Independent
Not really a series as each story is Independent of all others with occasional references to locations from one of the other series.
A few characters from The Next Generation do appear in stories in the Spearfish Lake Series.
Alphabetic Listing
Books in Publication order
The Next Generation
All she ever wanted was to be normal Her mother considered Judith to be a hopeless invalid that would have to be cared for all her life -- but then she finds a boyfriend that doesn't see her that way. With his help, she learns to be a farmer's wife and a much stronger person than anyone had ever thought she could be.
Note: This was once considered to be part of the Spearfish Lake Tales series but has been changed to independent status. - WB
Wes Boyd moved The Next Generation to the list of Independent stories on the Boyd Bibliography page on May 4 2012 and added the above note.
Cattail
Roger Bishop found early retirement from a factory to be lonely and boring, especially since he's a widower. With nothing better to do, he gets the idea of going south to help with the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina. Down amid the rubble, he meets a lifelong free spirit, Catalina Smith, who's there on the same mission, so being lonely is no longer a problem. What's more, it seems that Catalina has some problems of her own, and all of a sudden he really doesn't have to worry about being bored!
Promises to Keep
Jeff and Eunice Harrington have had a long and successful, if unremarkable life running a business and raising a family, unlike their nearly lifelong best friend Eric Snow, who has lived a life of adventure -- mountain climbing, sailing, backcountry canoeing and much else. Eunice and Eric have faithfully cared for Jeff during a long illness, but after he dies the two have to come to grips not only with his death but also with their past, the opportunities each of them have missed, and the changes Jeff's passing will bring.
Redeye
A “Roaring Twenties” gangster once owned a creepy old house deep in the woods near Wychbold. Some people think they have seen ghosts and are sure the place is haunted to protect ancient secrets. Unmarked graves have been found on the property, and buried treasure has also been found there. The place is inhabited by a crotchety old coot and his ghostly maid, who are rarely seen in daylight. Steve Taylor is invited for a visit and learns that, while there’s nothing supernatural happening, there is more than a grain of truth to all of the stories. He also learns that what’s going on behind the eerie façade is considerably more interesting than the rumors – and that some past events had been horrifying indeed. He certainly doesn’t expect what happens as he peels back the layers in the life of the mysterious Ann, the beautiful, reserved, and enigmatic woman who lures him there.
Joe/Joan
Joe is a truck driver who has driven the same cross-country route for over thirty years. He’s just your average Joe, bored and a little frustrated with his life, but with nothing better to look forward to. Then a bolt of lightning hits his truck; when he comes to, he’s eighteen again, it’s 1965 – and he discovers that he’s the twin sister he never had, Joan! While she has no idea of how this could have happened, she resolves to do things differently in this new life, see the world and have some fun along the way. From snow-swept mountaintops to war-torn jungles, from squalid third-world slums to sophisticated cities she manages to do just that. But in the end she’s faced with the same questions she’s had from the beginning, questions like “What happened?” “Why?” and “Why me?”"
Best Served Cold
For ten years Royce Palmer's ex-wife Maxine played fast and loose with the visitation rules for their daughter Petra. Royce mostly let her get away with it since he didn't want his daughter getting caught in the crossfire. When Maxine decides that her new husband Milt ought to give Petra away at her wedding, she steps over the line Royce has drawn in his mind, so he decides he needs to even things up a bit. Well, more than a bit. He thinks that once he has some measure of revenge maybe he can get his lonely, bitter life back on track and get back on a road to happiness before it's too late.
Plain Jane
Jane Marshall is single but looking and, even though her nickname is ‘Plain Jane,’ dressed nicely she’s rather pretty. She is tired of her low-paying restaurant job despite a recent bachelor’s degree and would like to distance herself from the irritating woman who shares her apartment. Rick Thredford, introverted computer geek, unmarried and with no social skills, is bored to tears at his job where they’re trying to force him to quit. He has plenty of money now and will soon be worth a lot more if he can keep his job. Sophia, his secretary, thinks he needs to be married to give him an interest other than sitting alone and writing computer code to overcome his boredom. Unfortunately, the marriage needs to happen quickly, but it only happens if she can get them to agree to a trip to the altar with no time to get to know each other. Can Sophia play the matchmaker in an arranged marriage – put Jane and Rick together, and have them married in just a few days – and then have any chance that such a nontraditional marriage can be successful? There are so many pitfalls to be negotiated in such a short time.
Note: This is the last book to have all editing overseen by Wes himself.
Golden Hour
Kyle Murray, out taking landscape pictures, meets a girl taking selfies beside the road. Chelsea Walsh is wearing a skimpy bathing suit, which makes Kyle’s eyes pop. They have entirely different approaches to photography, and both use their pictures to supplement mediocre day-job income. They help each other with their photography and a relationship develops.
Destiny
The year is 2241 and geologist Arik Kalita thinks planet Earth is getting too crowded and too regulated, so he signs on with the next sublightspeed exploration ship to the stars, one aimed at a star eight lightyears away. Coldsleep technology will allow Arik, exobiologist Leticia Ozawa, and 20,000 others to arrive still young enough to experience a long life on a new planet. However, the new planet turns out to be airless and uninhabitable. There are time limits for coldsleep. Do they head back to an Earth 450 years in their future, or do they try for another star, knowing that if it is also unsuitable there might not be another chance?
The Curlew Creek Theater
Brett Wickwire, substitute dairy farm milker and substitute teacher, would rather be a theater actor, even though he knows he needs to grow up and accept a real job somewhere soon. The market is tight for fulltime teaching jobs and no way does he want to be a fulltime milker. He talks his way into a dinner theater startup for the summer and brings along Meredith VanArnhem, an actress he’s worked with before. There are problems, but the big one for Brett is that this job is only for the summer, and what can he do afterward? He does find a girlfriend among the actresses – no not Meredith, who’s a hard-core lesbian, but another girl, Kellye Ginther – and there’s another problem, because she’s still in school at a college not close by. How can Brett continue that relationship and continue acting, even if it’s only sideline, and still make a living?
Sword of the Amazon
by Wes Boyd writing as Ron Webb
Summary: A masked woman in black carrying only a sword stops a holdup at a Toledo Ohio convenience store late one evening and disappears into the night. A few days later, she again appears from nowhere to rescue a six-year-old girl kidnapped earlier that same day and fades into the dark. She calls herself Hippolyta after the Amazon Queen from Greek mythology, but police are stumped as to who she is, and so are the media, calling her a new modern-day superheroine. Newspaper reporter and part-time policeman Charlie Parker, with younger sister Sally Parker who’s a reporter for a local TV station, are working with Janice and Rick, two more cops, to uncover her identity. Then the situation turns serious, with the local gangs now targeting her because she helped in a recent drug bust. Deadly serious, with MAC-10s aimed directly at her!
Slippery Slopes - Three Tales of Bondage
Summary: This is an anthology of three shorter works, much like the book “Three From Bradford” that Wes published back in 2013. The three stories are related by both theme and common characters and here are posted in order of story chronology. The main theme connecting the stories is light bondage, and there is lots of that. There is also some sex, some very mild masochism, some violence, and even a smattering of religion, so you are warned. In a few places, it is over the top for certain events or activities, but that’s the way Wes often did it. There are long chapters and short chapters.
Bulldog Spirit and Other Short Works
An anthology of four newly published works with six older works from the Shorts section of the Spearfish Lake Tales site. Three of the new works are incomplete, two would be 'Independent' while two would be in other series.
