6-minute Stories

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...

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-Salem, North Carolina, with his beloved feral, hippi...

a foretaste of glory divine yet to come - Artist, writer, and athlete Bill Gramley of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, recounts his discoveries of Southern cooking and describes the delectables offered up from the table set by his mother-in-law on a 1950s North Carolina farm. Bill Gramley is a retired Moravian minister. In recent years he has written several Devotional Expressions and Prayers bookle...

– “Sweetheart, wake up! Santa’s here!”   “But what I really want, Santa, is a flashlight.” Annette L. Brown is a personal essayist and creative nonfiction writer who has pieces reflecting her love of nature, family, beauty, and humor in several publications including  Flash Fiction Magazine, Every Day Fiction, Bad Day Book (Parenting),  and several volumes of the Personal Story Publ...

“Do you like the gift ya got, girlfriend?” Wanting to get rid of the proof, I tried to give the chocolates to my family for dessert. Kym B. Whitecar lives in Indian Trail, North Carolina, where she is a member of the Charlotte Writers Club and Charlotte Lit. When she retired from education, she finally had the time to take a creative writing course, reigniting her passion for storytelling. Current...

I should have developed emotional armor, but I’d gone the other way. Stunned, I leaned hard on the doorjamb, knuckles white on suitcase handle, nerves frozen as they did when gut feelings proved true. Eloise Currie lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has kept a journal for 30 years and uses it as source material for short stories and nonfiction. Since retiring, she has been a member of a number...

We all know our mothers have magical powers In Mom’s day, if you were not bleeding and could walk, you were perfectly fine. Award-winning author Bob Amason is a retired US Air Force Lieutenant colonel who was a college professor for 25 years. A Florida Writers Association member, Bob writes historical and modern suspense novels under his pen name, Frank A. Mason. His Journeyman Chronicles series o...

The wind is the sculptor that shapes the shoreline. Vince poked holes, and I scuttered along crab-like, planting sprigs one by one. Phyllis Castelli is at home for a while on one of the northernmost beaches in Currituck County, North Carolina.  Beauty is everywhere, especially in the sky, the wild horses, and the ever-changing sea, a true invitation to create something magical. She and her hu...

Wires dangled from under the dash leaving only silence and an emptiness of spirit It was a time of meaningful conversations. George rode with me every day offering words of encouragement. David Lusk is a retired consulting arborist/psychologist/writer living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has previously written several articles for the Winston-Salem Journal and the trade publication, Tree Ca...

I had "sent a message out into the universe" asking for help. This unexpected path began bearing fruit and I was happy. Arlene Mandell of Linville, North Carolina, is proudly celebrating her 13th year as a portrait artist at the Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk, NC. A native New Yorker, relocating to the Blue Ridge Mountains with Captain Dan inspired a love of writing. Arlene is a member of “Sue Spir...

I did not want to be alone … so I looked for connections beyond the local. Call it meant-to-be, fate, kismet, benign coincidence, or just plain good luck, I do not care. Kenneth Chamlee’s work has appeared in eight Personal Story Publishing Project anthologies. His latest collection,  The Best Material for the Artist in the World  (Stephen F. Austin State University Press), a poetic biog...

“What’s that at the end of the other bed?” Sometimes we say to our adult selves, “Did this really happen? What did we see? Annie McLeod Jenkins grew up in South Carolina around folks who were storytellers, so she became one too.  Because she realized that no one else was going to tell her story, and with the opportunity that came with a slower life and a quieter house, she began writing down...

A shadowy man with a blurry face motioned for me to come down. In the dim light, I saw a large room containing mountains of frayed furniture, dishes, rusty hardware, and tattered cardboard boxes overflowing with yellowed papers. 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 news...

“Who told you that?” Mom asked, horrified. “Nobody goes to the attic!” I asserted. I crossed my four-year-old arms defiantly. Erika Hoffman of Chatham County, North Carolina, has been writing with the goal of publication for 15 years. She’s been published 460 times in venues such as anthologies, newspapers, magazines, and ezines.  Her niche is the non-fiction narrative although she has writte...

“I’m coming, Mom. Hang on. I love you IloveyouIloveyou.” It would match the electric energy inside as we bumbled and fumbled with new information gathering as furiously and ominously as the roiling storm.  Jo McElroy Senecal has been a member of the Lunas, six actors-turned-writers, for two decades. One of these days she’ll prove it. In the meantime, a published piece in the NYT, a story in P...

The music and togetherness created a happy space. A preaching wrapped into a folk song, circling lessons with rhythm and life. Ginny likes to connect the dots. As a child, her nose was in books. She followed the stories from beginning to end. She maneuvered pencil across page to convert smatterings of stars into sprawling constellations. She learned that maps, charts and globes are just jumbles of...

My mother disliked going into debt. Self-sufficiency remained her ideal. He rendered our family homeless and forced my mother to find shelter in abhorrent shacks. Akira Odani is a Tokyo-born, American-educated bilingual writer of essays, fiction, and non-fiction stories with a focus on cultural, social, and political issues characterizing the two countries. His works have appeared in a Kaidankai (...

Anything that can go wrong, it will go wrong. The police reported it an accident; with anguish I added the word stupid. 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. Ma...

Something had happened and the farm knew it. Rooster Cogburn was a burly, jewel-toned arrogance of teals, reds, deeper reds, and blues shot through with lances of yellow and purple. 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 o...

I still feel the chills run down my spine. After all, D-O-G is truly the perfect reflection of G-O-D. Jane Satchell McAllister spent fifteen years as a corporate banker before returning to school for a master’s degree in library science and going to work at her local public library. She is grateful to have been chosen to lead the library as director for the last ten years of her working life. Jane...

 – “The inmates here are an army of forgotten men.” He accepted the rejections and focused on making a successful transition from his rogue, racketeering life. Paula Teem Levi is a retired Registered Nurse living in Clover, South Carolina. She is a member of several genealogical societies. Her stories have appeared in six previous anthologies of the Personal Story Publishing Project. "Who's T...

 – “This isn’t a timeshare. Our program’s based on points.” A presentation by a Dolly Parton doppelganger, so charming she could sell a bald man a comb! Erika Hoffman is a happy and long-time resident of beautiful North Carolina.  She’s a member of three writing clans: North Carolina Writers Network; The Triangle Area Freelancers; and Carteret Writers. During the past 14 years while purs...