By Daniel A. Olivas
FROM: La Bloga

Almost 25 years ago, I started writing fiction. My first published short story appeared in the literary journal RiverSedge in 1998. In 2000, a small, now-defunct press based in Pennsylvania published my first book, The Courtship of María Rivera Peña: A Novella. I was 41 years old, married, the father of an 11-year-old boy, and well-established in my legal career with the California Attorney General’s office. That book is now out print, but it served as the foundation for ten more books—fiction, nonfiction, poetry—including two I edited. And in writing those books, I honed my storytelling skills which, in recent years, spawned a new life in playwriting.

Now a twelfth book is on the horizon. I am a man in his early sixties facing retirement in a few years. Luckily, I am still married to my law school sweetheart as we are about to celebrate 35 years of marriage. And our son is now 31, a grown many with a career and a rich life on his own. My father was called back last September, but my mother is still running circles around her grandkids and great-grandkids.

On February 1, 2022, the University of Nevada Press will publish my latest book, How to Date a Flying Mexican: New and Collected Stories. If you are a reviewer who is on NetGalley, I invite you to read the galleys.

How did this new book come to be? During the pandemic and in the wake of my father’s death, I set upon the task of reviewing almost 25 years’ worth of my short stories that had been published in various collections or as parts of novels. Our strange times seemed to call for this type of introspection and examination. I found that many of my narratives fell within the world of magic, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures. Read Rest of Article Here