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a game I play
By Ron Kule
Sometimes when I sit down to write creatively I decide to write as if doing a skill test; in other words, I create a game for myself. The game might be ruled by the clock - writing against a time limit. Other times it might be developing one character's profile; yet another would be my most fun project: writing to find out where the one sentence I am writing will take me going into the next sentence. For example, I wrote a complete short story by starting with only the first proper name that came into my mind, Thunder Cloud. The name instantly made me think of Native Americans which lead me to remember some things about the "Trail of Tears" event that pitted the Cherokee Nation against the US government. The Cherokee home had been natively in the Carolinas, but the national government in the late 19th century wished them to leave that area. Promised a better life if they would live on land located in Oklahoma, they were abruptly moved off their home lands forcibly, and men, women and children had to walk almost 3,000 miles across barely civilized western territory. Needless to say, many people young and old died in the heat of the South. In fact, the Cherokee people, once the proudest and most prosperous nation among Native Americans, never recovered their size or prowess in the aftermath. They had been hideously betrayed right to the top of the US national administration of that time. From these thoughts I considered Thunder Cloud as a young man among his people, living on a reservation in Oklahoma, doing what many youths of whatever skin color or race so often do: getting into trouble. The story opened with Thunder Cloud standing trial before his Elders, about to be excommunicated for his last antic in a long line of disgraceful actions involving the local white townsfolk. It remains a vivid scene in my mind, that vision I saw and almost wept over once my fingers were placed upon my typewriter keys. I held the whole of the Cherokee disgrace and dismay - and the entire future of the young Thunder Cloud - under my powers of imagination...yet, I was completely unsure where my fingers and mind were going to take us. The game was set in motion when the first words came onto the paper. The end of one sentence lead to the beginning of the next, sentence after sentence, and held sway like that for 35 pages of text. I never knew the content of the subsequent sentence until I typed the last word of the current one. Not knowing the outcome held me to the edge of my seat throughout the writing; it was a deliciously interesting game to play. Various friends really liked Thunder Cloud and encouraged me to submit it for publication. My submission culminated in the story being published in one book and strong interest in turning the story into a short film from two sources in Hollywood who loved it. A third person who has achieved accolades and awards for his film scoring work has expressed desire to write the score for the film, too! The game was to write into the unknown and see where this name, Thunder Cloud, would take me...and so far it has been a game worth playing!
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Contributor's Note
If you'd like to be on the purchase list for the entire novel about ThunderCloud, please send me your email address. Upon publication you will be notified of details for receiving a hand-signed copy.
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This content may not be copied, distributed or adapted by anyone under any circumstances.
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May, 2012
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