J B Patel: 11 books

Lonesome Valley is the first short story of this book. The characters include a retired army captain devastated by the lost of his wife and child, he is looking for lonesome, she has lost everything, together they fight to reclaim their lives. Other stories in the book include a wizened old sheriff and...

"Walking Mountain-Shadow Spirit" is about a thirteen year old runaway that has listened to many stories of mountain men and believes living in the mountains would be preferred to living at home. Tired of the exclusion at home he successfully lives on his own in the mountains until he is badly injured....

The five-star ranch is a collection of short stories set in the old West. Stories about a runaway befriended and growing up on a ranch, of a rancher realizing he has nobody to take over after he is gone, a story of a lad traveling westward and coming to the aid of an Indian boy on the way. Other stories...

My stories are set mostly in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, my characters come from Wisconsin, Minnesota and sometimes right out of the orphanage.

The Fated Winchester is about a boy who runs away after killing his father while trying to save his mother. He seeks to hide by getting on the orphan train and being indentured at a cattle ranch. Instead he ends up with a drunken Wyoming sheep owner at a time when big cattle ranches ruled the range....

During the era of the orphan trains, up to a quarter of a million orphaned, neglected or abandoned children were removed mostly from larger populations and dispersed throughout the country. The lucky ones were adopted into well intentioned families, some were indentured, enslaved and terribly abused....

Nothing could erase the smile etched on the face of the convict named Rock. The heat of the summer Arizona sun beating on his bare back, blood trickling from the six-inch bullwhip gash on his back, the sound of a dozen mauls smashing rocks, the dust; all were testament to the deck stacked against him...

Spirit Mountain is a collection of three short books. Conway, in “Spirit Mountain,” runs away as a child and is captured by Indians who then give him to a mountain man. In the story “Knife,” he is abducted as a child, raised by a paid keeper, sold to pirates with orders to kill; he escapes...

Love in the Amish community has rigid boundaries, speaking out by females in church or meeting is forbidden. In this story, from the outset, Sarianna is at odds with the Bishop of a small and strict Swartzentruber Amish district.Sarianna breaks the Amish mold. In a male dominated society she is willing...

While some recognized their duty and went to fight in the war between the North and South, others intended to make a profit by staying behind. As fifteen year-old Amy grabbed Lance’s sleeve she knew she was heading off a fight between him and four of the Keating boys. That night after the dance, Lance...

The Orphan Train ran from 1854 until 1929, according to records at the Monroe County Library in Sparta, Wisconsin, the train stopped taking children from the Sparta facility in 1933. The Orphan Train idea was born in New York which had about 30,000 street orphans in 1854. It is estimated, from 150,000...