The Six-Year Old Advice, Priceless and Brilliant

10/25/2016

Yesterday night, we were coming home from my exercise class, and I was telling my family about the short story, "Wolf Trek" and my struggles with it.

So, I gave my son, Antonio, a quick plot summary and detailed the ending.

He said, "Mom, why don't you have the little boy attack the father and run-off into a post-apocalytpic desert or something.

Well, the suggestion is not only brilliant, but it fits with the story, now, because it is a post-apocalyptic werewolf story. In the end, the father actually comes home in tatters, dehydrated, but I never explain why.

Then, my little Antonio proceeded to outline his very own sci-fi zombie story which he called "Dead Soul". The plot is pretty damn cool. He must be getting it from somewhere.

Here's to finding inspiration from the least expected places and to salvaging endings.

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.