6-minute Stories

Annette L. Brown is a mother, wife, mediocre cook but competent baker. She lives on an almond farm in central California where she enjoys time with family and friends. She has recently become serious about refining her craft and feels privileged to enjoy the support of two writing groups: the Taste Life Twice Writers and the Light Makers’ Society. Annette is inspired by nature, family, beauty, and humor and has had pieces reflecting those inspirations published in Cathexis Northwest Press, Personal Story Publishing Project fall 2022 anthology Twists and Turns, and Flash Fiction Magazine.

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, now living in Old Fort, Marci Spencer grew up on land that her great-grandfather refused to sell to George Vanderbilt for the Biltmore Estate. She worked as a nurse practitioner in the fields of cardiology, family medicine, and overseas medical missionary service. After hiking hundreds of miles, volunteering for the park service, and earning certification as a naturalist/environmental educator, Marci wrote Clingmans Dome, Highest Mountain in the Great Smokies, Pisgah National Forest: a History, Nantahala National Forest: a History, and Pisgah Inn---all published by Arcadia/History Press.

After a career in public relations, marketing and special events, Judie Holcomb-Pack retired from a local nonprofit and immediately switched gears and became the assistant editor of a weekly newspaper for the African American community in Winston-Salem. She is a member of Winston-Salem Writers and writes poetry, short stories, essays, and ten-minute plays. She especially enjoys interviewing and writing about interesting older adults for The Chronicle's monthly section, “For Seniors Only.”

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 That Lady" that appeared in Curious Stuff was recently published in the Journal of the Burke County Genealogical Society. Her goal is to preserve as many family stories as possible for future generations so that they will not be at risk of being forgotten or lost forever.

After teaching for 34 years, Phyliss Grady Adcock, retired in Morehead City, North Carolina. Her writing has appeared in Mailbox Magazine, Teacher’s Helper, That Southern Thing, Luck and Opportunity, Trouble, and Curious Stuff. Her grant writing netted over $5,000 for classroom projects. For one grant proposal, she was recognized as the first Raychem Educator of the Year. She is listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers for 1996 and 2000. She is currently writing humorous stories about the colorful characters in her family. Writing is her “Happy Place.”

J.P. McGillicuddy lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. A former magazine editor, he has authored numerous published articles spanning sports, health care and government. He also created and wrote “The Mecklenburgers,” an award-winning local television program. His poetry received a 2019 award from Charlotte Writers Club and was exhibited in Mooresville Arts “Beyond Poems and Paintings” in 2020. His essays, “The White Section,” “Opportunity Named Harry,” “The Terror Inside” and “Eleven Eleven” appeared in previous anthologies of the Personal Story Publishing Project. He is a member of Charlotte Writers Club and NC Poetry Society.

Ruth Moose was on the Creative Writing faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for 15 years. She has published three collections of short stories, The Wreath Ribbon Quilt, Dreaming in Color, and Neighbors and Other Strangers with individual stories in numerous publications including in Holland, South Africa, England, and Denmark. Moose has published six collections of poetry, most recently, The Librarian and Other Poems and Tea. She received a MacDowell Fellowship, a North Carolina Artist Fellowship and a prestigious Chapman Award for Teaching.

Her most recent novel The Goings on at Glen Arbor Acres is from St. Andrews University Press, a small press 50 years old in Laurinburg, NC. Her novel, Doing It at the Dixie Dew, her first novel, won the Malice Domestic prize for a first traditional mystery and was published by St. Martin's Press in 2014, with a sequel Wedding Bell Blues in 2016. Ruth lives in Albemarle, North Carolina where she grew up and where her sons and families live.

Patricia E. Watts lives in Mountville, South Carolina where the love of local and family history has given her a passion to write stories to pass down to her children. She has found through stories of tragedies, tears, and triumphs and even mysteries that she has a rich heritage worth telling. Six stories have appeared in previous PSPP anthologies: “A Real Small Town,” the paired stories “Sometimes the Prize Goes to the Wrong Person” and “The Orphan Train,” “Chancing the Buddy System,” “The Class of ’44 Ring,” and “The Saltwater Taffy Escapade.”

Catherine Parisio spent nearly two decades living overseas and teaching at international schools. From South America to Africa to the Middle East, the insights and challenges of expat life, as well as the wealth of travel opportunities available, give her a lot to write about. Living in Oregon at present, she and her husband are adjusting to life as empty-nesters and are eager for their next adventure. When she is not out on the trail with her hiking buddies, Catherine works as a freelance book editor, and she writes.

Howard Pearre’s fiction and memoir stories have appeared in Personal Story Publishing Project anthologies, Flying South, GreenPrints, and the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. His short story “September, 1957” received an honorable mention at the 2020 International Human Rights Arts Festival. He also writes articles promoting voting for the Winston-Salem Chronicle and is a board member of Winston-Salem Writers. He retired after a career as a counselor and manager with NC Vocational Rehabilitation and the US Department of Veterans Affairs.