Stories by Marla Fair
Summary:

All sixteen-year-old Hoss wanted was a Christmas kiss from Ellie Miller.  He was so excited he set off for the Miller's place before his brothers.  Instead of a kiss, Hoss was soon hoping for a Christmas miracle. 


Categories: Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 2 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 8128 Read Count: 66
Published: 12/19/2019 Updated: 12/19/2019 [Report This]
A Heart of Stone by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 15]
Summary:

A new school teacher comes to town and Adam and Hoss fear their little brother is growing too attached to her. Little do they know that the real danger is to their father. Will Ben's heart break if he dares to love again, and what secrets does this mysterious woman hold?

 


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 12 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 50224 Read Count: 249
Published: 11/12/2019 Updated: 11/12/2019 [Report This]
Summary:

The ending of the pilot episode of Bonanza has always bothered me. Would Alphaeus Troy and the mine owners really have given up that easily?  What if the fight in Chinatown had ended differently and Little Joe never made that dinner date with Lotta Crabtree...?

Rated: PG-13 for Western violence and brutality

Word Count: 21,226


Categories: What Happens Instead?, Drama Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 7 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 21389 Read Count: 279
Published: 01/17/2019 Updated: 01/17/2019 [Report This]
A Switch in His Shoe by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 4]
Summary:

Written for 2016's celebration of Dan Blocker's birthday on Boomers.  

Lena and Charles Hoffweister have come to the Ponderosa for their annual December visit bringing tales of Germany's Wienachsten and its mystical creatures.  As strange things begin to happen in the ranch house, Hoss Cartwright becomes convinced that St. Nick's man-servant, a feller he calls 'K-necked', has come to bring judgment on them all.  


Categories: Prequel, Action/Adventure, Comedy, Holiday Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 3 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 14585 Read Count: 117
Published: 12/09/2016 Updated: 12/09/2016 [Report This]
A Tale Told By An Idiot by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 3]
Summary:

It is 1875. Two years later, Joe Cartwright's inability to cope with his wife's death is ruining his life. His Pa thinks getting away might be the answer. Little does Ben know that his decision will put Joe's life in danger, as well as the lives of the Ingalls' family who take a wounded Joe in and bring the wrath of a man who hates him down on their heads.


Categories: Drama Characters: Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 3 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 55673 Read Count: 76
Published: 10/14/2017 Updated: 10/14/2017 [Report This]
A Velly Merry Christmas Dinner by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 5]
Summary:

Little Joe Cartwright pushes through a snowstorm and arrives home to find things not as they should be.  He knows where his pa and brothers are - but where is Hop Sing? 


Categories: Holiday, Prequel Characters: Hop Sing
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Completed: No Word count: 3036 Read Count: 32
Published: 12/23/2020 Updated: 12/23/2020 [Report This]
Summary:

Fifteen-year-old Joe Cartwright dropped his gaze to the vast forest before him with its tall pines, low bushes, and tangled undergrowth – all of them buried in three to four foot high drifts. He was alone. All around him was silence and snow. Winter was a whole different kind of desert.


Categories: Prequel, Drama Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 7 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 21012 Read Count: 194
Published: 01/14/2020 Updated: 01/14/2020 [Report This]
A Winter's Tale - Going Home by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 14]
Summary:

It is 1847 and such a winter had never been seen!  Snowstorms and squalls.  Sleet and ice.  Winds so ferocious they built drifts high as a man.  Driven by a need to escape the memory of his late wife, Ben Cartwright ventures out into a frozen landscape and becomes lost.  As he seeks a way to survive, he has no way of knowing that another member of the family has become lost as well.  Will the killer snow claim two Cartwright lives?


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 5 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 21137 Read Count: 159
Published: 01/14/2021 Updated: 01/14/2021 [Report This]
Summary:

Just before Christmas Ben Cartwright makes a choice he will soon regret. He allows his twelve-year-old son, Joseph, to help the young woman who is filling in for Abigail Jones over the holidays find her way home. Little does Ben know that the blue sky of morning will soon become the deep gray of an approaching storm, and that his son and his teacher will need a miracle to survive.


Categories: Prequel, Action/Adventure, Drama, Holiday Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 4 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 12396 Read Count: 135
Published: 12/13/2017 Updated: 12/13/2017 [Report This]
Summary:

ButterfliesA WHN for both the episode 'A Time to Step Down' and 'Lonely House'. Five years have passed and Trock has been released from prison and returned to marry Lee Bolden. Little does the former bank robber know, but his past is about to catch up to him - and Joe Cartwright - in the form of a man whose dark secret only Dan Tollivar knows


Categories: Drama Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 14 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 62276 Read Count: 249
Published: 09/30/2019 Updated: 09/30/2019 [Report This]
Summary:

A sequel to both 'Doubt That the Stars Are Fire' and 'Thirty Six Ways Out of Trouble'.  It has been five years since Joe Cartwright took Bella Carnaby as his wife and nearly twenty since he first met Rosey O'Rourke – a woman he knows his father loves, but one that life and time has conspired to keep away from the Ponderosa. A new threat and an old enemy appear to threaten the Cartwrights – will the end of their collective tale be joy, or tragedy?


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Sequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Candy Canady, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 4 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 82012 Read Count: 97
Published: 10/14/2018 Updated: 10/14/2018 [Report This]
Autumn at the Ranch - Bittersweet by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 7]
Summary:

Autumn at the Ranch submission.  It is October, a time of looking back and giving thanks for a harvest of blessings.  For Joe Cartwright, this is impossible.  The autumn marks one year since he lost his beloved brother, Hoss. Needing to escape, Joe heads out to visit to Carrie Pickett.  He never makes it.  Instead, Joe finds himself lost and alone and badly injured. Half-dead, he works his way toward a plume of smoke rising in the distance.  Little does Joe suspect that what he finds at the end of his journey will change his life forever.


Categories: Drama, What Happens Before? Characters: Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 7 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 22366 Read Count: 196
Published: 10/22/2018 Updated: 10/22/2018 [Report This]
Be a Candle by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 3]
Summary:

Every year, on the night before Christmas Eve, Hop Sing would make candles.  Now, candles are kind of old fashioned, so I asked him why.  This is the tale he told me, a tale of wonder and grace.  


Categories: Drama, Holiday Characters: Hop Sing, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 3926 Read Count: 14
Published: 12/25/2021 Updated: 12/25/2021 [Report This]
Belly of the Whale by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 3]
Summary:

14 year old Joe Cartwright was just trying to do something nice for a friend. Older brother Adam didn't see it that way. An argument between brothers sets off a series of events that turns into an unstoppable torrent of trouble which leaves one of Ben Cartwright's sons with a terrible task to perform, and another near death, trapped in the Belly of the Whale.


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 5 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 76979 Read Count: 421
Published: 01/11/2017 Updated: 01/11/2017 [Report This]
Big Things by Marla Fair Rated: PG [Reviews - 9]
Summary:

For  the late Debbie B or Debbie Beshears and written in her honor.  Eleven-year-old Little Joe Cartwright is on a mission.  His friend, Sarah Winnemucca, needs his help and so, he sets out to find her in the woods.  Of course, since this is Little Joe Cartwright, he's bound to find something else as well - BIG trouble! 


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 7 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 32912 Read Count: 42
Published: 07/07/2022 Updated: 07/07/2022 [Report This]
BLOOD AND BREAD by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 7]
Summary:

Twelve-year-old Little Joe is late for supper. Hop Sing is hopping mad and Adam is none too pleased. When he heads for the stable to look for his brother, Adam expects an argument – what he gets is something else entirely. Something that begins in terror and rolls on toward tragedy. Will the Cartwrights ever be the same?

SJS,SAS,JPM,KIDNAP


Categories: Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 4 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 93030 Read Count: 235
Published: 06/22/2017 Updated: 06/22/2017 [Report This]
Bootless Cries by Marla Fair Rated: PG-13 [Reviews - 11]
Summary:

Who would have thought that a pair of missing boots would propel the Cartwrights into the nightmare world of a madman? One morning Joe wakes up to find his boots gone and the mystery of how he lost them - and who is wearing them - leads to a series of events that could cost not only Joe's life, but Adam and Hoss' as well


Categories: Action/Adventure, Mystery Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 5 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 58796 Read Count: 486
Published: 03/29/2016 Updated: 06/22/2017 [Report This]
Bring Marie by Marla Fair Rated: PG [Reviews - 10]
Summary:

Summary:  A WHB or prequel to 'Between Heaven and Earth.' Have you ever wondered what happened when Little Joe climbed Eagle's Nest as a five year old boy that could have been so traumatic it resulted, not just in a fear of falling, but in total amnesia that lasted for nearly 20 years? This is my take on what happened when Ben Cartwright was told to 'Bring Marie'.


Categories: What Happens Before?, Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 8 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 31043 Read Count: 158
Published: 04/11/2018 Updated: 04/11/2018 [Report This]
Doubt That The Stars Are Fire by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 1]
Summary:

You asked for it - the next installment of the Joe Cartwright/Bella Carnaby story. Sequel to 'In The Darkness As In The Light'. Eight years have passed since Joe and Bella met. Both have experienced great tragedy. A letter from Ben Cartwright paves the way for them to meet again. But is it too late for their love?

Rated PG-13

This story takes place post-canon.


Categories: Drama, Romance Characters: Ben Cartwright, Candy Canady, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Jamie Hunter, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 3 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 62589 Read Count: 73
Published: 06/04/2017 Updated: 06/04/2017 [Report This]
Forget Me Not - Prop Fiction by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 5]
Summary:

Adam Cartwright sentimental?  A certain day and a certain blue velvet chair hold bittersweet memories.  


Categories: Comedy, Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 3030 Read Count: 56
Published: 03/27/2019 Updated: 03/27/2019 [Report This]
Gully Washer by Marla Fair Rated: PG-13 [Reviews - 25]
Summary:

With a storm approaching, Little Joe heads out to find the prize foal his father is so fond of and is caught in a flash flood.  While his brothers deal with their own fears, Ben Cartwright fights a battle to overcome despair and grief and face the very real fear that Joe may never be found. 


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 9 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 43303 Read Count: 643
Published: 02/14/2016 Updated: 02/14/2016 [Report This]
Her Angel Arms by Marla Fair Rated: Family Friendly [Reviews - 4]
Summary:

 

For all the mothers who give us so much.

An innocent comment by the reverend at church sends 40 year old Ben Cartwright on a journey into his young son's hearts.  

 


Categories: Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 3434 Read Count: 65
Published: 05/16/2019 Updated: 05/16/2019 [Report This]
Summary:

This is a sequel to 'Sunshine with a Little Hurricane' which, in turn, is a sequel to 'Wet Bottom, Warm Heart'.

A burned out stagecoach lies on its side, the victim of an Indian raid. There's a name on the coach manifest that makes Joe Cartwright's heart stand still. Can it be that Elizabeth Carnaby is dead? And, as the man who robbed the coach seeks personal vengeance against Ben Cartwright's youngest son – can Joe himself survive?


Categories: Drama, Romance Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 3 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 102215 Read Count: 147
Published: 04/06/2017 Updated: 04/06/2017 [Report This]
Summary:

Created for the Bonanza Boomers 'In the heat of the moment' summer challenge to write a story set in the hottest time of year. Twenty-one year old Hoss Cartwright has a problem. Older brother Adam just took off into the desert without a word and Little Joe wants to follow him. Pa will have his hide, he knows. But it's awful hard to say 'no' to Little Joe...


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Prequel Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright
Series: None
Chapters: 7 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 21451 Read Count: 189
Published: 09/09/2018 Updated: 09/09/2018 [Report This]
Summary:

Ben Cartwright's meeting with Alpheus Troy and the other mine owners did not go well.  They want his timber and he won't give it to them.  The rancher knows Troy will do whatever it takes to keep his mine running, and when he arrives home to find out Little Joe is missing, he fears the worst.  A prequel to 'A Rose for Lotta' that takes place in the hot dry dusty days of summer.  My answer to the 'In the Heat of the Moment' summer challenge. 


Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Prequel, What Happens Before? Characters: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hop Sing, Hoss (Eric) Cartwright, Little Joe Cartwright, Sheriff Roy Coffee
Series: None
Chapters: 6 Table of Contents
Completed: Yes Word count: 19905 Read Count: 242
Published: 08/05/2020 Updated: 08/05/2020 [Report This]