Category: Short Stories
This category is for your Bonanza Short Stories from 500-999 words in length.
Dreams #2 – Epoch of a Dream (by BluewindFarm)
Summary: Choosing to act on one’s dream was the easy part. Handling the aftermath with his family was easier than he expected. What more is there other than an epoch of a dream?
Rating: G (890 words)
Part of the Dreams series, links to stories included within.
A Good Shirt Is Hard to Find (by Tavia42)
Summary: In the Season 12 episode “El Jefe,” Joe is unaccountably wearing a red shirt. This is so strange and unprecedented that it required a What Happened Before to explain it.
Rating: G | Word Count: 2,293
Caught in a Storm (by JC)
Joe’s plans for a romantic rendezvous go awry when Mother Nature intervenes, but that’s not the worst of it…
Rating: T Word Count: 745
Dreams #1 – Chasing Dreams (by BluewindFarm)
Summary: Inspired by a Pinecone Challenge. A conversation between two brothers. One we were never privy to hear.
Rating: G (955 words)
Part of the Dreams series, links included within.
Lauras and Jennifers and Anns, Oh My (by Tavia42)
Summary: Ever notice the frequent repetition of certain names among the women the Cartwrights romance? The boys have noticed, and are having some fun with it.
Rating: G | Word Count: 812 words
One Way Or Another (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: “He’s just one kid against the whole town….” Sheriff Gains’ words echoed in my mind and my guts twisted as I scrambled up onto the roof of the livery stable. A missing scene from the episode The Gamble.
Rating: K+
Word Count: 891
A Private Lesson (by JC)
Summary: Lotta Crabtree’s arrival in Virginia City seemed to spell trouble for the Cartwrights, or was it the beginning of a beautiful friendship? (WHN after “A Rose for Lotta”)
Rating: PG Word Count: 630
Thin Ice (by DJK)
Summary: Little Joe does not heed Adam’s warning that Joe is skating on thin ice. rating: teen word count: 728
My Brother’s Brother (by Tavia42)
Hoss and Clay bump into each other again, with some brotherly conflict to work out, in a What Happened Later for The First Born. Written for the 2026 Brothers Day Challenge.
Rating: G | Word Count: 994
Being There (by Tavia42)
Summary: Just a conversation between Candy and Joe, because they’ve both been there. A brief WHN for The Stalker.
Rating: G | Word Count: 908
Divide and Conquer – Cartwright Style (by AC1830)
Summary: Once again Adam is unable to get his ideas across to his father. Adam wonders if there will ever be peace between them, until a brother steps in to help. Written for the Brand Brother’s Day Challenge – write a story involving Hoss and at least one of this brothers (Adam, Joe, Jamie, or Clay).
Rating: G
Word Count: 708
Tiānyì (by PatD in PA)
Summary: Written for “Hop Sing’s Chinese New Year Challenge 2026,” honoring the year of the Fire Horse.
Rating: G/K
Word Count: 1,350
Just One More Day (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: “The whole town’s plum full of yellow bellies,” I muttered under my breath as I prodded Chubb into a ground-eating gallop, leaving the disgraced major in the dust. Hoss rides out, determined to find Joe before it’s too late. A WHIB for the episode “Five Sundowns to Sunup” and a sequel to my previous story, “The Fifth Sunup” from Hoss’ point of view.
Rating: K+
Word Count: 699
Part of the Five Sundowns to Sunup series, links include within.
Your Time Is Gonna Come (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: I dug my fingernails into the flesh of my palms as the ground reeled beneath me like the deck of a ship in a summer squall. A trickle of dust and small stones rained down as the walls of the Ophir Mine creaked and groaned like an animal in its death throes. A WHIB for the episode “The Philip Diedesheimer Story”.
Rating: K+
Word Count: 755
Hooked on a Feeling (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: One minute he was standing there and the next, he was sprawled face down in the dirt….Booth Shannon’s thoughts after the shootout between him and Little Joe. The Trap. Rating: T (for mentions of blood) Word Count: 834
