Living the Vida Lola – Part Three

It was great fun to meet Misa Ramirez at the Barnes and Noble at the Shops of  Highland Village for coffee.

How did this happen?

How does one write a book in the midst of marriage, career and 1, 2, 3, 4, yep…5 kids?

*Holly shakes her head just thinking about the exhaustion*

Misa and her husband grew up and lived (until their recent move to Argyle) in California.  She majored in English in college and spent her career teaching.  She and her husband started a family.  And more babies came.  In the midst of her very busy life she started writing.  At first it was children’s books.  She had some early success with the publishing of The Flight of the Sunflower, but then found that the children’s book market to be cut-throat and saturated.  She continued writing for awhile…and then got tired.

Later one of her girlfriends suggested that they start meeting weekly at a local coffee shop to write together.  It sounded like a good excuse for adult conversation and writing time.  They used prompt exercises to facilitate creative writing.  At first, Misa continued to write in the direction of stories for children.  She soon became frustrated and realized that she didn’t want to write for children.

One night she just wrote.  Wrote about what was on her mind.  Wrote about adult subjects.  Wrote about sex.

*gasp*

And the character Lola was born.  Over the next few months each week she continued the writing prompt exercises with her dear girlfriend in a local coffee shop writing about Lola.  The writing about Lola Cruz lead to the writing about Jack Callaghan which lead to a mystery which lead to a romance which lead to a book.

It wasn’t all that simple.  She went through 3 agents and 5 years, but she is now here.

Here is a pretty good place.  Her novel Living the Vida Lola is being released today.  The reviews have been good.  The book signings scheduled.

And that is not all.  The story of Lola Cruz is a series.  She has already completed the second book, she is working on the third book and has ideas for the fourth.

Misa, her husband and 5 children moved to Texas this summer for a lifestyle change.  Misa wanted the ability to quit her day job to concentrate on her writing.  They wanted a home where each of the kids could have their own room.  They wanted to take a deep breath and spread out.  There have been a lot of adjustments, but as her husband says, “it was a God thing”.

Misa’s local book signings:

• Feb. 6, 6:00-7:30 at The Barnes and Noble, Denton.  This is the official book release and signing party.
• Feb. 21, 2:00-4:00 at The Barnes and Noble, Shops of Highland Village.
• other signings in the DFW listed here.

You can sign up for Misa’s email newsletter by emailing her a request:  misa@misaramirez.com.

You can join the Misa fan club in the burbmom social network!

Now GO!  Go get her book…

Lola Cruz’s Spanish Rice

In each of Misa Ramirez’s Lola Cruz Mystery Series’ books there’s delicious food.  Living the Vida Lola is being released tomorrow!  In honor of the upcoming book release…

Now, the authentic, but simplified “Lola” recipes, are available for you.  The first is a Cruz staple: Spanish Rice.  No meal is complete without it!

A Lola Cruz Recipie #1 Spanish Rice

Also called Sopa de Arroz, this dish can be made with fresh onions, garlic, and tomatoes, or you can do it the simplified “Lola” way.

Ingredients

• 2 to 4 Tablespoons oil
• 1 cup Long Grain white rice
• One 6-oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• (the seasoning Adobo can be substituted for the garlic and onion)
• 1 tsp. salt, to taste
• 2 cups water or chicken broth

Directions

1. Heat oil in heavy saucepan.
2. Add rice and brown.
3. Stir in 3/4 of the can of tomato sauce (add more if you prefer moist rice, less if you prefer it less tomatoey and drier).
4. Add water (or broth), garlic and onion powder, and salt.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer approximately 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

Buen Provecho!

A Little Flavor or Lola: “When I was fourteen years old, I snapped pictures of Jack Callaghan doing the horizontal salsa in the back seat of a car with Greta Pritchard. That’s when I knew for sure I’d grow up to be a private eye.”

–From Living the Vida Lola, St. Martin’s Press January 20, 2009–

For more information about the Lola Cruz Mystery Series, and for more Lola recipies, visit Misa’s website.

Burbmom.net participates weekly in:

Living the Vida Lola – Part One

Misa Ramirez is a ‘burb mom.

She lives in Argyle with her husband and 5 children.

Oh…and she wrote a novel.

Her book, Living the Vida Lola is being released on January 20.

We are celebrating this historic occasion with Three Days of Lola Cruz:

• Today Misa will introduce herself in her own words.
• On Monday she will share her Lola Cruz’ Spanish Rice recipe.
• And finally on Tuesday I will tell the story of our informal “interview”.  I wanted to find out more about how this funny mom of 5 ended up with what Publisher’s Weekly is calling a “muy caliente debut”.

So without further fanfare, here is Misa’s story taken from her website.

First, a little background. I was born in Southern California to amazingly devoted and talented parents. (Note to self: A person is never too old to give a parent plug.) Dad is a mega superstar Silicon Valley Executive and Mom is an über-talented watercolor artist. I pulled a pretty good parent card, in my opinion.

The middle child, between two brothers, I learned early that being the only girl gave me ‘that special something’ in my family. Mothers and daughters. Fathers and daughters. They are unique bonds that can’t be explained. I know that all my books will have strong mother/daughter and father/daughter relationships–family is what I value most in life.

My dad’s career took us to Northern California when I was in sixth grade. College, marriage, kids have all been rooted here. Until they weren’t.  With a recent move to North Texas, we are now learning new lingo…”y’all”, “fixin’ to” [the official verb of Texas, in case y'all are wondering], and “chiggers”, a fun little bug that bites and bites and bites, to name a few.

Get on with it, you’re saying. How’d you start writing? (Note to self: Stay focused.)

My major in college was French—for the first year. Then I realized that I was far more interested in communicating in English. (My aptitude for language is strong—I just didn’t want to put in the hours in the lab! Shhh…don’t tell anyone…)

I’d always been interested in writing, always kept diaries–long burned by now. (Note to self: destroy all evidence of lame behavior and thoughts.) Once my Shakespeare professor wrote on one of my college papers, “never change my captivating style”. Wow. The power of a teacher is huge.

Unfortunately, power can be positive and negative. Whatever boost I’d felt from Professor Levin’s comments, a grad student who taught creative writing my junior year of college effectively quashed. Once I wrote a story about my roommate stealing her ex-boyfriend’s truck while wearing fingerless gloves—all completely and pathetically true. I got a C- on the story and the grad student wrote, “Write about things you know. This is completely unbelievable.” Even though he clearly had zero imagination, my confidence went out the window.

During college I met a great guy named Carlos. We dated, broke up, dated some more, broke up again—typical young love. We eventually got our act together and got married. I went on to teach middle school Language Arts. He was an elementary school teacher. Eventually his career ventured into school administration and we relocated from the Sacramento area to the San Francisco Bay Area. We had two kids by then, another on the way, and I went on hiatus from teaching.

The big question for me was what I could do to keep my brain functioning now that I wasn’t teaching. The thing that called to me, the only thing that inspired me in fact, was writing. I started writing a young adult historical fiction book–by this time I had overcome the scarring of that grad student’s remarks. (Note to self: burn all college papers) It took me three years to finish that book—it’s now sitting on the shelf in my bedroom, destined never to see an editor’s desk. (In its defense, I did send it out once to Scholastic and received a VERY nice rejection—no, not an oxymoron—there are levels of rejection and a nice one is a good thing.) But by that time I’d had my third son and we were moving again. The book went onto the back burner.

Short stories for children kept my creative juices flowing while I was busy having a daughter, carpooling, moving to and remodeling yet another house, and balancing the busy life we’d carved out. By pure luck, one of these stories was published and made in to a beautiful book. I thought I’d struck gold and found my second career.

Not. Even. Close.

The children’s publishing world is brutal—unless you can really relate to kids. Even though I had a passel of them living with me, I apparently didn’t. Huh.

Obviously I hadn’t yet found my niche or my voice.

We eventually moved back to the Sacramento Valley, I had one more child (in case you lost track, that makes five altogether), and had written close to twenty-five children’s stories. I’d had no luck selling any more of them though, and was ready to throw my hands up and quit writing altogether. But it’s not that easy to give up something you love. I couldn’t stop writing. (Note to self: find another addiction to give up—maybe chocolate? Or coffee? Okay, okay, twist my arm…I’ll give up cauliflower.)

A friend and I started an informal Monday night writing group. Since I was not willing to give up writing altogether, though I’d given up any thoughts of having a second career in publishing, I was stuck. With no inspiration for kids’ books in my befuddled brain, I decided to write something for grownups. A book with a mystery and love and swearing—and sex.

Oh, it was fun! Eye opening! Liberating!

I wrote the first draft in six months.

And just like meeting Mr. Right (Note to self: Give supportive husband Mr. Right a kiss), I knew this was the one. Maybe I would have a second career in publishing after all.

That book, the first in the Lola Cruz mystery series with Minotaur Books, has been through about a gazillion revisions since I finished it—and I still love it. I think that’s a good thing, right?

Now that I’m in the Dallas Metroplex area, I’m living my calling, silly grad students aside. Whatever else happens in my life, I know I was meant to be a writer and nothing’s going to stop the story that’s knocking around my brain from being told. Writing has spread its root into the very depth of my heart—and it’s there to stay.

Check out Misa’s website for details on her upcoming book signings in this area:
February 6 @ 6:00-7:30: Barnes and Noble in Denton
February 24 @ 2:00-4:00: Barnes and Noble in Highland Village