About


Sharing our unique stories . . . bridging past and present

We all have stories to tell. Some of us write them, others relate them orally. Some folks do both. Our stories help define who we are, connect us with our ancestors (and perhaps with our descendants), and the world at large.

Stories can entertain, enlighten, educate, and inspire. They can soothe, terrify, support, tear down, unite, or divide us. We are transitory, but our stories can endure.

The purpose of this website and blog is to explore the world of sharing stories and perhaps inspire you to share some stories of your own.

For me, it all started with the sudden realization that I’ve led an amazingly interesting life. Upon introspection, three major categories shook out:

  • Short stories
  • Nature nuggets
  • Books

The short stories are easy. As I recall memorable—often funny—events, I jot them down. When time allows, I return to the list, choose an idea, and flesh out the story. More often than not, this triggers additional memories to add to the idea list. When I have enough of these stories written, I hope to put the collection into book form. Meanwhile, I’ve put a couple of samples on the Short Stories tab of this website.

Nature nuggets are easy, too. Most of my short stories share personal experiences in the great outdoors. Some of them nudge me to dig a little deeper into some aspect of nature that appears in the tale. What I learn by doing this is invariably fascinating and worthy of passing along. Maybe someday I’ll have enough of these collected for a book, too. For now, though, I’m working on adding a Nature Nuggets tab to this website.

Books? This one isn’t quite so easy, other than publishing collections of shorter tales. But I am making significant progress. I've got two under my belt now, and am working on two more.


S. G. (Sandy) Benson writes from her home in the mountains of western North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Barry, and two bossy dachshunds.

Why Out on a Limb? A forester by training, she worked in the woods most of her life. Along the way, she published a real estate magazine and wrote many outdoors articles for newspapers and magazines. Recently, she’s begun "branching out"—sharing tales at local storyteller gatherings and working on several book ideas. She published her first book in 2021: My Mother’s Keeper: One Family’s Journey Through Dementia and her second book, Dear Folks: Letters Home 1943-1946, World War II in 2024. See the Books tab for details and ordering information.

Blog Archive

November 2024

Appreciating Veterans

Here is the original photo that I used for the Dear Folks cover. Dad is in the upper left. His photo album has a lot of great pictures, and I included some of them in the book, along with images of items he collected during and after the war, including cartoons from Yank magazine, news clippings, and his pass and copy of the program for the Nuremberg trials.Every day, but particularly on Veterans Day, I think of my dad and the multitude of others who served their country bravely and faithfully, not only during World War II, but over the past nearly 250 years. I pray that their sacrifices may not have been in vain.

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Techno-Dinosaur on the Loose

Disclaimer: I’m not tech-savvy. Anything beyond my laptop’s word processing software is a mystery to me. When given a choice, I opt for low-tech every time. I don’t even have a smartphone. I could probably figure out how to use one, but I like to disappear and intentionally make myself unavailable. However, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to avoid getting one. More and more daily tasks require mobile connectivity. The following anecdote is a case in point.

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October 2024

Ghost Stories at the Peacock

It's that time of year again . . . Last Friday evening eleven local performers shared ghost stories and music at the Halloween edition of the Scribes on Stage series at the Peacock Performing Arts Center in Hayesville, NC. I shared my favorite, Adventures in the Hobbit Barn. Now that summer heat has dissipated and the leaves are changing, it's a fun way to usher in autumn.

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Fun on the Square

Hayesville, NC is the best! We had a great crowd at the Corner Coffee and Wine Shop on Friday night. I got to ham it up with some wonderful local talent—storytellers, writers, poets, and musicians. It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for five years! What a perfect evening. Photo by our host, my friend, Kanute Rarey.

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Comet-ose

Nature Nugget: You won’t see this spectacular sight ever again! Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) has been lighting up social media and the night sky recently. According to EarthSky.org, it’s the brightest comet in 27 years, since Hale-Bopp in 1997. A3 is a long-period comet, with an 80,000-year orbit around the sun. Its orbit is retrograde, meaning that the comet moves in the opposite direction to most major solar system planets. Its perihelion distance—closest point to the sun—came on September 27, 2024, when it was 0.39 astronomical units (AU, or Earth-sun distances) from our star. The comet was closest to Earth on October 12. It will only be visible into late October, so check it out soon or wait another 80,000 years!

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Elusive Marketing and Amazon

Marketing remains elusive for me, but more experienced writers tell me I’ll one day get the hang of it. The above picture is a screenshot of a message that arrived in my personal email inbox today. I’m glad Amazon gave me this plug, and I’m wondering if it will help sales of my new book. So far, I’ve only received one review, and I have just 23 followers on Amazon. If you’re an Amazon customer, please follow me. For those of you have read the book: Please, take a moment and give it a rating or—even better—a review. My dad and I thank you!

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