All Comments on 'The Blacksmith of Bright Star, Texas'

Nice story to begin the day; this one is a 5 star piece of historical fiction.

Another 5*. Ronde sure does his homework no matter what subject he writes about.

Another 5 star story, a delightful read

Five. Reading one of your stories I get entertained and educated. Thank you for your work

Thanks, Ronde, for another well crafted tale. The parallel story lines were neat. The prejudices were typical of the times.

ALWAYS a wonderful story from you, thank you for your talent.

I love your Western stories! You seem to have a good knowledge of history.

5

Always a wonderful tale but these ones are a lesson in history.

A really good read.

Thank you 5

I almost passed on this one because of the category. I changed my mind when I saw your name. In my opinion, this one is one of your best. 5⭐

From beginning to end, a great read. Thanks so much!

R o n d e, I really appreciate the historical fiction pieces you write, because it's obvious you put tons of work into them, and it's also obvious that you research the work in question well before you put pen to paper. It turns out that there are two Bright Stars in Texas, at least historically. One is actually still in Van Zandt county, but it's really not a town anymore because it only has population of 50. The other which fits your historical profile, started out as Bright Star, and then had its name changed to Sulfur Springs TX, because of the mineral springs thought to have restorative and healing properties. This is the only one it could be, since you stated the area continued to grow and prosper, and the kind of churches that you mentioned in terms of Methodist and Baptist were also founded later in the 1800s there.

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As far as I can tell, how you describe the blacksmithing was also accurate, because I've gone to forts and missions that actually have people that learned how to blacksmith from blacksmithing books written in the 1880s, and how you described what Bird did seems accurate to what I've seen done. Regarding how you drew Katherine and Bird, it was really cute how you had them both escaping basically a false charge against them. I also like how you took some of the Irish history, using the problems between the Protestants and the Catholics from Ireland, and stating about the North and South counterparts there too.. you just really covered your bases as well. It also impresses me that I've rarely seen you write a certain story that you're going to do x y and z and you don't cover all your bases. I appreciate that whatever you establish as your premise, you make sure and satisfy all those things, and you do that very well and very consistently. I will say that one of the major things I look for is basically what the author tells me he or she is going to do, and many times my scoring is based directly on how well the author controls the elements that only he or she decided to use and to develop. I appreciate how thoroughly you endeavor to ensure all this gets written down, followed, and developed to usually a very logical and plausible ending. I just wish sometimes that more authors would follow your example and putting a few more historical markers in their stories, because it's obvious some want to avoid something that where a commenter could have stated oh well you forgot this... and you're not afraid to do that. I really appreciate that courage, and I appreciate your dedication to a quality story... now, all I have to do is figure out how the blazes you're able to write so many stories and make them all consistently pretty well done if not nearly perfect. Well done on this one, and it definitely deserves the 5 without any reservations!

I’m still trying to decide whether I like your detective stories better than your Old West/post Civil War stories. Keep posting both. Maybe I can eventually decide.

Gotta love a good western story. Especially one about hard working common folks that actually built the towns all across the vast west. Five stars don't seem enough. Thank you for it.

Another great story from an amazing author. Thank you.

You clearly do a lot of research into your stories and one thing struck me - the Irish names. Most of the immigrants from Ireland in that period would have been named in Irish (Gaelige). Apparently, the Immigration staff in Ellis Island and other places did their best to write down the names phonetically which explains many of the unusual spellings for Irish surnames in America.

Katherine would probably have been named Caitlin (with an accent on the second i); O'Devlin, sounds strange now but would be an accurate rendering of the name from Irish. Daley, however, as a first name is not something I have ever come across in Ireland. Just wondering where you found it.

Another well researched and excellent story. Always a pleasure to read one of your works.

Another very good story, and a true romance. You do that very well. I could at least raise a few questions (MINOR ones, and I really do mean QUESTIONS) about the historical background, but even if it's wrong in some details it's believable and fairly detailed. Thank you once again.

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(I generally second the long comment by Comentarista82, BTW. He said it, and better than I could, so I'll quit trying.)

Another great read. Could not put it down. Thank you.

I was thinking of Rising Star, Texas, southeast of Abilene. And I was thinking of the Grande Ronde River in northeast Oregon.

Absolutely fantastic! Thank you, Ronde!!!

Nice story but an incredibly weird ending. Very incomplete and piece meal.