INTRODUCTION: The Story Behind the Story!

The story to follow was originally published, in bits and pieces, at the now-defunct "Bonanza.com" forum.

You may occasionally see a reference to "FFE" - that's short for "Fan Fiction Exercise". Each week the owner of the Board would provide a subject (for example, "A Bucket"; "A Cradle") and Board members would write short "fan fiction" pieces based on that suggestion.

It was great fun, and I recently came across a story I had started, back in 2004, and never finished. First I lost interest in Bonanza and stopped visiting the Board. Then later on, when I got interested again, I found they'd disappeared.

Perhaps they still exist, with some other URL.

Or perhaps they've gone to that great Internet Archive in the sky.

Whatever happened, I thank them for all the fun and inspiration they provided to Bonanza fans and would-be writers ... like me!

****And ANOTHER update! Although this story had already been published in this very blog wayyy back in 2009, since it's now 2012, I've decided to update the whole thing, and make it available for the Kindle as well.

Wowsa! Isn't time travel fun?

And now - on with the story!