Zanski: Stories

Set in the American southwest of the late 19th Century, men and women in the U.S. State of Arenoso take on all hazards for family, friends, and community, not so much civilizing the West as much as humanizing it. Sometimes with guns. While there is a finished plot in each book, they sre best read in order, for purposes of character specifics and backstory. A five-book series, Arenoso Trails progresses in the titles' alphabetical order. # # # # © ZANSKI # # # # AUTHOR'S NOTES & COPYRIGHT NOTICE # # # # [Works of fiction] -- The events, characters, business firms, government entitie # # # # - - [ © ZANSKI ] - - # # # # - - [ AUTHOR'S NOTES & COPYRIGHT NOTICE ] - - # # # # [ Works of fiction ] - The events, characters, business firms, government entities, public and private organizations or associations depicted herein are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual business firms, government entities, or other organizations or associations is coincidental. # # # # [ All rights reserved ] - No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. # # # # [ Historical Considerations ] - Historical events are integrated within narrative parameters, however, those events and characters should be understood as fictional as they may be altered in time, place, substance, or characterization. # # # # [ Cultural & Language References ] - The American English vocabulary is purposely accurate to the depicted cultural periods. Consequently, outdated and currently offensive cultural references, words, and phrases may be used, including racial, ethnic, gender, and other slurs or demeaning language. # # # # [ Non English Usage & Representation ] - Some accent, diacritic, and punctuation marks have been removed from non-English words to make them more accessible to the casual reader and to reduce digital transposition errors in conversions between systems. The informal pronunciations offered are for convenience and are not derived from a recognized lexicon. # # # # [ Content Advisory ] - This work may contain depictions of graphic violence, including but not limited to homicide, torture, sexual assault, child abuse, and animal cruelty, relevant within cultural settings. # # # # [ Cover Art ©2026 Zanski ] - for each and every posted story: Back Trail, False Trail, Feint Trail, Game Trail, Hard Trail, War Party, Bootleg Justice, Nuevo Mexico, De Dos Del Nortes/Of Two Del Nortes, Coldwater Junction, Coldwater Keys # # # # [ Cover Art Attribution & Ownership ] - Final composite cover artwork by Zanski. Base graphic and mechanical assets AI-generated and substantially modified, re-rendered, and manually recomposited for historical, narrative, and spatial relevance by the author. The author claims full copyright to the final, transformative visual work.

In rural Coldwater County, a hundred and fifty miles east of the Cascade Mountain Range, County Sheriff Tate Plummer and his friend, County Health Services Social Worker Gary Mazur, confront murders most foul. Mazur narrates their stories, bringing an unusual perspective -- and the application of chaos theory -- to police procedures and county politics in their remote mountain valley. The stories are in a progressive order, indicated by the alphabetical order of their titles. At this time, there are two books in the series. # # # # - - [ © ZANSKI ] - - # # # # - - [ AUTHOR'S NOTES & COPYRIGHT NOTICE ] - - # # # # [ Works of fiction ] - The events, characters, business firms, government entities, public and private organizations or associations depicted herein are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual business firms, government entities, or other organizations or associations is coincidental. # # # # [ All rights reserved ] - No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. # # # # [ Historical Considerations ] - Historical events are integrated within narrative parameters, however, those events and characters should be understood as fictional as they may be altered in time, place, substance, or characterization. # # # # [ Cultural & Language References ] - The American English vocabulary is purposely accurate to the depicted cultural periods. Consequently, outdated and currently offensive cultural references, words, and phrases may be used, including racial, ethnic, gender, and other slurs or demeaning language. # # # # [ Non English Usage & Representation ] - Some accent, diacritic, and punctuation marks have been removed from non-English words to make them more accessible to the casual reader and to reduce digital transposition errors in conversions between systems. The informal pronunciations offered are for convenience and are not derived from a recognized lexicon. # # # # [ Content Advisory ] - This work may contain depictions of graphic violence, including but not limited to homicide, torture, sexual assault, child abuse, and animal cruelty, relevant within cultural settings. # # # # [ Cover Art ©2026 Zanski ] - for each and every posted story: Back Trail, False Trail, Feint Trail, Game Trail, Hard Trail, War Party, Bootleg Justice, Nuevo Mexico, De Dos Del Nortes/Of Two Del Nortes, Coldwater Junction, Coldwater Keys # # # # [ Cover Art Attribution & Ownership ] - Final composite cover artwork by Zanski. Base graphic and mechanical assets AI-generated and substantially modified, re-rendered, and manually recomposited for historical, narrative, and spatial relevance by the author. The author claims full copyright to the final, transformative visual work.

Ohio farm boy Judah Becker, part Seneca by his grandmother, and trained in the old ways by his full-blood uncle, joins the Union Army at Chattanooga in 1864 just after turning 18. He becomes a scout-sharpshooter, a role that will carry him from Georgia and Tennessee to Louisiana, Texas, and finally, New Mexico, in the 1880s. # # # # - - [ © ZANSKI ] - - # # # # - - [ AUTHOR'S NOTES & COPYRIGHT NOTICE ] - - # # # # [ Works of fiction ] - The events, characters, business firms, government entities, public and private organizations or associations depicted herein are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual business firms, government entities, or other organizations or associations is coincidental. # # # # [ All rights reserved ] - No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. # # # # [ Historical Considerations ] - Historical events are integrated within narrative parameters, however, those events and characters should be understood as fictional as they may be altered in time, place, substance, or characterization. # # # # [ Cultural & Language References ] - The American English vocabulary is purposely accurate to the depicted cultural periods. Consequently, outdated and currently offensive cultural references, words, and phrases may be used, including racial, ethnic, gender, and other slurs or demeaning language. # # # # [ Non English Usage & Representation ] - Some accent, diacritic, and punctuation marks have been removed from non-English words to make them more accessible to the casual reader and to reduce digital transposition errors in conversions between systems. The informal pronunciations offered are for convenience and are not derived from a recognized lexicon. # # # # [ Content Advisory ] - This work may contain depictions of graphic violence, including but not limited to homicide, torture, sexual assault, child abuse, and animal cruelty, relevant within cultural settings. # # # # [ Cover Art ©2026 Zanski ] - for each and every posted story: Back Trail, False Trail, Feint Trail, Game Trail, Hard Trail, War Party, Bootleg Justice, Nuevo Mexico, De Dos Del Nortes/Of Two Del Nortes, Coldwater Junction, Coldwater Keys # # # # [ Cover Art Attribution & Ownership ] - Final composite cover artwork by Zanski. Base graphic and mechanical assets AI-generated and substantially modified, re-rendered, and manually recomposited for historical, narrative, and spatial relevance by the author. The author claims full copyright to the final, transformative visual work.