Story Chat Digest forms the basis of the Story Chat Digest anthology making it a unique and interesting collection.
About Story Chat Digest Where Stories Meet: An Anthology of Short Stories & Poems (Story Chat Series Book 3)
Picture caption: Cover of Story Chat Digest Where Stories Meet
Story Chat Digest Where Stories Meet An Anthology of Short Stories and Poems
Story Chat Digest Where Stories Meet brings together a vibrant collection of short fiction and contemporary poetry from writers across continents. Each piece stands on its own, yet together they form a thoughtful conversation about life’s moments—large and small, joyful and difficult, humorous and reflective.
Within these pages, you’ll encounter stories that linger like candlelit conversations and poems that capture the quiet textures of everyday life. Mystery, memory, family, resilience, faith, and friendship all find their place in this rich and varied collection.
The anthology grew out of the Story Chat community—an international group of writers and readers who share a love of storytelling and the discussions stories inspire. Throughout the book, readers will find Book Club Questions and Story Chat reflections designed to encourage conversation and deeper engagement.
Whether you are reading alone or with friends, this anthology invites you to pause, reflect, and enjoy the power of stories shared across cultures and experiences.
Story Chat Digest Where Stories Meet is more than a collection of writing—it is an invitation to join the circle where stories meet, and conversations begin.
Purchase Story Chat Digest Where Stories Meet: An Anthology of Short Stories & Poems (Story Chat Series Book 3)
A 5 star review of Story Chat Digest Where Stories Meet: An Anthology of Short Stories & Poems (Story Chat Series Book 3)
This is such a cool idea for an anthology: There are stories and poems on a wide variety of subjects. Plus there are discussions about those stories and poems between the authors who wrote them. Readers see the prompts that the authors used, and pieces are grouped around those prompts/themes. Stories are flash length. Poems are free verse or sonnets or narrative or image-rich. It’s all good stuff.
My favorites were pieces that got me thinking about life and my relationships, starting with “Countdown” by Grant P. Ferguson. What would you do differently if you knew how long you had left to live? If you knew how long someone else had left to live, would you tell them? Tough questions. That’s what Ferguson’s protagonist had to deal with.
In “A Slight Delay” by Philip Cumberland, Samantha and her younger brother encounter a dangerous situation which got me wondering what I’d do in her shoes.
I enjoyed the poem “My Brother’s Soul” by Richard Daniels because it made me stop and ponder the nature of human souls.
The older I get, the more I think about aging, and Cathy Cade’s story, “As Old as We Feel” drove that point home. May our society respect and treat our elders kindly! (It was the perfect story for the section in the anthology of Quiet Endings.)
I could go on, but just know it’s a unique anthology with many different voices from around the world, giving readers different perspectives and different things to think about.
About Marsha Ingrao
Marsha Ingrao is the founder and online host of the Story Chat community and the compilation editor of the Story Chat series. A lifelong educator, she continues to foster global literary conversation through blogging, collaborative anthologies, and virtual gatherings.
After retiring from public education, she expanded her work into writing, photography, and publishing. She believes strongly in lifelong learning and the power of shared storytelling to build connections across cultures.
My contribution to This Is How We Eat reflects on over exercise and a restricted diet in pursuit of the idealised body and perceived good health. I’m grateful to be part of this anthology alongside seventeen thoughtful writers.
This Is How We Eat (2026) brings together 17 authors who explore how food shapes memory, identity, emotion, culture, and connection. More than a collection of food stories, the book considers how eating influences community, belief, and becoming. It invites readers to reflect on their own tables — the meals that formed them, the flavors that anchored them, the rituals that sustained them — and offers a virtual slice of cake and a place at a longer table.
Blurb
Picture caption: Cover of This is How We Eat anthology
This Is How We Eat: Stories about Food, Culture, and Connection gathers seventeen diverse voices in an anthology that blends memoir, fiction, and poetic reflection. What began as an open invitation to explore “how we eat” unfolded into a deeply personal collection grounded in episodic memory and lived experience.
Within these pages, readers will encounter stories of migration and hospitality, body image and intuitive eating, gardening with grandchildren, solo dumpling dinners, budgeting with food, faith expressed through meals, and everyday rituals that shaped identity. Two layered fiction chapters provide a strong narrative close, reminding us that food can connect strangers, calm the body, and carry emotional depth.
While vivid food descriptions and a handful of recipes appear throughout, this is not simply a book about food. It is an exploration of human experience, belonging, culture, and the relationships formed away from and around the table. The anthology invites readers to reflect on their own tables — the choices they have made, the flavors that anchored their meals, and the connections that continue to shape who they are.
South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.
Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.
You can find Robbie Cheadle’s artwork, fondant and cake artwork, and all her books on her website here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/
It’s been a bad week. I ended up resigning from my job yesterday. It is time but its been a hard decision because there are a lot of people I like at the firm and I know they need me. This is my ninth and final resignation. But the cemeteries of the world are filled with indispensable people so the firm will go on. It will just be that much harder for the people I like and respect.
The theme is “Let the overall theme reflect the long-awaited shift from winter to spring.”
South African weather is very different to Northern hemisphere weather. We get no rain for over six months during the winter period and as we exit winter, it gets incredibly hot and dry before the rains come in late October or early November.
My photograph is of a beautiful red rose after a rainstorm.
scorching sun
wilted flowers dream
of spring rain
Thursday Doors
For Dan’s Thursday Doors, I am sharing a video of a building I made in Brussels. The video shows a building with all the doors and windows. The fascinating aspect of this building is that its decorated with bicycles painted in the primary colours.
I am sharing this for my talented artist and dress designer blogging friend, Resa. You can find Resa’s amazing art blog here: https://graffitiluxandmurals.com/2025/01/04/skart/. This post by Resa, titled Skart, features some amazing skateboard art and a poem about skateboarding written by me.
At night? How is that possible? But Kazeb didn’t ask because it didn’t matter. What mattered was that it was there.
He and Turk had waited long for this news, Kazeb with excitement, Turk with dread. Without discussion, they raced across the grassland, leapt over crevices, the width familiar even in the dark, and then scrambled up Big Rock’s knobby flank, grabbing tiny ledges with their fingers and toes with a speed mountain goats would envy. The behemoth’s height dwarfed all hills on the peninsula save the distant, towering range that separated it from others.
The brothers summited the crest and crouched behind a thick patch of scrub at the cliff’s edge. The brisk breeze atop the promontory whipped Kazeb’s hair around. He clenched his fists, gritted his teeth so tightly he should have broken a tooth, and waited for the vague elongated shadow on the water’s inky surface to reveal its intentions.
Is it them? He glanced at his brother’s square face. Turk thinks it is.
Sun’s steady arrival slowly erased the dark, made the sea shimmer in shades of blue as waves crashed against the coastline. Just below the surface, under the foam, were sharp shoals. Any boat must tediously avoid these, better yet, continue down the shore where there was no risk, unless they knew of the sole safe mooring used by natives and those they shared the location with, like they did with the Tall Ones from long ago.
Turk hissed, “It’s them, Liis.”
The Clan called him Liis, but he preferred “Kazeb,” the name awarded him when he agreed to guide the Tall One Fierce to the sea’s end. That was far beyond anywhere he had ever traveled, but Fierce claimed Kazeb’s knowledge of the area was invaluable.
“We can’t tell who is onboard, Turk,” he said, though who else knew of the hidden cove?
Kazeb rose and scanned a full circle, hoping whoever came on that craft wasn’t looking up here.
“What are you doing, Liis?”
“I need to see if they’re alone, or do more come from other directions.”
Flat grassland bordered one flank of the promontory, water the rest. Sun’s earliest rays colored the sky in pinks and blues. Birds plummeted into the crystalline water. Fish with no desire to be food dove. Farther away, pigs rooted through the stubble and a herd of deer feasted on ever-abundant fresh young shoots, protected by the range of mountains from unexpected predators.
When we finish, that’s where we will go.
He turned back to the shoreless sea. Visible on clear days, a faint brown outline shadowed the horizon, what the Tall One Fierce had called home.
Turk said, “They knew enough to stay in the calm waterswhen darkness arrived, to avoid the underwater shoals.”
Sun broke above the horizon, telling the boat it was safe to continue. The craft nimbly skirted the shoals, aiming for the spot a similar vessel had beached long ago. Kazeb gripped his spear tighter. Fierce had promised to return once his exploration was completed. Kazeb trusted his word, but the more time passed, the more he wondered if he had been lied to.
“Liis!” Turk interrupted his reverie. “There is another boat, behind the first!”
Now Kazeb saw it. Both prows plowed through the water, their shapes clear in the sunlight. Shivers ran through Kazeb.
These aren’t like Fierce’s craft … but we have seen no one from that direction either by sea or foot.
Kazeb studied the gaggle of Uprights, their bold stripes, the confident stance of the slender male in the bow of the front boat. All fit his recollections of the Tall One band. His gaze drifted to the back boat, a shorter stockier figure at the prow.
Is he Fierce’s guide? My replacement? But why would he be behind Fierce?
Legs wide for balance, sunlight glinting off flame-red hair, the sturdy figure scanned the Big Rock. To Kazeb’s surprise, his gaze paused at the clump of brush where the brothers hid. He couldn’t see them, of course. Both had mudded their skin and squinted to keep Sun’s glare off their eyes. Still, the figure shouted to One-who-might-be-Fierce and pointed.
Turk gurgled, “Are they looking for us? But why come back here, considering what they did?”
“We don’t know for sure—”
“Who else would it be?” Turk’s voice a strangled yelp.
They argued this question often. The Clan Healer originally thought the deadly illness had been caused by insects or a toxin in the air, but before he died, he admitted an individual could have poisoned the members’ food and water. Who could say?
Kazeb didn’t bother to reply, busy admiring the vessel’s sleek profile, so unlike the Clan’s flatter, smaller ones. The sailors effortlessly beached it at the base of the monstrous rock where the brothers hid.
Voice fiery, Turk hissed, “Our destiny has arrived, why we survive and the rest died.”
Picture caption: Book cover of Balance of Nature by Jacqui Murray featuring the outline of a mountain in blue against a blue and fiery orange background
Book Blurb
A tribe haunted by the past. Lies that threaten the future. A reason to find the truth.
Savage Land is the third trilogy about prehistoric man in the series, Man. Vs. Nature. Savage Land explores how two bands of humans survived one of the worst natural disasters in Earth’s history, when volcanic eruptions darkened the sky, massive tsunamis crossed the ocean in crushing waves, and raging fires burned the land. Viral tribes of Neanderthals and early man considered themselves apex predators, but that crown belonged to Nature and she was intent on washing the two-legged blight from her lands.
In Balance of Nature, Book Three of the trilogy, Yu’ung’s Neanderthal tribe hopes to settle at Gibraltar but instead find unexpected threats and lethal challenges. Follow the courageous Yu’ung, the determined Kazeb, the mystical Shanadar, and the pawed-and-clawed Canis as they navigate a perilous world of tribal conflict, unexplained visions, and shifting loyalties. Their journey is a testament to the resilience and strength of true leadership in a sweeping saga that ultimately leads to who we are today
My review of Endangered Species (Savage Land Book 1)
Picture caption: Cover of Endangered Species (Savage Land Book 1)
Endangered Species is an interesting and unique story set 75,000 years ago in Europe and Asia. The plot follows two people, Jun who must leave his clan and travel from what is now called Germany to what is now known as the Altai Mountains, to help save the clan of Yu’ung who are under threat from an active volcanic mountain.
The author’s extensive research is clearly evident in this book, but the historical facts and information are integrated into the storyline in a completely natural way and are not cumbersome or ‘textbook’ like in any way. There is a mild paranormal element which is also smoothly incorporated into the story and does not detract from the historical elements or undermine their integrity.
The characters are interesting and both Jun and Yu’ung have attributes and characteristics that artfully share a large spectrum of the skills and thinking of our ancient predecessors. Jun is a dreamer who wants more from life than the everyday tasks of survival. As a result, he is viewed as a shirker by his clan who cannot see any benefit to Jun’s restless and adventurous spirit. Yu’ung is a young female, the product of her clan’s healer and a ‘stranger’. Yu’ung has been brought up by her mother and the clan’s oldest most experienced Elder resulting in her having unusual skills including those of a healer and those of a hunter. She is highly intelligent and had extraordinarily good eyesight, both of which set her apart from her fellows. Despite her differences, she is held in high regard by her clan, especially when several of their men die in a cave in and the clan is left short of competent hunters.
This is a character driven book and the two main characters, and their main supporters make for fascinating reading that reveals a lot of information about life at the time as well as the attitudes, customs, and challenges.
The introduction of the ‘Tall Ones’, a more aggressive clan of people with a more adventurous attitude and a desire to dominate is intriguing and creates interesting interactions and tensions throughout the story.
In summary, this is a fascinating story with well-developed characters that will appeal to readers who enjoy a character driven storyline suffused with well researched historical information about life during a time period that is still shrouded in mystery.
, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. Her non-fiction includes 100+ books on tech into education, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
roberta-writes.com 