Showing results by narrator "Barbara Henslee" in All Categories

Far from being a poet of note or the wordsmith I wish to be, I’ve been flattered by others asking how I do it. Without the benefit of salient literary instruction, I’m urged to write, as providential inspiration may move while caring immensely about the outcome. I have learned that writing poems is cathartic and a wonderful laxative for the mind. Thus, to that question, I responded with the poem Take a Thought…Wholesome and Good to describe my way. That isn’t to say all poets follow the same creative pattern, and surely they don’t—I boast only of myself.

My name is Hazel Lamb…Lindsey, but my momma called me Fireball. I am 84 years old. I only got one year of schooling, but I am self-taught. I worked hard all my life.

My name is Phillipa Hilda Schultz, but everybody calls me Pippi (It’s pronounced pee-pee. Yeah, I know). I run a boarding house for people in the early winter of their lives. You know what I mean… People whose leaves are thinning, and whose lawns are slightly frosty in the early mornings.

I inherited the business from my grams and had no experience running a boarding house when I stepped in. There’s no question I’ve had my hands full. Fractious boarders, broken appliances, leaky roofs, and a very distracting next-door neighbor who makes my engine rev. (Oops…did I say that last thing out loud?) The best thing I can do for myself is to stay away from Jack Walters. He has a tendency to cloud my thoughts and turn me into a babbling idiot. Forget I mentioned him. I mean, the real problem is the dead body my plucky little blonde dachshund, Iris, found in the flower beds.

Fern and Woody Walker have been married for seventeen years, the most recent of which have been hell on wheels. Claiming to be fed up with abusive customers, Woody quit his job and decided to live at Fern’s expense. Since then, they argue like cats and dogs. Some people have even heard her threaten his life. So when he disappears, Sheriff Pat Dupree assumes that she finally carried out her threat.

The Rogers women were like the hibiscus that thrives in tropical heat and comes in vibrant shades of orange, yellow, red, and hot pink. They were sassy, strong, self-reliant, and with an extra dose of the Florida quirkiness that comes from knowing every time you take your garbage out, whether it is real or metaphorical, you just might encounter an alligator in your backyard.

My name is Phillipa Hilda Schultz, but everybody calls me Pippi (It’s pronounced pee-pee. Yeah, I know). I run a boarding house for people in the early winter of their lives. You know what I mean… People whose leaves are thinning, and whose lawns are slightly frosty in the early mornings. I inherited the business from my grams and had no experience running a boarding house when I stepped in.

Step into a world of ambition, folly, and unexpected twists in Pride, Power, and Peculiar Predicaments, a carefully curated anthology of classic American short stories. This collection brings together tales of overconfidence and consequence, where pride clashes with fate, power shifts in unforeseen ways, and characters find themselves in the grip of the strange and the ironic.

Sometimes giving a second chance is just too painful. In the small town of Red Creek, Alabama, Lucy Robinson is back after 23 years of running away from her mistakes. She has returned broken, but with a newfound faith, hoping to prove to her husband Orville and their six children that she has changed and can be trusted again. Orville Robinson thought his love for his wayward wife had died long ago, but when Lucy returns, he can’t help but feel a spark of love reignite. He doesn’t know if he can trust her again, and his decision will decide the fate of their family.

Wisconsin, present day. Audra March’s adult life is haunted by a teenage misstep. Taking an assumed name and enjoying simple things, the thirty-something comes upon a vintage recipe box while thrift shopping and hunts down the owner’s daughter. So when a longtime adversary threatens her with blackmail, she jumps at the invitation to escape to the dead lady’s estate and avoid an old enemy.