© 2026 AWI – adventure writers ink. All rights reserved.
Stories revived from the archive, glowing with grit, grace, and a touch of ghostlight.
These tales — some western, some wistful, some wildly unexpected — were written decades ago and have waited patiently for their second breath. Dusted off and polished for the trail ahead, they carry the marks of their time and the timelessness of good storytelling.
From the dusty roads of The Long Trail Home to the spectral gold of Motherlode, from the quiet ache of A Texas Story to the poetic constellation of Coyote Star Song, each piece stands alone — yet together they form a living archive of voices, visions, and vintage truths.
Some are short stories. One’s a novella. One is a sisterhood of poems and paintings.
What binds them isn’t genre — it’s revival.
These are the old brands, still glowing.
A Texas Story
A short Texas story. ©1992 by CS Norwood. All rights reserved.
A story of love and loss, set in the early 1990s.
📝 Author’s Note for A Texas Story
This story was written more than thirty years ago, and like its central character, it has waited quietly for its moment to return. A Texas Story is not a western, not a romance, not a mystery — though it carries traces of all three. It is a memory, dusted off. A tale of pride, betrayal, and the long echo of regret.
Violet Sheldon is not a heroine. She is not innocent. But she is human — flawed, lonely, and still reaching for connection in a world that has moved on. Her final dance is not redemption, but remembrance. A ritual of longing. A moment of imagined grace.
This story belongs to the AWI OLD BRANDS collection — a place for tales that have waited, aged, and now return with their scars and beauty intact.
Motherlode
A short western story. ©1992 by CS Norwood. All rights reserved.
A legendary family comes together to claim their motherlode in a lonely, dangerous, and ghostly place.
Motherlode
When three drifting brothers answer a mysterious telegram from their elusive Uncle Hazel, they’re drawn deep into the Ghost Mountains — a place of danger, legend, and unexpected beauty. What begins as a reunion becomes a revelation as Hazel unveils the true “motherlode” he’s spent twenty years protecting. Gold, or something far richer?
A classic Western tale of kinship, grit, and the treasure a man finds when he finally comes home.
Amelia’s Legacy
A short story. ©1992 by CS Norwood. All rights reserved.
Retracing the flightpath of a legend ends with spectral truth and an unforeseen outcome.
Author’s Note — Amelia’s Legacy
First written in 1992, Amelia’s Legacy is a story that lives in the space between history and haunting—where a young girl’s courage meets the lingering echo of an aviation legend. Whether readers choose to see Amelia Earhart as a flesh‑and‑blood survivor or a guiding spirit shaped by memory and myth, the heart of the tale remains the same: legacy is carried forward by those brave enough to listen. This story is preserved here in the AWI Old Books collection as a reminder that some mysteries endure not to be solved, but to inspire the storyteller in each of us.
The Mysterious Skier in the Talkeetna Mountains
Stranger than Fiction.
© 2023 Jerry J. Jacques & CS Norwood
The Mysterious Skier …
From the AWI-adventure writers ink Archive:
Some stories in the far north feel less like memories and more like echoes — strange events repeating themselves across decades, as if the wilderness keeps its own ledger. In the 1930s, the Mad Trapper of Rat River confounded the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Fifty years later, high in the Talkeetna Mountains, Jerry Jacques and a handful of Alaskans found themselves drawn into a hauntingly similar pursuit.
What began as a simple winter visit among friends turned into a slow‑building mystery. Jerry’s firsthand account of events brings readers into the heart of the chase — part wilderness thriller, part frontier enigma, and entirely true.
This is one of those rare Alaska stories that lingers long after the last line, not because it resolves neatly, but because it doesn’t.
First published on AWI‑AdventureWriters.com, this true story from Jerry’s Alaska years parallels the legendary Mad Trapper of Rat River by Dick North in ways that still give us chills. We link it here as part of the AWI OLD BRANDS collection — a home for the tales that shaped our early voice.
COMING SOON!
The Long Trail Home – A novella. ©1991 by CS Norwood. All rights reserved.
A western legacy brought to life, chapter by chapter.
Thespians – A short story. ©1992 by CS Norwood. All rights reserved.
Unlikely actors come together for a very unlikely outcome.
One Murder Too Many – A short story. ©1992 by CS Norwood. All rights reserved.
It’s a detective story… or is it?
Coyote Star Song: The Story of Us – A compilation of haiku, poems, writings and paintings by three sisters. © 2019-2026 by Sylvia Lynne, Kathleen I, and CS Norwood.
The Journey of Us in poetry, prose, and reflection woven into a living archive.