 Well fellow writers, if you could challenge yourself and write something from your personal literary mountaintop, what would it be? I have been flirting with the idea of writing a de-evolution short story for some time and am rather leaning towards a novella. For now, I am writing a short 5,000 word piece in a totally new setting, Flagstaff, Arizona. I was deeply inspired by The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which won the Pulitzer Prize. I also recently read “The Last Teacher” by Chris Dietzel; the Kindle version is free on Amazon; I recommend it.
There are a number of elements I love about de-evolution stories. Yes, they are depressing, but they hit on something fundamental about being fully human. In “The Last Teacher”, for example, the main character comes to grips with the purpose for teaching, even though the world is ending. How can she inspire students without hope? Some dystopian literature leaves you with a glimmer of hope, but not all. Yet, well written de-evolution stories don't leave you unsatisfied. For my freebie, I decided to extrapolate from current political situations and the destruction of the EPA, to some degree. I also had to research how to skin a deer, which I should check with one of my cousins who actually hunts. What else have I been up to these last seven days? I have been beta reading P.C. Darkcliff’s The Priest of Orpagus, which promises to be another supernatural, dark triumph. Then, I started beta reading a fantastic novel which I cannot reveal because my good friend is writing under a pen name. These two projects have been really inspiring and morale boosting for me. Other than that, I have been going over Mona’s Return, as I found a few more typos. I ended up sending that to a couple of my writer friends, and flat out asked them both to copy edit it for me. It also has given me great joy to see that people are requesting the printed version of that piece, but as I have said in the past, I will be writing longer novellas from now on. I may leave the short reads as freebies, but my printed books will be either novellas or novels. One of my reviewers actually suggested that La Bruja in the Orchard be part of a longer novel, and I think that is the direction I will take with the Mona series. Today, I am going to work on my de-evolution short story a bit more and then, continue with Not Your Abuelita’s Folktales. I have been flirting with the idea of putting Mona’s Return in it, but am going to write another long story instead. That story will be based on the mythos of the devil punishing a disobedient girl. When I looked at the collection, I decided that “When the Devil Came for Him” didn’t really fit, but the new story spins off from it. I also have another story I may rewrite as a magical realism piece, but we will see as I have to be totally done by the end of the month. Finally, I want to invite you all to my first-ever book release party of Not Your Abuelita’s Folktales, June 15, 2109, 2:00 p.m. @ RYUU Asian BBQ 2766 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60647. I will be Live Streaming the reading on my Facebook Author Wall from 2:15p.m. to 2:45 p.m. central time. Well folks, keep challenging yourselves. I hope something really magical happens when you take that leap forward. #barrioblues
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Jesú Estrada
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