Stories

A romance inspired by two photographs from the late 19th century. Some of the historical details and people of the story are from the actual history of Franklin, NH; others, including the two main characters, are fictional. I have changed their names from the names written on the backs of the photographs.

A lot can occur in a single day, and this day starts with Virgil Pruitt riding into a sad, struggling Texas town seven years after the end of the Mexican-American War. Sometimes it's not easy to be a good man, one who calls out unfair hate when he sees it, but Virgil doesn't always look for easy. Will he pay the price for being such a man, or will he be rewarded for standing up for young Wyatt Burnham?

This is the story of two high-schoolers in the mid-70s growing closer and learning about life and love in rural Ohio. All songs and key phrases are linked to a video.

Aleksander has finished university and come home to his father's estate accompanied by his new friend and companion, Daniil Vinogradov. Daniil is a modern man who has been studying art and has ideas and passions that both influence and overwhelm Aleksander. There is a clash of old and new, a furore that threatens the peace and calm. Revolutionary ideas and sensuality form a heady mix that one might not survive.

“But whom to love?
To trust and treasure?
Who won’t betray us in the end?
And who’ll be kind enough to measure
Our words and deeds as we intend?”
― Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin.

A young man finds love twice

Somesh was resigned, if not content, to live and die in the same place as his mother, working for meagre wages and whatever scraps of food he could squirrel away for himself. But after a fateful game of dice, he found himself whisked away to parts unknown.

Boone and Coy have built a damn good life in Larkspur, and feel on top of the world at being able to share such blessings with each other. The Old West has its challenges for men made like them, but everything is falling into place on their little piece of the frontier... until an unexpected visitor shows up out of the blue. Suddenly, their world is turned upside down as they struggle to help the troubled man.

One summer well before the Bolshevik revolution, when Russia was a noble country, young Alexei, as was the custom of the time, left the city with his family, for the countryside.

It was a time of discovery, excitement, longing, and also sadness. A time in which he made new acquaintances and fought battles with himself, as the child he still was struggled free from many constraints into a world of dangerous possibilities.

Life in the Old West was harsh. The work was hard, but the men were harder, and death.... well... it came easy. Boone had no one until he met Coy, a handsome cowboy with a good heart. Their friendship was quickly formed, and meant everything to him, but after five years of being at each other's side, it was time to move on. Coy didn't need him anymore, and Boone wanted someone made like he was. Finally accepting that was never going to be Coy, and tired of being rootless, he sets out to find a home... land that was his, and a place he could belong. Coy? Left on his own, what path will he take?

This story starts in June of 2003. The invasion of Iraq is over, George Bush has landed on the aircraft carrier and proclaimed "Mission Accomplished", and the insurgency has yet to begin. Some may think America is at the height of its power.

Meanwhile, in the CAP world:

JJ and Will, both in doomed relationships that seem to be working. Will they unravel, and if they do, who is behind it?