Interview With Nancy Parra

Good morning! My apologies for posting late!
Those looking for Insecure Writers Post it's HERE.

Nancy Parra is my guest OVER COFFEE. It's been awhile since you've visited on this side of the blog.


Hi, Sia, thanks for having me over coffee today. I like virtual coffee because I’m gluten-free (not by choice) and am limited in what I can have with my coffee. (But hey, I found this great recipe for gluten-free blueberry coffee cake…but that’s a discussion for next time.)


No problem, Nancy. I have to be mostly gluten free myself, which sucks at times. At least my coffee with half and half can be normal (since all those special flavored creamers tend to have gluten). I'd love to have your blueberry coffee cake recipe.  

Describe your writing space. Or, describe your DREAM writing space.

• I have an office at my house that overlooks the back yard. Beyond our backyard is a strip of woods that is a wildlife highway to the edge of a small lake. I’ve seen deer, coyotes, rabbits, opossums, skunks, etc. traveling through the woods. This time of year we get Canada geese that fly in around ten a.m. every morning for a twenty minute “coffee break.” They splash down and talk and eat and nap. Sometimes there are as many as a hundred on the lake. This is the fifth year I’ve had the privilege of watching them stop by and the craziest thing is you can set your clock by them every year.

With a view like that how do you get any writing done?

• Some days it is hard, but mostly my characters poke me. They want me to tell their story and they glare at me until I do what they want so I set myself a goal of five pages before I can get do any social media.

Lol! Glare at you? What characters are glaring at you right now?

• I have this really cute Sherriff that has shown up. He says I need to get writing so he can help that lovely new girl in town with the dead body in her utility room.

So wait- a dead body…that’s not romantic. Are you writing a mystery next? Why?
 

• Well, you see, I recently got a full time job working as a Marketing Communications Manager for a toxicology lab. So I have forensic testing on my mind. Toxicology lends itself more to mysteries than romance, but never fear there is plenty of romance going on in my mysteries. If you read my books you know that most of my romances include a mystery of some sort so it was a natural progression.

I've read all of your books and that's true, you have.

Wow, working full time. I’m curious, how is working full time and writing? Has it slowed you down any? Changed your routine?

• At first it did because my workplace was a two-hour in one direction drive through construction traffic. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I’ve remedied that by taking a small apartment close to my work. Now the trip is twenty minutes. I do miss my room with a view but I go home weekends and get to see the view. In the meantime, there is no television at the apartment so I have quality time with my characters.

You write in the evening then? Is it hard to change what time you write?

• When I first started writing I wrote when my kids napped-so it was mid-morning/mid-afternoon. Then as the kids got older I took a part time job and wrote in the mornings before work. Now I work full time and write at night. What I’ve found is that it isn’t the time of day that matters. It really is all about getting my bum in a chair and staying there until something gets written

.

Still, working full time and writing, where do you find the time? Doesn’t something have to give?

• Sadly I had to cut back on some of my social networking. I love to interact with my friends on-line, but I love my characters more. My goal is to keep the quality of my writing up and squeeze in social networking. I use social networking as a reward. If I hit my personal goal then I get to get on-line. I’m well motivated. LOL

Well, I’ve chin wagged a bunch. It’s been great fun and I’m on my third cuppa.


It's always fun chatting with you Nancy and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here! 




Thanks for having me, Sia. Your blog and your readers are always on my priority list. Cheers~

Counterfeit Bride (Avalon Romance) [Hardcover]

Lillian Picken discovers the perfect solution for the problem of being a female entrepreneur in the 1870s. She invents a husband, Donovan West, and convinces the townsfolk that he will return as soon as his army commission is up. The ruse works, until the day a man comes to town claiming to be Donovan West. Secret Service agent Patrick Donovan must ferret out a counterfeit ring in the Silverton area. Donovan's search for the perfect cover ends at the discovery of Lillian's secret. He takes the place of her pretend husband.

But the deep attraction he feels for her begins to complicate things. Not only has Donovan's mission put Lillian in danger, but he has vowed never to marry again and when the job is over, he will return to Washington D.C. for his next assignment. Lillian claims not to care where he goes, but will cracking the case leave them both with a broken heart? Excerpt

BUY: AMAZON, BARNES and NOBLE, BOOKS a MILLION

Nancy J. Parra is always writing something and happy to discover people like to read what she writes. Currently published in romantic suspense and sweet western historical romances, she holds an MA in Writing Popular Fiction and a BS in Journalism.

Nancy is currently at work on her next novel and loves to hear from readers. She lives in the Midwest with her little dog, "Booboo."

Nancy’s book, The Lovin' Kind, was named one of the top ten romances of 2006 by Booklist Magazine.
Her previous book, The Bettin’ Kind, received a starred review from Booklist Magazine. Cataromance.com said it was “… a wonderful story that thoroughly sucks you in and doesn’t let go until the last page is read.”

The first in the Morgan Family Series, The Marryin’ Kind, was heralded as “…another winner,” by Booklist Magazine, while  Wyoming Wedding won a Reviewer’s Choice award from Cataromance.com.  Labeled a rising star of 2002 by Booklist Magazine, Ms. Parra is proud that A Wanted Man received a starred review in the October 2002 edition of Booklist Magazine and Saving Samantha was featured on the chapter-a-day website.

Dream Man--Review

Dream Man
Wild Rose Press
Nancy Parra
$6.75
(304 pages) Spicy

A NO NONSENSE WOMAN…

Dr. Eva Stanford only wants to help her patient sleep through the night. Little does she know that the old woman holds the secret to a thirty-year-old mystery that threatened the political life of a presidential candidate and Eva’s own family.

A MAN WITH A DREAM…

FBI Agent Nate Cancaid has a reoccurring dream of a woman with dark hair and blue eyes whose murder he is unable to prevent. When the blue-eyed doctor enters his office, he feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

A MYSTERY THAT TRANSCENDS TIME…

It’s bad enough when Eva’s patient claims that Eva and Nate are her married assistants, but coincidences grow too complicated for her scientific mind when some of the clues come straight out of Nate’s dreams. Can Eva keep from losing her heart to a man of intuition or has fate already dealt her a losing hand?

EXCERPT:

Nate thought about how beautiful Eva was...

How soft, how she held him close and tore him apart bit by bit. But she never promised him anything. That simple truth was hard to swallow. He was the one who pursued her. He was the one who pushed her into his bed. All she did was ask him to help her client.

It was no wonder she came at him like she did this morning. In her mind, the sex was good, but that was all they had. He pounded the pavement beneath him and scowled. No, it was more than that and he knew it. Nate swore she knew it too. They could pretend otherwise, but it didn’t make it any less real. It complicated things. She was hip deep in this damned mystery and he felt fate closing in around him.

Fate was a tricky thing. Sometimes free will wasn’t strong enough to combat it.

How the hell was he going to keep her safe? She didn’t want him around her twenty-four-seven. And yet that was what he needed to do if he was going to keep the dream from coming true. Speeding up, Nate turned a corner and headed home. He was certain of one thing. He shouldn’t have let Eva go to the clinic alone.

Available to buy in paperback or e-book format: Dream Man

My Thoughts:

I’ve read and enjoyed other books written by Nancy Parra. Dream Man wasn’t all what I expected it to be. I expected a contemporary romance. What I got was a tightly written, very entertaining, suspense. I made the mistake of opening it just to see the opening scene before I went to bed. It grabbed me and didn’t let go. I read a fourth of it before my eyes simply would not stay open. I read the rest the next day in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. Nancy has a way of developing interesting characters and this was the first real suspense of hers I had read. I had no idea she could write such a gripping story.

This is well written suspense involves politics, love, and an unsolved, thirty-year-old cold case. While I won't give away any spoilers, I will say the premise of using dreams is fascination and current.

The story begins with a mystery. An older woman has been sleepwalking and brought to the sleep Clinic for help. Mrs. Patterson, who during the day, is an innocent and sweet grandma, but during her deepest sleep cycle and becomes someone totally different for an hour or two. Further more, she claims to be someone who has been dead for thirty years. How is that possible? This is the riddle facing Dr. Eva Sanford.

Eva can’t make up her mind whether her patient is a multiple personality or is it an elaborate charade. If it’s the truth, then it’s a very dangerous one. Eva’s family is well connected politically and Eva is well acquainted with that world. She knows that this secret can bring down a presidential candidate. A candidate with connections who will do whatever it takes to see their *boy* as the President of The United States, and if it’s the truth, already has several dead bodies hidden. If Eva pursues this, she knows that not only is life of her patient, Mrs. Patterson, in danger, but so is Eva’s.

Eva contacts Nate Cancaid, an FBI agent specializing in solving cold cases. He’s a very much “just the facts ma’am” man who doesn’t believe in anything woo-woo—except he’s had a reoccurring dream every night and at the same time, for years. Coincidence or Fate?

Nate reluctantly meets with Mrs. Patterson’s alter ego and is unnerved when she recognizes him. How is that possible? He’s never met her before. He’s convinced it’s some sort of sophisticated hoax, because the truth isn’t possible, or is it?

What I enjoyed about Dream Man is as each piece of the puzzle falls into place the tension tightens and danger stalks Eva and Nate. My background is in psych and the dialog is realistic. You know Eva is a doctor from the way she speaks. She uses current terminology, as does Nate.

Both have issues and internal conflicts that both have to work through for their relationship to succeed. Eva swears she’ll never marry and doesn’t believe in happy ever after—she’s never seen it in her world where marriages are bartered for the good of the political party. Love has nothing to do with it.

Nate, due to his reoccurring dream, has sworn off blue-eyed brunettes for fear she’ll die if he marries one. Yet he recognizes Eva as the one for him. Externally conflicts come from someone who will do anything to keep the secret behind the thirty-year-old cold case buried. It’s a race against time.

Dream Man was a joy to read and I have to say, kept me on my toes right up to the denouement.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Nancy J. Parra holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism but turned to writing fiction when she discovered it was more fun to interview the people in her head. She lives in the Midwest with her wonderful husband. Since her two, almost-perfect children have left the nest; Nancy now fills her free time nurturing a mutt named George Bernard, and a bichon-poo, named Gracie Lou.

Nancy is currently hard at work on her next book. She loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at her website http://www.nancyjparra.com/.