Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer, #61: "First Blood"

I have many characters who are women and often my stories have female narrators. Some people have remarked on this. One woman who had read two of my books asked me if I ever had POV characters or speakers who were guys. I told her I most certainly did, and my novellas Strange Brew, ShadowCity, and Le Café de la Mort had male narrators, as did numerous short stories. Still, I like to write stories with female narrators. I like women and find them fascinating, sexy, and desirable. So why not get cozy with one in my imagination just as I have done in my exterior life?

The story "First Blood" was written for a journal called Cliterature. I think from the title you can guess its emphasis. Journals  about women's issues often have restrictions on who can write for them, but Cliterature  does not and I've published three stories for them over the years, some of my very best. I might add that it is a literary journal, not a porn magazine. The stories are thoughtful, intelligent, and display a great deal of literary art. The journal has themes, and on this occasion, it was blood.

When I thought of blood, I thought of death, war, and hunting; but I also thought of hymeneal blood—the blood of a woman's virginity, the bleeding that often occurs from the rupture of the hymen (or maidenhead, as is was called in olden times) during a woman's first intercourse. These combined into an story that would deal with both.

The unnamed narrator is seventeen and the only daughter of a man who hosts a nationally known television show about hunting. From age ten, she has appeared on the show and made it extremely popular. Her father often takes her along, and, over the years, she  has developed considerable skill at hunting. She is diminutive, pretty, and projects an image that sells the program and requires her to play a role.

She has come to call it The Illusion. Here is her description of it:  The Illusion, as I call it, is that I am his sweet, pure little girl and he is the patriarch who protects me; and even though I’m a vestal virgin (as the Illusion has it), I still kill animals. I pick them off, nod with satisfaction when we stand over our kill, and grin with pride as the three of us (Mother joins us for the last segment of the show) sit down to dine on our kill. Commentators say my presence assures young people, and girls in particular, that hunting is okay.

But the girl isn't a virgin. By choice, she loses her innocence when she is seventeen. The experience is a bit harrowing. She bleeds for three days afterward (one of the people in my writer's group told me this would send a girl to the doctor, but a young woman I dated said she bled for four days after her first time, and I was basing my characters' experience on this). She recovers and sleeps with her boyfriend as often she can while still keeping the Illusion alive.

They go to Russia to film some segments and set out boar hunting in Siberia. Her father does not have luck. The daughter, however, finds droppings and tracks and confronts a wild boar. They are one of the most dangerous animals on earth and slash human arteries, frequently causing death. The boar she has stalked charges at her, but she calmly raises her rifle and drops him when he is only two feet away from her, to the amazement of all watching. The producer of the show tells her the sequence was the best they had ever captured.

Woman hunter with blood on face for first kill

Her father, who has had no luck that day, comes to the camp. He explains that from ancient times, experienced hunters celebrated a novice's first kill by spreading blood on his cheeks and forehead. “Not a young man today,” he [her father] said, beaming proudly, “but a brave, tough, fearless young woman.” He spreads the boar's blood on her face. She smiles, looking docile, sweet, leaning on his shoulder, acting out The Illusion. But as she does, she narrates: First blood. Once this went on the air, the audience would be enraptured. But none of them would know about the blood that came before.

You can read the story here, at Cliterature's archive.Writers have favorite stories, and this is one of my favorites.

For more titles, check out my Writer's Page.

And if you like sexy, dangerous
women who go for blood and are hunters of a different sort, read about Nelleke, a guitarist and lutenist who is very good. Of course, being one of the undead, she's had hundreds of years to practice. Available here.

I would love to hear your comments.