This is not necessarily my area of expertise, but I have done a little storytelling from time to time. If I were going to go into storytelling in a big way (which, who knows? I may do, at least as an adjunct to singing), I would thoroughly investigate the collections of folklorist Richard Chase.

If I wanted to expand beyond folk tales into just plain gripping stories, I would go back to some of my favorite short-story authors of bygone days. One hopes their writings are still available. Some of their stories indeed can be found complete on web sites about them. For example, one of my favorites is H. H. Munro, who went by the nom de plume "Saki." Try, for example, his story, The Interlopers. That'll give you—and your audiences—goosebumps!! Another is Ambrose Bierce. His classic—one of his classics—is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Then, of course, there is O. Henry, Mark Twain, and many others. For spooky stuff, you could even mine H. P. Lovecraft (Lovecraft's short story Pickman's Model will have you and your audiences bolting the doors and hiding in the closet!).

I have told these stories from time to time, not memorized, just narrated and sometimes condensed a bit, with good results. The Interlopers, in particular, is a doozey! I don't know what the copyright situation is on many of these stories. They may be out of copyright by now, but in any case, I don't think you would run into any problems.

Don Firth