After 15 years of teaching at Layton Primary, Blackpool, Dan Worsley decided that it was time for a change of career. These days, he is a professional storyteller and writer – and has just self-published his first children’s book, entitled ‘Impossible Tales!’. He took time out of his busy schedule to write us a special Christmas story – you’ll find it in the latest altBlackpool print edition – and also to answer a few questions.
Tell me about your work?
I’m a professional storyteller and writer. I visit all manner of venues, such as schools and libraries, telling a wide variety of stories to children. Sometimes, I will run writing sessions and related activities alongside the stories. I fit my writing work around the storytelling sessions and I have just self-published my first children’s book which is available on Amazon.co.uk and is a collection of weird and wacky tales aimed at 7-11 year olds.
How did you become a storyteller?
After 15 years teaching at Layton Primary, Blackpool, I decided that it was time for a change. There were many reasons for my decision to leave the profession, one of them was to try and create my own storytelling business. For the last few years, I had an idea about using stories to engage children and fire their enthusiasm for reading and writing. In addition, I had created many stories in my head, but as teaching is such a demanding job, didn’t have enough time to form them into a book. After careful consideration, I took the plunge and left teaching in July 2013.
How do you come up with ideas for stories?
That is the tricky bit! The stories in my book are based around ideas from day- to-day life. For example, ‘Chewed Up’ was inspired by my late Grandad who used to whip out his false teeth and make them chatter and ‘Junk from the Trunk’ is based around a second hand shop my Mum used to take me to when I was a child. I’m fortunate to have a very active imagination too, which makes life a lot more interesting!
Earliest Christmas memory?
Sneaking downstairs to see ‘if he had been’ at 5am on Christmas Day and feeling that incredible sensation when the lounge light was flicked on! Magic!
What’s your New Year resolution.
I don’t tend to make resolutions. If I was to make one for 2015 though, it would be to start writing my next children’s book which is going to be a novel rather than a collection of short stories.
What’s in store for you next year?
I hope to keep building my storytelling enterprise and share my tales with even more children. I will also be getting out and about to promote ‘Impossible Tales!’, so watch out as I could be at a venue close by.
You can follow Dan’s work on Twitter: @dan_worsley
Featured image by Jason Bottomley.
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