Summary: A missing scene for the episode ‘A Matter of Circumstance’, which is one of my favorites. Left alone in the house with what may be a dying Joe, Hoss has a conversation with himself and makes a promise.

Rated G Word count: 2912

SUMMARY:  My entry for the Ancestry Challenge.  Ben has had three wives and they all had relatives, many of whom he never knew.  One shows up with a selfish ulterior motive focused on one son. 

Rating = T  Word count = 8308

Summary: The Cartwright family should have returned to normal after Señor and Delores Tenino left for Mexico, but it hasn’t. Hoss, Adam and Joe have been surly and avoiding one another since the lovely young woman left, and Ben can’t understand what’s driving it. He senses that what had started as a competition to win the young lady’s heart, had left some unexpected wounds behind. When circumstances and harsh words fracture his family even more, Ben decides he must force his sons to take stock of what they’re about to lose, in the one way he thinks will work. A What Happened Later story, for Ponderosa Matador.

Rating: K Word Count:  22,960

Summary:  Two Cartwright lives take a dangerous turn during a trip abroad.  Will they ever be able to go home again? (Part of the Ties That Bind AU series)

Rating: K+  (4372 words)

Ties That Bind Series, links to stories of this series included.

Summary: Ben Cartwright had thought the worst thing that could happen was that his son, Hoss, was shot in back by mistake.  But like the other time Hoss was shot – by Red Twilight – Little Joe was in danger too.  His brother could be dying and Joe is nowhere in sight.   What’s going on? 

Rated PG – references to drunkeness

Word Count – 4406

Summary – A young woman’s sudden departure from Virginia City leaves heartache and anger behind. After an eight-year absence, she returns home hoping to reconcile with the ones she left behind.

Rating – T, Word Count – 9751

Summary: A lesson of family, learned earlier, comes full circle.

Rating: T (for mention of off-screen violence) word count= 2835

Summary:  Murder and an accused, and trouble in town.  But is all as it appears.  Fifth in the Home is the Sailor Series.

Rating:  T  (201,700 words)

Home is the Sailor Series, links to stories of this series included.

Summary: When Little Joe is seriously injured following an attack by bandits, Ben must rush him to the nearest doctor for immediate medical attention. Ben Cartwright is stunned to find that the doctor is a woman and he hesitates to let her treat Little Joe.

Rating: T/PG-13 Mild language and brief sexual innuendo. Word Count: 19,190.

Summary: After sixteen-year-old Adam discovers a mysterious cave, disturbing events follow.

5940 words  Rating K

SUMMARY:  This is the sequel to Red Night that can probably stand alone but may read more easily if you have read the first story.  Answers to the questions left hanging in the first story are woven into this one which is about five years later.  A prologue fills in the intervening years somewhat . It won’t be an easy homecoming for Adam because of a new tragedy and the lingering turmoil that sent him away originally.

rating = T   word count = 18,147

Red Night Series, links to stories of this series included.

Summary:   Adam wanted to help his brother, not kill him. 

Word count:  6200 Rating:   T  

Written for 2017 Once Upon A Midnight Dreary (aka Poe) Challenge and published in 2018 for the Better Late Than Never challenge.

Summary: An angel. A messenger. Sent to bring news, sometimes good, often bad. Which was this, the one who gazed at me? Had she come to reward or punish me? To return me to my family or cut me down as I deserved? Forgive me, Adam, Pa. Mama, forgive your little Joseph. If only, I had known….

Rated PG-13 for brutality and violence, minor torture, and some uncomfortable language.  Story contains words in use by some people in the South during the 1860s such as ‘dusky’, ‘bright’, and so on when referring to African Americans.

Word count: 71,074

SUMMARY:  A year late but here is the 2017 Once Upon a Midnight Dreary challenge to write a Gothic story in the style of Poe.  This is my entry for the 2018 Better Late Than Never challenge.  There’s murder and mayhem in Virginia City and the limited evidence points toward an unlikely suspect.  The gruesome deeds occur off scene for it is the aftermath that matters most.

rating = T. word count = 7497

Red Night Series, links for all the stories of this series included.

Summary: It was supposed to be an ordinary trip into town for the Cartwrights, but dying wasn’t on anyone’s list. (Part of the Ties That Bind AU series)

Rating: K+ (2081 words)

Ties That Bind Series, links to stories of this series included.