6-minute Stories – Details, episodes & analysis

“Before Liberty”—again!

Even through the misty lenses of history, they were not giants—neither are we.

Randell Jones is an award-winning writer about the pioneer and Revolutionary War eras and North Carolina history. During 25 years, he has written 150+ history-based guest columns for the Winston-Salem Journal. His newest release is the expanded 2nd edition of the 2005 biography and travel guide, In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone (2024) and the related video, Boone’s America: Boone Trace, 1775. In 2017, he created the Personal Story Publishing Project and in 2019, the companion podcast, “6-minute Stories” to encourage other writers. He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Visit RandellJones.com and BecomingAmerica250.com.

 – “I’m Gus. Climb in; I’ll give you a ride.”

The gravitational force pushed the seat straps into my shoulders and my stomach leaped.
I couldn’t breathe.

‍ ‍

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/

‍ ‍

– The cows? The cows were a problem?

I walked each check to the bursar's office, fully aware that the cost of my education was far greater than the value of the check.

Phoenicia Miracle is originally from Harlan County, Kentucky, one of Appalachia's most recognizable communities. Through non-fiction short stories, Phoenicia features the region's people and place in authentic, narrowly focused plots. "Free from the Feds" centers on her Dad and his independent, self-reliant spirit. This piece benefited from recommendations made by her local writing group in Charleston, S.C. For several decades, Phoenicia worked in education and non-profit fundraising. Recently, she launched Shuck Beans, a podcast celebrating positive aspects of Southern Appalachian culture.

 –  I am certain we had more fun.

There was nothing like the feel of the wind slapping hair in our faces as we leaned out the window and yelled fervent taunts at the opposing cars.

Vicki Easterly is a retired disability advocate living in Frankfort, Kentucky. Several of her stories have appeared in prior PSPP anthologies. Her book, Miracles in the Mundane, was selected for the annual Kentucky Book Festival. She was a finalist in the Poetry Unites Kentucky competition. Her nonfiction memoir was a winner in the 2025 Kentucky Monthly writing contest. She continues to write memoir, poetry, and children’s stories. She enjoys playing with her granddaughters, baking, and acting. 

 – Not so fast, my slowly dying friend!

Out there my heart easily held you with the thrum of ancestral music, song, and dance, as consistent as air.

A native fish-taco-loving San Diegan, Jo McElroy Senecal spent decades on the East Coast, blending professional stage and clown credits with various roles at magical powerhouses like The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and The Big Apple Circus Clown Care (now Healthy Humor). Her NYTimes article hints at her passion for pediatric palliative care, which Jo continues to do along with adult hospice care in Charleston, South Carolina. Jo has been a member of the Lunas, six actors-turned-writers, for two decades. .Jo is a member of Sullivan’s Island’s Poe Library Memoir Group.

“Sister, that sounds like fortune telling. Isn’t that a sin?”

What would happen to the rest of us who die swallowing pennies and buttons? But not wanting to be the rooster, I stay silent.

Mary Alice Dixon treasures a tattered old index card on which her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Elvira Friend, wrote the recipe for her Happiness Cake. Mary Alice, a multiple Pushcart nominee, won the North Carolina Writers’ Network Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition and is a past finalist for the NC Poetry Society Poet Laureate Award. Her chapbook, Snakeberry Mamas: Words from the Wild (Charlotte Lit Press, 2025), offers poems of Appalachian women and folkways. She lives in Charlotte, NC where she grows sunflowers in cow manure. Find her at www.maryalicedixon.com.

Freedom and scot-free or freeloader and free-for-all

We acknowledge those blessings and those curses in the stories we tell.

 – I have always told myself I’m not a runner.

Race day in November dawned bright and crisp.

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. Her work has been published in three previous Personal Story Publishing Project collections, and she won recognition in the Charlotte Writers Club Nonfiction Contest. She is a member of Charlotte Lit, the Charlotte Writers Club, the North Carolina Writers Network, and the South Carolina Writers Association. She lives in Fort Mill, S.C., and travels widely, often bringing home stories worth telling.

Diana Neunkirchner is a retired teacher living in Rougemont, North Carolina. An avid reader and writer, she is a member of the Durham Writers Group, the Writers’ Inspirational Network, and the Writers’ Critique Group. When she’s not writing short stories, personal essays, or memoir, she is hiking along the Eno River or playing the flute at Your Saving Grace, the family farm.

Not all the lessons learned in school came from our teachers. This is a story of “unarmed power. “

As a music professor and academic administrator, Joel Stegall authored more than 35 journal articles, book chapters, and other such long-forgotten documents. Since retiring to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he has completed a family history dating from the early Colonial Era. Delighted to discover in his bloodline ingenuity, inventiveness, devotion to duty, self-sacrifice and uncommon love, he was at the same time distressed to find insanity, murder, suicide and cattle rustling.