- fighting for respect Randell Jones lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of several award-winning history books, including In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone, and two videos. Since 2007, he has served as an invited member of the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau of the North Carolina Humanities Council. He writes, speaks, and publish…

– revenge of the 6-year-old A wronged child welcomes home the prodigal parents with a flood of retribution. As an author, Tonya is moved by the effect humor and narratives have on readers. She is enthusiastic about crafting stories with beguiling characters, adding dashes of humor, and engaging dialogue that leaves her fingerprint on each page. She…

– Never was the real answer. I left disappointed and broken-hearted. Mother started me on an adventure and took me into a mystery. Martha Rowe Vaughn lives in Mount Airy, North Carolina and is a member of a local writers group that has been meeting for over 15 years. During that time, she has published two books: Grandma’s Trunk (non-fiction) and C…

– “I could have died happily in Florence.” “I’ll mind the kids. You take the trip. I’ve seen all the world I need to see.” A published news journalist and a practiced lawyer, Cherie Cox calls North Carolina home. Awards include the Charlotte Writers’ Club first place in poetry. Published short stories, essays, professional legal articles and poetry…

– “I have your back.” She knows by my face not to ask why. Barbara Reese Yager is a writer who draws inspiration from life on her farm with dogs and horses and her love for her family and friends. She was a winner of the Charlotte Writers Ruth Moose Fiction contest. Barbara’s work appeared in an anthology of non-fiction, Sooner or Later by the Pers…

– Her incantations were rhythmic and hypnotic. “If you don’t care, I don’t care.” Award-winning author Bob Amason is a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and college professor. A Florida Writer’s Association member, Bob writes under his pen name, Frank A. Mason. His Journeyman Chronicles series of American Revolutionary War novels are Amazon.c…

– He wore torment like a red velvet cape. A familiar sense of frustration and self-deprecation crept upon me, strengthening the loneliness of grief. Edith Gettes has worked as a violinist, teacher, and psychiatrist, as well as mother of four daughters. She has lectured about learning, trauma, and motherhood at several international conferences. In …

– Technicolor visions rapidly appeared out of the haze. I didn’t look back or cry. I disappeared into the forest. Ginny Grulke lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where she has discovered a community of like-minded writers through the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. She has been writing non-fiction for her family and friends to enjoy. Her stor…

– Quiet, please. This is a sacred space. What if authorities in Ecuador allowed Basilica-like crowds to swarm the Galapagos? Kenneth Chamlee’s work has appeared in five previous Personal Story Publishing Project anthologies. His latest collections are If Not These Things (Kelsay Books, 2022) and The Best Material for the Artist in the World, a poet…

– Breeding for a silver dapple is a bit of a gamble. I was planning on it, laughingly saying I was going to ride until I was 95. Bio Janet K. Baxter lives in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and is a member of the Charlotte Writer’s Club and Scribblers, a memoir critique group. Her stories, “Horse Whispering for the Average Woman,” “Southern Blues,”…

Winston-Salem-native Mick Scott worked in the Winston-Salem Journal’s editorial department for 20 years, the last five of those as editorial-page editor. During that time, he churned out thousands of editorials and opinion columns on tight deadline and received numerous first- and second-place awards from the N.C. Press Association. He is the autho…

This story is offered for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944. It is the experience that day of my next-door neighbor as he wrote it years later. He passed away in February 2024 after turning 100 on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day. This version of the story ran four years ago when he was 96. It first ran when he was 95. A few years ago he learned …

Phyllis Castelli returned home to Henderson, North Carolina, after retirement from her music career. She spends time with her lifetime special interests: writing, music, photography, a pollinator garden, and Black Labrador Retrievers. Phyllis loves to create projects that knit together the beauty of those favorites. Phyllis’s poems and essays have …

Constant writer and occasional author M. J. Norwood lives in East Bend, North Carolina. Her work has appeared in previous Personal Story Publishing Project publications Curious Stuff and Twists and Turns. A member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and active in Yadkin County’s Between the Covers Book Club, she is currently writing her third n…

Akira Odani lives in the ancient city of St. Augustine, Florida. He belongs to Taste Life Twice Writers and the Florida Writers Association. Born in Tokyo, he had written extensively for the Japanese media. Still, more recently, his interest has turned to writing in English and subjects related to his experiences interacting with the two cultures. …

Ellen Zaroff lives in New York City and has recently published three books: A Layered Tress, A Tree’s Tale, and Once, Upon Reflection. Her fourth book is due out soon. She runs a small foundation and travels trying to help community projects while collecting stories and sharing stories from around the world.…

S. G. (Sandy) Benson lives in Warne, North Carolina, where she is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network-West. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers and received awards from the Nebraska Press Women. She published her first book in 2021, My Mother’s Keeper: One Family’s Journey Through Dementia. Her next book, Dear Folk…

Thomas Gery, a common man with uncommon experiences lives in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He served in the U.S. Army with duty in Vietnam. As a social worker he helped children, youth, and adults in a variety of practice venues and situations throughout a work life of 40 years. Married with two adult children and two grandchildren, he is currently w…

Arlene Mandell is an artist living in Linville, North Carolina, proudly celebrating her 10th year at Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk. (carltongallery.com/arlene-mandell). A native New Yorker, relocating to the Blue Ridge Mountains with Captain Dan ignited a passion to write. Her “6-minute Stories” podcasts include: “Eye of the Dolphin,” “Artist Borne…

David Inserra lives on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina with his wife Ellen Titus and their dog, Mindy. David’s most recent work appears in the PSPP release, Sooner or Later. He is a member of the Island Writers Network and works at the local Unitarian Church. David’s first novel, a speculative thriller titled “In Your Own Backyard,” is currently…

Growing up in the South means hearing and sharing stories. Ginny Foard learned a lot that way and keeps on trying to find out more about it all. The air is thick with good stories. She lives in a little post office box on Sullivans Island, South Carolina.By Randell Jones - voice

Emerging author Lynne E Williams is a native New Englander who lives in Charlotte, NC. with her two cats, two dogs, two teenaged sons and their father. Lynne is a graduate of Clark University in Worcester, MA where she double majored in Music and Theater instead of English but was nevertheless named a Writing Fellow of the University. She is a memb…

Lubrina Burton lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband and pug. She completed the Carnegie Center’s Author Academy in 2020 and is now pursuing her MFA at Eastern Kentucky University’s Bluegrass Writers Studio. In 2023, Hydra Publications/Erudite Press released her first book, Shitbag Soldier, a creative nonfiction memoir detailing her experie…

Alison Rice Bruster comes from a long line of women who love the written word. The granddaughter of a librarian, daughter of an English teacher, and sister of a novelist, she was destined to be an avid reader and writer. After a career spent finding the voices of senior business executives, she is writing a new chapter. She holds a BA in English Li…

Catherine Parisio is a freelance editor, relentless writer, and international schoolteacher, currently living and working in Calama, Chile. The college student with the courage to take a risk and pursue an unconventional relationship became a woman living a somewhat uncommon life as an international schoolteacher, seizing opportunities to experienc…

Robin Russell Gaiser, MA, CMP, added a certificate for music practitioner to her degrees in English literature and psychology. As an experienced multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Robin gave live bedside acoustic music to critically and chronically ill, elderly and dying patients in hospices, hospitals, rehabs, nursing and private homes. Her first…

Fascinated with every big and little thing, Jamie Cheshire has long been an avid student of design and structure. Having worked together with giants, he has had the extreme good fortune to practice his craft for most of the last four decades and has seen his work appear nationally and in several countries on three continents. He lives in Winston-Sa…

Mary Alice Dixon is a Pushcart nominee, award-winning poet and former finalist for the NC Poetry Society Poet Laureate Award. Her writing is in five PSPP anthologies, in Braided Way, County Lines, Kakalak, Main Street Rag, Pinesong, and elsewhere. Her poetry will appear on NC Poetry Society posters in 2024. Mary Alice lives in Charlotte, NC where s…

Annette L. Brown is a mother, wife, and retired teacher, who lives on an almond farm in Central California where she enjoys spending time with family and friends. She is grateful for the support of The Taste Life Twice Writers and The Light Makers’ Society and for simply having time to write. Annette has pieces reflecting her love of nature, family…

Richard (“Rick”) Davis is a retired Air Force colonel with an extensive professional writing history, including some non-fiction material published over the past 40 years. To transition to fiction, he studied with Amherst Writers & Artists and published his first novella in 2014. He has two book-length manuscripts pending. “Two Minutes and Eighteen…

Raven Chiong earned her Master of Arts in Exercise and Sport Science from the University of Florida. A lifelong student, life coach, and educator, she qualified for the first-ever Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984 and paid it forward with her 19-year cross country coaching career. After her competitive running and coaching career, she ran her…

Forty-one writers share their personal stories of experiences and decisions hinged on a moment in time. Now or never is a turning point, a hope, an admonition, an intersection of paths ahead to take, to avoid, or to create. Now and Never are also states of being—living in the present, accepting what is or dealing with the roadblock, the closed door…

Kenneth Chamlee’s work has appeared in five previous Personal Story Publishing Project anthologies. His latest collections are If Not These Things (Kelsay Books, 2022) and The Best Material for the Artist in the World, a poetic biography of 19th-century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2023). Ke…

Arlene Mandell is an artist living in Linville, North Carolina, proudly celebrating her 10th year at Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk. (carltongallery.com/arlene-mandell). A native New Yorker, relocating to the Blue Ridge Mountains with Captain Dan ignited a passion to write. Her “6-minute Stories” podcasts include: “Eye of the Dolphin,” “Artist Borne…

The luck of the Irish brought Gail Tyson to Knoxville, Tennessee, in fall 2021, where she belongs to the Knoxville Writers Guild and the Pre-Pulitzer Critique Group. In 2020 Shanti Arts published her chapbook, The Vermeer Tales. Current and upcoming work appears in Rockvale Review, Still: the Journal, Psaltery & Lyre, and Thimble Literary Magazine.…

Akira Odani lives in the ancient city of St. Augustine, Florida. He belongs to Taste Life Twice Writers and the Florida Writers Association. Born in Tokyo, he had written extensively for the Japanese media. Still, more recently, his interest has turned to writing in English and subjects related to his experiences interacting with the two cultures. …

Visit RandellJones.com/6minutestories to learn more about this story.By Randell Jones - voice

Randell Jones is an award-winning writer about the pioneer and Revolutionary War eras and North Carolina history. During 25 years, he has written 150+ history-based guest columns for the Winston-Salem Journal. In 2017, he created the Personal Story Publishing Project and in 2019, the companion podcast, “6-minute Stories” to encourage other writers.…

Bill Donohue is a Winston Salem writer who has chronicled many of his family’s medical speed bumps. Recognizing his own aging leaks, rusts, and mold, this story is the first capture of his newest frailty and the beginning of his journey with cancer.By Randell Jones - voice

Jennie Boulden lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is a member of the Memory Makers writing group. She has had a life-long love of the written word. Both sides of her family have deep roots in North Carolina and have been a constant source of enriching stories.By Randell Jones - voice

Erika Hoffman lives in Chatham County, North Carolina. She is a member of The North Carolina Writers network, The Triangle Area Freelancers, and Carteret Writers. Her stories have been featured over 430 times in anthologies, ezines, magazines, and newspapers. For sale on Amazon are compilations of some of her published pieces. In addition, two smal…

Cindy Martin is a retired West Virginia educator who now resides with her husband, Wayne, in Mount Airy, North Carolina. She has written freelance for West Virginia South Magazine and Yadkin Valley Magazine for over 20 years. Her work has also been featured in the Raleigh Register and the Mount Airy News. Cindy is involved in the Read Aloud Program…

Ellen Zaroff lives in New York City and has recently published three books, "A Layered Tress", "A Tree's Tale", and "Once, Upon Reflection". She runs a small foundation and travels trying to help community projects while collecting stories and sharing stories from around the world.By Randell Jones - voice

Jo Parillo, of Concord, North Carolina, consults with pharmaceutical and medical device companies. She is an Oncology-certified Registered Nurse and holds an MBA. Joanne’s principal writing experience has been for scientific journals and magazines. In 2017, she published a faith-based, nonfiction, large-format book and workbook titled, Have You Bee…

In his career as professor and academic administrator, Joel Stegall wrote more than 35 journal articles, book chapters, opinion pieces and other such. None of these gained him widespread acclaim. Since retiring to Winston-Salem, NC, he has written a family history tracing his ancestry back to 1735. Though documentation is elusive, he has found cons…

Suzanne Cottrell, a member of the Taste Life Twice Writers and NC Writers’ Network, lives with her husband in Granville County, North Carolina. An outdoor enthusiast and retired teacher, she enjoys reading, writing, knitting, hiking, and Pilates. Her prose has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including the Personal Story Publishing Pr…

Hello, everybody! Welcome to the Psychicks first episode in 2024. We are really excited to be here. My name is Kelly Matthews, and I'm one of your co-hosts, and I am joined by Katie Knaier and Bobby Vaughn. We are three women in different age groups with different lives who met in a Psychic training class and are now coming together to share our jo…

Charles Bruce McIntyre, or “Bruce” to those who know him, is a retired business owner and cancer survivor. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a member of the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts and the Charlotte Writers Club. Bruce believes in storytelling and “story listening” and how it is in listening that we start to understand. He be…

Lisa Miracle Ballard lives in Huntersville, North Carolina. An active volunteer and advocate in her community, her heritage inspires her writing which has been shared in community publications, newspapers, schools and churches. She is currently working on a collection of essays, poetry, and short stories reflecting her Appalachian roots. Her story,…

Bob Amason is a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who was a college professor for 25 years. A Florida Writer’s Association member, Bob writes under his pen name, Frank A. Mason. Bob’s works include historical novels and modern suspense novels. Two of his Journeyman Chronicles series on the revolutionary war are Amazon.com Best Sellers. His wr…