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 on the American Revolutionary War won the 2023 Florida Writers Association Gold Royal Palm Literary Award, Florida’s most prestigious writing prize. His latest is The Sunlit Silence series on WWII in the Air. Bob’s writing has been published in six anthologies, prestigious academic journals, and books. He is president of the St Augustine, Florida, Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and is a National SAR Museum Board member. Dr. Bob Amason lives in Florida with his overachieving wife, a research professor who is the author of a series of children’s books.

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 husband, along with their Labradors, Cara and Oliver, are hoping for happily ever after.

Phyllis’s poems and essays have appeared in Quillkeepers Press, The Avocet, Scarlet Leaf Review, and Tar River Poets, among others. As a very young poet, she published Gentle, I Think, a book of poems with pen and ink illustrations.

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 Care Industry Magazine. He lives in a beech tree woodland with his wife Amy, their three adopted, rescue-shelter dogs - Jessie Girl, Jack, Abbey and Maple Tree the cat. He often retreats to the Pamlico Sound with the idea of learning to sail but happy to paint or play guitar in view of a marina full of boats and the occasional sighting of a bald eagle he named Churchill.

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 Spirit’s Writing Workshop” and the “Fab Five Writing Gals,” both in Boone, NC; and is a longtime contributor to “Gateways: A Creative Arts Journal,” and to the “Personal Story Publishing Project.” Her many memoirs can be heard on the “6-Minute Stories” podcast.

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 biography of 19th-century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, won the 2024 Outstanding Poetry Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Ken is the author of If Not These Things (Kelsay Books) and his poems have appeared in The North Carolina Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, Cold Mountain Review, and Kakalak, among others. Ken lives in Mills River, North Carolina. 

“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 these personal recollections.  She lives in Winston-Salem, NC, where she is a paying, but relatively inactive, member of Winston-Salem Writers. A few of her stories have appeared in earlier editions of the Personal Story Publishing Project.

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 newspapers, and she received awards from the Nebraska Press Women. She published her first book in 2021, My Mother’s Keeper: One Family’s Journey Through Dementia. Her second book, Dear Folks: Letters Home from World War II, 1943-1946 was released in 2024. She is working on a collection of autobiographic short stories, Girls Can’t Do That. Details at https://www.sandygbenson.com/

“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 written novels. Erika received her degrees from Duke University where she met her husband.  Besides teaching high school, Erika kept busy raising four children.  She belongs to a few writing groups: NCWN, Carteret Writers; and TAF. In addition to collecting bylines, she cherishes her collection of grandchildren: 10!

“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 Personal Story Publishing Project collection Foiled, and several essays longlisted and considered in the final round for various publications are cranking things up bit by steady bit. Jo is a member of Sullivan’s Island’s Poe Library Memoir Group.

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 lines and squiggles with stories behind each one, adventures waiting to be shared.

She still likes working on life’s puzzles using stories. Sometimes those story dots connect up to a surprise ending. The adventures keep on happening. She enjoys them from her tiny post office box on Sullivans Island, South Carolina.