A Harvest Tab and Political Depression, Don't Get Stuck There

1/20/2017

This says it all.

This morning social media is exploding, of course, but as I pondered the fate of the country, I was thinking about how best to present The Harvest draft to ongoing readers and my #1 reader, my little sister. There will be many days to fight in this struggle, many days ahead, so I say do what you love and makes you sane. The fight will be long and hard. Don't shut down or get stuck in a political depression: That is what they want.

So back to sharing my love. I think posting the full draft within the blog is not so helpful because it is one long stream of text, and I have a lengthy piece going, almost 100 single-spaced pages. I am going to try to play with the file insertion and see if it will paginate horizontally, instead of vertically or to post short snippets, which can be just as interesting.

However, I think the real solution is to devote a tab specifically for this novel that is flowing beautifully (except for today. I have a heavy union activism day.) For the "full" draft, check out the Current Work tab.

That is all I have because I have to go organize union members and prepare for a very long meeting this afternoon. Tomorrow, I am also going to the women's march in Chicago and need to get prepared, which means digging for my coolest shirts and thinking up funny, intellectual slogans for the poster I will be taping somewhere on my body.

I wish I could wear this image here. Don't worry Lady Liberty, America will be ours again:

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Dr. Jesú Estrada,
Chicago, IL

I grew up on the outskirts of Yuma, AZ, close to the Cocopah reservation. Because I was ever-bored, I became an avid reader of Spanish comic books and anything in English. Then I moved onto Steinbeck and Stephen King and now read international authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Atwood, and Marouf. I also read a lot of coming of age fiction.

I have been writing stories in both Spanish and English since I was six years old. My fiction and poetry focus on working class issues, primarily about laborers in the Southwest. I also write non-serious fiction, like zombie fiction (I was into it before it got popular with the Walking Dead series, which I love) and dabble in magical realism with a fusion of cuentos and folklore.

I have a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Washington State University, a Masters Degree in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Arts from Northern Arizona University. I have also taught creative writing, and will do so, spring 2017. Currently, I live in Chicago and teach full-time at Harold Washington College to an amazing student population.

More about me. I am happily married, been so for over eight years, and have a fabulous seven-year-old who makes my life phenomenal: He too is starting to write short stories. I recently had a second baby, Simona, which put a temporary set-back on the publication of my first book, but made my life infinitely more wonderful. My husband is also incredibly supportive, and I have enlisted him to market whatever I do that is worth marketing.

That damned itch just won't let me be, so I'm back to my original love of words.