First things first...Thank you to The Mystery Reader for featuring me as a New Face in mystery writing. It’s thrilling to be here!

Now, onto the background in a nutshell:

I’m a Northern California girl who’s learning to be a North Texan girl. I think I’ll end up with a split personality--a CaliTex--and that split will be present in my writing. The Lola Cruz Mystery Series takes place in Sacramento, California, but the new series I’m working on takes place in a small North Texas town.

My degree is in English and I taught middle school and high school Language Arts/English, so writing and reading is definitely my passion and always will be! People often see the last name Ramirez and then see my blonde hair, green eyed, fair skinned picture and do a double take. So where’d the Ramirez come from? I like to say I’m Latina-by-Marriage!! My maiden name is Bourbon [yes, like the drink], but I married a Ramirez. The rest [meaning five kids and 20+ years as part of a dynamic culture and family], as they say, is history.

Tell us about your debut book.

Living the Vida Lola, the first in the Lola Cruz Mystery Series from St. Martin’s Minotaur, centers around Dolores, who’s called Lola for short, Cruz. She’s always wanted to be a detective. In fact, the first lines of the book say it all:

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.”

Her career choice might have been inspired by newspaper man Jack Callaghan, but her drive and determination are all hers. She works for a small PI firm in Sacramento and is assigned to be the lead investigator on a missing person case.

Lola battles office politics, the reappearance of Jack Callaghan, her family’s cultural and gender expectations, and her own passion for crime-solving, never losing sight of her own values and who she is as a person. One theme that will run through each book in the series is just how far Lola is willing to go for her job. In Living the Vida Lola, one of the questions she faces is will she or won’t she get a belly button piercing or a tattoo?--all in the name of information- gathering.

Other continuing themes are the cultural and gender expectations she faces. Lola is an American--born and raised in Sacramento. But she’s also Mexican and lives her family’s culture and all that embodies. How she is true to both sides of herself and is her own person makes her a three-dimensional character. I love her! I like to think that she is my alter-ego...if I were a little younger, sexier, Latina, and a detective.

Are you coming to mystery writing from another job?

I have been teaching and/or working with kids on and off for 15 years [which included a child-rearing hiatus from the classroom]. I’ve recently been able to stop teaching, however, and begin writing full- time which is a thrill! It’s a dream come true.

What led you to write mysteries?

I used to sit in my high school math class during lunch and read Agatha Christie books! Anti-social? Yes. A mystery-love from an early age? Also yes. I started out on Nancy Drew books, graduated to Agatha Christie’s, and read everything else in between.

When I started writing Living the Vida Lola, Lola came to me as a detective with great passion and drive. She is smart, determined, sassy, not afraid to speak her mind, and sexy. Did I mention that she’s smart? I wanted to my heroine to have brains, and not be afraid to use them.

Having her solve mysteries was the only thing I could have her do. I was writing what I loved, so the book just flowed.

Tell us about your road to publication.

My road to publication was LONG!!!! At least if felt long to me. I began Living the Vida Lola more than 6 years prior to its publication. It started just after the birth of my fifth child when a friend and I, in an attempt to escape mommyhood for just a short period of time, began meeting on Monday nights at a coffee shop. We’d write to prompts and before long, Lola emerged as a character in one of them. Soon she was appearing more frequently. Then her family began to make their appearances. It was at that point that I decided to take these great characters and put them into a book.

Living the Vida Lola was born. Three years later [remember, I had all those kids!] it was finally finished.

Two years and three agents later [the first agent retired, the second agent and I saw the book differently and amicably parted ways, and the third is perfect!], the book sold. The submission process was emotionally grueling. All I can say is that I learned a ton about the industry, the writing process, and the importance of being true to myself and what I want to write.

So many people helped me along the way, including the three agents I worked with, my editor at Thomas Dunne/Minotaur, and fellow authors and critique partners Virna de Paul, Allison Brennan, Kate Perry, Susan Hatler, Michele Acker, and Brenda Novak. The writing community is vibrant and generous and these ladies rock!

What kind of research was involved for your first book?

Having the good fortune to marry my husband gave me day to day opportunities to research the Mexican culture, even when I wasn’t trying to! Several of my husband’s siblings lived with us at various times during our marriage, and I learned so much from them all about their family values, food, religion, music, and so much more. At one point I interviewed them all and compiled a recipe book of their mother’s recipes [she’s a fantastic cook].

Lola’s family owns a restaurant, so food plays a part in each book. I learned so much about Mexican cooking from my sisters-in-law and from my mother-in-law, that I now have quite a nice repertoire of recipes under my own belt [things that I’ve simplified and/or changed as I learned to cook them]. My versions of some of these recipes will be made available on my website, and recipe cards can also be requested. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll make a Lola cookbook! The first recipe, Spanish Rice, is available now.

Beyond the Mexican culture and food, I researched all about being a PI, tattoos and body piercing, and anything else I needed to in order to ensure that the facts in Living the Vida Lola were accurate.

Who are your influences as a writer?

Agatha Christie, as I mentioned. I really loved the Stephanie Plum series and think Janet Evanovich is awesome. In fact, my book has been compared to her Stephanie Plum series because of the hybrid of the mystery and the romance. There are so many differences, of course, and Lola is by no means like Stephanie, but to be compared to someone like Janet Evanovich is a huge compliment.

There are so many great writers and books out there! The bottom line is that I love a well-crafted story. I love fresh and unique writing, characters, and plots. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, and Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman are two books that really spoke to me. They have both influenced me because of the effortless way the stories are told and the subtle development of character.

What does your family think of having a mystery author in their midst?

They’re proud! They saw all the hard work and endless hours that went into writing and revising and editing Living the Vida Lola. To have other people reading it, and loving it, and sending me emails to tell me how much they love Lola, is very validating, and my kids, especially, think that is very cool!

Tell us about plans for future books.

Book two in the Lola Cruz Mystery Series is called Dead Girl Walking. Lola’s identity is stolen, so this time, the case is personal. Dead Girl Walking will be out in Winter 2010 [no firm date yet!]. It’s complete and I’ll begin working on revisions with my editor in the next month or so.

The third book in the series is called Bare Naked Ladies. This book is so much fun to write! It involves a professional dance team and a nudist resort. The big question Lola will have to answer is: Will she or won’t she go nude in order to track down a killer. Stay tuned to find out!

In the meantime, I’m working on a brand new mystery series whose heroine is a curandera with some extra special healing powers. It’s challenging to write, and a lot of fun.

How can readers get in touch with you?

I love getting emails from Lola fans! I also have contests running on my web site. Be sure to check the web site often to see what new things are going on. Readers can also email me there. You can also follow me on Twitter.

I also have a fun web site I work on with a few other writers called Chasing Heroes. It’s a site about heroes in fiction, hero and heroine archetypes, and it’s chalk full of great information.

Finally, a brand new web site I’m part of has just been launched. It’s all about promotion and marketing and creativity. It’s called Hip Writer Girls. There is always SO much going on, but I always respond to emails.

Misa, thanks for joining us, and best of luck with your new series!

March 8, 2009