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…

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…

Nell Whitehead lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina. She has been writing or teaching writing since childhood. Her family was her first audience when at age 12 she wrote a Fractured Fairy Tale Christmas, performed by nieces and nephews, and received with wild acclaim. As a Language Arts teacher, she was part of the Capital Area Writing Project. In …

Growing up in the South means learning life lessons from family stories. Ginny Foard learned a few things that way. She also found out that later you get to tell stories, too. Depending on who’s in the room with you, you might need a few hours to get to the bottom of what all happened. Ginny likes exploring, sharing, and listening to the stories ar…

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 Crossroads (fiction). An interest in genealogy and family history prompted her to write both books. She graduated from The Universit…

Carroll Taylor is a writer, poet, and playwright. She is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side and two children’s books, Feannag the Crow and Ella’s Quilt. Her poems have appeared in anthologies and online. A retired educator, Taylor is a member of NC Writers’ Network-West and the Georgia P…

Linda James lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She is a member of the Writers Critique Group. When she was a young girl, her parents gifted her a typewriter because she expressed a strong desire to write. After only six words, Linda realized she had nothing to say and little life experience to draw upon. Decades later, she is revisiting that has…

Doug Croft lives in Charlotte North Carolina. For his own enjoyment, he journals poetically and occasionally writes essays. His poetry has twice appeared in the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Boundless Anthology, Waco WordFest Cultural Arts Festival, along with three magazines: Synkroniciti, Auroras & Blossoms, Culture Cult. He has…

Emily Rosen lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where for over 20 years and until her 95th birthday, she instructed classes in memoir writing, publishing two anthologies of stories from her classes, and the book, Who Am I? For two decades and until the local weekly newspaper folded in 2021, she wrote the column “Everything's Coming Up Rosen.” Her travel …

Landis Wade writes light-hearted legal thrillers, mysteries, and essays. He is a recovering trial lawyer and host of Charlotte Readers Podcast where he has conducted more than 500 author interviews. His recent novel–Deadly Declarations–has won ten awards, including Winner in the 2022 American Fiction Awards and the National Indie Excellence Awards …

Alexandra Goodwin was born in Argentina, and she divides her time at home in Florida between her imaginary tree house in her mango tree and her pool, unless there is a hurricane. Her essays and poems can be found in Ariel Chart, The Centifictionist, Loch Raven Review, Stick Figure Poetry Quarterly, The Miami Herald, Twists and Turns, and Lost and F…

Lisa Watts is a nonprofit communications manager living in Greensboro, North Carolina. She conceived and edited Good Roots: Writers Reflect on Growing Up in Ohio (Ohio University Press, 2006), an anthology of essays and poems by 20 prominent writers. She is working on her own essay collection about her two-month bike trip up the East Coast.…

This bonus episode story appears on the editorial pages of the Winston-Salem Journal and the Greensboro News & Record on Horace’s 100th birthday, December 7. You can see the accompanying pictures in the “Author’s Talk” for this episode by visiting “6-minute Stories” at RandellJones.com/6minutestories . You can also link from there to hear Horace te…

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,” “A Frank Lesson,” “Cappie, The Boomerang Horse,” “An Angel’s Smile,” “Morgan: Our Escape Artist,” and “One Soul Alone” appeared in pr…

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, ‘Lost & Found.’ 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 …

Randell Jones is an award-winning history writer about the pioneer and Revolutionary War eras. Since 2007, he has served as an invited member of the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau of the North Carolina Humanities Council. He created the Personal Story Publishing Project and the companion podcast, “6-minute Stories” to encourage writers. In 2020, he …

Jill Amber Chafin is a personal finance writer for the LendingTree, a dance and circus arts teacher, and a mother to two wild redheads in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She wrote her first story at age five and has written countless stories since then. This is Jill’s fourth story with the Personal Story Publishing Project. Her novel Shaken has been a…

Lisa Williams Kline is the author of two novels for adults, Between the Sky and the Sea, and Ladies’ Day, as well as an essay collection entitled The Ruby Mirror and a short story collection entitled Take Me. Her stories and essays have appeared in Literary Mama, Skirt, Sasee, Carolina Woman, moonShine review, The Press 53 Awards Anthology, Sand Hi…

Janice Luckey, who lives in Mooresville, North Carolina, remembers when writing became a rhythm of her life. She scribbled a romance novel in a 3-ring binder in junior high school sparking a life-long love of all things writerly—writing, reading, journaling and hoarding office supplies. Janice is fueled by the love and support of her family and mos…

Cindy Stonebraker Reed is a Founding Director and Board Secretary for Mission: POW-MIA, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit based in Virginia, founded to connect and serve the families of our nations POW/MIA’s and to help end the uncertainty faced by generations of America’s POW/MIA Families. Cindy is the daughter of Lt. Col. Kenneth Stonebraker, who remains mi…

Jane Satchell McAllister's writings draw inspiration from the wide variety of people and places she encounters, from her home base in Davie County, North Carolina, to rich adventures across our country and abroad. She has co-authored two Images of America books through Arcadia Publishing and served for nine years as director of the county public li…

Jennifer M. Szescula feels most at home surrounded by trees and mountains. She has written voraciously her whole life, sharing in bursts of enthusiasm (thanks to Winston Salem Writers!) along with decades of silence. Though she desires to write fiction, her natural voice is found writing about the everyday moments and challenges of being human. She…

Mark Marshall moved to Nashville in 1977 from his home state of West Virginia. He has worked mostly as a career coach where he has gotten to hear and share stories with thousands of people from every conceivable walk of life. He now works in private practice and as a career coach at UpRise Nashville. He’s also a member of The River Writers. Much of…

Jon Kesler lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Martha, and his Chocolate Lab, Rooster. As an organization development consultant, Jon has made a career of studying people as individuals and how they interact in groups. Writing for his own enjoyment and the entertainment of others, Jon strives to bring his characters to life through …

Edith Gettes has worked as a professional violinist, teacher, and psychiatrist. Her most important and inspiring employment, however, has been raising four daughters. She has lectured about learning, trauma and motherhood at several international conferences, and her writing has appeared in both musical and medical journals. Edith currently lives, …

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…

Nick Sipe lives in Gastonia, North Carolina, with his alpha reader wife and 2 beta reader kids. He is a member of the Charlotte Writers Club and NC Writers’ Network. He enjoys the giddy thrill of sneaking into college libraries to write while his kids are at sports practice. Currently, Nick is querying literary agents for his debut novel, Midnight …