6-minute Stories

 — “Snorkelers in first!” I felt awkward about the subterfuge and reminded Bob that I was a proofreader, not a writer. "Free Ink" by Arlene Mandell Randell Jones - voice   Arlene Mandell lives in Linville, NC, and is a longstanding artist at the Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk, NC. Abandoning big-city roots to relocate high up in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Captain Dan, triggered a compe...

“Before Liberty”—again! Even through the misty lenses of history, they were not giants—neither are we. 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. His newest release is the expanded 2nd edition of the 2005 biography and travel guide,...

 – “I’m Gus. Climb in; I’ll give you a ride.” The gravitational force pushed the seat straps into my shoulders and my stomach leaped. I couldn’t breathe. ‍ ‍ 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 she received awards from the Nebraska Press Women. She...

 – I was unwilling to pour out good beer. I received their conversation and stories and momentary camaraderie as an exchange for the communal feast. Jeanne VanBuren, from Winston Salem, N.C., is a contributor once again to the Personal Story Publishing Project. She is working on a collection of her life adventures that come from being a widowed mom of five sons and growing up in a huge family...

  – I found the village of plundered houses strangely peaceful. The broken remains of a swinging bridge across the Gauley, I supposed, had once been someone’s way out. "A Hollow and Forgottten Place" by Mark K. Marshall Randell Jones - voice   Mark Marshall moved to Nashville in 1977 from his home state of West Virginia. He worked for 40 years as a career coach where he heard and shared...

 – He wasn’t cheap; he just liked free things . He charged into snake-infested palmetto bushes with gusto, flinging balls out to the fairway like a crazed Walmart shopper on Black Friday.  

 – Going barefoot is fun…if you have shoes in your closet. Even in old age, Mama remembered hopelessly tugging down the faded blue dress, trying to hide her feet.

I had to hide my secret. Without my bubble, I would cease to live, just blow away like dust.

 – He could not send others into dangers that he was not willing to face himself. The locals know that date. They honor it. They value it because it gave them freedoms that they live to this day. Words and their friends fill Ginny’s days. Sometimes they come in a well-organized dignified gathering so that Ginny can enquire about the spellings and meanings of the ones she hasn’t met before. Ot...

 – “If you turn around now, I’ll get you home.” A 1955 Chevy Nomad station wagon, her faded, chalky green body panels and acid-etched roof and hood left no doubt as to her ancestry.

– There are all kinds of marriages. Freedom is not cheap. And it is never “pure.” ‍ ‍ 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? (Emily celebrates her 99th birthday in April 2026.) For two decades and until the local weekly ne...

– The cows? The cows were a problem? I walked each check to the bursar's office, fully aware that the cost of my education was far greater than the value of the check. Phoenicia Miracle is originally from Harlan County, Kentucky, one of Appalachia's most recognizable communities. Through non-fiction short stories, Phoenicia features the region's people and place in authentic, narrowly focused plot...

 –  I am certain we had more fun. There was nothing like the feel of the wind slapping hair in our faces as we leaned out the window and yelled fervent taunts at the opposing cars. Vicki Easterly is a retired disability advocate living in Frankfort, Kentucky. Several of her stories have appeared in prior PSPP anthologies. Her book, Miracles in the Mundane , was selected for the annual Ke...

 – Not so fast, my slowly dying friend ! Out there my heart easily held you with the thrum of ancestral music, song, and dance, as consistent as air. A native fish-taco-loving San Diegan, Jo McElroy Senecal spent decades on the East Coast, blending professional stage and clown credits with various roles at magical powerhouses like The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and The Big Apple Circus Clown...

“Sister, that sounds like fortune telling. Isn’t that a sin?” What would happen to the rest of us who die swallowing pennies and buttons? But not wanting to be the rooster, I stay silent. Mary Alice Dixon treasures a tattered old index card on which her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Elvira Friend, wrote the recipe for her Happiness Cake. Mary Alice, a multiple Pushcart nominee, won the North Carolina Wr...

Freedom and scot-free or freeloader and free-for-all We acknowledge those blessings and those curses in the stories we tell.

 – I have always told myself I’m not a runner. Race day in November dawned bright and crisp. After a career spent finding the voices of senior business executives, Alison Rice Bruster is writing a new chapter. She holds a BA in English Literature from Queens University of Charlotte. Her work has been published in three previous Personal Story Publishing Project collections, and she won recogn...

Diana Neunkirchner is a retired teacher living in Rougemont, North Carolina. An avid reader and writer, she is a member of the Durham Writers Group, the Writers’ Inspirational Network, and the Writers’ Critique Group. When she’s not writing short stories, personal essays, or memoir, she is hiking along the Eno River or playing the flute at Your Saving Grace, the family farm.

Not all the lessons learned in school came from our teachers. This is a story of “unarmed power. “ As a music professor and academic administrator, Joel Stegall authored more than 35 journal articles, book chapters, and other such long-forgotten documents. Since retiring to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he has completed a family history dating from the early Colonial Era. Delighted to discover in...

Award-winning writer Steve Cushman reflects on an early experience in parenting his autistic son. Steve Cushman earned an MFA from UNC-Greensboro and has published three novels, including the Novello-Award winning Portisville . Steve’s first collection of poems, How Birds Fly , is the winner of the 2018 Lena Shull prize . Steve lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his family and can be found...

– longing for family Separated as children, a relentless desire to find one another spawned a frustrating search. Patricia E. Watts lives in Mountville, South Carolina where the love of local and family history has given her a passion to write stories to pass down to her children. She has found through stories of tragedies, tears, and triumphs and even mysteries that she has a rich heritage worth...

your wingman with angels An engineering prodigy arrives in the South, fascinated with an ancient relic and searching for the aerodynamic laws of angel wings, all the while nurturing his grove of Carolina dogwoods. It’s a good life. Mary Alice Dixon lives and writes in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a former attorney who often served as court-appointed counsel in juvenile court. She has also bee...

—a brush with my bugaboo. A brother’s seeming “betrayal” awakens a loyal kid sister as his fiercest champion and ally. Janice Luckey, who lives in Davidson, North Carolina, is a member of the Write On! writing group sponsored by her local library as well as the online writing group Impromptu. Writing became a rhythm of her life when she scribbled a romance novel in a 3-ring binder in junior high s...

  — You durn fool Waves of hot lava washed down my throat, past my lungs, and hit my stomach like an acid avalanche. By day, Nick Sipe works as a mild-mannered IT manager for a Fortune 150 company. By night, he mostly recovers from the workday, but occasionally finds time to write. He enjoys writing Twilight Zone-style short stories, mostly horror and light sci-fi. Nick is currently shopping...

Each of us would have a dress made specially. My ears perked up . I imagined, over and over, the blue of my dress, deep and velvety, the color of evening, just as the stars begin to come out. For fifty years, Becky Gibson has written mostly poetry, publishing it in journals, anthologies, three chapbooks, and five full-length collections. She turned to creative nonfiction only recently, seeking to...