It is 1871 in Idaho Territory, and fourteen-year-old Samuel Chambers is, in many ways, already a man. After journeying west with his father in search of a golden ledge, Samuel nds himself living in the midst of a raucous mining camp lled with gold-hungry Chinese. Gold is scarce, and everyone wants it-including Samuel, whose main goal in life is to get "lucky rich." But Samuel has no idea that the path to achieving his dream is lined with danger like he has never seen before.

Samuel refuses to believe all the naysayers as he embarks on a journey from placer mining to prospecting and from peddling merchandise to running assays. But life in the Wild West is unpredictable, and there are those so intent on nding riches that they will kill anyone who happens to get in their way. Even as danger lurks in the shadows, Samuel cannot keep his eyes o Miss Lilly, a beautiful dancehall lady who intrigues him more than he would like to admit. Despite his attempts to balance a courtship with achieving his dream, nothing prepares Samuel for what is about to happen next.

In this compelling historical tale, a teenager on a coming-of-age journey in remote Idaho faces prejudice and peril as he struggles to carve a living from the land and build a new future.

Collected here are eleven short stories by Jiggs Sluss. They cover a wide range of subject matter. Within these covers you will find tales of the Old West; stories about men who go off to three wars: World War Two, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War; there's even a story about a private detective whose canny eyes never miss a clue and another about two West Virginia boys who realize their dreams and play in the major league.

HIS RESTLESS HEART BEAT TO A RHYTHM OF ITS OWN- a rhythm that had once been so prevalent in the core of his soul, but had long been lost under the thick layers of routine, expectation, and responsibility created by a quiet, civilized life. Konrad Quintero de Leon, a young American man, having just returned home to New York after his schooling at Oxford University, decides to venture west to rediscover that lost rhythm and peel off the layers that have muffled it for so long.

Set in the 1840s, some of America's most restless years, Konrad begins an endless journey in search of his own "manifest destiny." He embarks on a westward expedition with the famous explorer John C. Fremont and legendary mountain man Kit Carson. He roams the wild Texas frontier with the Texas Rangers and fights in the bloody Battle of Monterrey under the command of General Zachary Taylor. But the life of a restless wanderer is not an easy one, as Konrad discovers when he falls in love with the beautiful and exciting Anastasia Carriere-the fiancee of another man. He is cast into a desperate battle where he must choose between the woman he loves and the adventure that he craves.

Everyone suffers from the trial and tribulation of life. This is a story of a man determined to keep a promise made to his dying wife, the greatest tribulation of all. Tyrell Carson is forced to travel thousands of miles and endure years of loneliness only to suddenly be thrown into troubles not of his own making. But he is a survivor that protects the innocent while solving a mystery long forgotten. And perhaps, falling in love again.

Did you ever wounder what your ancestor's lives were like? This is an account of an actual family that homesteaded in Nebraska in the19th century. They struggled through a prairie fire, blizzards, dust storms and opposition to their very existence. Although they lived on borrowed money most of the time and squeezed every penny, they were able to increase their land holdings. The original 160 acre homestead evolved into a ranch of more than7,000 acres 60 years later. Actual local area history is woven into this family's lives during six decades. Such as the time Buffalo Bill went to Rushville to recruite Indians for his Wild West Shows. Included is the effect upon the family of the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. The Furman and Jackson families are true. Also, Buffalo Bill, Jules Sandoz, and Jim Asay were actual people. All other names are fictitious.

Cody Winters, a former lawman and most recently a trapper in the rugged northern wilderness of Arizona, was headed for Camp Wood-a town where he hoped to settle down and begin a new life for himself. He would soon learn that strangers were not always welcomed in Camp Wood. Those that stayed too long typically ended up at the undertakers. From the moment he rode into town, he fell under the critical sharp-eyed gaze of the always ruthless and often corrupt town marshal. As Cody rode up the street, he fell under the curious blue-eyed gaze of another set of eyes as well. They belonged to Miss Holly Granger, the beautiful daughter of a prosperous cattle rancher. The rancher's daughter and the former lawman would soon meet and, from that moment on, see their lives swept away toward an unforeseen adventure, and with it ... hidden danger at every turn. "This riveting story of the Old West is packed with adventure, danger, old-fashion frontier justice, and steamy romance." -the Author

Manolete, last of the great Apache chiefs, has broken out of the reservation, and terror sweeps southern Arizona. Ranchers scramble for their weapons in the certainty that Manolete and his braves will now seek a terrible revenge. In a small town in the path of the Apaches, eleven-year-old Katy Malone and her widowed mother are living a quiet life when a cavalry officer rides into their world. On the eve of retirement, Colonel Red McGregor pauses for a moment to water his horse, but a freckled face and a sudden smile stop him and change his life forever. Apacheria is the tale of a fatherless little girls longing and love, and of two old enemies and their final confrontation at the frontiers of humanity.