— You durn fool Waves of hot lava washed down my throat, past my lungs, and hit my stomach like an acid avalanche. By day, Nick Sipe works as a mild-mannered IT manager for a Fortune 150 company. By night, he mostly recovers from the workday, but occasionally finds time to write. He enjoys writing Twilight Zone-style short stories, mostly horror and light sci-fi. Nick is currently shopping his debut novel, “Midnight Springs,” to literary agents. “Midnight Springs” is the first in a planne...
Nov 23, 2024•8 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast – I had to continue this risky addiction to their conversations. Ignorance would have been more intolerable than knowing. Eloise Currie lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has kept a journal for thirty years and uses it as source material for short stories and nonfiction. She lived in Bath, North Carolina, for several years where she was a member of the Pamlico Writers Group and Riverwalk Writers Group. She is currently a member of the River Writers Group. She enjoys editing and has edit...
Nov 20, 2024•8 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast – I can’t remember who suggested that we go skinny dipping that night. I imagined a veritable walk of shame back to Lily’s house. Jena Reger lives in Durham, North Carolina, where she is a graduate student at Duke University. She belongs to a local writing group and has been working on a variety of projects for the past few years--from flash fiction to a novel. Her work has appeared in the online literary magazine Swamp Biscuits and Tea and the anthology, Coming of Age in...
Nov 16, 2024•8 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast – Darlin’, that’s a championship team. As I regard his 60-something stride, the scream fighting to escape my throat dissolves into a plan. Annette L. Brown is a mother, wife, and retired teacher, who lives on an almond farm in Central California where she enjoys spending time with family and friends. She is grateful for the support of The Taste Life Twice Writers and The Light Makers’ Society and for simply having time to write. Annette has pieces reflecting her love of nature, family, bea...
Nov 13, 2024•9 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast – I had a dream fueled by hope but mostly idealistic naïveté With the firmly resounding hammer blow with my pickaxe came a thunderbolt moment of clarity born of every slight, every wound, I had until then ever known. David Lusk is a retired, self-employed 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 purpos...
Nov 09, 2024•8 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast — Oh, what the hell—go be one of the guys! My panicky gut sent up red flares! Arlene Mandell is an artist living in Linville, North Carolina, proudly celebrating her 10th year at Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk. ( carltongallery.com/arlene-mandell ). A native New Yorker, relocating to the Blue Ridge Mountains with Captain Dan ignited a passion to write. Her “6-minute Stories” podcasts include: “Eye of the Dolphin,” “Artist Borne,” “Gobsmacked in the Gulfstream,” “Renegade Daughter,” “I...
Nov 06, 2024•8 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast – I became daring in the dark. My grip froze. I gulped the moist night air and licked my lips. Mary Clements Fisher celebrates her current mother/grandmother, sweetheart, student, and writer status in Cupertino, California. Two writers’ groups Taste Life Twice and Daughters through the Decades support her mad, muddled, and magical moments of writing. She’s published in Quail Belle Magazine, Adanna Journal, Passager Journal, The Weekly Avocet, Prometheus Dreaming Journal, The Closed E...
Nov 02, 2024•8 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast – “Don’t panic. Keep your feet up.” It bucks and dips, pitches and plunges while cold water slams you every few seconds. A retired English professor, Kenneth Chamlee still enjoys teaching workshops on humor in poetry, writing in personae, and the remarkable connections between poetry and painting and photography. His poetic biography of 19th-century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, The Best Material for the Artist in the World (Stephen F. Austin State University Pre...
Oct 30, 2024•8 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast – Should I tell my mother what I decided to do? A 5-year-old, less than one meter tall, I slipped through the turnstile without being noticed. Akira Odani lives in the ancient city of St. Augustine, Florida. He belongs to Taste Life Twice Writers and the Florida Writers Association. Born in Tokyo, he had written extensively for the Japanese media. Still, more recently, his interest has turned to writing in English and subjects related to his experiences interacting with the two cultures. S...
Oct 26, 2024•8 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast – W e were trying out young adulthood, but there were rules. What I recall is moonlight through a picture window until we heard his door open, Marshall’s deep, slow Tennessee twang. Caroline Kane Kenna lives in Huntersville, North Carolina. A newspaper reporter before the internet. Stay at home Mom to three boys, trailing spouse for a corporate husband. Her family moved to Huntersville in 2005. Her writing has placed in Charlotte Writers Club contests. Poems published in Above the Fold and...
Oct 23, 2024•8 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast – I had a layover in Elmira, New York—six hours long. Warblers, whistlers, and trillers sang. Joe and Maybe Dave knew when not to talk, too, when beauty itself was the conversation. Maureen Ryan Griffin has loved words and stories since her “Cat in the Hat” days and leads writing workshops and retreats ( www.WordPlayNow.com ). She’s published in numerous literary journals and will soon appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miracles, Angels and Messages from Heaven. Her books include Ten Thousand ...
Oct 19, 2024•8 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast – I began to pass little crosses made of sticks and string. It was fully dark outside now, a blackness unrelieved by any shaft of human-created light. Suzanne Adams has been an actor, director, teacher, and archenemy of Mountain Pine Beetles in the Rockies. She didn’t take writing semi-seriously until moving to Charlotte, in this “writingest state.” Her stories have won a few prizes in literary contests and have been published in Litmosphere, Main Street Rag, Memoirs Ink, and Minerva Risin...
Oct 16, 2024•8 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast – We had our audience! Fierce when necessary, and sometimes maybe just a little bit witchy Fascinated with every big and little thing, Jamie Cheshire has long been an avid student of design and structure. Having worked together with giants, he has had the extreme good fortune to practice his craft for most of the last four decades and has seen his work appear nationally and in several countries on three continents. He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with his beloved feral, hippie-chick w...
Oct 12, 2024•8 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast – “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 organizati...
Oct 09, 2024•8 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast – 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 Univers...
Oct 05, 2024•8 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Oct 02, 2024•8 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast – 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, pu...
Sep 28, 2024•7 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast – 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 Jo...
Sep 25, 2024•Transcript available on Metacast 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. &n...
Sep 21, 2024•8 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast – 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 r...
Jul 31, 2024•8 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast – 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&nbs...
Jul 27, 2024•8 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast – 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.
Jul 24, 2024•8 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast – 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....
Jul 21, 2024•8 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast – Oh, the lagging path between words and actions! For me, the motion of the bike was just the right pace. Emily Rosen, 97, lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where for over 20 years and until her 95th birthday, she instructed classes in memoir writing, publishing two anthologies of stories from her classes, and the book, Who Am I? For two decades until the local weekly newspaper folded in 2021, she wrote her column, “Everything's Coming Up Rosen.” Her travel and feature articles have appeared n...
Jul 17, 2024•8 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast - fighting for respect Randell Jones lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of several award-winning history books, including In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone, and two videos. Since 2007, he has served as an invited member of the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau of the North Carolina Humanities Council. He writes, speaks, and publishes as Daniel Boone Footsteps at www.DanielBooneFootsteps.com or www.RandellJones.com ....
Jul 13, 2024•7 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast – revenge of the 6-year-old A wronged child welcomes home the prodigal parents with a flood of retribution. As an author, Tonya is moved by the effect humor and narratives have on readers. She is enthusiastic about crafting stories with beguiling characters, adding dashes of humor, and engaging dialogue that leaves her fingerprint on each page. She is published in anthologies, e-magazines, local press, and literary magazines. She is a member of Poets and Writers. Her books include Old Moun...
Jul 10, 2024•8 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast – Never was the real answer. I left disappointed and broken-hearted . Mother started me on an adventure and took me into a mystery. Martha Rowe Vaughn lives in Mount Airy, North Carolina and is a member of a local writers group that has been meeting for over 15 years. During that time, she has published two books: Grandma’s Trunk (non-fiction) and Crossroads (fiction). An interest in genealogy and family history prompted her to write both books. She gradu...
Jul 06, 2024•8 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast – “I could have died happily in Florence.” “I’ll mind the kids. You take the trip. I’ve seen all the world I need to see.” A published news journalist and a practiced lawyer, Cherie Cox calls North Carolina home. Awards include the Charlotte Writers’ Club first place in poetry. Published short stories, essays, professional legal articles and poetry vary her credentials. These include Personal Story Publishing Project anthologies, Kakalak, and The Christmas Wreath. She enjoys people who giv...
Jul 03, 2024•8 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast – “I have your back.” She knows by my face not to ask why. Barbara Reese Yager is a writer who draws inspiration from life on her farm with dogs and horses and her love for her family and friends. She was a winner of the Charlotte Writers Ruth Moose Fiction contest. Barbara’s work appeared in an anthology of non-fiction, Sooner or Later by the Personal Story Publishing Project, Daniel Boone Footsteps Publisher. She holds a BS in Human Development from Penn State and a MS in Leadership from Duque...
Jun 29, 2024•8 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast – Her incantations were rhythmic and hypnotic. “If you don’t care, I don’t care.” Award-winning author Bob Amason is a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and college professor. A Florida Writer’s Association member, Bob writes under his pen name, Frank A. Mason. His Journeyman Chronicles series of American Revolutionary War novels are Amazon.com bestsellers. Journeyman: Heart of Tempered Steel won the 2023 Florida Writer’s Association Gold Royal Palm Literary Award, Florida’s most pre...
Jun 26, 2024•8 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast 
