Nancy CoCo Books

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Nancy Coco is a pen name for Nancy J Parra, an author of cozy mystery novels. Nancy went to the University of Kansas from where she acquired a degree in journalism. She turned to fiction because she was more interested in interviewing the characters in her head than she was in real people.

A wife and mother to two children. Nancy is a veteran. She was in the Air Force. She spent four years on the Island of Guam in the South Pacific. She also spent some time in Aurora, Colorado. Her military days, despite their challenges, instilled in her the discipline she uses to write fiction.

Nancy is not a full-time writer. She works as a marketing manager for a tech company. It is a full-time position that keeps her quite busy. But she always finds time to write, not only on the weekends and in the evening after work but during her lunch break as well.

Her commute gives the author plenty of time to think about her characters and plots. A member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America and RomVets ( an online group of female veterans), Nancy Coco has been writing since she was in 5th grade.

Her big break came in 2002 when she finally sold her first book. However, by that point in time, she had already written 17 novels. As a child, she did not necessarily harbor a desire to write for a living. She was more interested in becoming an astronaut or a forest ranger.

But once the desire to write fiction took shape, she couldn’t shake it. The author gets her ideas for mysteries by placing herself in the shoes of her characters and exploring the world through their eyes, meeting their fictional friends and family, and slowly building a picture of the lives they live.

After a while, she finds a way to add a dead body into the mix, not to mention a reason that would compel her chosen protagonist to investigate it. Then, still in her protagonist’s perspective, she tries to follow the clues and hints in the hopes of finding the killer.

Most people believe that mystery writing requires heavy plotting. However, Nancy Coco prefers to write by the seat of her pants. It might surprise her fans to learn that she never discovers the identity of the killer until the final fifty pages.

Sometimes she starts a novel thinking she knows who the killer is. But by the time she gets to the end, things have changed and an entirely different character has stepped forward to inhabit the role.

This is part of the reason why the author writes without plotting. She is often just as surprised about the identity of the killer as her readers. Every time she sits down to write, Nancy has no idea where the story will take her.

All she has is questions. She uses them to figure out where she should go next. Each writing session is unpredictable. She doesn’t know what her characters will do or what they will say.

Nancy has a very active imagination. She is always getting new ideas. She keeps stashing them away, waiting for the right time to execute them. Sometimes it takes years before some of those ideas bear fruit.

Best Nancy Coco Books

Nancy Coco is a fast writer that can produce a full draft in six weeks, with some of the best books in her bibliography including:

All Fudged Up: The renovations at the grand old hotel were keeping Allie McMurphy quite occupied. A beloved landmark with a quaint Victorian charm, the hotel had been in her family for generations. It was important to Allie, and that was a problem.

Joe Jessup was dead. He and Allie’s dead grandfather had been embroiled in a long-running feud. As such, the fact that his corpse was found in her closet made her the number one suspect in his murder.

To Fudge or Not to Fudge: Allie’s summer started well enough, particularly in light of her stint on a cooking reality show. But then things went wrong. While on a walk, her canine dug up a bone connected to a missing body. Before she could fully make sense of the discovery, Allie found herself in a deadly match with a cunning killer.

When Does The Next Nancy Coco book come out?

The next book by Nancy Coco is Fudge and Marriage and will be released on April, 1st 2025. It is the newest book in the Candy-Coated Mysteries Series.

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