6-minute Stories

 – After that, my confidence in strangers diminished. The bicycle delivered me to-and-fro until the weather changed, and the snowy, windy, 6-month Lake Erie winter arrived. Barbara Mueller is a retired IT project manager living in Asheville, North Carolina. Her initial volunteer experience in Asheville was as a docent at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, where she met many visitors interested in sto...

 – “We can’t let her know what we’re up to.” We clambered up on the breakwater and made our way, in the dark, out to its very end. 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 published her first book i...

 – because it was there—our Mt. Everest. We never formally identified the squealer who called the police, but the local constabulary turned up in the form of Skippy Brown, a favorite local enforcer of the law.    Annie McLeod Jenkins lives in Winston-Salem. Although she loves writing, she is frequently sidetracked by multiple other interests: choral singing, cooking, family genealog...

 — Buona fortuna. The possibility of seeing Renaissance art and architecture in person intrigued me. 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 s...

 – What have you got in a red? We were two competent but naive travelers missing a Spanish-English dictionary. Jeanne VanBuren lives in Winston Salem, North Carolina—by way of Chesapeake, Pittsburgh, Santa Cruz and Austin—where she is a member of North Carolina Writers Network and Triad Storytellers. Her many traveling adventures to share include those across 45 states, so far, with her large...

 – I just kept working every day, knowing I would adjust. The wisdom of my decision to transfer schools certainly was now in question. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Marion Cohen spent three decades as a mathematics educator before turning to writing. Her three novels and two short story collections focus on characters whose strong connections reflect a variety of emotions such as love, admirati...

 – “Do you have any questions?” If we lost this car, at least a new one would arrive in two days. Kristen T. Bryson lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and this is her first writing submission for publication. She was encouraged by a family friend to share her story. She has been inspired by her father-in-law's commitment to writing his memoirs and an extensive compilation of letters to his g...

 — “I cleaned it up, Mommy.” One small ocean of apple juice had been swabbed over the entire kitchen floor. Dawn McCormack, a former Spanish teacher, resides in Plainfield, Connecticut. She has been writing for many years. Short story credits include Columbus Single Scene and The Storyteller . While she is currently working on a middle-grade book, she has also had considerable success with he...

 – “Can we keep one?”   Mitzi barked, poked her nose through the fence, and sniffed her wooers.  Suzanne Cottrell, a member of the Taste Life Twice Writers and NC Writers’ Network, lives with her husband in rural Granville County, NC. An outdoor enthusiast and retired teacher, she enjoys reading, writing, knitting, hiking, Pilates, and belly dancing. Her prose has appeared in numero...

  – Nothing would deter us from enjoying our well-earned evening out. Ash-gray script swirled across the textured buff pages like hazy clouds crossing the sky at dusk. Marcia J. Wick is a blind, grey-haired grandmother, retired from a professional writing career. She writes freelance if it pays, for fun if not. Her work has appeared in the Motherwell blog, Chicken Soup for the Soul , Modern D...

 – “I drove your car off a mountain.” No mercy was given to two mostly broke kids trying to start two new careers and a new marriage. Lorraine Martin Bennett is a print, web and broadcast journalist from Murphy, North Carolina, who graduated with her high school journalism medal and received a scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill. Her reporting career includes the Atlanta Journal, Los Angeles Times...

 – I felt the comfort of a giant hug, surrounded by these beautiful mountains. My heart is heavy for what others are going through. Beth Bixby Davis was born in Northern New York and moved to the Asheville area of North Carolina in the mid-1960’s where she reared her family, raised Arabian horses and had a 30-year career in nursing.  Enjoying a hobby of writing, she recently published a...

 – “Let’s do it ourselves.” I punched button after button, painstakingly input the titles of programs using that archaic alphabetical system and ended up in some endless inescapable loop. Lisa Williams Kline is the author of two award-winning novels for adults,  Between the Sky and the Sea  and  Ladies’ Day,  as well as an essay collection entitled  The Ruby Mirror &n...

  – “I can do that.”   The words “stress,” “pressure,” “anxiety” appear on page after page. 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 adu...

 – “You’ve got to do something about this,” they jibed him.   Of course, later they told their kids that they loved us all. Usually they added, “despite the headaches you caused us.” Ginny’s parents had storytelling in their bones. Will’s hands reenacted stories, swooping up high or spinning across the table with an ice cream spoon while he added sound effects from an array of odd noises...

  — I respected the officer and assumed he would also respect me. This was not just the assassination of the President; it was the death of hopes and dreams. Since retiring to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Joel Stegall has completed a family history dating from the early Colonial Era. Longer (and more interesting) than any scholarly work he ever wrote, he was pleased to find in his bloodline...

  — whatever enlisted men played, or claimed to play, an instrument An order came down to me to have the band looking sharp, sounding good, and ready to lead the parade. 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-Sal...

 – “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 Stor...

 – That was the plan, anyway. In that moment, we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves and remembered why we came. 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. This is her third story included in a collection from the Personal Story Publishing Project...

  – My warped resentment started after Dad died. We endured eye rolls and dagger-filled glares as we saw no other option. 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. This is her f...

– “I’ll take care of this, Honey.” Eleanor and I dragged our stocky, dark, wooden desk chairs up to our door to peer over the open transom at the long hall. Robin majored in English at The College of William and Mary. In “those days,” creative writing was absent from the heady curriculum, although Robin wrote poetry which was published in several lit magazines. After college, she taught high schoo...

  – “If the test was positive, what would I do about it?” Tipping the scales at four pounds and four ounces, our first granddaughter arrived still shimmering with heaven’s leavings. 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...

 – With a friendly smile, he joked, “Akira, you caught a big fish!” Some nights, my younger brothers and I would huddle around him, pleading for his stories. Akira Odani lives in the historic city of St. Augustine, Florida. He is a member of the Taste Life Twice Writers’ Group and the Florida Writers Association. Born in Tokyo, he graduated from International Christian University and earned h...

 – Drew and I became “a thing.” He turned all the girls into giddy puddles of goo. Anne M. Middleton lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, where for over two decades she was the State of North Carolina’s lead appellate attorney in the areas of crimes against children and adult sexual offenses. Since retirement, Anne enjoys writing, performing improv, and exploring spiritual traditions of mysticis...

 — I liked him, he liked me. We needed to find common ground. Emotions drained, I was, nevertheless, taken with his coolheadedness in the face of danger. Arlene Mandell is an artist living in Linville, North Carolina, proudly celebrating her 12th year at Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk. (carlton­ gallery.com/arlene-mandell ). A native New Yorker, relocating to the Blue Ridge Mountains with Capt...