6-minute Stories

 – “Quick! Let's get the oars!”.

Traveling fast, the tanker’s bow tossed large white-capped waves.

Edward von Koenigseck, relocated from Florida, resides in Ticonderoga NY. Having a 40-year career in Technical Publications, he also published two books (Technical Writing for Private Industry and Island Park, a Memoir, and four short stories. He created 92 one-hour lectures on biblical history for presentation to elders, sponsored by the non-profit Florida-based Shepherd Centers organization. He also created and taught two semesters on technical writing for advanced English students at Florida Institute of Technology, is an editor, and is currently writing a novel, a biography, and an autobiography.

 – What was I doing here? I’d been a fool to come.

Too much of the past haunted the rooms.

Bruce Spang, former Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine, is the author of two novels, The Deception of the Thrush and Those Close Beside Me. His most recent collection of poems, All You’ll Derive: A Caregiver’s Journey, was just published. He is the poetry and fiction editor of the Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine. He teaches courses in fiction and poetry at Great Smokies Writing Program at University of North Carolina in Asheville and lives in Candler, NC with his husband Myles Rightmire and their five dogs, five fish, and thirty birds. 

The Bottle Rocket War

by Richard L. Davis, Elk Grove, CA

 – firecrackers on a stick, launched from tequila bottles!

We had no Francis Scott Key to record our glory and legacy.

Richard (“Rick”) Davis is a retired Air Force colonel with an extensive professional writing history, including some non-fiction material published over the past 40 years. To transition to fiction, he studied with Amherst Writers & Artists and published his first novella in 2014. “The Bottle Rocket War” marks his third offering to PSPP, which earlier accepted his submissions for Lost & Found (spring 2023) and Now or Never (spring 2024). He lives in Elk Grove, California, with his Himalayan cat, Phoebe, and his aging collection of bottle rocket sticks.

 – Not what we expected

Hell-bound for a summer of adventure in France, we didn’t care.

David Collins holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and taught English/Creative Writing for forty years.  His work has appeared in numerous journals, reviews, magazines, and newspapers. His first full-length book, Accidental Activists: Mark Phariss, Vic Holmes, and Their Fight for Marriage Equality in Texas, won the Mayborn Award for Excellence in Nonfiction in 2016, published in 2017 by the University of North Texas Press.

David is the immediate-past president of Charlotte Writers Club and makes his home in Pineville, North Carolina with his wife, Jean, and their rambunctious Labrador retriever pup.

 – Is love worth the pain?

My belief in immortality for the people I adored did not pan out.

Terri Kirby Erickson of Pfafftown, NC, is the author of seven poetry collections, including her latest book, Night Talks: New & Selected Poems (Press 53), a Finalist for the International Book Award for Poetry. Her work has appeared in “American Life in Poetry,” Atlanta Review, Rattle, The SUN, The Writer’s Almanac, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and numerous other publications. Winner of the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, Nautilus Silver Book Award, and many others, her most recent awards are the Annals of Internal Medicine Poetry Prize and the Tennessee Williams Poetry Prize.

Forty-five writers share their personal stories of courage and daring, rashness and folly, incited by intention, imprudence, or circumstances. These are tales provoked by reasoned confidence or aggravated by recklessness, some pivoting on inattention to what could go wrong. We choose what to do next, how to live, based on what we think we know and believe will happen. What we don’t get right we might get wrong for many reasons, but in every case, we get a story to tell.     

Through 45 short stories, you share in the personal experiences of writers—both new voices and seasoned storytellers. They skillfully share and reflect on life episodes, offering lessons learned, cautions for consideration, and encouragements for the journeys of others. Through these stories, we glean a glimpse into our own experiences. We consider how courage and folly affected our choices for reasons we may not have understood at the moment, but now we realize the outcomes are with us forever, at least in the stories we tell.

 – to risk failure as a writer

It takes courage to write, to accept feedback, to write to completion.

Landis Wade writes light-hearted legal thrillers, mysteries, and essays. He is a recovering trial lawyer and host of Charlotte Readers Podcast where he has conducted more than 500 author interviews. His recent novel–Deadly Declarations–has won ten awards, including Winner in the 2022 American Fiction Awards and the National Indie Excellence Awards in the mystery categories. In 2023, he released The Write Quotes series–8 books on writing that feature inspirational and practical quotes from 500+ author interviews in 33 U.S states and five countries. His essays have appeared in six earlier anthologies by the Personal Story Publishing Project.

 – I’ve got to get around it.

As I swerve left, I cringe and bite my lip. More gas, more gas.

Suzanne Cottrell, a member of the Taste Life Twice Writers and NC Writers’ Network, lives with her husband in Granville County, NC. An outdoor enthusiast and retired teacher, she enjoys reading, writing, knitting, hiking, and Pilates. Her prose has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including the Personal Story Publishing Project, Inwood Indiana Press, Quillkeepers Press, and Parks and Points. She’s the author of three poetry chapbooks: Gifts of the Seasons, Autumn and Winter; Gifts of the Seasons, Spring and Summer; and Scarred Resilience; and Nature Calls Outside My Window, A Collection of Poems and Stories. www.suzanneswords.com

 – to the palace and take the hill; Helen Keller on fire

When will it be too late to make their difference heard?

Bill Donohue is a retired Dean of Students from Winston Salem, North Carolina, who shares a lifelong advocacy for people with disabilities. This story chronicles that passion with his own present-day battle with Cancer. 

 – I hesitated. I had never done a real rescue.

Benny hated rejection and held a grudge.

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.