Sending Pokes to the Editor of Down South Where the Water is Warm

1/16/2017

Today, will just be a short post because yesterday's novel excerpt from the The Harvest and the day before were pretty long. Really, I have to finish my syllabi, so I can enjoy the company of a new friend and her sons. She is giving me feedback on the first 70 pages of of the novel draft.

This morning I sent the editor of Down South where the Water is Warm a friendly reminder:
"Subject: Friendly Poke. Text: Give Jesu's fledgling collection 20 minutes today. Much love. --Jesú"

Hey, he asked for them. I really just need more content feedback and a fresh pair of eyes, although I am always finding typos, like the ridiculous amount of typos I found in the section I posted yesterday.

On our way to a family's house, I read the Alan excerpt out loud to my husband, and that's when I found all the little mistakes. While I read, ever so enthusiastically, my little son Antonio was eavesdropping. We were on the I-90 going north and got stuck behind a three-car accident, so I had extra time to read. (No one seemed really hurt.)

Even though the story is in a rough draft form, it read really well, so maybe my sister is right about the potential for it to be on SyFy. Ha ha ha. We both share similar tastes and biases. My son also liked it a lot, but I think the cursing was more interesting than the content.

Either way, both my boys were entertained, and my son said he liked the Alan and Strike characters. Yeah, even coming from a seven-year-old, that felt like a great compliment.

Here's to connecting with others through fiction.

0 Comments

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.