Seymour Jacklin, the voice and author of Stories from the Borders of Sleep gave up his full-time job as a Mental Health Nurse in mid-2010 to pursue a range of creative projects that were becoming too lively to confine to evenings and weekends.
Stories from the Borders of Sleep is a project that draws together many of his passions, grown over 40 years of living and never quite outgrowing his childish imagination. Many of the stories blend magical enchantment with his love for the English countryside and a lot of them are based on dreams.
Seymour was born in Zimbabwe and enjoyed an African childhood, surrounded by a landscape that continues to haunt his waking and sleeping imagination. He has lived in Durham, UK, ever since arriving there as a student in 1996 to read Anthropology (he wanted to study Folklore, and it was the nearest he could get). After graduating, he passed through a succession of employment scenarios and got married before deciding to train as a psychiatric nurse. The most consistent threads, throughout his life, however, have been an awareness of Divine reality, a passion for the written and spoken word, and an over-active imagination.
As well as writing professionally and for fun, Seymour plays in a ceilidh band called
The Scrumpy Badgers. His sporadically maintained website is at
www.seymourjacklin.co.uk and you can email him at
seymour@bordersofsleep.com
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Your work is great. I had learnt a lot about sleeping. Something I never know about waking up, bedtime. I think it should help me a lot to wake up with fresh feelings on every morning. Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteWe want more stories :) They are my absolute favorite!
ReplyDeleteI really do hope there's more stories to come!! My favorite is The Night of the Nipperquins!! I've put it on on countless restless nights to help me fall asleep.
ReplyDeleteI love your podcast. In fact, I love it every night! I don't fall asleep during the stories (usually), but it puts me in a mood so I can let my imagination take over my brain, and I fall to sleep easily after that. THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteThank YOU for being a great listener!
DeleteI hope you will consider adding new stories! I love your work and miss having new ones to listen to. Pretty please?!💗
ReplyDeleteThank you! I will add more ... I promise ... I want so much to get more stories out there, but ... life ... I will keep trying. There are plenty more in me to come out.
DeleteThank you so much for listening!
Can’t wait to see new stories! Is there a way we can support your efforts? Your podcast is by far the best in its genre, as are your stories.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Soledad! Letting me know you are listening and being wonderfully patient while i try to get more episodes created is one of the best ways to support me :-) I have long been considering how to give people the opportunity to give financial support if they wish to. In the coming months I will be looking at patreon and other crowd-funding options to see if that might work. One thing is sure, though: there will never be a hard sell or any pleading. Thank you for asking and reminding me that there are plenty of people who would be willing to do more to help.
DeleteYou are the greatest Storyteller Seymour. Thank you thank you from border to border to beyond borders.😁
ReplyDeleteWow - very kind words! Thank you, Allisone. That has given me a boost :-)
DeleteYour stories are amazing! I honestly think all of your stories are are unique and wonderful in their own way. Each one is so different from the other but they are still cohesively your writings. I can't get enough of them! Please continue writing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your encouragement, Whitney. I'm working out ways to give more time to writing and creating fresh episodes this year. It's great hearing from you and meeting another listener. All the best for 2020 :-)
DeleteThank you so very much for producing these stories. I have listened in the past when sleep would otherwise not have happened. Tonight I have sent the links to my friends back in NS, Canada, who are reeling from the horrid events that took place today.
ReplyDeleteI was so upset to hear the news and hope the stories help in the midst of horror in some small way. For me, that's what it's all about. My deepest sympathy and thoughts are with your dear friends in NS. When will this madness end?
DeleteI recently found your podcast and have listened to every single one. Some of them multiple times. I am in the USA and love to listen to your stories told in your soothing voice and accent.. looking forward to more stories.
ReplyDeleteThank you Regan! That's great to hear ... You're a dedicated listener :-) I am looking forward to more stories too - I never know quite what is going to happen.
DeleteI'm mesmerized :-) As an avid story listener and student in the Southwest Storytelling Institute at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, AZ - I have struck gold finding your podcast. Stellar content! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGreat to meet you, Cyn! And thank you for the deep encouragement. I'm so glad you like the stories.
DeleteI'd love to hear about your work if you are practicing the art these days so do drop me a line by email, fb, or twitter and send a link or something.
I think you sent me coffee too! Thank you so much!
I loved the one about the bicorn and Lady Isabella! Your podcast is a wonderful way to relax before getting ready for bed, I can’t wait to listen to all the ones I’ve missed over the years :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Borders of Sleep, Tigerlily! Thank you for saying hi. I hope you enjoy the rest of the stories too :-) Wishing you sweet dreams.
DeleteCan’t wait for more!
ReplyDeleteI love the variety of stories you have. Ian often suggesting the podcast to friends
It's delightful to hear from you; thank you so much, LadyDooley. Thank you for letting me know you are out there listening and enjoying the stories and thank you for spreading the word about the podcast. I hope you don't give up waiting for more, because I can be a little slow overcoming life's obstacles to writing and publishing new material. Take care and stay safe out there :-)
DeleteThis is one of my favorite things to listen to.
ReplyDeleteI’ve listened to these stores about a dozen times each and I’m yearning for more.
Please open that door of your imagination and fill these podcasts up again.
Thank you! That's impressive - it's lovely to hear from you again ... such a dedictaed listener :-) I figured my best reply to this would be to get a new episode out as quickly as possible, but I didn't manage it this weekend. Soooo tired! Anyhow ... I hope the wit won;t be much longer and that this will be a more productive year! Thank you for listening :-)
DeleteExactly how I feel. Last story I can find is from April 2021.
DeleteIt is now August. While “yearning” for more stories I have listened to previous episodes many, many times!
I am so glad I found you in iTunes. I am in recovery for alcoholisim and I am having the hardest time with my anxiety. I have been sober for 73 days and my body and mind are still recoverying. Your stories have helped me control my anxiety. Each story I have listened to thus far has freeed my mind of every day stresers and have aloud me to decompress. I am truely thankful!
ReplyDeleteJoe
I'm truly thankful that you told me this, Joe. Wow! Congratulations on all your haard work and I am so blessed to hear that the stories have been helpful too. That is why I keep writing them! Anxiety is a scorching dragon that burns the life out of us. Please keep taking good care of yourself on this road and thank you for listening and commenting - I had a tough week but hearing from you has made it a good one!
DeleteWishing you sweet healing dreams,
Seymour
I feel so serene while listening to you beautiful stories.
ReplyDeleteImagination is a blessing. Thank you for sharing yours.
I think my favorites are One Stormy Night, Tree and Stream, and Librarian but they are all amazing!
To quote you — “have healing sleep and dreams…”
Denise it is so lovely to hear from you. Thank you for your kind words; I'm so happy the stories bring you serenity. I think we can uncover the serenity that is always inside us - it just gets easily buried under so much else.
DeleteMay your dreams and sleep be healing too!
Seymour
Hi, Seymour, I thought of you as I found this gem in "Leaving Time," a novel by Jodi Picoult.
ReplyDelete"I also know that Edison believed the moment between being awake and being asleep was a veil, and it was in that moment that we were most connected to our higher selves. He would set pie tins out on the floor beside each arm of his easy chair and take a nap. Holding a big ball bearing in each hand, he’d nod off—until the metal struck metal. He’d write down whatever he was seeing, thinking, imagining at that moment. He became pretty proficient at maintaining that in-between state."
Hey, CoffeeLvr! Thank you. I had no idea that the luminous Edison was a fellow borders-of-sleep sojourner, although it comes as no surprise :-)
DeleteCoffeLvr, thank you for introducing us to "Leaving Time" and Edison's creative process. And, as always, thanks to Seymour for sharing the stories that emerge from his border of sleep. You both are inspiring me to pay more attention to the time and place where artistically provocative ideas pop into my head, especially as I fall asleep. Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote "Eat, Pray, Love," has a Ted Talk on the movement of creative ideas entitled "Your Elusive Creative Genius." It is a fun take on the topic of capturing our inspired thoughts.
ReplyDelete