stories in the dark die

I blog when something starts. I also blog when something ends.

I notice there have been no more made-up stories.

For years, I have tried to make up a little story for the kids every night.

I have just found it increasingly tiresome.

Every time I get busy, the stories are cut off abruptly. I cannot spin tales of fairy floss and rainbow sprinkles when my brain is in work mode. But cutting abruptly never works. The kids who expect it then make a lot of noise. (“But you told us a story last night!”)

Then I get all huffy about how they don’t UNDERSTAND and I start screaming about how I have to work because I only have a two or three-hour work window and will they just SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP BECAUSE I CAN’T MAKE UP ANY STORIES WHEN I AM STRESSED.

So I just stopped. The stories not the work. I enjoyed a work down cycle (no jobs), but I did not re-start the stories.

It was much easier to read from a book.

Now the kids no longer expect it. I read (someone else’s) book aloud, turn off the lights, and turn to work.

This is the epitaph to my Stories in the Dark (as they called it). It was good while it lasted.

The series:

* Mer-mer the quizzing and gifting mermaid

* Red boat and edible islands

* Blue turtle tales (specially for Lulu)

* The kind angel

* The worm in the apple

* The kid who can detach his arms and legs and nose

* The tree children (the last and most complicated of the lot)

I might resurrect it. But only now and then, so they do not expect me to deliver a story every night.