Wes Boyd's Bibliography

The Spearfish Lake universe can be more than a little confusing at times. Wes has written a number of books in a variety of different story series. Many of them overlap each other and share characters. To confuse matters even more they were not written in the stories' chronological order, which can sometimes cause small conflicts between the books. Some of them have been posted. Some are complete and waiting in queue for posting. Some are under development and some are only a gleam in the eye of the author--Wes.

In the story series, as listed below, if a title is given the story is posted or being posted. If a story series number (i.e. DW IV) is given the story is complete and waiting in Queue. If a story series number is given with one question mark (i.e. DW IV ?) the story is under development. If a story series number is given with more than one question mark (i.e. DW IV ?? or DW IV ??????) the story is a gleam and the more question marks there are the more it is only a gleam.

The date range listed in the "Time Frame:" entry for each story is as accurate as possible. If Wes discovers an error in the date range it will be corrected.

This page will be updated as Wes provides more information about his stories and as the stories see the light of day. Since the information on this page is furnished directly by Wes the ability to edit the page has been restricted to the site administrators.

The Spearfish Lake Series:

Time Frame: March/April 1971 to December 1971

Summary: Vagabonding in the seventies! The only thing that kept Mark going in Vietnam was his plan to spend some time wandering the country by air, like barnstormers did 50 years before. In the last days before leaving, he acquires a partner -- a tall, morose girl named Jackie. They spend months on their aerial oddessy, falling in love along the way while having adventures that will turn into memories for a lifetime.

Time Frame: January 1981 and August 1982

Summary: In the middle of the worst snowstorm of the decade, the whole town was burning down. The only hope lay on two rusty steel rails . . . Nonstop action and adventure -- no sex or violence as railroad workers and firemen struggle against fire, storm, and failing equipment to relieve an isolated northwoods town.

"This story was written to show that a thrilling action-adventure yarn can be written without ANY sex or interpersonal violence. "G" rated, except for some rough language." Wes

The Next Generation, formerly listed here, has been moved to Independent status.

Time Frame: April 1987 to February 1988

Summary: A snake crawls out of a bathroom drain, and a woman kills it with her hair dryer . . . That's all it takes to set townspeople, media, crooked environmentalists, a country music singer, the federal government and a bunch of dogsledders to getting at each other's throats. Of course, nothing's quite normal in Spearfish Lake!

Time Frame: June 1990 to March 1995

Summary: Two kids, a dream, and acres of dogs . . . Josh and Tiffany want to become dogsled racers. They just have to grow up first -- and learn about what they're doing along the way. A follow-on to Busted Axle road, focusing on Josh and Tiffany's adventures. It's not necessary to read Busted Axle Road first.

Time Frame: May 1975 to May 1991 with flash backs

Summary: Keeping the faith . . .

In 1970, a Spearfish Lake kid walked into a patch of jungle in Vietnam, and was never seen again. In an era when many people were tired of the war or just didn't care, most were ready to forget about him -- except for his friends, some of whom he'd never met, but who kept the faith anyway.

Time Frame: September 1997 to Summer 1998

Summary: The blonde jogger wore handcuffs! Brenda Hodunk couldn't believe the sight before her eyes as she jogged down Lakefront Drive. Her new job had already taught her that Spearfish Lake was a little different, but this was a little more different than she had expected. Yet her natural reporter's instinct smelled story, and she decided she needed to know more about what she'd seen -- and it leads her to places and things she never would have believed.

Time Frame: December 1999 to Fall 2000

Summary: Change Happens! When John and Candice Archer's jobs go bad and their kids are sent to lousy schools, they decide it's time to get out of the city and head back to John's home in Spearfish Lake. It takes a little getting used to, because their lives are different there, and they can't help but change to face new circumstances and new opportunities as well as finding new friends and new interests. But then, their new friends are undergoing changes, too. None of it is easy, but they're all in it together.

Time Frame: December, 2000 - August, 2001; Fall, 2009

Summary: After Danny Evachevski found his wife cheating on him, he had no choice but to get a divorce, go repair ties with his family and friends and start over. It wouldn't break his heart to leave a life and a job he detested, either. But Danny's soul has been severely wounded by the experience. He finds a most unusual place to heal while he's waiting for his divorce to go through, then heads back to his home in Spearfish Lake. It isn't easy to go back home -- things have changed, and changed a lot in the twelve years he's been gone. In spite of family and friends, he's lonely and often seems at loose ends while he watches people that have made something of their lives. Then, quite unexpectedly, things change. Maybe there's hope for him after all!

Time Frame: 1975, with flash backs

Summary: This is a romp through the past and the beginnings of the WTLC and Tales of Spearfish Lake. It’s more background of the Spearfish Lake story than anything else. It takes place in 1975 with the beginning of the Mike McMahon era and includes flashbacks to WW2 and on up into the early 1960s. Regular readers will see several scenes that were lifted from this story and used in Forgotten Killer and others in Absent Friend. As a warning there are some decidedly non-P.C. ethnic jokes common for the time period contained herein. This book has over 60 very short chapters so, when posting on the site, two chapters will appear at a time counting as one, four chapters a week.

The Dawnwalker Series

This series can be classed as a sub-set of the Spearfish Lake series.

Time Frame: August 1974 and February 1995 to September 1999

Summary: College and the years just afterwards are pivotal for many people, having adventures and establishing their lives. It was especially true for Randy Clark and his three girl friends. They are very different people facing very different futures. Can their special friendship survive the problems and distances of the real world?

Time Frame: January 1997 to December 1999

Summary: Jon Chladek and Tanisha Blythe have a lot in common. They're very bright engineering students at Georgia Tech, they see a lot of things the same way, they each have families that have their own ideas about what they should be doing, and would go ballistic if they knew the two were seeing each other. When the chance of a lifetime comes, they're faced with a big decision -- whether to take the chance and pay the price they know they'll have to pay, or lose their dreams by following what their families want them to do.

Time Frame: December 2000 to December 2001

Summary: Too much woman for him? Trey Hartwell used a tour in the army and college to try to raise himself up from a life of poverty. Then he met a woman that seemed too good for him -- literature professor and professional harpist Dr. Myleigh Harris. She was easily the most talented, most intelligent, most awesome, most complex woman that he'd ever had the chance to spend some time with. Too much woman for him, for sure, perhaps too much woman for anyone. If any man ever did wind up with her, he'd have his hands full. Trey didn't think he wanted to be the one to try . . . but still, what a woman!

Time Frame: April-May 2001

Summary: Desperate Journey! Nanci spent every cent she had and burned all the gas in her tank to escape Chicago and find her mother and her sister. She finds them, only to discover that both of them are now Colorado River raft guides, and that her mother is about to get remarried -- in the depths of the Grand Canyon. With no other choices, Nanci goes along on the trip -- two weeks in the middle of the most awesome scenery on the planet, a place that can and does change lives.

Time Frame: April 1999 - November 2001

Summary: Outdoor girl Scooter Whitsell has been reduced to watching a counter, instead of being out on the trails and rivers she loves so well. Then she gets a phone call from an old hiking buddy -- and she’s on her way to her absolute dream job: a raft guide in the Grand Canyon! It isn’t an easy job, but Scooter was never a girl that asked for things to be easy. She has to put aside normal things to make a life in the Grand Canyon -- but she wouldn’t have it any other way!

Time Frame: February - July 2002

Summary: Jon is white and Tanisha is black. They've lived together for five years, hiding from a wrathful father and a vindictive brother. Despite some trepidations, they love their new lives, jobs, and friends. When their best friend is involved in a nationally publicized incident, discovery seems likely. Dealing with that requires resourceful thinking and direct action, but things are not always as they seem. As a result, their lives will change more than they can imagine.

Time Frame: October 2001 - February 2002

Summary: Randy's friends get to go places and have adventures, while he has to stay home and work. His heart is set on having some fun and adventure while he's still young, but the job is important to his family and to him. It's eating up his life to the point where it's not even worth trying to plan something fun -- if he does something will probably come up to interfere with it. His wife feels his anger, and so do some of his friends, but there's not much they can do about it . . . or is there?

Time Frame: February 2004 - May 2005

Summary: Duane and Michelle are Colorado River raft guides in the Grand Canyon in the summer and sled dog mushers in Alaska in the winter. It's the perfect life for them -- lots of fun and adventure, and nothing much of the conventional life, freedom from bosses and desk jobs, peer pressure and politics, mortgages, and marriage and kids. Little do they realize that it's too good to last . . .

Time Frame: May 2002 - September 2005

Summary: Book One of the Reverend Nanci Series: The Grand Canyon can change lives, and with the help of some of the people and things Nanci Chladek found there it changed hers more than most. Once a prisoner of many irresponsible bad choices, she had been near ending her life. Her dramatic turn away from the life she'd once led cleaned up her act and had made her become pretty religious as she learned to be a Grand Canyon boatman. With a future in front of her that she had once nearly given up on having, she has to figure out what to do with it. It will take her family, her friends, and her newfound faith to help her work it out. Warning: There is Christianity, faith, and religion in this story.

Time Frame: November 2005 - May 2007

Summary: Book Two of the Reverend Nanci Series: While attending seminary, young woman minister and Colorado River boatman Rev. Nanci Chladek becomes concerned with the problems of her suitemate, a shy, withdrawn girl by the name of Sarah Lackamp. Sarah's parents are missionaries getting set to return to their African mission station, so all too soon she will have to live outside of the protection of school and family. Nanci feels her friend isn't ready for life on her own. She does pull Sarah out of her shell a little, but it turns out that Sarah's problems are different and deeper than Nanci could have believed. How can Nanci help Sarah live in the big bad world of today? What changes will Sarah have to finally accept in order to make it on her own? Warning: There is Christianity, faith, and religion in this story.

Time Frame: May - June 2007

Summary: Book Three of the Reverend Nanci Series: A week into her first pastorate in two small Southeastern Colorado ranching community churches, Reverend Nanci Chladek takes in an abandoned teenage girl. She finds that Amber is disliked intensely by the leaders of the communities and of her churches. This brings discord to the two communities, and most of that displeasure is aimed right at Nanci for doing what she thought of as her job as a minister by trying to help someone in need. Can Nanci gently quench the antagonism of these survivors of previous adversarial battles -- verbal, mental, and physical? In the middle of this the pastor of a third church starts heaping more trouble of a different sort on Nanci. She has battles to fight or possibly lose the congregations of the churches in her first assignment. She revels in the job, which she has worked long and hard to prepare for. Warning: There is Christianity, faith, and religion in this story.

12) DW XII ?

Time Frame:

Summary:

The New Spearfish Lake Series

Time Frame: February - September 2004

Summary: Approaching thirty, Randy faces new challenges and responsibilities. He's matured since college and has come to accept that many of his desires aren't possible. His first child is on the way, his grandfather's health is fading fast, and his sister is having family problems. It's clear that he will soon own Clark Construction as well as run it. Will the years of preparation for the new challenges be enough? How well will he meet those challenges when they arise?

Time Frame: August - December 2004

Summary: The horizons in Spearfish Lake seem to close in more and more on Susan McMahon after she returns from spending her junior year of high school as an exchange student in Germany. She speaks several languages fluently and has a wider view of the world than most. Now, she’s finding it hard to fit back into the town where she grew up, especially since her year away from school is causing her problems. But, it’s not a good idea to cross Susan or her family, as they don’t take stupidity lying down.

Time Frame: December 2005 - April 2006

Summary: Clark Construction equipment operator Jim Wooten likes to spend his winter layoff snowmobiling, ice fishing, and getting away from his sister and his alcoholic ex-wife. He's guilt-tripped into seeing what can be done about getting his aunt and invalid uncle back into their home, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. It turns out that a good man with helpful friends and a backhoe can solve a lot of problems -- including some of his own.

Time Frame: May-June 2007

Summary: The single mother of two young teenage girls is killed in a strange auto accident and the only family members able to keep them out of a foster home are Mark and Jackie Gravengood, near-retirement-age grand uncle and aunt, who never had kids of their own. The instant family has two very different girls, one big, athletic, and outgoing, the other small, shy, introverted, and studious. Mark and Jackie have to learn about kids, and the two girls have to learn about country and small-town living while everyone has to go through a difficult time in their lives.

Time Frame: December 2007 - September 2008

Summary: When you pick up a stray kitten off the street, you take on the responsibility of caring for it. High school student Cody Archer finds classmate Janice Lufkin being beaten and abused by her father and her brother. An expert with a pistol in spite of his age, he rescues her, making her an orphan in the process. Cody and his big-hearted family decide to take the shy, pathetic girl in before they think about the question of whether they're ever going to be able to make a whole person out of her. Along with that, they have another problem they didn't consider: Janice feels she owes the rest of her life to her guardian angel, Cody.

Time Frame: August 2009 - September 2010

Summary: Dr. Tricia York is a woman with a secret -- one that could blow up her medical career. Worse, by sheer bad luck she's not the only person in Spearfish Lake who knows about her dark past, and her future could depend on him keeping his silence. With hope her past will remain a secret, she begins the enormous job of taking over an aging doctor's ailing practice in the remote northern town -- and then meets a man whose past has secrets of his own.

Time Frame: August, 2010

Summary: High school aged birdwatcher Jack Erikson is a loner and something of an outcast until he comes across something unexpected while out in the woods, but it slides to the back of his mind when he rescues classmate Vixen Hvalchek from Spearfish Lake High School’s leading bully. As a result, he winds up with a girlfriend and fellow bird enthusiast, along with a some other friends he didn’t expect. That sets the tongues to wagging among the high school gossips while the bully and his friends are out for revenge. Dodging them and building a relationship at the same time is not what Jack expected out of a simple afternoon of birdwatching!

Time Frame: August, 2010

Summary: Things around Spearfish Lake High School are unsettled after the superintendent is shown the door and the high school principal leaves abruptly. Math teacher Brandy Wine is named principal, with orders to get school discipline and especially the football team under control. The football team's traditional but highly illegal pre-practice beer bust is in jeopardy since the guy who's supposed to get the beer is in jail. Jack and Vixen along with their friends are considering where to go to college and trying to stay above the hassles, since they have problems of their own, while Jack's younger brother Howie is starting to realize he's having trouble with his girlfriend. Things are going to be changing around Spearfish Lake when the dust settles!

Time Frame: August 1955, with segments in August, 2015

Summary: It's all but forgotten now, but two things scared people in the first half of the 1950s more than anything else. The atomic bomb was one of them, and infantile paralysis - polio - was the other. While polio could strike people of any age, it mostly targeted children, often crippling them for life, and sometimes killing them despite the best possible efforts available to stem the disease. When polio came to Spearfish Lake in 1955, there were only two choices that everyone faced: run and hide, or stand and fight against unknown and seemingly impossible odds, doing what little they could, however they could, for sake of the lives of the town's children.

Time Frame: August, 2010

Summary: Jack and Vixen are searching a remote area of woods around Spearfish Lake for an eagle's nest -- but they find a forest fire instead. The woods are very dry, and fast action is needed to keep the small fire from turning into a major disaster. It is a busy and fast-paced day for local volunteer firemen, railroad workers, Randy from Clark Construction, and others from around Spearfish Lake, including members of the local nudist resort, and the two high school-aged birders are right in the middle of it.

Time Frame: March - August, 2011

Summary: Things look pretty bleak for Frenchy LeDroit when he gets out after seven months in the Spearfish County Jail. His car is gone. He only has eight bucks and change. His business of selling bootleg beer to underage drinkers, gone. He has no job; he’s up to his neck in trouble with his parents and could get thrown out at any time. There are a lot of asses that need kicking, and there’s no one to help him. One of his best buddies has stabbed him in the back, and the other one isn’t going to be much help. His girlfriend has turned into a carpet muncher. No beer. How is he supposed to get along without any beer? Before jail he and his buddies had been riding on top of the world, and that’s gone now too. What else could go wrong?

Frenchy has yet to learn that when you're at the bottom of a hole, the only way out is up.

Time Frame: August 2010 - June 2013 with epilogues through April 2018

Summary: Back when Mark Gravengood was a kid, he wanted to fly a jet fighter and maybe even become an astronaut. However, his torch-lit dream was dashed when he realized that his glasses meant he couldn't qualify for either; the dream just fell in the grass and tarnished there. Nearly fifty years later, Mark's adopted daughter Bree finds the dream where he left it, polishes it up with his help, and makes it her own. But to make it become reality she has to become something other than the shy, introverted girl she's been up until now. Fortunately she finds some friends to help her grow while she pursues her goal through one of the most exciting times to ever happen in Spearfish Lake.

Time Frame: 2011-2012

Summary: Two years after graduating, Susan McMahon returns from China to her alma mater, Southern Michigan University, to check the job boards there for new foreign listings, but instead is offered a position at the university itself. This job on home soil starts at a higher salary than she’d ever dreamed possible for her to make. As the new university ombudsman, however, she discovers a co-worker she has to interact with is an old nemesis from high school. Susan ends up living with others from her home town in the same house near school she owned when attending as an undergraduate. Other students on campus show wide interests, including one girl who wears a chastity belt fulltime. The school is liberal-progressive and shies away from any campus security or police presence, then a religious fanatic shows up on a crowded Activities Fair Day with a gun and starts shooting. Can he be stopped before killing too many – and with the rule of no firearms allowed on campus, how can it be done?

The Bradford Exiles Series

Time Frame: May 1990 - December 2002

Summary: Push that button, and your life will change forever! Jennlynn Swift is a college student who's down on her luck after her parents threw her out. She sees only one hope of being able to pay for college and her flying licenses. Little could she dream that pushing the doorbell of a Nevada brothel would lead to the things it does, which include being a national hero.

Time Frame: Fall 1986 - Spring 1995

Summary: One afternoon Dayna Berkshire decided to practice her guitar at the mall -- then people started throwing money in her gig bag! An epiphany that changed her life struck her: "This beats hell out of work!" It takes a while to learn the tricks, but Dayna and her friend Sandy set out to explore the free-wheeling life of street musicians, earning their money on street corners, in shows, at renaissance faires, or wherever they can, living the lives they choose to lead. But into each life some rain must fall, and it tests just how bad Dayna wants to lead the life she's chosen.

Time Frame: Spring 1987 - October 1998

Summary: Class Reunion: People have changed by the time of the Bradford High School Class of 1988 tenth reunion, some more than others. The star athlete has become a sportscaster; the class president is now manager of a convenience store; her best friend, a peppy cheerleader, has been through a messy divorce. The happy-go-lucky party girl now has a business card that reads "Medieval Wandering Minstrel." The class valedictorian is now a multimillionaire who flies her own Learjet -- and works part-time as a prostitute. And, the kid who was universally picked on and beaten up has changed more than anyone could have possibly dreamed . . .

Time Frame: October 1998 - September 2001

Summary: Sometimes you find opportunity at home. A lot of Bradford kids "take the on-ramp" when they get out of school, heading out of their home town in search of better things -- a job, a spouse, fame, fortune. But, some don't leave, and others return when their dreams have failed. Emily is one who stayed and, from what she's heard about classmates who left her life in comparison seems dull, dull, dull. Vicky left, but came back after a disastrous marriage. Follow their lives and those of others as they learn that the home town can be a place to thrive, grow, and realize their dreams. Adventure, fun, fulfillment, excitement, respect, and love can be right outside the familiar front door, and sometimes the obvious answer is the hardest one to find.

Time Frame: September 2001 - June 2002

Summary: "I love you, Dave!" When Dave heard his wife's last words on his cell phone as he watched the World Trade Center tower fell from the sky, he felt that except for his two sons, his life wasn't worth living any more. But then, some unique old friends came out of a past he thought he'd put behind him, and helped him put his life back together again in ways he never could have expected . . . and then it was his turn to help his friends when problems arose in their lives.

Three Short Novels From The Bradford Exiles

Dodging Mom

Time Frame: July 1990 - January 1991

Summary: Racially exotic Sonja Lambert holds dual citizenship. Her mother Zivah, an Israeli Army officer, shows up expecting Sonja to do her duty in the Israeli army. Sonja, an American at heart, has no choice but to hide with her boyfriend Scott Tyler's family. It's not be best circumstances for a romance, but when things get moving quickly they take some unexpected turns!

Peeking Over the Fence

Time Frame: September - October 1998

Summary: At the Bradford Class of 1988 tenth reunion Scott and Sonja Tyler are surprised to meet a beautiful, personable blonde woman, Dr. Eve McClellan -- previously named Denis, one of the most disliked boys in the class. The upcoming Halloween party is a perfectly good excuse to explore a little of what it's like on the other side of the gender fence.

With A Little Help

Time Frame: October 1990 - August 2008

Summary: Pat McDonald is headed for the Gulf War in 1990 when he meets a classmate, Cindy Yeager, who has broken up with her former boyfriend, Russ Bradstreet; it turns into a one-night stand. Cindy winds up going back to Russ, and years later they ask Pat to help them out at time of intense personal sorrow. He agrees, with long and profound consequences.

Time Frame: March - May 2003

Summary: Medical equipment distributor and part-time Emergency Medical Technician John Engler is having one of those periods in his life when even his interruptions get interrupted. His business issues are complicated when he meets Sally Hanson, a lost classmate from the Bradford Class of 1988. She's broke and out of luck, and her daughter has just been badly injured in a car wreck. Against his better judgment, John offers to help out. And then one of his ex-wives, Mandy Paxton, shows up to rekindle the flame. A life of interruptions is nothing compared to what's coming at him now!

Time Frame: 2003-2006

Summary: Continuing the Legend of Learjet Jenn: after landing a hijacked airliner, Jennlynn Swift, also known as "Learjet Jenn, The Fastest Woman in the State of Nevada," has become the nation's most famous prostitute despite never working more than very part-time at it. It's a reputation she does not like and isn't sure how to bury after she marries her long-time lover, Air Force Sergeant Will Hoffman. She would rather live as she sees herself: a pilot, engineer, and wife. Getting rid of her past isn't going to be easy to do and is complicated by the fact that Will is half a world away. What's more, she has come to realize that her experience is not how most prostitutes end up in the life and her perceived glory might lead young, impressionable women down paths they really shouldn't take. Is there some way she can repair some of the damage while she tries to make her own life a little more like normal?

Time Frame: Circa 2001

Summary: Twelve-year-old Kayla Holst likes being barefoot, even in the winter. She runs track and cross country without shoes when they let her. In fact, Kayla has discovered she likes being totally nude and now wants to be a nudist. She wishes she had friends who did. Her girlfriends even hate changing clothes or showering in the school locker room after gym, so they aren’t going to join her for skinny dipping in their home swimming pool. She isn’t even a teenager yet, so boys don’t interest her, and she’s already smart enough to know that being nude doesn’t automatically mean sex anyway. Adults can be so stupid sometimes. Kayla’s family doesn’t yet know her preference, which severely limits her nude time. With her mother the mayor of the town, a liberation march for nudism could cause problems for her family. She’s too young to join a nudist resort, so how can she find friends who also prefer to be clothes free?

Time Frame: 2008

Summary: The 20-year reunion of the Bradford High School class of 1988 and the finale for the ten-book series. Boring old Bob Spheris meets ditzy motormouth Sharon Holdenhoven, and after not seeing each other in twenty years they kindle a torrid romance. Can Bob talk Sharon into moving to Colorado with him? Sharon has doubts as to whether a relationship would work. During all this, the couple works to extract a young newlywed couple from a religious cult. This book contains more sex than Wes’s usual writing.

The Bullring Series

Time Frame: April 1944 - July 1954

Summary: Mel Austin didn't want to be just a farmhand for his brother, so after the Army and World War II, he attended college on the GI Bill. But after graduating, he couldn't stand the thought of teaching in a big-city slum high school, either. A wartime friend asks him to join his ragtag midget auto racing show, Mel figures it's a better job than pumping gas until school starts. In love with the thrills, action, and a chance to see the country, he spends several years vagabonding with the show through the turbulent and now half-forgotten world of the early 1950s. Adventure and new friends abound, and his life winds up going to places he could never have dreamed.

Time Frame: July 1954 - May 1967

Summary: Dirt-track race-car driver Mel Austin is badly injured in a crash and wakes up in the hospital being nursed by friend and fellow driver Arlene. They decide it's time to grow up and live a more conventional life, so marry and settle down to teaching and nursing, jobs they both like. But, they've been racing cars long enough that it's hard to stay away from the tracks and out of the cars on them . . . How can they scratch the itch without exposure to the danger? A blast back into the past, to the fun, adventure, trials and tribulations of short-track racing back in the 1960s!

Time Frame: April - September 1984

Summary: Ginger Marston had a very bad day when a crooked auto mechanic tried to rob her -- but it was also a very good day when she met Ray Austin, son of Bradford Speedway owner Mel Austin. Their meeting propels Ginger into being a part of a world she hardly knew existed. From a budding romance to the thrills of short track auto racing, from trouble with her family to a small part in a historic moment at the Indianapolis 500, Ginger is off on an adventure that will change her life forever.

Time Frame: March - August 2003

Summary: This is a sweet, heartwarming story of a young teenage girl and her little pony – pony stock that is, an old four-cylinder economy car converted into a short-track racing car. Telzey’s parents are both in the Army and have been sent to the Persian Gulf as the 2003 war is brewing, so she is staying with her grandparents. Telzey, a racing fan, is sick with worry about her parents, but her new nextdoor neighbors have things that divert her attention, since they’re the family who operates the Bradford Speedway. What’s more, their racer son Will is Telzey’s age, and they become friends almost immediately. It doesn’t take long before Telzey becomes more than just a racing fan!

Full Sails

Time Frame: Late '70s or early 80s.

Summary: Jake Lewis is at odds with his family over a girl he thought was his life partner who doesn't seem to feel that way. He doesn't know what to do except go looking for a new life somewhere else. Helping on a marina fuel dock, crewing on a Great Lakes charter fishing boat, and learning to sail help to take his mind off a cheating fiancée and his family problems, but not enough. Will the new friends he's made, including some rather special girls, help him find new direction and goals? And perhaps a new love from an unexpected quarter?

Time Frame: '00s

Summary: Matt Caldwell, fresh out of college and in remission from leukemia, knows his life could be short. He wants to wring as much experience as he can from a few years off before he starts a career. On a whim as he sets sail out of Newfoundland bound for Ireland on his elderly twenty-five foot boat, he agrees to take local girl Mary O'Leary with him less than an hour after meeting her. Despite very different backgrounds, the two tend to see many things the same way. A iceberg encounter in the North Atlantic, cruising the British Isles, Norwegian fjords, the Baltic, European canals, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean are all adventures of a lifetime for both of them, despite parents and other difficulties they have to face -- but at least they can face them together.

Time Frame: '10s

Summary: It takes the death of his son Matt for Adam Caldwell to realize that his life is in a rut with a job and a wife that he's long since lost interest in, and he needs to change things somehow. He's not sure what he wants to do with the rest of his life, or how to go about doing it. Buying a sailboat and following in his son's footsteps seems to offer some potential for building a life he can enjoy. It's not a simple process and there are storms to face, more of them on land than at sea before he can reach the distant shores of happiness.

Time Frame: '10s

Summary: Amanda Lewis spends her summers working in the often exciting family business of fishing charters on Lake Huron, but her winters are cold, dull, and boring. In Florida, where it’s warm, she’s looking for a cheap boat she can live on, and her Coast Guardsman brother has found a possibility in the Rag Doll. But at first sight the boat is grubby, dirty, and needs lots of restoration, so it is a very sad Rag Doll. In better days it must have been a doll of a boat, flying the glad rags of her sails, a bone in her teeth as she sailed across bright ocean waves toward some distant, exotic destination. She could tell that this boat didn’t deserve to be sitting sad and forlorn at the edge of a swamp in a muddy backwater. There was a soul of a boat waiting to be freed from its misery. It would be a lot of work, but deep down inside she knew there could be a lot of satisfaction for doing it, too. “Yes, Rag Doll,” she said softly, “you and I are going to have some great times together.”

Independents

Not part of any series -- at least yet!

Time Frame: May 1983 to Autumn 1986

Summary: 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

Time Frame: September 2005 - September 2006

Summary: 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!

Time Frame:1958 - 2013

Summary: 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.

Time Frame: 2015

Summary: 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.

Time Frame: 1965-2017

Summary: 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?

Time Frame: Undetermined but recent

Summary: 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.

Time Frame: 2010 */-

Summary: 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.

Time Frame: 2014 */-

Summary: 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.

Chelsea is forced to relocate for a living-wage job, and Kyle then moves to a much better job creating an even-greater separation. Both date others but keep in touch. Kyle tries to form other relationships, but the results are hilariously disastrous. Chelsea’s are ho-hum. No cameras are involved in either’s new relationship attempts, though Kyle does take some pictures. Chelsea can no longer do bathing suit selfies as she would be fired if she were found out.

A long-distance relationship can’t work for them, so they have to get close up.

This is a Wes Boyd story and you fans know they get back together, but how? And then what happens? You’ll just have to read the book.

Time Frame: The Future

Summary: 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?

Time Frame: Undetermined but recent

Summary: 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?

by Wes Boyd writing as Ron Webb

Time Frame: Mid to late 2003

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!

Time Frame:

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. Often you’ll get two chapters posting as one, but you’re used to that now.

This book is listed as an Independent because the various stories relate to different series, or none.

This is an anthology of four new works, much like the previous book "Slippery Slopes - Three Tales of Bondage" published in 2020. To expand this purchased version, there are ten more stories included from the Shorts & Rants section of this site. You've already read them, but hopefully some would like "official" versions in a book file. Information about each title appears on the relevant page.

New works

Other "Shorts" included in the volume

Wes Boyd's Bibliography

Contents

The Spearfish Lake Series:

The Dawnwalker Series

The New Spearfish Lake Series

The Bradford Exiles Series

The Bullring Series

Full Sails

Independents

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