If you?ve got a story about anything at all ? as long as it isn?t rude ? Pamela Jones creator of the website www.nytalkingmag.com wants to hear it.

?My on-line magazine gives individuals in the general public a chance to talk about the topic of their choice ? hope, tragedy, scandals or some other life-changing experience,? said Ms Jones in a telephone interview with The Bookworm Beat. ?It lets people be heard.?

Nytalkingmag.com will start to run in mid-April. It will be published every two months. Ms Jones is known in Bermuda for a book she published in 2004 about her friend?s bout with breast cancer, ?Navigating Across the Unpredictable C?.

?The website came out of my fascination for real life stories,? said Ms Jones. ?I heard stories that are interesting and captivating. I have found that people merely want to be heard. They want to know that people care, and they can connect with other people who may be going through a similar situation.?

The online magazine will also feature editor?s comments, columns, recipes and various other sections such as ?student of the month?.

She said so far the reaction to the idea of the website has been positive.

?People are interested,? she said. ?We are just going to take it from there and see what happens. This is a magazine where people will send me their stories. They can email them to me, or mail them ? however they want to send them. After they send them to me I will read and then edit them. There won?t be too much editing because it has to be pretty much said in their voice.

?I will look it over for grammatical reasons. We don?t accept any profanity, any hate crime or anything like that, or any type of behaviour that is not acceptable.?

She said that she has ?chosen? this time in her life to work as a public administrator.

?I have an administrative business here,? she said. ?Next month, I will be starting a therapeutic counselling degree. I am not a counsellor yet.?

She said she decided to put the magazine on-line because people read a physical book or magazine and then put it down and forget about it. With an on-line magazine readers can keep coming back to the website for updated material.

?With this format, people will be able to read and respond to the stories,? she said.

Ms Jones has a diploma in Microsoft business applications, but she has pretty much trained herself in web design.

?It is not difficult, but I get help when I need it,? she said. ?The design and layout of the website are time consuming. I would say, designing it and the layout of it are the most difficult part.?

The name of the website was inspired by a friend who passed away in December.

?My best friend, Valerie E. Dill, thought of the name ?Now You?re Talking?, but unfortunately I had to change the name as it was being utilised by another group. So I decided on ?Now You?re Boldly Talking?. This name will not be used throughout the magazine, we will use the website name nytalkingmag.com. Val was also instrumental in helping to create this magazine and I will be keeping her dream alive with a section in the magazine called ?Val?s Dining?, as she loved everything that had to do with cooking.?

Ms Jones would like to keep the website running with advertising, but she is going to wait until she has a finished product before trying to sell it to potential advertisers.

?I will just let the magazine speak for itself,? she said. ?If people want to advertise they can contact me. They need to see how popular the site is going to be before I can make that major approach to advertisers.?

The concept of the website sounds a bit like the inspirational Chicken Soup for the Soul series, but she said she hasn?t read any Chicken Soup books, so she can?t speak to that.

?My only readings are real life stories,? she said. ?The website is for anyone who is interested.?

She said she is targeting fellow-Bermudians, but she will accept stories from anyone, anywhere in the world.

?Having been born and raised in Bermuda I have a strong connection with the people there,? she said. ?I am interested in the day to day history as it relates to Bermuda, but it doesn?t mean that I am not interested in stories relating to non-Bermudians and people from other countries.?

Ms Jones has already been contacted by a lady from London who is interested in putting her story on the website.

She said that she will accept stories from people under the age of 18, but the story will have to be accompanied by written permission from their parent or guardian.

All material is set in confidence, and submitters can choose to either send a story with their name and photo, just their name, or remain anonymous

For more information contact www.nytalkingmag.com . Stories can also be faxed to 441-278-2614.