May 2008      From Karen-Eve

Hi!
     A warm welcome to my new website. Its creation has been like the most traditional of stories - everything seems to get done 3 times, and then you're still fighting dragons to make it to the happily ever after...

A huge thank you to Henderson County Arts Council for generous support with the remake costs.

Some links still have to be connected. Video samples are on their way. So right this minute in a grey and misty valley deep in the English countryside there are a couple of my Brit friends drinking tea at their keyboards and tapping away at the final details...

It's been good to come home to NC. It's been wonderful to catch up with old friends - and to make new ones, and to introduce my daughter to her heritage. It was time for us to be here.

And it is a joy to encounter such positive attitudes among the arts community. I made more contacts within 8 weeks of coming home than I did in a whole year in certain places...  Let's just say that, in Scotland and Wales, storytelling is doing ok; and in England the quality of storytelling can be superb but the artform has a considerable way to go before it wins widespread recognition and popularity.

And I dare not print how I feel about the British climate! I learned all the British tricks for resisting the cold, the damp, the grey skies - a lot of tea was involved - but in all the years I lived there, oh how I missed North Carolina warmth, and properly snowy NC winters.
     But I did learn something very British: to talk about the weather at length! (There is just so much of it)

Right now I'm enjoying my performances and schools work, and developing some great projects for 2009 and onward. After all, my UK stage partner Chloë - the other half of Midnight Storytellers, see the UK site - keeps reminding me she wants to do the road tour; in the classic American car, with the music... Now there's a thought! (We just need the gigs...)

More next month.