– “Mama, I don’t want to die down here.”

It’s forbidden to touch any bones or skulls lining the walls to balance you.

Erika Hoffman is a happy and longtime 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 pursuing “her scrivener dream,” she has succeeded in getting published 460 times. Yet, Erika deems her best achievement— besides being married forever—is having raised four functioning citizens. Without a doubt, her proudest moniker is “Ama’ to six grandsons and three granddaughters.

 – Could they have once been scamps?

After coffee and cannoli, we part, always promising to get together again soon.

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 most anything chocolate. When not writing, she can be found making memories with her husband and four granddaughters, or roaming the aisles at the library, bookstores, and Staples.

 – You can’t imagine!

After two quick drinks he turned into one of my fifth-grade students.

After teaching 34 years, Phyliss Grady Adcock retired in Morehead City, North Carolina. She was recognized as the first Raychem Educator of the Year and is listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers for 1996 and 2000. Her writing has appeared in Mailbox Magazine, Teacher’s Helper, and five previous PSPP anthologies. Beginning 13 years ago, she created Senior Stretch, a program for Senior Citizens to promote healthy movement and social interaction. She teaches life skills and creative writing for the Peer Recovery Center. Writing is her Happy Place. 

- Pleased to meet you, sir.

If you’re lucky, you get to meet some special people in your life, including a President or two.

Randell Jones is the editor and publisher of the Personal Story Publishing Project and producer/host of “6-minute Stories” podcast.

He writes and speaks as Daniel Boone Footsteps. also RandellJones.com

 – I was taken aback, dumbstruck.

As we rolled through the desolate neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the steward walked by and handed me a ticket with the letter “F” on it.

During his career as an industrial engineer, John Rumbold, wrote several technical papers for presentation at conferences. Since retiring, he has spent ten years working on a creative non-fiction account of his mother’s experiences during the 1930s living on a rubber plantation in Sumatra, a story she only shared with him in his adulthood. John studied writing in Los Angeles, where he lived, with noted writing teachers and published pieces through Orange County Writers (Calif.). John now lives in Mooresville, North Carolina and is a member of the North Carolina Writer’s Network.

This reprise of a story from “Trouble” is not exactly a Hanukkah story, but it is Hanukkah-”adjacent” (to borrow a wonderful phrase from Nick Sipe in his story in “Foolhardy”). It is a story about family and memories and candles, essential elements of that cultural celebration and observance. It is a story about empathy, something we can all use more of and offer more often when we can. —Happy Holidays from “6-minute Stories” podcast and the Personal Story Publishing Project.

“Thirteen Candles in the Dark”

—the “mother-in-law from hell”

The trouble between them was as old and deep as the love which might yet heal them.

Arlene Mandell is an artist living in Linville, North Carolina. Her colorful portraits are displayed year-round at the Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk (www.carltongallery.com/arlenemandell). A native New Yorker, she loved teaching in Manhattan’s Head Start program. Switching gears, she joined a travel magazine in Miami, Florida, where she met Captain Dan. Their permanent relocation to the Blue Ridge Mountains inspired a love of writing. Her memoirs “Eye of the Dolphin,” “Artist Borne,” “Gobsmacked in the Gulfstream,” “Renegade Daughter,” and “It Started with a Typo” appear on “6-minute Stories” podcast.

This reprise of a story from “Twists and Turns” is not exactly a spirited Christmas story, but it is holiday-”adjacent” (to borrow a wonderful phrase from Nick Sipe in his story in “Foolhardy”). It is a story about good intentions and learning about the lives of others, which is the essence of empathy, we suppose, something we can all use more of and offer more often when we can. —Happy Holidays from “6-minute Stories” podcast and the Personal Story Publishing Project.

“The Bus Children”

– She looked like an angel.

We’d meant to make the children happy.

Becky Gould Gibson has published eight collections of poetry, notably, Aphrodite’s Daughter (Texas Review Press, 2007); Need-Fire (Bright Hill Press, 2007); Heading Home (Main Street Rag, 2014); The Xanthippe Fragments (Saint Andrews Review Press, 2016); and Indelible (The Broadkill River Press, 2018). Her current focus is creative nonfiction. Two short pieces have appeared in print, one in Canary, another in Snowy Egret. Becky Gibson taught English at Guilford College until her retirement in 2008. She lives in Wilmington, NC.

–The car stopped; my heart pounded.

I relaxed my body slightly but kept my hand on the inside door handle.

Susan W. Harris lives in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where she is a member of the Island Writers Network, (IWN). Her mother, a writer, encouraged her to write. Professionally she wrote grants and proposals for nonprofits. Poems and stories were published in the IWN anthology’s recent two books. Currently, she is writing a novel inspired by the life of her grandmother and mother.

– I was now going somewhere; out of there, for sure. I must have forgotten that gravity is a thing.

Jeanne VanBuren lives in Winston Salem, North Carolina--by way of Chesapeake, Pittsburgh, Santa Cruz, and Austin—where she is a local crafter and storyteller. As a member of North Carolina Writers Network, this story is a spark towards more memories being written and edited as “Boy Mom of Five,” “Dating Escapades” over 38 years, and “Growing up in a Crowd” of 12 siblings. Her annual Christmas writings, enjoyed by friends and family over 20 years, might just include the news of an action screenplay for her celebrity crush Jason Statham. She says we all have a story in us, get it out there!

 – Why not? I thought.

The word experienced frightened me, but I trashed these fears.

Evelyn Eickmeyer-Quinones is a caregiver, wife, writer, poet, photographer, and former educator. Her writings can be found in Newsday, The Petigru Review, and Next Avenue. Her award-winning photographs have been published in the Kakalak Poetry Anthology and Moonshine Review. Evelyn lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina.