Winter Solstice
Dear Ladies,
Though much shorter than most of my stories, this story is dark. It contains a description of murder. It also ends with a suicide. I want you to know that before you start reading. I promise to return to more light-hearted fare next week. Winter Solstice
Though much shorter than most of my stories, this story is dark. It contains a description of murder. It also ends with a suicide. I want you to know that before you start reading. I promise to return to more light-hearted fare next week. Winter Solstice
Hi Cynthia,
Nice story, it would have made a good show.
I was angry at Humble at first, then I began to feel sorry for him. I can understand Mingo feeling at fault, even though I feel he really wasn't. As Daniel said he may have killed himself anyway, because of the demands that lived inside.
Take Care,
Judy
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Sorry that was supposed to be DEIMANS, not demands. Oh, #%$@ evil spirits.
Braincells just arced. LOL
Judy
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Dear Cynthia,
How I look forward to your stories! Although this one is about a sad, tormented soul, it still gives us insight into Mingos' personality. What a wonderfully forgiving nature he had. It was enlightening to see that even Daniel couldn't match his forgiveness. Obviously, Daniel would not have made a good "half-breed'! I believe that he would've hit a few folks!! Great tale my friend!
Rebecca
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Cynthia - I appreciate the "warning" but you certainly didn't say anything to draw people INTO the story! LOL
I haven't read it, I'm still hiding under my bed!
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Hi Keats,
It really isn't that bad. It certainly isn't any worse than anything that they did on the show. And is mild compared to what is out the now.
Judy
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No, I just meant the warning standing alone probably did not ENTICE the reader! LOL But perhaps I am wrong because I actually did read it however(she said it was SHORT (a key word for me) and I wondered how gruesome it was -so I decided to check it out (after reviewing my collection of "Bonnie and Clyde AFTER THE AMBUSH photos.) I DID think it was really dark. And I'm not complaining. I got what was advertised!
In real life, lots of people are killed, but not clubbed to death (I think that's vague enuf not to be a spoiler). The only thing I found hard to believe was that someone could kill so brutally (one-on-one being the key here) with no history of it. Statistics show that is usually not the case. Many start out with harming animals and then progress to humans.But - it certainly DOES sound like a real TV show script. And along those same lines, I actually find John Ford's The Searchers (considered by some to be the best western ever made) to be a very disturbing movie.
http://www.afi.com/10top10/western.html
Cynthia, you should have also considered the title "In the bleek midwinter" hee hee
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to be clear when I said "In real life, lots of people are killed, but not clubbed to death" what I meant was that THAT was perhaps the main part that made it particularly dark: i.e. it's not a kind of demise we USUALLY hear about. Not that it wasn't PLAUSIBLE. (Sorry, I wish there were some way to italicize or underline our words for emphasis!)
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Dear Keats,
After being gently chided for not mentioning "intestinal contents" in my intro to "Ides of March" I wanted to make certain no one read the story without knowing there would be a murder and a suicide. Both these actions belong in the dark realm of human experience. That's why I called it "Winter Solstice". I agree that "In The Bleak Midwinter" would also have been a good title. However, I wanted to attach the darkness of the year's end with the darkness in Humble's spirit.
And, relating to another comment, I made Humble take part in the murders because he was drunk, and because he had this nearly overwhelming need to "fit in". Peer pressure is a powerful force. I think the mob mentality played a part in the murders also. In my reading over the years I've discovered that many people on the frontier considered Indians vermin, and actually used that term in their descriptions. With that in mind, some, maybe all, of the men who murdered the Lenape would not have considered their act to be murder at all. There was a horribly famous murder of peaceful sleeping Aravapai Apaches here in Arizona. They were clubbed to death by a mob that met and swarmed from a local saloon. Ah, that courage in a bottle!
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Cynthia, your comment
"There was a horribly famous murder of peaceful sleeping Aravapai Apaches here in Arizona. They were clubbed to death by a mob that met and swarmed from a local saloon"
That is just HORRIBLE! How awful for those poor people. When did this event occur in history?
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Dear Barb,
It was called the Camp Grant Massacre. It happened on April 30, 1871. A mob from the Tucson area clubbed to death 8 men and 110 women and children. There are articles on the internet, if you wish more details. There's a book called A Time in the Sun by Jane Barry that includes that incident. The book has the feel of that time period. It's well written, you care about the characters, and though it's a work of fiction it is historically accurate within that fiction. I agree with you that it's horrible. However, it is not unique. I wish that I could say that it was. There are many such massacres throughout settlement history. Perhaps you've seen the movie Quigley Down Under with Tom Selleck?
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Despite your own opinion I didn't finf this story "dark," as you claimed it was.
I was interested in the story about Payton. You could take this in all sorts of directions. I'm big on ideas but short on follow thru. Some ideas that ran thru my head, even when reading "Payton's Journal," where that Payton comes to the settlement and makes Cinncinas's store a sort of branch of his step father's mercantile; that Mingo adopts him as a foster son; that the Cherokee take him in. Perhaps he goes to school (eventually) and becomes a doctor or maybe even a lawyer to advocate for Native rights,
Anyone else? I don't want to infringe on Cynthia's characters, and it could be she already had her own ideas, but any writer will take constructive critism or suggestions.
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