Natural Talent

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I'm facinated by true talent. Some of my favorite Oprah episodes are when she has young kids with special talents. When we visit Vegas, I'm happy to leave my husband and mother in a casino while I find an art gallery to stroll through, because it's so inspiring to me to be surrounded by so much talent.

So when my niece emailed me this YouTube video called Drawing Heaven, I LOVED it.



I was so amazed this kid could paint such gorgeous paintings. Wow! Where ever her talent comes from, it's an incredible gift.

Since I believe we all have our own special talents, I hope you all get to spend some time exploring yours this weekend!!

See you next week!

Julia

Pens and Paper Don't Crash

Technology. Who wants to live without it? Is there anything better than TiVo, GPS devices, cell phones, and computers? Really, sometimes it's hard to imagine life without these things.

But sometimes these things are more frustrating than they're worth. My GPS, which I LOVE occasionally decides to take me on these nice scenic drives for no reason that I can figure. Other times it tells me to make a turn or get off a freeway exit at the very last second forcing me to swerve into a lane. I can tell from the hand signals I get that other drivers don't appreciate my sudden moves either.

But my biggest love/hate relationship is with my computer. This week, I lost an entire novel. One second I'm working on a book, and the next my computer shuts off, because my new battery is apparently defective and when it says I have over 60% power, I actually have zero. This caused my writing program to decide to dump all my work and save nothing. Unless you're a writer, it's really impossible to explain the feeling of seeing your story disappear. But you suddenly feel like screaming, vomiting, crying, and dying at the same time.

I have to say, I did have a back up of this story from a month ago. Which is better than nothing, but since it's impossible to reproduce everything written since then, it's still devastating. However, being stubborn and refusing to believe the story was actually gone, I searched everywhere on my computer that might have a hidden copy. And amazingly, I found that my writing software made a timed back-up last Sunday.

I'm no longer Catholic, but still, I had to thank God and every saint, and angel I'd ever heard about in church.

Now, I remember actually typing on a typewriter when I was first contemplating being a writer back in my teens. I won't lie, it sort of sucked. You made a mistake, you had to use white-out or this paper strip that you typed over and it magically erased your mistake. But if you wanted to move a sentence around or add details to your work, forget it. You had to type the page over again. Maybe writers were better back then or more careful with their first drafts, but I can't imagine having to type and retype pages and pages of work. But the advantage with that system was that you NEVER lost your work. Once it was on paper, it was there on your desk forever.

Sometimes with all the digital stuff floating around, I feel like nothing is real. I don't really own music, it's somewhere out in iTunes cyberspace. Same with movies. And novels are next with the Kindle and other ebook readers. There's nothing real or tangible.

Still . . . I do love technology and wouldn't trade it for the way it was "before". But sometimes . . . I think it was less stressful then. No one texting you all the time and finding you even when you don't want to be found. No lost novels. And being able to blame the husband when you get lost, instead of listening to him cuss at the GPS lady. Ah, the good ole days : )

Now, off to continue with that novel -- the one I'm backing up four or five or maybe even six times!

Julia

Dead Fish and Rainbows

No matter where I go or what I'm doing, I try to learn something that will help me in my life. So, during my recent three weeks in Florida, I had three goals. The first was to meet with some readers and bookstores to promote EVENINGS AT THE ARGENTINE CLUB and I'm happy to say that I met this goal and had a great time doing it. Every book store I stopped at carried my book and Florida booksellers were enthusiastic about having books signed and happy to have book marks to distribute.

My second goal was to carve out writing time. This one is always tough when family members are in the same hotel room, but I got a little time to work in the early mornings or late evenings.

My third goal was part of my larger year-long commitment to relax, de-stress and try to enjoy today rather than letting my mind try to juggle 125 things that will be coming up in the next week or two. I did this by starting out my days with a quiet early morning walk on the beach.

On my first day, as I hurried along the shore trying to get the day's walk "in", I noticed all kinds of dead fish, clam shell-looking creatures, and sea trash littering the shore. Something must have happened to wash all this sea life onto the beach. I thought it was bizarre, but what did I know? Maybe it was a regular thing on this beach along the Gulf of Mexico. Later I brought my kids out to see what I'd found. They thought it was both gross and cool to try to figure out what kind of fish they were seeing while carving RIP beside the fish. Besides the kids, the sea gulls were loving life as they gorged themselves. The dead fish didn't seem so bad after seeing it through their eyes.

In the days the followed, I realized that fish washing up on shore was actually not a normal occurance. In fact, in the next two weeks, I never again saw this happen. Each day I'd see something knew. One day I saw hundreds of crabs in their shells washed up, and my kids and I spent my walking time tossing them back into the water. Another day I saw dolphins playing in the distance, another day all kinds of sea gulls and yellow beaked birds with black mohoks and pelicans seemed to have invaded the beach. I started to look forward to getting up to see what I'd see on the beach that day.

The last day I went out was cool and breezy. It had rained hard the night before, but I wanted to enjoy one last walk on the beach before I got on my plane home. As I strolled slowly trying to find my daughter a sand dollar, I looked up and saw the most amazing 180 degree rainbow. With no buildings or mountains like we have here in California to block it, the rainbow stretched out from the water to the beach hotels. I'd never seen such a long, beautiful, bright rainbow, and I was sorry I didn't have my camera to capture it.

As I made my way back to my hotel I thought it was interesting that the first day when I was uptight and stressed with a list of things I wanted to accomplish while in Florida I saw dead fish; and the last day when I was relaxed and happy and looking forward to returning home, I saw a rainbow.

Not that this was a deep lesson for me, but it served as good reminder that every day brings something different and I have to remember to be open to the good and bad that comes my way. Some days will be dead fish days and some days will be rainbow days - LOL. And really, what's wrong with dead fish days? It takes a little more time to appreciate them, but every day is here to teach us something new.

For me, since I'm totally anal and expect everything to turn out perfectly all the time, this was a good, very concrete and visual reminder that the rainbow is on it's way -- even if it comes at the very end of a vacation.

Julia

Have You See Avatar?

Finally, my son and I went to see Avatar. What an amazing movie! Okay, it was sort of a Dances with Wolves storyline with blue aliens rather than a Native American tribe, but that's okay, because we all know that there are no real new plots, so that didn't bother me.

I loved so much about this movie. The spectacular world of plants and trees that glow and light up when touched was beautifully appealing to watch. And the mystical qualities of this setting helped to draw us movie-goers into the world. The futuristic Avatar's capabilities were also awesome to see and imagine as possible. Besides, the very cool creatures were interesting to watch and compare to life on earth - they seemed to be a mix between a cat and a human with qualities of native tribes. Visually, I really enjoyed it, and the action scenes were fantastic.

But what I really loved about it was the message that if we come to really understand a group of people (enemy or just different from ourselves) we would never choose to destroy or harm them. Jake, the hero of Avatar is a military guy who is all too willing to help gather information about the Na-vi for the pupose of invading them and taking their home, until he learns to love their home and what it represents to them, as well as respect the people for their own unique qualities. It really makes you think about how many arguments and differences we might be able to solve between friends, husbands, wives, ethnic groups, and even countries if we took the time to really see deep inside the other person.

Avatar totally earned and deserves all the praise it's gotten. James Cameron has done it again - produced a grand scale movie that was amazing!

Anyhow, that's my opinion. What did you think?

How Great to be a Kid Today

Lately, I've been thinking back to the things I got to do as a kid. You know the places, I got to see or simply the opportunities that came my way. Compared to what my children get to do . . . well, there is no comparison. The other day, we had an unbelievable time swimming with manatees in Homosassa Springs in Florida. My kids were out there in their scuba gear, floating around manatees that swam past as if were the most normal thing in the world. When I was a kid, I didn't even know what a manatee was. Seriously.

I think it was then, as I sat on the boat freezing under a towel that I thought about how lucky my kids are. But not only my kids -- most kids these days. I know quite a few kids that have things like yearly passes to Disneyland. Wow! When I was a kid, it was a special treat to go visit Micky (maybe) once a year if I was lucky, and I bounced around for weeks waiting for that special day. And the amout of toys they have! Plus the technology is out of this world. A Nintendo DSI can not only play games, but it has internet access, takes pictures, and makes moving cartoons. I used to ride my bike to an arcade to play pacman - LOL.

Sometimes I worry about spoiling my kids or wonder if they get to see too much too soon. What will excite them when they're twenty when they've already done it all and seen it all? But then I think that times are different. It's not a pacman world anymore. After all, they can learn Chinese on a Nintendo game these days - how awesome is that?

So I guess to prepare kids for the world to come, the more experiences they have the better. And if the experiences are more amazing and more intense than what I had, it's because life is more intense and calls for heightened encounters with the world. Hopefully, our kids will take these memories and experiences to continue to create and even more amazing world in the future.

What it means to me as a writer who still likes books rather than Kindles and Nooks, I don't know. I guess I'll just sit back and see what my kids, as well as those I teach or lead in scout activities do with the opportunities they're lucky enough to given.

Misa Ramirez Guest Blogging

As a special treat, today I have a guest blogger. This is the first time I've done this so I'm looking forward to sitting back with all of you and reading Author Misa Ramirez's interesting background on the character of her Latina Mystery series, Lola Cruz.

The first book in the series was Livin' La Vida Lola and now Misa has followed this book up with Hasta La Vista, Lola which will be released on February 2, 2010. So, let's hear all about Lola!

Thanks for hosting me today, Julia. The support for Hasta la Vista, Lola! has been fantastic, and I’m thrilled to be on this blog tour! I’ve debated what to write about, but thought I’d launch right into how Lola Cruz came to be. I hope you end up loving her as much as I do!

There’s one thing that I’m asked (and sometimes not asked verbally, but with raised eyebrows) as a writer of a Latina mystery series. Bet you can’t guess what the question is. I’ll give you a hint. I’m not Latina. In fact, I say in my bio that I’m proud to be Latina-by-marriage.

So, the question is... drum roll...

“Why do you write a Latina character, and how did you manage to make her so authentic?”

The short answer is: “I’m a writer, of course, so it all comes so easily! Why not a Latina?”

That’s a complete lie (the part about it coming easy, not the part about me being a writer). Writing is hard work, and it’s true that you have to write about what you know. But, as I’ve already stated, I’m not Latina. I’m a white girl from California now living in Texas. But I married a smokin’ Latino man (almost 20 years married now) and I’ve learned so much about his culture through the years of our relationship so I do know Lola. I know her from the outside looking in. I know her though my children’s eyes. I know her through my husband and his family. His parents lived with us for several years, his sister is one of my best friends and is the sister I never had, and so many elements of the Mexican culture speak to me. So I write this series and write Lola because there is so much beauty in the Mexican culture and it truly speaks to me.

When we had children, it became even more important that we find ways to bring that culture into our American lives, to show the kids the culture that is part of their history, and for them to embrace that part of them. When the character of Lola Cruz (given name Dolores) came to me, it felt right because in so many ways I felt that this family that I’d created in my mind represented so many things I wanted to emphasize about the Mexican culture for my kids. The family, the faith, the language, the food... But I also wanted to show how these elements can be balanced within an American life.

Lola balances (or struggles to balance) life with the cultural and familial expectations placed on her with the her own passions and desires which stem from living as an American. I was particularly careful and conscious not to slip into stereotypes, and when people comment that my characters are so authentic and non-stereotypical, I take great pride in that!

So, who is Lola Cruz? Here she is in a nutshell:

Dolores “Lola” Cruz: Part Crusader, Part Swashbuckler, Part Sage

Stats:

Lola’s single, a good Catholic girl (usually), but willing to do a lot to live her dream of being a detective. She works for muy misterioso Manny Camacho, has always loved old high school crush Jack Callaghan, and has a modern day rogue for a brother. The long and the short of it is that Lola can definitely hold her own in any situation, even when her mother’s berating her for having a career instead of marriage and children, when her mafioso grandfather has her doing ‘family’ work, and when her grandmother thinks she’s a ghost.

The Look:

Long auburn hair with copper highlights, hips and boobs and curves to spare, stripper shoes (to go with her strip list), and a wardrobe full of clothes that Jack Callaghan can’t resist her in. A belly button ring…maybe. A black belt in kung fu and a love of yoga make her fit and strong.

Leading Man:

Jack Callaghan, newspaper columnist with a past and some baggage that prevents him and Lola from moving forward. Who is Sarah, anyway?

The Bottom Line:

Lola Cruz is a feisty heroine. She’s smart, sexy, and sassy. She’s a great friend, loyal, and kick ass. I like to say she’s my alter ego (if I were a super hot, sexy, Latina detective).

Lola’s next adventure has her investigating her own death–and Jack’s mysterious ex-girlfriend. There’s never a dull moment in her life!

So, that’s Lola’s story. What do you think? I’d love to hear!

Hasta la Vista, Lola! comes out February 2, 2010. Here’s the teaser:

What’s a girl to do when she finds out she’s been killed? Pinch herself to make sure she’s not a ghost, for starters. When Dolores Cruz comes home to her parents’ house to find every relative she has mourning her death, all hell breaks loose. With the help of on-again/off-again love Jack Callaghan, and juggling a new case thrown at her by muy misterioso boss Manny Camacho, it’s up to fledgling detective Lola to find out who’s behind the identity theft and suddenly wants her dead.

Click here to read an excerpt from the second installment in the Lola Cruz Mystery Series.


Living the Vida Lola, book one in the Lola Cruz Mystery Series

Dolores Cruz (Lola for short) loves shoes, chicken mole, kung fu (she’s a black belt) and her close-knit family. When her brother’s hunky old high school friend Jack Callaghan moves back to town, Lola falls hard. Now, after a year and a half as an underling at Camacho and Associates, a local private investigation firm, her oh-so-sexy and mysterious boss, Manny Camacho, assigns Lola her first big case: solving the mysterious disappearance of Emily Diggs. Can Lola juggle two men, her loving but demanding family, her PI exams, solve her all-important first case, and shop for fabulous shoes?

Excerpt: http://misaramirez.com/misas-books/livin-la-vida-lola/livin-la-vida-lola-excerpt/

Meet the characters! Read Lola and her crew’s On-Line Dating profiles.

To learn more about Misa be sure to follow her other stops on the Bronze Latino Book Tour.

Mon Jan 18 BronzeWord Latino Authors

Tues Jan 19 Book-Lover Carol

Wed Jan 20 Latino Book Examiner

Thur Jan 21 Julia Amante

Fri Jan 22 Lori Calabrese

Mon Jan 25 Murder By 4

Tues Jan 26 Book Journey

Wed Jan 27 Mama Latina Tips

Thur Jan 28 Caridad Piñeiro

Fri Jan 29 Literary Feline

Please leave your comments for Misa below to be entered into a drawing for a copy of her book.

Julia

What Does This All Mean

Last Tuesday I spoke on an author panel to high schoolers at Buena Park High School. On the way there the front tire on my car blew up, a chunk of it actually flew over my car and I watched it disappear as I tried to maneuver my now violently shaking car off the freeway. Thank God for AAA, because they came to my rescue again and I actually make it to my panel presentation on time.

The next day, as I'm packing for my trip to Florida, making sure I've got enough copies of my books for librarians I plan to see or give-aways, and plenty of bookmarks, I take a break to have lunch with my mother and notice that my glasses have broken. Being that I'm almost completely blind without them and I've got to go through airports with a gazillion security screenings then next day, this is a very bad thing. I rushed over to my optometrist to see what he can do. He tells me that if I'm willing to leave my glasses, he will order new frames and overnight them to me in Florida. I will ge them Saturday. This still leaves me traveling blind, but do I have a choice? I take option #1. And luckily, all went well and I arrived in Florida in one piece.

But last night as I was suffering from jet lag and dozing off to sleep, I thought of Jamie Wood Martinez, who was on the author panel with me the other day and how she was talking about how she questions what it means when these rotten things happen to her. She spoke about how she "caused herself" to have car accident on the way to a book signing once, because she was nervous about going.

So, am I subconsciously, mystically bringing these accidents into my life? What does it all mean? Maybe that I should be home writing my proposal that my agent is waiiting for rather than traveling all over the US promoting a book that is already written? Possibly.

Or maybe my tire was old, my glasses frame was old and they both needed to be replaced.

Just in case, I'm going to get that book proposal done while I'm on my book tour out here in Florida . . .

Julia