L.A. Flash

Like the flash of the camera, each short story captures a moment of lives in Los Angeles, past and present. From Latino and Armenian families to Russian immigrants, the diverse groups which are uniquely L.A. that deal with vendettas, brujas (witches), and karmic paybacks in their daily lives. Adults and children face unexpected turns of events, which not only give endings a twist, but offer a keener sense of the character's emotions: the young teen testing the allure of her new body, the terminal cancer patient trying to make amends, the social worker assessing the homeboy seeking custody of his child, the young mother hitchhiking with babies across the country. Although fiction, the authenticity of the stories derives from an element in each that was inspired by an actual situation experienced by or shared with the author by family, friends, colleagues, former students, and even a taxi driver in the midst of a long drive across the city. These pieces of people's lives all form the mosaic that is Los Angeles.

As a Professor Emerita in the Department of Social Welfare at UCLA, Diane deAnda's work has appeared in numerous literary journals. She also served as editor of The Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, which enabled her to bring these short stories to life.