Talking Bears, Wild Horses and Daydreams

My story "Kittylyn" has finally come out! I've been waiting so long for this one! A lot of things happened to keep it in the dark, but it's finally come out. "Kittylyn" was actually a part of a different story that I had made, but there were too many elements in that other story, and so I broke off a part of that other story. The broken-off element became "Kittylyn."

When I was about three, I was playing in the backyard with my little brother. There was nothing but forest in front of the house at the time. I heard my uncles yelling in the front, and then everybody started yelling. I wanted to see what was going on, so I grabbed my brother's hand and took him to the back door so that we could go into the house and see what was going on. Then it was like thunder sounded on the side of the house, and a wild black stallion appeared at the corner of the house. It reared up on its hind legs, and it's eyes were wide and bloodshot. It stared at me and I stared back, and then it rushed through the yard and into the forest. I never forgot that horse.

When I was four, I had to go to Headstart. The place was a nightmare. I was an outcast, the teachers came from the devil, and the kids were goblins. One day, I was swinging all alone, because I was some sort of outcast, and I was staring at the mountains. I remembered that horse, and I imagined it running out of the mountains, putting me on its back, and taking off with me into the forest. I would never have to be in the Headstart again. I spent my recesses on its back in my head. Sometimes the horse trampled certain brats. I don't remember their names anymore.

Years later, I would drive by a house that looked like the one in the story, and I knew it belonged somewhere. It made its appearance in the original story that "Kittylyn" had belonged to, and so when "Kittylyn" broke off, the house came with it.

One day, in high school, my club visited the little kids in the orphanage for Christmas and gave them presents. Lots of them were in there because their parents weren't dead, but in jail, or drunk, and everything else. Their relatives wouldn't take them in, and it was miserable in there, hence Kittylyn's plight.

If only there was a creature like my horse to take them away to special places, something that could avenge them, something to give them a happy ending. And that was how the bear Hunter came to be.

Kittylyn's name was fun to make. People make up names on the reservation all the time, and since I couldn't find a name that really fit her, I decided to do something different. I had looked up baby names online and came across 'Kitty.' Cats are my favorite animals, so I decided Kitty was good, but it still didn't suit enough, and I added the 'lyn' at the end.

Purchase a copy of the magazine that Kittylyn is featured in here.

And don't forget to purchase a copy of my book "Pariahs" here, if you haven't already.