Finally Have the Time and Space To Write #FuckYeah!!!

2/15/2017

My writing is not rigged. Happy Late Capitalist Holiday That Makes You Feel Like Shit!

The title of my blog says it all. I have been struggling to eke out some writing time between my full-time job, union work, organizing, and family obligations. Also, we moved to the South Side of Chicago, which is awesome. South Side! The problem has been that we have to commute back to my son's old school That literally ate up all of my morning writing, which wasn't more than a couple of hours max, 30 minutes min. Today, I had an epiphany I've been toying with, and was like, "Screw it. Do it, or this novel will never get done!"

I am writing when the amazing husband drives me to work and when I'm in the car, as a passenger (duh). The kids are also strapped into their seats and usually entertained. Bonus!

Anyway, I wrote for over an hour today and finally had time to develop ideas. I posted the new additions to The Harvest link.

Guess what I am doing now? Writing some more. I will post those bits, if the restaurant WiFi allows.

Keep on! Keep writing. That is all. SAD.

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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.