Copyright Versus the “Fair Use” Doctrine Many people are confused about copyriting their work, when in reality they shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t be because your work is copyrighted the MOMENT you’ve“created” it! That story you wrote for your grandson — its copyrighted!The letter you just sent to Aunt Carol — it’s copyrighted!That email you just sent to Joe Bingham — it’s copyrighted! That’s rig...

Copyright and Fair Use of Published Materials Teachers, librarians and educators working within the context of their jobs in an educational setting are free to use material that has a copyright without asking permission of the author. Using the material for personal financial gain by performing it for a fee or by publishing it in any media outside of the educational context requires permission of...

Cool Moves and Writing I have an 8-year old friend. She’s a lively third-grader who has a strong sense of self. One evening I was babysitting her and she shared a list of odd-sounding names. “Back Stand,” “Over-Under Flip,” “The Round About-er,” “Twist, Un-twist, Upside-down Split.” “Gymnastics,” she explained. “I made up some cool moves.” I was already curious so I was happy when she offered t...

Consider the Radical Truths and Choices for the Storyteller This is the time of year when I re-evaluate my direction, catch up on important reading, listen to inspirational/ motivational tapes and reset some of my goals for the rest of the year. For this article, I will share ideas that bombarded me – even shook me up – from two sources. First, was an article that appeared in the 2002 September i...

Confident Writing You know how, when you’re watching a speaker, you can tell if he or she is nervous? There are those tell-tale signs: trembling hands and voice, lack of eye contact, perspiration, twitches, lots of “ummms,” and a myriad of other idiosyncratic gestures and signs that show he or she is not fully at ease in front of an audience.Did you know that I can spot those same tell-tale signs...

Concert Storytelling and the Gong of Seven Chris King tells me that “defining storytelling has been a topic of discussion” for as long as she can remember. I cannot imagine anything less fruitful, if the aim is to advance the art and win new audiences. Define storytelling? Why bother? Describe it, possibly. Embrace its pluralism, preferably. Celebrate it, certainly. But define it? As well define ...

Countering Your Inner Critic In order to be fully who you are and to experience your full potential, it is essential that you have a loving relationship with yourself. A key factor in strengthening your relationship with yourself and cultivating a positive attitude is to give yourself loving thoughts and words. It has been my experience that most of us have very few loving thoughts for ourselves...

Consider the Many Uses of Storytelling It is a bit daunting that when I tell people that I am a storyteller, the reaction is often, “Oh, do you read stories to children?” I do tell stories to children and teens and families and adults. And many of the original bones of those stories are in books. But, no, I don’t read them and I tell them in my own way. This form of storytelling is used to enligh...

Confidence For Speaking In Public A survey of America revealed that people are more frightened of speaking in public than of dying! How incredible is that? To be more frightened of talking to a few people than of having your life ended. It’s particularly surprising when you realise just how easily you can overcome your fear of public speaking. Using a program such as Unlimited Confidence can te...