About the Baker’s Treat Mystery series with Nancy Parra

Ten years ago very few people—even doctors—were aware of the term “celiac disease.” Those who suffer from the disease must eat a gluten-free diet, something that was very difficult to do until celebrity devotees propelled gluten-free into a fad diet. In this interview, Nancy J. Parra talks about her latest Baker’s Treat Mystery and how her diagnosis as a “Celiac” affected her.

Parra was one of those little girls who grew up cooking and baking. She made her first cake from scratch at age 5 and competed in 4H cooking demonstrations as well as county fairs, where she won several blue ribbons. Later in life, Parra discovered a love of writing and obtained an MA in Writing Popular Fiction, which is where she learned to love cozy mysteries.

In speaking of her Baker’s Treat Mystery series, Parra said, “This series addresses the issues of food allergies. For 1 out of every 106 people in the world, gluten free is not a fad diet but the only way to live a healthy life. Like me, my protagonist has Celiac disease and knows what it’s like to be sick. She strives to bring normalcy to people with food allergies by creating tasty versions of baked goods for special occasions.”

Nancy Parra said she was diagnosed around 2006 after having been sick for a while. For Celiacs, “sick” is a euphemism for any number of symptoms. In Parra’s case, those symptoms included bouts of nausea. “I would have these painful episodes where I felt like the ‘Blueberry girl’ from Willie Wonka. I would stand in the shower and cry. Then there were other things like depression and wide-spread joint pain. It took a lot to figure it out because it seemed random.”

[contestad code=NoGluten startdate=2015-05-17 enddate=2015-05-24]When her daughter suggested a test for Celiac disease, Parra dismissed the idea. “I thought, no way. I love bread. I could live on bread.” But, she did get tested and the tests showed her daughter’s diagnosis to be correct. “Once I got off gluten I was so much better. I do still get unexpected gluten and know immediately. I wrote that into ‘Flourless to Stop Him.’ There is a scene where Toni takes a chance on french fries and gets sick. Because—hey—we’re all human.”

After she had been diagnosed, Parra felt it was natural for her to develop gluten-free recipes from old-time favorites. She said, “I would post my goodies on Facebook and people would ask for the recipe. I’m glad to include original gluten-free recipes in the book.”

The idea for The Baker’s Treat series came about when a friend suggested Parra mix her mystery writing with her passion for baking. The series about Gluten-free baker Toni Holmes was a hit—as are the recipes Parra posts on her website. But, there’s one thing Parra hasn’t been able to master—bread making.

“I’ve never been very good with bread—even regular bread,” she said. “I tend to kill the yeast or put in too much flour when I knead it and end up with rocks instead of loaves. But I thought hey, I’m pretty good at understanding gluten free, maybe I can do the bread. So I bought a cookbook entitled ‘Healthy bread in 5 min a day.’ It offers Gluten free recipes and sounds easy and wonderful…you make a big batch of dough and cook it up fresh daily.

“Once again, I ended up with a rock instead of a loaf. Only this time I was left with a big batch of dough that I ended up tossing. Nothing wrong with the recipe. I simply know my limits and breadmaking is not for me. I do hope to get an electric breadmaker someday. I had one once, but it caught on fire—true story. So, I’ve been reluctant. Something tells me that bread is something I should leave to the experts.”

While she might leave baking bread to the experts, Nancy Parra has a talent with treats. She said, “My favorite (recipe) is a gluten-free version of my Grandmother’s sponge cake.” You can find that recipe at nancyjparra.com.

In keeping with the writer’s mantra of “write what you know,” Parra said the Baker’s Treat mystery series is based on her own large family. “In the series, Toni has a Grandma Ruth who is a Mensa member. My own Grandma Ruth was a lifetime member of Mensa and many of her quirks are depicted in the books. I like to think that she looks down from Heaven and enjoys the way I’ve depicted her in the story.”

Parra also confessed that, like her protagonist, Toni, she has “52 cousins and counting.” She said, “Coming from a large family is a blessing and a curse and I use that first hand information to drive some of the plot points in these stories. I also spent my high school years in a small town in Kansas and I enjoy getting reader letters that say they love the books and feel like they are living in OilTop.”

When asked about her favorite “Grandma Ruth” story, Parra said, “Oh boy—so many.” Her favorite, however, involved not food, but driving.

“She  crashed and totaled one car too many and she had to do a special driver’s test for seniors. When she finished the test, the instructor got out of the car, white as a sheet and shook her head—no! Grandma never got her license back. Instead she got a senior scooter and would drive that down the middle of the street—rain, snow or sun. My father put a pole on the back with an orange triangle so that cars could see her coming.”

More about Nancy Parra

Visit nancyjparra.com to learn more about Nancy Parra and her three mystery series: Baker’s Treat Mystery series, Perfect Proposal series, and her Candy Coated series written under as Nancy Coco.