Summary: How might a change in an episode early in the canon of Bonanza, change the episodes that followed? This is a collection of stories to show how life in the Cartwright family and in Virginia City would reflect the difference, while you try to figure what happened.

Rating: PG     Word Count: 28534

Summary: Instead of excitement and joy over Adam’s imminent return from school in Boston, unexpected emotions and personal fears leave the Cartwrights struggling in their welcome. This story is comprised of chapters told from a family member’s POV.

Rating: G

Words: 26442

Summary: This prequel is set a few weeks before Adam’s departure for school.  A simple request to pick up Little Joe from a neighbor’s home where the little boy is playing, ends up bringing Adam into a world of confusion over what’s going on with the wife of his father’s oldest friend.

This is the first of 2 prequels, the first taking place in the weeks before Adam left for college, and the second story showing his return. Both take a fun, yet serious look at how the Cartwright family faces problems.

Rating: K    Word Count:  26419

Summary: The Broken Ballad episode ends with many unanswered questions. Life would have changed in small and huge ways following Ed’s death. So … what happened to Will Cass, whose grief pushed him to do despicable things? How does Billy explain his reason for shooting Payson in what could be described as legal murder when Ed refused to shoot first? How do Adam and Sally make sense in the loss of their friend who simply wanted a chance at a normal life? And how do Adam and his father find common ground after Ben sided with Will Cass against his own son and continues to think Adam should have expected this outcome all along?” This story takes a realistic view of what they each faced in the hours and days after Ed’s ballad was sung at the cemetery.

There’s a twist in this story connecting Broken Ballad to an earlier episode, Blood on the Land that should prove interesting to the story.

Rating: K

Count: 16510

Summary: !5-year-old Adam is awaiting a letter from San Francisco, but his plan to  check for its arrival at Cass’ store are detoured by his father’s directive to head the opposite direction for the day instead. Something about this feels off to Adam, and he lets his frustration at being kept from his simple request billow into anger. After hearing something that seems to confirm his feeling that all is not right with this situation; he lets his emotions ride unchecked, causing a chain of  painful events he has to sort through. He settles on writing it all out just as it happened, including each step and misstep he made and the feeling that drove it. Meanwhile his father will have to examine his part it what happened as well, and we see this conclusion through Adam’s eyes as well.

Rating: K          Word Count:  16841

Summary: In the middle of a busy Christmas morning, Adam receives a request from Roy Coffee to help him investigate a possible crime in Virginia City. The case intrigues him as he follows the clues along with Roy and Paul Martin, and has a moment of agony as he begins to see the truth. In the midst of the his discoveries he receives a few unexpected reminders of the true meaning of Christmas, and is able to offer the gift of restoration.

Rating: K

Word Count: 10649

Summary: After a period of adjustment with Adam’s return from school, life has settled nicely for the Cartwrights … until a new storm cloud seems to be threatening Hoss’ usually good mood and ability to work.
Rating: G

Word Count: 12553

Summary: An unexpected visit from an old Boston shipmate, and the question he asks, prompts  Ben to think back to a time when he’d visited his brother with Adam, the winter before leaving for Missouri to join a wagon train west. Their stay had provided some great family times, while also pointing towards many obstacles Ben had never considered. It had finally prompted the biggest decision of his life. 

Rating: G

Word Count: 15626

Summary: The final story of the trilogy of stories:  Trial of Jessica Hardy, Buried Alive, and now, The Empty Casket.  The first two stories told of Adam’s disappearance after being taken as a hostage by a woman bank robber, and then his return after months spent drugged in a mental hospital. When Buried Alive ended, Adam had left Carson City following a frosty reunion with his family that had left him feeling that for everyone’s sake, he should have died as Jessica Hardy, AKA Leslie Richter, meant for him to do.  This story picks up in San Francisco, where he has gone, hoping to find something about himself that is worth saving.  He meets someone who just might understand what he’s feeling, and recognize what he’s planning to do. Can this other “man in black” save Adam from himself? 

Rating: K+
Word Count: 28,000
Part of The Trial of Jessica Hardy Series, links to all stories included within

Summary: This is a sequel to The Trial of Jessica Hardy. Four months have passed since Adam’s disappearance and presumed death, and life has taken on a more normal flow for the Cartwright’s who have conquered their grief to find joy again.  But just as things begin to even out, a series of coincidences and incidents bring them  back to the woman accused of  causing Adam’s death. The Cartwrights will become instrumental in helping others, while learning the truth of what happened to Adam. 
Rating: T – But only for adult themes and conversations. No overt situations
Word Count:  32615
Part of The Trial of Jessica Hardy Series, links to all the stories included within

Summary: Virginia City is in the middle of a trial for a woman charged with bank robbery, kidnapping and murder. There are two factors whipping the town into a frenzy of activity: If convicted, Jessica Hardy could be the first woman sentenced to hang in the United States. The second part that has left the community in turmoil is that the person she’s accused of kidnapping and murdering, is Adam Cartwright.  The story is told from her perspective as she tries to convince the people on the jury that Adam was not the man they thought him to be; a man so tired and hateful of his family that he would use unthinkable methods to get away from them.
Rating: G  but with adult themes
Word Count: 12,600
Part of The Trial of Jessica Hardy Series, all links to the stories included within

Summary: A cold ride home in the pelting snow, followed by a sweet conversation with his father, gives Adam a memorable Christmas Eve.

Rating: G

Word Count: 6734

Summary: A fellow rancher asks Adam to look in on his daughter’s family who lives in California, where Adam is about to travel with a small herd. A problem has arisen is that this daughter has fallen ill while visiting her parents in Virginia City, leaving her husband with a farm to run and two young children to care for, at the busiest time of year. While that seems easy enough, the other information Adam is given about the situation at that home, and the request being made of him, is anything but simple. What he finds on arrival changes, and the roles he must assume to get this family through the frightening times, revisits feelings he’s been contending with for some time.

Rating:  K (General)

Word Count:  32505

Summary: When Ben finds Adam to let him know it’s time to head home from a neighbor’s party, he can see that his son is upset and trying to hide it. Although his son won’t offer any information, Ben suspects Marie knows what happened, and once home, they’re able to put together the pieces of what 15 yr old boy overheard, and why he looked so stricken. The truth makes Ben seek Adam out for a father-son talk.

Rating: K           Word Count: 6024

Summary:  The Triangle episode has always bothered me. It showed an upbeat Adam who was always chipper and jolly. Yet he’d been seriously injured, and was not having optimal outcomes when it came to walking again. He would certainly have gone through some very dark times while considering his future in a wheel chair.  In addition, he had to have felt Laura’s coolness and emotional absence, since she loved Will. This is my personal adaptation of that episode with a little backstory. It is a realistic and gritty look at the likely medical outcomes of the fall; the emotional battles Adam would have faced, and the power of brotherly love.

Rating: K

Word Count: 17425