Fox Tales International was incorporated with the goal of reaching a broader audience and promoting a renewed interest in the ancient art of storytelling. The end point in all of this, the eventual goal, is to use storytelling to educate and inspire listeners towards a deeper appreciation of their selves, their family and friends, their heritage, and their relationship to the earth.
I have authored a collection of original science stories entitled Learning From The Land: Teaching Ecology Through Stories and Activities. Each story comes with hands-on-science activities and creative writing lesson plans to inspire readers to learn the stories of their local ecosystem.
I have also produced nine CDs of original stories, traditional folktales and sing-along songs entitled Imagine: Adventures in Nature, Imagine II: More Adventures in Nature, River Stories I, River Stories II, Fun with Fables From Around the World, Lincoln Tales Tall and True, River Ghosts, Prairie Fire! and A Prairie Christmas. The last three in conjunction with Barry Cloyd and Prairie Folklore Theatre.
As Riverlorian for the Spirit of Peoria paddlewheel boat, I have authored an activity book Exploring the Illinois River. I have recently worked with Wildlife Prairie Park to produce Exploring Prairie Wildlife, an activity book that explores the rich history and ecology of America's Prairies.
Recently, I published a book of original haiku entitled Frog Songs. This book also includes a brief background on haiku for beginning readers, a lesson plan for students, and instructions on how readers can create their own book. It has received rave reviews form international haiku journals.
Currently, I am writing a series of activity books that will celebrate history and ecology. I have published poems and articles in a variety of ecology and education journals and am a regular contributor to storyteller magazines in Great Britain and America.
I am an active member of the National Storytelling Association. I have presented workshops at the National Storytelling Conference, Sharing the Fire, the M.A.S.T. Conference, the Northlands Conference, and several other national and regional storytelling conferences. I have completed ten successful tours of Europe and two into Central America. I have told stories at dozens of National and International Events.
One of these was in Louisville, Kentucky. It was an electrifying performance of ghost stories at night on an open hillside before and estimated crowd of 18,000. The Corn Island Storytelling Festival is one of the Nation's Oldest and most prestigious festivals.
I also was blessed to tell the story of "Saint Francis and the Manger" on Christmas Eve in Assisi, Italy to a tearful audience from around the world. While in Europe I spent five months researching stories and visiting the sites of myths and legends. These journeys add depth and authenticity to my tales, further enhancing my goal of magically transporting the audience through space and time. While in Europe I also began a tour of Department of Defense schools on the day that Desert Storm erupted in the Middle East. Many of the students I saw in the ensuing weeks had parents on the front lines, and as many as 90% of the children had one or both parents in Saudi Arabia. I felt that part of my mission was to calm the frayed nerves of children with humorous tales, while simultaneously providing models for nonviolent problem solving and creative conflict resolution.
In 1992, I created a position in the Charlotte, North Carolina school system as the Storyteller in Residence. There I worked as part of "The Literacy Project," which targeted schools with poor test scores in order to improve children's ability to read, write, speak, and listen. This ultimately improved their ability to succeed in school. This integrated program was very successful in raising the overall academic achievement of each student, and at the same time it also improved the morale and self-esteem of the students, teachers, and parents involved in this community effort. Since that time I have presented Storyteller in Residence programs at about fifteen schools per year. I have recently been added to the Illinois Arts in Education Roster sponsored by the Illinois Art Council.
