Nancy J. Parra's Blog, page 5

Sept 1

Welcome in a new month~ this month I will be attending my first conference in a few years. Bouchercon is taking place in St. Louis and I am hoping to do some networking and learn a few things along the way. Bcon is my first foray into the mystery writer community and with my new sale to Berkley Prime Crime~ the Gluten Free Bakery mystery series, its time I became more familiar with the mystery/thriller world. I know some writers who attend every conference they can. While that would be fun, I think it would be exhausting and they must have to write while they attend to keep up. I'd rather attend one or two conferences a year and give them my entire focus.Bcon is a conference for writers but mostly for fans of mystery books. Do you ever attend a conference as a fan? If so, what are your favorite moments?

Aug 31

Before I became a writer I would read up to six or eight books a week. Now, most of that time goes to writing my own books, so the number of books I have to be read is very high. Because I'm a writer, people give me books all the time and tell me that I need to read them. Then I have so many talented friends that I have a whole stacks of books that I purchased to support them and because I love their work and want to read more. Then there are my old favorites like Nora Robert's In Death series-which I am far behind on and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books that I am embarrassingly behind on. Then there are the new thriller, horror, YA and scifi authors I was introduced to in my Master's program and after reading one want to read more of their work. If I could I would add about five more hours to the day and get caught up.What about you? How big is your to-be-read pile?

Aug 30

One writer friend of mine was recently told by a person she just met that they didn't like her because she was a fiction writer and as such she was a natural born liar. This person didn't like liars. There is truth in the fact that as fiction writers we make stuff up for a living, but integrity is important in the messages of our work. If you are without integrity is shows in the writing. Do we as fictions writers- and you don't have to be a fiction writer to do this- stretch the truth a bit? Sure. For us it's not about the accuracy of the details but the impact the story has on our lives and the lives of our audience. Does this make us liars. I don't think so. I happen to know for a fact that I'm a terrible liar. It shows on my face and in my voice-there is no hiding a lie for me. But I can spin a whopper of a tail out of the smallest detail. If you find that offensive, then I think we are better off parting ways.So what are your thoughts on the subject? Is it absolute truth for you and your life, or do you love to spin a tale or two?

Aug 29

Fall is always a season of change. Kids go to school. Schedules move from summer activities to fall back-to-school--parent teacher meetings, sports gear up, band practice. How is a writer supposed to keep going as if nothing has changed? Some writers plan their deadlines around changes in seasons and holidays. I know a writer who wrote all her books in the fall and winter and took summers off. Others write year round while most of us write when we can. It comes down to this: if you don't plan ahead then your writing will suffer. Publishers count on winter holidays as slow times and summers being slow times and schedule accordingly. They know that people are prone to take vacations and attend conferences and it is difficult to get board meetings where everyone is available to get behind the new list and discuss who they want to buy. Publishers plan accordingly. As writers- we have lives and family and work and if we are lucky conferences. The very best thing you can do for yourself-especially if you are not yet published, is to create work deadlines that give you specific times off or at the very least account for changes in family and season. Self-imposed deadlines are the best way to get in the habit of writing like a professional. If you are in the habit of working around life then when you publish you will be better able to roll with the times.Do you set your own deadlines?

Aug 26

Let's talk about writer's block. You hear about it all the time. The movies portray it as a writer sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper or a blinking cursor for hours even days with nothing to say. In the old days they would type a word or two- then get disgusted and tear the paper out of the typewriter and crumple it up and toss it on the floor. I like this image. There are days when I would like to do more than mildly delete- I would love to tear the page from the computer and crumple it and throw it at the wall.That said, I don't believe in writer's block. What it is is fear. The person writing is suddenly afraid to open the door to the story- why? Lot's of reasons- fear of failure, fear that they aren't really any good at this, fear that this is the best thing they'll ever write that it will hit the NYT list and they will suddenly be in the limelight with nothing else to say. Or fear of humiliation that people will point at laugh at them for having the audacity to be a writer. The fear of humiliation or being caught as a fraud happens even after you have several books published. How do you stop this? Put your bum in chair and write. Give yourself permission to suck. No one but you will read the first draft. The great part about writing is that it's not done until you say it's done. A lot of people will see it before it goes public. Stories are fluid and until the book is in print it can change. So relax and give yourself permission to write. Cheers~

Aug 25

The view from my window is hot and swampy. The trees are deep green in shadow and bright in the spots where the sun hits. The sky is that brilliant blue that makes you squint with a handful of small puffy clouds. The air is thick with the scent of muddy water and mosquitoes. The plants are overrun with Japanese beetles. The sine wave rhythm of the cicada buzz creates a lazy feel. Heat rises from the damp earth and radiates back toward the sun. The lake banks are over flowing, swallowing trees and creating swamps.Still hints of autumn are all around. There are trees with yellow and orange leaves peaking out among the green, found along the edges. The Canada geese can be seen flying in a vee formation toward the south. Small birds are flocking up. They all know that the slow lazy heat will soon be gone and Fall will arrive with it's warm days, cool nights and the scents of warm straw and dead leaves in the air.Cheers~

Aug 24

I know you want to know why I'm late to my blog today~ I sneaked (did you know they say there is no such word as snuck? It's bad form so I sneaked) out to see a movie. I was amazed at the number of people at a Wednesday matinee. I think they had a senior citizen special.I went to see "The Help." This is a movie based on a novel about a girl who interviews the black maids in Jackson Mississippi at the start of the civil rights movement. It is funny how the white girls are all suppose to go to college to get their MRS degree. Everyone is disappointed that the heroine got an actual Journalism degree and wanted to work-not get married. Her idea for a book is simple. Tell the story from the point of view of the maids. It was Jim Crow laws and the "country club set" are horrified that their maids use their bathrooms. A couple go so far as to have special bathrooms built in garages for the maids. What the heroine proposes to do can get these maids put in jail or worse--killed. It takes courage and fortitude but these women speak up and she writes their stories. The consequences are not pretty, but fairly told.I wanted to see this movie because as a child of immigrants, my grandmother left school after 8th grade and went to work first cleaning hospitals then cleaning houses- she cooked, she cleaned, she raised other people's kids. I went for a ride with her through her town a few weeks ago and she pointed and said, "I cleaned that big house for forty years." She has told me in the past that one thing she knows- she knows her place. The difference between my Grandmother and these black women is that she is white and didn't have to battle Jim Crow laws. That doesn't mean she doesn't know what it's like to be "The Help."

Aug 23

It's raining here. I put little dog's sweater on her and took her for a walk. She protested the whole way~ her feet were getting wet! Such is the life of a pampered pooch. They actually make doggie out houses so they can poo in the rain and snow and stay dry. Um, yeah, I'm not going that far. She's a dog, a cute dog, but a dog. My daughter has me watching The Dog Whisperer- that guy would shake his head at the idea of a doggie outhouse. I like him. He says dogs are 100 percent predictable if you know what you're looking for and that it is the owner who needs to be trained. He thinks people need to get over the stories they tell themselves about their dogs feelings and become calm and assertive pack leaders. He tells women that this kind of calm and assertive behavior will help them in their work and their life.It reminds me of that wonderful old movie If a Man Answers, where the young wife tries to save her marriage by using dog training techniques on her new husband.Have you seen it? It's big fun. Remember always to be calm and assertive my friends. Cheers~

Aug 22

Happy, happy birthday to my Mom who turns 75 today! Hope your day is special~

Went to the movies this weekend and saw "Captain America." I loved it. It had some fun newsreel like scenes. The Computer generate image of the actor as a 90 pound weakling were awesome. Seriously looks like the same guy. I loved the character, Steve. He might be small and weak but he never gave up and he always stood up to bullies-even if they beat him up. One of my favorite actors is in this movie- Stanley Tucci. He plays the scientist who came up with the formula to create a "better soldier." It is all good fun.Complaints: it ran a little two long at two hours and 5 min. and some of the military details made me squirm. To me it's a little disrespectful not to get these details right. It took me less than an hour to find them on-line. What details am I talking about? 1) you don't wear your hat inside. 2) Women have to have their hair up off their collar. Small I know but it pulled me from the story. I mentioned this on my facebook page and had two guys argue that women could have long hair in the 1940's and they showed me pics-some were Hollywood stills (if they can't bother to get it right now, why would they get it right then?) and some gave the appearance of on the collar but weren't. So I asked my sister a 20-year-retired Navy Chief if she knew what the regs (regulations) were in 1943 and she was able to send them showing that off the coat collar was standard. I also got some great links from my Romvets group. (A group of veterans and active duty who write mostly romance.) Here are some awesome links: US Reenactors-women at war and this great look into the basic training handbook from 1943. Check out page 5 of the handbook. Fun reading.What complaints do you have in movies you love?

Aug 19

I love to bake. It's a creative outlet with immediate results. But I've found over the years that there are certain things that fail every time. Pie crust and yeast breads have never turned out for me. My guess is that I over work them. My mother's forte is pie crust. My grandmother makes bread to die for-it has a taste no one can duplicate. My daughter is good at yeast breads. Seriously, if they can do it, then I can do it. I simply have to practice more. So I am equipping myself with an artisan bread cookbook-this one contains gluten free recipes so I can make bread that I can eat-and a baking stone and a danish dough hook. I'm going to practice, practice, practice until it looks like the cookbook pictures and tastes as good as it looks. Trust me-this is going to take weeks, perhaps months and a lot of eating stuff that isn't quite right. But it's fun to try and something to distract me when the writing gets nuts.What hobbies are you trying this year?