A year of bedtime stories

A little over a year ago, I launched my bedtime story subscription on Patreon. What a year that has been! The bedtime stories have been one of my pandemic anchors. I promised a new story every week, with a gentle chat at the end to help listeners fall asleep. The stories are audio only, so no light from screens to disturb valuable rest (my own new practice is to turn off all screens at least half an hour before I go to bed).

I started with a bank of ten stories, in case one per week wasn’t quite enough. After that, I began adding. I’ve posted 67 so far, mostly folktales from around the world. In the beginning, I dipped into my old favorites. Then I honored some requests. Then I needed to find new stories. This project has been a great way to expand my repertoire.

Here’s a Bulgarian story that’s in the subscriber-only library, to give you an idea of both the story and the soothing talk at the end:

These stories aren’t just for bedtime! Kids (and adults) can listen any time. Subscribers get access to all of the stories, all the time. If one story resonates more than the others, listen to it twenty times in a row! Maybe that would be good with headphones for the sanity of everyone else.

The subscription starts at $5 USD per month, up to $15. The benefits are the same, no matter how much you pay—I wanted you to be able to decide what it’s worth to you. I’ve had folks subscribe for their kids, or for grandchildren (just give them the password), or for themselves—you don’t have to be a kid to listen.

Here’s what Lindsey had to say about the bedtime stories subscription.

Questions? Comments?

Silly and soothing bedtime stories by subscription

Some kids go at full speed until, clonk, they keel over into sleep. Others take forever to fall into dreamland. That was me as a child. “Mom….I can’t sleep,” I’d call, four or five or six times. Sure, it might have been that I wanted to be downstairs with the older kids, not exiled to the dark bedroom, but it might have been that sleep just didn’t come easily to me. I was that kid with the dark circles under her eyes.

In thinking about that and about the stories I tell, I decided to offer silly and soothing bedtime stories on Patreon for kids from age 3 and up. As an example, here’s the post I made with The Gunniwolf, one of my favorite quieting-down stories.

Patreon is a platform mostly used for artists’ fans to support them financially, and for artists to offer a peek into their lives and other good stuff, the way my friend Laura Packer does. I’m using it more as a subscription (though of course I appreciate your support). You decide if you want to pay $5, $10 or $15 per month—every tier gets the same thing, bedtime stories, with a new story uploaded every Friday. I’m only offering audio, as I feel that none of us need more screens to watch before bed. I have already posted nine stories, two free for the public and the others available only to patrons.

Good night. Sleep well!

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