Steve Vernon

Readings

Depending upon the age group of my audience my usual reading can comprise of old folk tales and legends, historical yarns, or actual readings from my books. I usually try to include a ghost story or two – because, frankly, kids of any age think ghosts are cool. They tend to listen a little closer when a presenter has the gift and the ability to pull out a little booga-booga. My stories are often entwined with on-the-spot writing and storytelling lessons. I like to try and teach the audience a few things without letting on that they are anywhere handy to the province of education.

Above all else, I strive to entertain. I got my training around the campfires of Northern Ontario. Bores just didn’t last long out there.

Special Equipment:

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Workshops

45 minute to 1 hour sessions for one class, although Steve is very flexible in this area
2 to 3 sessions/morning; 2 to 3 sessions/afternoon depending on the length of the session

Steve has been telling his stories and writing fiction for nearly twenty years, and is used to working with many age groups. As a rule, he uses his storytelling techniques and high energy presentation to teach children about the basics of writing and storytelling. His sessions demonstrate the story arc, the writer’s voice and point of view, descriptive techniques, and simple imaginative hands-on workshop skills. Steve likes to entertain, educate and leave students with a ground-work of practical information they can use to tell stories, write papers, write fiction and enjoy the good old-fashioned art of communication. At the end of one of Steve’s workshops, the students all want to write.

Special Equipment:

Other Presentations

I am an accomplished public speaker and would be more than happy to entertain and educate any audience you care to prop me up in front of.

Biography

I was born and raised in the woods of Northern Ontario in a little town called Capreol - an old word that roughly translated means "The place where the railroad tracks cross and nothing else happens". I grew up full of stories, heard from my grandfather and told by the railroad men and fabricated out of whole cloth from the weavings of my snowbound mind. First practical use for storytelling - to escape the bullying of larger tougher kids I wrote plays and cast them in the various roles thus guaranteeing them an easy mark with minimum effort. Survival of the crafty, Darwin probably never dreamed about this. I moved to Nova Scotia when I was seventeen. I came to visit my mother, Madge Chatelois - the storytelling lady of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Came and stayed, because I fell in love with the Atlantic Ocean. I've been right across Canada since then. I have worked as a factory hand, house painter, field worker, tree planter, roustabout, woodworker, artist's model, fiddlehead picker, blueberry raker, woodchopper, warehouse strawboss, snow shoveller, garden digger and anything else that paid a buck. I currently make my living as a professional tarot and palm reader. Come visit me in Halifax, Nova Scotia at Little Mysteries on Barrington Street. The smartest choice I ever made was marrying Belinda Ferguson, Halifax's best bellydance instructor and the toughest woman on the planet, (she's able to put up with me). She's my light and inspiration and my very best friend. I live in happiness with Belinda, a black cat, a flock of crows, a jabber of blue jays, assorted starlings and grackles. I have been writing and telling stories for years - performing at dozens of Maritime schools through the Nova Scotia Writers Federation WRITERS IN THE SCHOOL program. I teach, I entertain, I inspire where ever I go.