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MEET HARLYNNE GEISLER
by Bonnie O'Brian

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Harlynne Geisler

The first books I ever remember receiving as gifts were a collection of fairy tales and a copy of 1001 Arabian Nights.

What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer – adult or children?

Both. First I started writing about storytelling and how to do it and make a living at it. Those writings were aimed at adults. Then I decided that I wanted to write down my version of fairy tales that I had researched and shaped and told orally. Those were for kids.

When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career? or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)

I wanted to be a librarian because I thought they got to talk about stories and tell stories all day.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

I was very lucky - or smart! I walked up to the Libraries Unlimited booth at a reading conference and pitched the idea of a book about how to be a professional storyteller. The acquisitions editor was in the booth. He said, "Send me the table of contents within 6 weeks. Shake on it." We did. I did...send him the table of contents and a sample chapter. He didn't remember our talk, but he bought the book anyway!

What really triggers your imagination?

A folktale that surprises me, and therefore will surprise my readers or my listeners. An example is the tale "Tia Miseria" which I rewrote and that was published in More Ready-to-tell Tales from Around the World edited by David Holt and Bill Mooney. (August House, 2000). You think the story will be over when the old woman tricks the children, but then Death comes along.

Have any of your books earned special recognition?

More Ready-to-tell Tales from Around the World won a Storytelling World Award, a Pegasus Award, and an Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award. Storytelling Professionally; The Nuts and Bolts of a Working Performer, won a 1998 Honor Title Award for Special Storytelling Resources from Storytelling World magazine and second place in the How-to category of the San Diego Book Awards.