My Writing Projects [was Re: WHEN THE RED LEAVES FALL]

["Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note by Hunterbear:

This note to my friend, Bill Mandel, gives a good indication of what I'm
doing writing-wise.  In addition  to this activist material of a personal
nature, I'm also quite involved with my on-going work on the life and times
of  Maurice Travis, courageous and much attacked Mine-Mill leader during the
worst of the Cold War Red Scare era. http://www.hunterbear.org/travis.htm

And, of course, we are much involved in current Idaho and regional human
rights issues.

In Solidarity - Hunter [Hunterbear]


Mr Bill Mandel.

Dear Bill:

I appreciate very much the recent contacts you've made with your good screen
writing friend -- both times -- and  certainly his thoughtful responses. You
have placed this on Redbadbear and I'm putting this on the SNCC  and
a few other lists as well -- and am also sending it to a number
of friends and several family members for purely informational purposes.
[It's presently very early in the morning here in Idaho, much cooler,
several coyotes howling. Interestingly, my cd player has just started the
poignantly appealing theme -- "Call of the Far Away Hills" -- from one of my
great film favorites, Shane. The locale for that, the Tetons, is close.]

In the past, though it's been  a good while, I have done well received short
stories.  As you know, I put my award-winning Mainstream story, "The
Destroyers," on-line via our website several weeks ago.
http://www.hunterbear.org/the%20short%20story.htm  This, of course --
essentially quite autobiographical but with fictional clothing --  involves
very virulent and extremely violent anti-Black racial hatred in the context
of a massive Northern Arizona forest fire as witnessed by a kind of Any Boy.

And, also on line, I have a number of  -- if I say so myself -- the very
positive reviews received by my non-fictional book, Jackson Mississippi: An
American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism.
http://www.hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

What I'm doing now, with all of these various pieces like "Coming of Age in
the Red" and "When the Red Leaves Fall" [and many others], is obviously
non-fictional, autobiographical.  Initially, when I began doing these kinds
of  relatively personal things, they just sort of began -- simply
experiential posts with a reasonably sharp and appropriate radical point.
They've been well received. And then, under your urging and that of Sam
Friedman and others -- and members of my family as well -- I began thinking
of some sort of autobiographical thing -- perhaps a substantial  compendium
which would incorporate older published material of mine over many decades
with much new, fresh stuff .

My primary focus is always, of course, as contemporary and futuristic as I
can make it.  But all of these things, so often transcending the specific
canyons of time, flow forward together in a single and very intensive river.

One  key dimension in all of this is my development from a loner "nature
boy" [with a Native father and Anglo mother and a very strong Native
socio-cultural focus] -- a kid camped as frequently as possible in the
remote wilderness regions of Northern Arizona -- into a radical industrial
unionist and general social justice activist and, concurrently, via many
crucibles, a Left political socialist [always, of course, with some
Wobbly-type feathers and very, very much with my Native orientation!]

So now, when I write these things, they have both a direct point for Lists
and Cause and are also designed, ultimately some way, for a non-fictional
and autobiographical book. And, of course, at this point and with each post,
I do a bit of final polishing etc and then place it on our large website.

On the other hand, that particular ultimate vision -- a book of some sort --
while certainly a Real Form hovering over the close-by mountains is not yet,
in my mind, precisely defined and fully feathered.

It's very possible that, out of all of this book focus, may come  a spin-off
piece of something to take once again to your kind screen-writing friend.

In any case, this Writing Trail continues.  And to you and those others who
continue to goad me, I am indeed honored and deeply appreciative.

Yours - Hunter [Hunterbear]

Hunter Gray  [Hunterbear]
www.hunterbear.org (strawberry socialism)
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´


----- Original Message -----
From: "William Mandel"
To: <Redbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 9:07 PM
Subject: [Redbadbear] [Fwd: WHEN THE RED LEAVES FALL]


> Hunter: This is from the screenwriter friend I referred to in a previous
> post.
> Bill
>
> Steph wrote:
> >
> > Dear Bill,
> >
> > Thanks for sending this along. There's some good writing as well as
> > fascinating recollection here.
> >
> > However, to be grist for a movie, a great deal of synthesis would have
> > to occur, resulting in a discreet story.  Perhaps it could be done as a
> > novel or novelette first. Then, one could look at it and see if a
> > castable, bankable movie was there.
> >
> > Instructive examples of the last 10 years might be 'Legends of the Fall'
> > and 'A River Runs Through It.'
> >
> > Great to see you. Hope you're feeling better. Keep in touch.
> >
> > s
>
> --
>
>
>







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