Category: Writing Challenges
Challenges from the Bonanza Brand Forums.
No Shovel Needed (by justafan)
Summary: Once again, Little Joe finds himself facing the music. Hoss and Adam are amused by the current situation, although Ben thinks it is no laughing matter. Sometimes, the Cartwrights can dig a very deep hole without using a shovel.
Rating K+ Number of Words: 1,798
Grandfather and Grandson (by Sibylle)
Summary: Adam and his small grandson make some discoveries about what really matters in life.
Rating: K (1,600 words)
Grand Series, links to stories within the series are included.
A Degree In Engineering Can Be Deadly (by BettyHT)
Summary: Written for the Thinking Man Challenge. Adam’s education gets him into a dangerous situation when bank robbers decide he’s the man they need to send into a mine and retrieve their loot from a bank robbery. One big problem, the mine tunnel is partially collapsed from an earthquake.
rating = PG WC = 3865
Before A Rose… (by BluewindFarm)
Summary: Inspired by The Mother of All Challenges, to write a story featuring one or more of the Cartwrights in any time period (prequel, season 1-14, sequel, AU), in which Virginia City is an integral part of the tale.
Rating: K (4,030 words)
This is my story.
Virginia City, Nevada — Home of the Comstock Lode. A place where things happen twenty-four hours a day. Thirty thousand people called it home at the peak of the gold and silver rush. A boom town!
Longest Night (by sklamb)
Summary: Rose McNair gives Dan De Quille an interview after Virginia City’s great fire. A “What Happened Elsewhere” for The Night Virginia City Died.
Rated: K WC:2500
A Prickly Problem (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: Little Joe learns a lesson the hard way.
Rating: K+ Word Count: 1, 371
A Well Deserved Comeuppance (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: The Jessup Gang get a little more than they bargained for when they pick a fight with a certain stranger. A slight AU story that ties in with “Missing” and “A Father’s Gift”, but you don’t have to read them first to understand what’s going on.
Rating: K+ for a bit of violence Word count:1,889
Links to other stories in the series are included.
Battle of the Ponderosa — aka Springtime Chaos (by BluewindFarm)
Summary: A plea for help turns into an urgent ride home, and a situation no one foresaw.
Rating: K (1,615 words)
Tears of Growing Up #2 – First Ride (by BluewindFarm)
Summary: A companion story for Tears of Growing Up. Two years have passed since Ben and Joe stood outside the corrals watching Adam and their wranglers tame wild horses. Now, it’s finally Joe’s turn.
Rating: K+ (2,305 words)
Tears of Growing Up Series, links to stories within the series are included.
Of Love and Loss (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: Ben and Hoss have a heart to heart about lost loves.
Rating: K (tissue warning) Word Count: 1,499
Where Spiders Fear to Tread (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: “Don’t look down, don’t look down, don’t look down…” I repeated the phrase over and over again under my breath, as I took another careful step forward. A Little Joe story.
Rating: K+ for mild swearing and angst Word Count: 1,476
Sage Advice (by BluewindFarm)
Summary: Joe should have remembered his older brother’s advice, when he learns a lesson on how easy it is for women to be his downfall.
Rating: K (950 words)
Waitin’ on Joe (by frasrgrl)
Summary: Joe is given the responsibility of meeting Adam at the freight office with a load of lumber. There’s a lot riding on Joe meeting the deadline, not just for the lumber, but for Joe also.
Rating K+ Word count 5,126
The Pain and the Fury (by justafan)
Summary: WHN for The Magnificent Adah. Joe was assaulted by one of Ben’s rivals. Hoss dealt with the gentleman and the episode ends with Ben, Hoss, and Adam returning from the saloon to check on Joe.
13,957 words Rating: K+ (has some description of physical assault)
When Hope and Fate Collide (by BluewindFarm)
Summary: Everything was progressing smoothly, right up until it went so wrong. The brothers and their men drive their largest herd ever to Sacramento, California.
Rating: T (32,520 words)