The Big Valley Writing Desk-WRITING DESK LINKS (2024)

Important Writing Desk Links

The Big Valley Writing Desk: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thebigv ... itingdesk/

The Big Valley Discussion Board: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thebigv ... sionboard/

The Holding Pen: http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/theholdingpen/

The Barkley Library: http://www.angelfire.com/my/bvfanfic/

Dusty's BV Fan Fiction Guide: http://www.mk-western.de/DFFGBV/DFFGBV_AuthorsI.html

BV Writers' Handbook: http://www.angelfire.com/my/bvfanfic/bvwriters/toc.html

The Official Peter Breck Website: http://www.pbreck.com/

OpalGirl10 wrote:Important Writing Desk Links

The Big Valley Writing Desk: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thebigv ... itingdesk/

The Big Valley Discussion Board: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thebigv ... sionboard/

The Holding Pen: http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/theholdingpen/

The Barkley Library: http://www.angelfire.com/my/bvfanfic/

Dusty's BV Fan Fiction Guide: http://www.mk-western.de/DFFGBV/DFFGBV_AuthorsI.html

BV Writers' Handbook: http://www.angelfire.com/my/bvfanfic/bvwriters/toc.html

The Official Peter Breck Website: http://www.pbreck.com/

Really big Thank You. I was beginning to panic there, for a while, when I couldn't find some of my favorites.

Is there a detailed episode guide and/or Big Valley timeline around anywhere?

I know IMDb has an episode guide, but I mean detailed as in containing the kind of information that fanfiction writers can riff off of: what did they eat, wear, say, hold, do, what backstory was mentioned, what was the date, etc.

As for a timeline, something showing things like: They Called Her Delilah features a telegram dated 4/27/1878 that says Julia will arrive on Thursday. 4/27/1878 was a Saturday, so Thursday would have been 5/2/1878. In The Prize Heath puts the date 5/5/1878 on Amanda Rawlins' tombstone, so... I was going to say that means he had to leave to buy that mare immediately after the events in They Called Her Delilah, but on second thought it means the Continuity Girl screwed up again, and/or Heath carved the wrong date on the board due to the Big Valley Tombstone Curse. Yeah, that could be it.

As far as I'm aware, no one has ever done a timeline or episode guide with those sort of details. There is a "BV Writers Handbook" that was written by the very earliest members of the WD. Some of it is outdate now (e.g., how to submit stories to the Library) but it's as close as anyone has come to putting together something to assist those writing BV (or Western) fanfic. It's one of the links Laura provided above. You can find it here:

BV Writers Handbook

LauraHuntORI wrote:Is there a detailed episode guide and/or Big Valley timeline around anywhere?

I know IMDb has an episode guide, but I mean detailed as in containing the kind of information that fanfiction writers can riff off of: what did they eat, wear, say, hold, do, what backstory was mentioned, what was the date, etc.

As for a timeline, something showing things like: They Called Her Delilah features a telegram dated 4/27/1878 that says Julia will arrive on Thursday. 4/27/1878 was a Saturday, so Thursday would have been 5/2/1878. In The Prize Heath puts the date 5/5/1878 on Amanda Rawlins' tombstone, so... I was going to say that means he had to leave to buy that mare immediately after the events in They Called Her Delilah, but on second thought it means the Continuity Girl screwed up again, and/or Heath carved the wrong date on the board due to the Big Valley Tombstone Curse. Yeah, that could be it.

Yes that was it - don't take dates to seriously

I may be late but considering back then we were going to see a show twice once for first run the reruns then not again.. maybe they were not so into getting dates exactly... and I think they could be forgiven for not having them right on. Besides just how many people would remember a date on anything a week or two later... do you remember them when watching a show now? I had girlfriends who could tell you where Nick or Heath was shot or what Jarrod liked to drink, but the year on a headstone or in a newspaper no idea.

I pay more attention to when a movie or show is done about something in history. like when they did Apollo 13 and added the second problem when there was no second problem. Or when James Michler ( ok not spelled right) did a book on the space program and had the US leaving three men on the moon to die.. I had a hard time making the nephew realizes we did not leave anyone there.. it was just in the book.

There was a movie done with‎General James Harold Doolittle they tried to make him sound like he knew nothing about flying when in fact he earned a doctorate from M.I.T. in aeronautics,Distinguished Flying Cross,Silver Star,Air Medal,and others.

Yes when I heard of case being brought against the studio for making him look like he knew nothing about flying and other things... I checked him out.

Ok I may be wrong but a show about afictitious family in the west or anywhere.. I don't worry about dates and such but I do have a problem when they want to make a real person less then who they are.

elvisandlee wrote:

LauraHuntORI wrote:Is there a detailed episode guide and/or Big Valley timeline around anywhere?

I know IMDb has an episode guide, but I mean detailed as in containing the kind of information that fanfiction writers can riff off of: what did they eat, wear, say, hold, do, what backstory was mentioned, what was the date, etc.

As for a timeline, something showing things like: They Called Her Delilah features a telegram dated 4/27/1878 that says Julia will arrive on Thursday. 4/27/1878 was a Saturday, so Thursday would have been 5/2/1878. In The Prize Heath puts the date 5/5/1878 on Amanda Rawlins' tombstone, so... I was going to say that means he had to leave to buy that mare immediately after the events in They Called Her Delilah, but on second thought it means the Continuity Girl screwed up again, and/or Heath carved the wrong date on the board due to the Big Valley Tombstone Curse. Yeah, that could be it.

Yes that was it - don't take dates to seriously

What's the "Big Valley Tombstone curse"?

CricketFern wrote:

elvisandlee wrote:

LauraHuntORI wrote:Is there a detailed episode guide and/or Big Valley timeline around anywhere?

I know IMDb has an episode guide, but I mean detailed as in containing the kind of information that fanfiction writers can riff off of: what did they eat, wear, say, hold, do, what backstory was mentioned, what was the date, etc.

As for a timeline, something showing things like: They Called Her Delilah features a telegram dated 4/27/1878 that says Julia will arrive on Thursday. 4/27/1878 was a Saturday, so Thursday would have been 5/2/1878. In The Prize Heath puts the date 5/5/1878 on Amanda Rawlins' tombstone, so... I was going to say that means he had to leave to buy that mare immediately after the events in They Called Her Delilah, but on second thought it means the Continuity Girl screwed up again, and/or Heath carved the wrong date on the board due to the Big Valley Tombstone Curse. Yeah, that could be it.

Yes that was it - don't take dates to seriously

What's the "Big Valley Tombstone curse"?

I'm going to guess that it means the character has been bitten by the no-continuity bug. We spent the whole first season thinking it was 1876 because Tom Barkley died 6 years before and his tombstone said he died in 1870. We also knew that Heath's mother had only recently passed away. So she died in 1876 ... until we saw her tombstone in the first episode of season 2 and it said she died in 1872. Oops! Continuity. And as you can see from the dates above, Ms. Continuity wasn't going to win any awards. We all just take our pic of dates and try to establish our own continuity in the stories we write but we're probably all subject to that BV Tombstone Curse.

Yes, what Katlynn said.

Also, Jubal Tanner's wife died "30 years ago". Her grave marker says 1854. So it's 1884? Time is fluid on the Big Valley, and all tombstone dates are to be taken with a barrel of salt.

CricketFern wrote:

elvisandlee wrote:What's the "Big Valley Tombstone curse"?

I'm going to guess that it means the character has been bitten by the no-continuity bug. We spent the whole first season thinking it was 1876 because Tom Barkley died 6 years before and his tombstone said he died in 1870. We also knew that Heath's mother had only recently passed away. So she died in 1876 ... until we saw her tombstone in the first episode of season 2 and it said she died in 1872. Oops! Continuity. And as you can see from the dates above, Ms. Continuity wasn't going to win any awards. We all just take our pic of dates and try to establish our own continuity in the stories we write but we're probably all subject to that BV Tombstone Curse.

I think the "tombstone curse" extends to names as well - Heath's mother is the sister of Matt SIMMONS but her tombstone reads Leah THOMSON. Personally, I don't accept the rationale 'she must have remarried' because I believe that if Heath had ever had a stepfather, good or bad, it would have been mentioned at some point. Also, when Heath returns to Strawberry with Charlie Sawyer it might have come up when they met up with Hannah.

CricketFern wrote:

CricketFern wrote:

elvisandlee wrote:What's the "Big Valley Tombstone curse"?

I'm going to guess that it means the character has been bitten by the no-continuity bug. We spent the whole first season thinking it was 1876 because Tom Barkley died 6 years before and his tombstone said he died in 1870. We also knew that Heath's mother had only recently passed away. So she died in 1876 ... until we saw her tombstone in the first episode of season 2 and it said she died in 1872. Oops! Continuity. And as you can see from the dates above, Ms. Continuity wasn't going to win any awards. We all just take our pic of dates and try to establish our own continuity in the stories we write but we're probably all subject to that BV Tombstone Curse.

I think the "tombstone curse" extends to names as well - Heath's mother is the sister of Matt SIMMONS but her tombstone reads Leah THOMSON. Personally, I don't accept the rationale 'she must have remarried' because I believe that if Heath had ever had a stepfather, good or bad, it would have been mentioned at some point. Also, when Heath returns to Strawberry with Charlie Sawyer it might have come up when they met up with Hannah.

My reasoning to the different last names.. Matt's mother was married twice and had a child by each husband, I believe a woman had the right to take her maiden name back.after a divorce , Now I only say this because I read it somewhere but I can not think where.

I just tested them both, and the links on those pages, they worked for me this morning. Try them again, it may have been a temporary error. I see Tapatalk did some maintenance last night and you may have tried the links during that time.

If you continue to have problems, try that old fix of clearing your browser's cache, closing your browser, re-opening it, then test the links again. Sometimes this type of boot works when all else fails.

Glad they worked

Its always good to ask when you have a problem with one of the links, it might be a larger problem than just a temporarily broken link. The sooner we know, the sooner we can fix it. Thank you for letting us know.