~Biography
New Mexico-born Vietnam veteran currently living in gold country California, Will is a Christmas eve child thoughtfully amazed yet intractably defined by nearly eight decades of survival. An infectious spirit and definable tenacity are intimately bound by the complexities of self and spirit gained through contemplative study, arduous tasks, and multiple risks, surviving mishaps and bad decisions to gain successful plateaus climbing the mountain with sure-footed confidence. A continual thirst for knowledge provides him an engaged intellect infused by unfettered empathy.
An active, ardent supporter of a constitutional democracy, WD Olive identifies as he/him yet remains intimately cognizant of the complex diversity of the human body and identity. Will believes an evolving self-recognition is a continuing human resource. He is a survivor of the Atomic Age, the Vietnam conflict, the far East, influenza, LSD, auto accidents, the cold war, mine cave-ins, bicycle headplants, balloon and helicopter crashes, fires, explosions, gunshots, near drownings, anti-war protests, and the sexual revolution. Moving beyond prostate cancer as a final hurdle, Olive confronts his remaining years aware of the incremental crawl of stage four bone cancer. Like many of his brethren, Olive is a recipient of an ever-lasting gift from the American military-industrial complex who willingly sprayed southeast Asia with an egregious organic herbicide known as Agent Orange. Hundreds of thousands died as a resault, many decades after exposure.
The oldest of four boys born to Iva Hogge and Ira Olive, empowered by VA funding after Vietnam, WD swiftly engaged in scholarly pursuits. Studying mass media communications while wearing editor and production hats for several college newspapers, studies included molecular biology and diary sciences. Returning to New Mexico at the beginning of America's bi-centennial year, he spent four years underground mining precious metals and nuclear fuels while developing skills as an licensed aviator and backcountry guide. Pursuits over a sixty-year life include achievements as an aeronaut, bikeAneer, brother, cook, desert rat, editor, fly-fisherman, grandfather, guitarist, husband, electro-mechanical production supervisor, HVAC mechanical management, mine foreman, musical raconteur, river rider, secular humanist, songwriter, production teamwork developer, and novelist. He's held life-long friendships with peers whose backgrounds are as diverse as any traveler following that never-ending highway called life.
These credentials and pursuits partially define Will's immeasurable quiver of experiences. Confronting adversity positively, investing trust, strength, insight, and empathy within himself, he imbibed decades of life experience trough observation and endeavor. He willingly admits any knowledge gained across multiple disciplines requires courage, integrity, and tenacity without offering authority or superiority over any discipline, except the competence of becoming a loving human. His written works are vivid portraits of life expressing a clarity of voice molded by the natural beauty of wild environments, the ethereal guidelines of diverse societies, and the intrepid consequences of human struggle.
Accompanying a surname expressing a vast history, Olive is deeply bound within the human diaspora of the American West, specifically the desert southwest. His writing reflects much of its mythic austerity, beauty, and diversity while examining an amalgamated time-line of Ancestral Puebloan and native history expressed through examinations of broken promises, rebuked treaties, maligned governmental interests, and the relentless march of corporate greed. The year 2025 continues a renewed struggle to regain democracy over vulgar authoritarism financed by those few individual's obsesed with the glitter of wealth and an imbelcelic orange-tainted immoral felonious grifter as leader.
~work-in-progress
Tsegi Winds ~ Meta Modern Journeys Above & Below America's San Juan Plateau
eBook ~Kavu Zia Publishing May 2025