Shelby C. Jacobs

Story telling seems to be in my DNA. My grandfather John loved to tell his grandchildren all matter of tall tales from the delta country of Arkansas. In the evening when the chores were finished, he would sit on the wide porch, pack his pipe, lean back and relax. Grandma would bring him a large jar of sweet tea and often sit with him. It wasn't long before he would say, "Did I ever tell you about ...?" Most of the time, I had heard his stories before, but I always smiled and said, "No, Papa John, tell me."

I learned about Hiram Jones the mountain man in my home state of Tennessee. I learned life lessons. "Sometimes you have to go out on a limb if you want to get the best apples." "If you don't try something , you are guaranteed to never realize it." Like the old songs we sang in church, I never forgot those lessons. Now I try to incorporate life lessons in all my writings.

Much of my life has been in sales. Toastmasters taught me to speak in public, several years preaching in small rural churches let me practice the art of telling stories vocally. Now I am transferring the vocal stories to words. My goal is to give the reader a few minutes or hours when you can forget your real world and become a character in an adventure of the mind.