinforcing their story skills and comradery. While the set up and rules below may sound complicated, I assure you it is an easy game to set up and play.

I offer it here for you to use in your personal storytelling work. It is not to be published in any form without permission although you may share the blog link with your colleagues. I ask that you respect copyright and offer attribution whenever you use it. Batter up!

STEP UP TO THE STORY PLATE! © 2016

SUPPLIES

• This is a relay game, so you need two sets of plastic baseball bases. If you can’t find them to purchase, make your own out of cardboard.
• Eight buckets to hold the questions at each base, three for each game, and two buckets to hold the dice at Home plate. I found the buckets above at the Dollar Store, but you could use anything at your disposal.
• A set of large, foam dice, found at the Dollar Store.
• Green Card Stock to print out the questions. (Of course I used green, for the Green Monster in Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, but you can choose a different color.)

QUESTIONS

I created these questions, but you can design your own. Nine questions signify the nine innings in baseball, three extra questions just for fun. 

1.      Speak one line of dialogue from your story, using EMOTION!

2.      Share two gestures from your story. EXAGGERATE them!

3.      Describe the main setting of your story in three words.

4.      Describe a character in FOUR words.

5.      Tell your story in FIVE words.

6.      Show TWO FACIAL expressions from your story.

7.      Speak the FIRST sentence of your story.

8.      Introduce yourself and your story title WITH CONFIDENCE!

9.      Speak the LAST sentence of your story and take a bow!

10.  Steal one base.

11.  Steal two bases.

12.  Do the wave three times. 

SET UP

You will need a large space to lay out both sets of bases. Of course, you don’t need to set them up the same distance as a regular baseball diamond but there should be enough room teams aren’t bumping into each other.

• Arrange the two sets of baseball bases side by side. Make sure there is enough room for the students to run and move.
• Place one bucket at each home plate with one die in each bucket.
• Place questions in buckets at bases 1, 2, and 3. Make sure each set of buckets has the same questions and number of questions. For example, you have twelve questions, which equals four questions in each of their base buckets. Each bucket should have the same questions to make if fair for each relay team. For example, both first base buckets might have the following questions:
  
  1. Speak one line of dialogue from your story, using EMOTION!
  2. Share two gestures from your story. EXAGGERATE them!
  3. Describe the main setting of your story in three words.
  4. Describe a character in FOUR words.
  

§ 

RULES/DIRECTIONS

Go over the questions and rules with your students before they begin the game. If you have an assistant in your class, they can “coach” one relay team, while you help the other if they need assistance. When each student rolls the dice you need to be there to remind them what to do if they roll a #5 or #6. The others are self-explanatory. The first team to finish wins the game!

This is a basic relay game, form two lines with the same number of students. The first student in each line picks their foam dice out of the bucket at home plate, rolls the dice and moves through the game according to the number they rolled.

DICE NUMBERS SIGNIFY:

• Number 1 – First Base
• Number 2 – Second Base
• Number 3 – Third Base
• Number 4 – Homerun!
• Number 5 – Pinch Hitter
• Number 6 – Pinch Runner

TASKS RELATED TO EACH NUMBER

• Student rolls #1: Runs to first base, picks a question from the bucket and performs the task. They runs to second base, pick a question from the bucket and performs the task, and so on until they reach home plate and tags the next player.
• Student rolls #2:  Runs to second base, picks question from the bucket, performs task. Runs to third base, picks another question, performs task, runs to home plate, tags next player.
• Student rolls #3 :  Runs to third base,  picks a question from the bucket, performs the task, runs to home plate, tags next player.
• Student rolls #4: Student runs all of the bases without stopping to home plate.
• Student rolls #5: Pinch Hitter: Student goes to the back of the line and the next student moves up. This is a disadvantage for the relay team as it adds another turn to their relay team.
• Student rolls #6: Pinch Runner: Student steps aside, the next student in line steps up and runs to second base. This is an advantage to the team as the first student who rolled #6 is automatically finished with their turn. This relay team is one person ahead.

If you are interested in more original, interactive games, as well as story worksheets, please consider my award-winning book, Story by Story: Creating a Student Storytelling Troupe. I am also offering a brand-new workshop, Story Play, at the LANES Sharing the Fire Conference on Saturday, April 2, 2016. You will learn additional activities not found in my book, to help both you and your students. For all of the conference information go to www.lanes.org .

Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and weblinks may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links. At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

 

Karen Chace 2016 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission, please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I appreciate your support and personal integrity.

Celebrate National Pig Day: Stories, Songs, and More!

Pig and Pepper
from Alice's Wonderland Adventures
Illustration by Andrew Rackham, 1922

March 1 is National Pig Day; a day devoted to celebrating their place as one of man’s most intellectual and domesticated animals. Below you will find stories, songs, fingerplays, crafts and book suggestions to make the  most of this day!

STORIES

The Dog and the Pig - Indiahttp://tinyurl.com/oa5r8hu

The Enchanted Pig – Andrew Lang
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/lfb/re/refb11.htm

The Pig That Went to Church - United Stateshttp://tinyurl.com/oo9bznc

The Old Woman and Her Pig - England
http://tinyurl.com/8yagce3

The Sheep and the Pig Who Set Up House - Norway http://oaks.nvg.org/ntales47.html

The Story of the Three Little Pigs - England
http://www.authorama.com/english-fairy-tales-16.html

The Three Green Men of Glen Nevis - Scotland
http://tinyurl.com/osz569v

FINGERPLAYS

Two Mother Pigs
Two mother pigs lived in a pen (show thumbs)
Each had four babies, and that made ten (show fingers and thumbs)
These four babies were soft and pink (hold up one hand, four fingers up)
These four babies were black as ink (hold up other hand, four fingers up)
All eight babies loved to play
And they rolled, and they rolled, in the mud all day. (roll hands over each other)
At night, with their mothers, they curled up in a heap, (make fists)
And squealed and squealed until they went...to...sleep. (turn fists over, palms up)

Five Little Pigs
Five little pigs rolled in the mud, (hold up five fingers then roll hands over each other)
Squishy, squashy, felt so good. (squish hands together left and right)
The farmer took one pig out. (pretend to take one out)
Oink, Oink, Oink, the pig did shout.  (Repeat with4,3,2,1)

No little pigs rolled in the mud, (shake head and index finger “no.”)
They all looked clean and good. (look at self and smile)
The farmer turned his back and then, (look behind)
Those pigs rolled in the mud again! (roll hands over each other)

SONGS/STORY STRETCH

Barnyard Song (Tune: If you're happy and you know it)

If you're a pig and you know it say oink, oink
If you’re a pig and you know it say oink, oink
If you’re a pig and you know it and you really want to show it
If you’re a pig and you know it say oink, oink 

If you’re a cow and you know it say moo, moo…
If you’re a cat and you know it climb a tree…
If you’re a horse and you know it gallop around…
If you’re a dog and you know bark out loud…
If you’re a bird and you know it flap your wings…
If you’re a pig and you know roll in the mud…

Three Pigs Rap
This is the story about three pigs
Who needed to go out and get new digs.
Each set out on his own way
To build himself a place to stay
“I'm a lazy pig. I need time to play.
I am building a house of hay!”

Now that didn't work out for too long
Soon he heard the wolf sing his song
“I'll huff and I'll puff” (He'll huff and he'll puff)
“I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!”

Then the pig heard this real loud sound.
He blew the house downOff he went, off he ran
To see if his brother had a better plan

“When I saw my brother and heard him cry,
I said, Let's give a house of wood a try‟
They built the house; they built it strong,
But soon the wolf came along

“I'll huff and I'll puff” (He'll huff and he‟ll puff)
“I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down”
Then the pigs heard this real loud sound.
He blew the house down.
Off they went, Off they ran
To see if their sister had a better plan.
“Now come my brothers, you look so sick.
Come and stay in my house of brick

The wolf can blow, but it will do no good.
You can't blow stone like hay or wood.”
The wolf came. He gave a huff and puff.
Soon he learned that it wasn't enough
It's best he learned to leave others alone
When they are safely in their homes!
http://freesongsforkids.com/audios/three-pigs-rap

Three Pigs In A Bed
There were three pigs in a bed,

And the little one said,

"Roll over, roll over".
So they all rolled over and one fell out!

Repeat with two pigs

One pig in the bed,
And you know what he said?
I've got the whole mattress to myself!

To Market, To Market
To Market, to market to buy a fat pig
Home again, home again jiggity jig.
To market, to market to buy a fat hog
Home again, home again, jiggity jog.

BOOKS

Children’s Books About Pigs: Funny Bedtime Stories
http://hubpages.com/family/The-10-Best-Childrens-Books-About-Pigs-Funny-Bedtime-Stories

CRAFTS

Dltk- kids – Lots of fun pig crafts here that will have you squealing in no time at all.http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/pigs.htm


SOMETHING EXTRA

Literacy Tip: Pack a book. Tuck a storybook or two in the diaper bag and in the car for the older infant, toddler, and preschooler. The habit of filling in life's spaces with books and always having books handy helps a child see them as a regular part of life. 
http://www.pampers.com/Ready-to-Read:-Literacy-Tips-for-Toddlers--and-Preschoolers                                                                          

Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and weblinks may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links.  At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

Karen Chace 2016 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.

Bilingual Storytelling: Stor e Telling June July 2015

Uncle Henry and Aunt Em

From the Emerald City of Oz

Illustration by John R. Neill, 1900

I am continuing to share my Stor e Telling columns from the National Storytelling Magazine. The resources below are from the June July 2015 issue. All of the links have been checked and updated where necessary.

Please note that I only add my columns to my blog when the year has passed. To receive additional, timely resources, please consider becoming a member of the National Storytelling Network. Your membership includes the National Storytelling Magazine.

This issue on bilingual storytelling; I begin with some sites to complement the theme.

Bilingual Storytimes: Utah Department of Heritage and Arts - The following resources were from Bilingual Storytime for Gringos at the 2009 Utah Library Association Conference.
https://heritage.utah.gov/library/spanish-bilingual-storytimes

Bilingual Books for Kids - This site offers book suggestions on a variety of themes: fairytales, myths, legends, fables, nursery rhymes, songs and more.  Activities and coloring pages are also included.
http://www.bilingualbooks.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=0

Colorin Colorado - An array of terrific resources for teaching English Language Learners. This is the link to the main page http://www.colorincolorado.org/. This link takes you to reading tip sheets in 12 languages for parents who want to establish a love of reading with their children.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/reading-tip-sheets-parents

Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy: Story Blocks – Videos of songs and rhymes in English, Spanish and Vietnamese from infant to preschool.http://www.storyblocks.org/videos/

Idaho Commission for Libraries: Bilingual Storytime Ideas - Read aloud books, fingerplays, songs and rhymes to make your bilingual story time shine.
http://libraries.idaho.gov/files/Storytime-Bilingual.pdf

Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission – A lovely selection of songs, fingerplays, books, and more for preschool programs, in English and Spanish.

https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/bilingual/preschoolers/index.html

Little Bilingues – Downloadable books of activities in English and French.
http://www.littlebilingues.com/free_materials.html

BILINGUAL STORIES AND LESSON PLANS

Culture in the Classroom and the Language of Folklore – Short article on why folktales work for ELL students, along with some sample activities with stories to use.
http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolc/issues/2013-10-01/2.html

Everything ESL – “Forty-Two content based lesson plans for beginning to intermediate students.”
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/

Magic Tales of Mexico – Nine Mexican folktales, collected by Gabriel A. Cordova, Jr.. The stories are shared in Spanish and English.
http://www.g-world.org/magictales/

Ten Folk-tales from the Cape Verde Islands – The folktales are shared in both English and Portuguese.
https://archive.org/stream/jstor-534343/534343_djvu.txt

STORIES

July 26 is Aunt and Uncle Day in the United States. Here are a few stories to add to our repertoire.

Aunt Rachel’s Curse – United States
http://tinyurl.com/lenov6n

The Aunts - Portugal
http://tinyurl.com/mk8z39u

Bundar Bahadur Poon - Nepal
http://tinyurl.com/mvbjsgf

Chittapas (uncles) Or Cheats - India
http://tinyurl.com/k7x4249

The Icon’s Warm Bread - Greece
http://tinyurl.com/mqsv3jd

The Lazy Beauty and Her Aunts – Ireland
http://tinyurl.com/kvy7t7f

The Strange Creature – Zimbabwe
http://tinyurl.com/oy6sz8p

Uncle Bouki and Ti Malice - Haiti
http://tinyurl.com/mcsvgv2

The Wolf Aunt - Persia
http://tinyurl.com/pdjtm6s

ADDITIONAL STORY SITES

A Collection of Wisdom – Mulla, Sufi, Indian, Buddhist folktales and more. These stories are short in length but long in wisdom. They would be especially useful in a beginning storytelling workshop if you need some tales to help your student’s succeed.
http://www.rodneyohebsion.com/folktales.htm 

Ethiopian English Readers – Eighty-eight stories from the different regions of Ethiopia. My thanks to storyteller Donna Dudinsky for sharing this site.
http://www.ethiopianenglishreaders.com/

Stories4U – A site filled with story; Mythology, the Panchatantra, Folktales, Legends and more.
http://stories4u.50webs.com/vik_intro.html

Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and weblinks may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links.  At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

Karen Chace 2016 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.