All right, here's another excerpt

From WIP "Upamona Gold":



Colleen was in a dither ever since she heard that Mr. Toller had been shot. She just knew that her new beau [Red Skene] was involved in it, and she ws worried sick. She refused to come out of her room, except to grab something to eat at mealtimes after everyone else had eaten.

"Colleen! You got to stop acting like a child," her mother said. "What's bothering you? Is it something to do with that outlaw feller? What's his name, Skene?"

Her mother had caught her sneaking into the kitchen for food again and wanted to know what was going on with her.

"You been acting like this ever since Tim [her brother] went to Roosevelt and got held up by those awful men. Tell me what is it that's got you in such a mess?"

"Oh, mother, I don't want to talk about it, but my world's coming apart," Colleen wailed.

"It's that Mr. Skene, isn't it? You think he's in cahoots with those bad men, don't you? And he seemed like such a nice gentleman, too, even though he just got out of prison and the papers called him the most famous outlaw in Utah. Just what did he do, anyway, to get such a bad reputation?"

"Nothing, mother. He said he didn't do anything, and I know he can't be mixed up in that store business, like people were talking at the funeral." She couldn't bring herself to say "killing."

"Didn't Tim tell you it was Graves who shot Mr. Toller?"

"I know, but folks at the funeral were saying it had to be Red, er-uh, Mr. Skene, that done it."

"That's just talk, Colleen. You know how gossip goes. It gets a story all twisted the more folks talk about it. And, before you know it, it ain't nothing like what acually happpened. You're beginning to like that feller too much, Colleen. With all the nice young men her in Upamona, you're falling for that outlaw, and you shouldn't be. The next thing you know, you'll be looking to run off somewhere with him and we'll never see you again. You got to stop this nonsense, Colleen. There's someone knocking at the door. Go get yourself presentable."

"Oh, mother, I don't want to see anybody!" and she went back to her room, as her mother went to see who was knocking.

Well, there it is, just a bit of it. That is the beginning of Chapter 14. There's two or three more chapters to bring it to some sort of dramatic conclusion.

Now that it's Monday morning and about everyone has to be at work or somewhere or going Christmas shopping maybe, the least that I can do is forewarn you to be careful on the slick roads, as if you hadn't already heard that a thousand times before. There were a plethora of accidents in the mountains yesterday during the first "good" snowstorm of the season, about 150 of one kind or another in and around Flagstaff, AZ, that the TV news had to tell everyone about.