Behind the Scenes of "The Hairy Man"
When Gwendolyn Kiste asked me to participate in A Shadow of Autumn, I tried to think of a story that would take place in the fall or Halloween. Here is how my benign coming of age story morphed into a horrifying Bigfoot chase on the Fort Apache Reservation.
The first thing I thought of was hunting. Fall to me means hunting, so I went in that direction. Now the question was, what will happen on the hunting trip? Will it be a coming of age story for the character of Jay? I didn't know but that was the first idea so I just started writing. Elk show up in the early morning and at dusk, so at first I chose morning, but that was much too benign a time. It's always more exciting when you're surrounded by wild dogs that are trying to eat the kill at night when there's nothing but a bonfire to keep them at bay.
I wrote as far as that, but then I hit a wall. I went over it and I got bored. That was the first sign I needed a change, but what change? While I was busting my brains, I suddenly saw a Bigfoot lurking around the bonfire instead of dogs, but Bigfoot isn't afraid of fire. There you have it, Jay's eaten and that's that. I had him follow Jay in the morning time, and then wild dogs at night, but stupid. So I got rid of the dogs, the bonfire and just had Bigfoot and Jay.
As I wrote, Jay's brother Derry appeared. Already he struck me as dumb so I grabbed all the characteristics I felt were dumb and put it in Derry: his ugly hair, his asinine pride in his video games, his belief that he's awesome and so treats his niece with scorn. And with that last, May appeared, a little spit fire that drives Derry nuts. He deserves to be driven nuts too, and to an extent, she drives Jay nuts. These two turned Jay into the outdoorsy, athletic type that is slowly getting his life in order. Their types are not what he admires for they both play video games, they talk too much, they fight too much and they are pretty willful. Why May is a niece and not a sister is because I've always gone hunting with my uncles, and sometimes they'd try to leave me behind too! They usually never succeeded. Heh-heh.
In the elementary school nearby, my youngest sister and her friends went through a massive phase for buying black rimmed, plastic glasses so that they could all match. So May got some black rimmed glasses, too. These particular girls are rough and tumble and they have as much fun as boys do. If they give a peer a good slap and tease him or her like mad they like him or her. I took these bold, non traditional girl qualities and stuck them in May. The teasing also permeates through Jay and Derry. It is a sign that they love each other even though they're not acting their best in the story. May's love for telling endless tales about Kirby comes from my other sister, although her fan fiction isn't about Kirby.
Now I had three characters to bounce off each other and a Bigfoot. Now, if he was to chase them, they couldn't always be in the car. It would be fun if the car broke down, but it would first need to get them out in the woods. I usually start with setting to see what happens, but this time it suddenly all depended on the workings of the car. I interviewed a mechanic about the transmission fluid. Being that I've got a rez ride, I knew a little about transmission fluid, it had leaked out enough in my vehicle! This mechanic had it down to a science and he told me all the details and timing that I needed.
I went around the rez after that, looking for a suitable place for the car to break down. There was a nice cornfield that I think I'll use somewhere else later. Anyway, I settled on a familiar hunting ground but I didn't say where it was. I wrote it in a way so that the area could be any place on the reservation, or at least in that particular zone. In that way I could dispense with description of where mountains and rivers are and what town it was by. Now anyone familiar with this area could picture any place they pleased, their own back yard to freak themselves out more. Ones not familiar with this area won't be bothered with trifling details. It's enough to know it's a pine forest, it's dark and scary. With the timing of the car, I had the chase inside the car and on foot.
By then the coming of age story just vanished in the wake of a horror story.
As for the elk crossing the road in front of the car, that actually did happen to me. I was busting my butt climbing mountains, tracking, tired, hungry, days and days of death, and then four just ran across the road. They just stopped and looked at me. They might as well have painted a bull's eye on their sides with my name on them. One shot through the lungs and I had my very first elk.
When Bigfoot gets up after Derry blasts him, it's a well known fact you can't kill a Bigfoot. People have shot it before and there's no body the next day. A story went around the reservation some years back of a big game hunter shooting at a Bigfoot while hunting trophy elk. He dropped it, and then it got back up and looked him right in the eye through the scope. He and his Apache guide who had warned him not to shoot got out of there as fast as they could. And so I made my Bigfoot get up, but mine became angry and chased the three hunters.
Lots of movies and media portray Bigfoot as a benign, helpless creature that just needs understanding. It's almost insufferable. My Bigfoot is the understanding that my tribe has of it. It's evil, it's scary, it makes a weird noise and it stinks. It is not something to mess with. It howls, it scares the dogs and no one thinks, "Maybe I should go out and see!" No, they keep their butts indoors. Bears, cougars or Bigfoots, we don't go out when the forest sounds strange.
The old man at the end is based off a few old men who have good relations with the younger generations, my uncle who had a gang of guys at his command for helping gut and quarter elk, and he's also a little bit of my dad whom nothing seems to scare.
Having Jay and Derry living with their oldest brother and his family is pretty much what it's like on the reservation. Relatives live with you off and on, and you live with them. Being apart is hard. It's just the way it is with no shame attached.
That's how "The Hairy Man" came to be.
The first thing I thought of was hunting. Fall to me means hunting, so I went in that direction. Now the question was, what will happen on the hunting trip? Will it be a coming of age story for the character of Jay? I didn't know but that was the first idea so I just started writing. Elk show up in the early morning and at dusk, so at first I chose morning, but that was much too benign a time. It's always more exciting when you're surrounded by wild dogs that are trying to eat the kill at night when there's nothing but a bonfire to keep them at bay.
I wrote as far as that, but then I hit a wall. I went over it and I got bored. That was the first sign I needed a change, but what change? While I was busting my brains, I suddenly saw a Bigfoot lurking around the bonfire instead of dogs, but Bigfoot isn't afraid of fire. There you have it, Jay's eaten and that's that. I had him follow Jay in the morning time, and then wild dogs at night, but stupid. So I got rid of the dogs, the bonfire and just had Bigfoot and Jay.
As I wrote, Jay's brother Derry appeared. Already he struck me as dumb so I grabbed all the characteristics I felt were dumb and put it in Derry: his ugly hair, his asinine pride in his video games, his belief that he's awesome and so treats his niece with scorn. And with that last, May appeared, a little spit fire that drives Derry nuts. He deserves to be driven nuts too, and to an extent, she drives Jay nuts. These two turned Jay into the outdoorsy, athletic type that is slowly getting his life in order. Their types are not what he admires for they both play video games, they talk too much, they fight too much and they are pretty willful. Why May is a niece and not a sister is because I've always gone hunting with my uncles, and sometimes they'd try to leave me behind too! They usually never succeeded. Heh-heh.
In the elementary school nearby, my youngest sister and her friends went through a massive phase for buying black rimmed, plastic glasses so that they could all match. So May got some black rimmed glasses, too. These particular girls are rough and tumble and they have as much fun as boys do. If they give a peer a good slap and tease him or her like mad they like him or her. I took these bold, non traditional girl qualities and stuck them in May. The teasing also permeates through Jay and Derry. It is a sign that they love each other even though they're not acting their best in the story. May's love for telling endless tales about Kirby comes from my other sister, although her fan fiction isn't about Kirby.
Now I had three characters to bounce off each other and a Bigfoot. Now, if he was to chase them, they couldn't always be in the car. It would be fun if the car broke down, but it would first need to get them out in the woods. I usually start with setting to see what happens, but this time it suddenly all depended on the workings of the car. I interviewed a mechanic about the transmission fluid. Being that I've got a rez ride, I knew a little about transmission fluid, it had leaked out enough in my vehicle! This mechanic had it down to a science and he told me all the details and timing that I needed.
I went around the rez after that, looking for a suitable place for the car to break down. There was a nice cornfield that I think I'll use somewhere else later. Anyway, I settled on a familiar hunting ground but I didn't say where it was. I wrote it in a way so that the area could be any place on the reservation, or at least in that particular zone. In that way I could dispense with description of where mountains and rivers are and what town it was by. Now anyone familiar with this area could picture any place they pleased, their own back yard to freak themselves out more. Ones not familiar with this area won't be bothered with trifling details. It's enough to know it's a pine forest, it's dark and scary. With the timing of the car, I had the chase inside the car and on foot.
By then the coming of age story just vanished in the wake of a horror story.
As for the elk crossing the road in front of the car, that actually did happen to me. I was busting my butt climbing mountains, tracking, tired, hungry, days and days of death, and then four just ran across the road. They just stopped and looked at me. They might as well have painted a bull's eye on their sides with my name on them. One shot through the lungs and I had my very first elk.
When Bigfoot gets up after Derry blasts him, it's a well known fact you can't kill a Bigfoot. People have shot it before and there's no body the next day. A story went around the reservation some years back of a big game hunter shooting at a Bigfoot while hunting trophy elk. He dropped it, and then it got back up and looked him right in the eye through the scope. He and his Apache guide who had warned him not to shoot got out of there as fast as they could. And so I made my Bigfoot get up, but mine became angry and chased the three hunters.
Lots of movies and media portray Bigfoot as a benign, helpless creature that just needs understanding. It's almost insufferable. My Bigfoot is the understanding that my tribe has of it. It's evil, it's scary, it makes a weird noise and it stinks. It is not something to mess with. It howls, it scares the dogs and no one thinks, "Maybe I should go out and see!" No, they keep their butts indoors. Bears, cougars or Bigfoots, we don't go out when the forest sounds strange.
The old man at the end is based off a few old men who have good relations with the younger generations, my uncle who had a gang of guys at his command for helping gut and quarter elk, and he's also a little bit of my dad whom nothing seems to scare.
Having Jay and Derry living with their oldest brother and his family is pretty much what it's like on the reservation. Relatives live with you off and on, and you live with them. Being apart is hard. It's just the way it is with no shame attached.
That's how "The Hairy Man" came to be.
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