Books
Plastic Angel, Orchard Books, 2005
Order Plastic Angel
Nerissa’s mission since she first picked up a guitar and a pen has been to empower others, particularly girls, to find their own wings of creativity. “For me, it’s not so much that music and writing helps me transcend this world—although it does do that for me. It’s more about turning straw to gold, celebrations to symphonies, lemons to lemonade. It’s about alchemy.” In her first novel, Plastic Angel, which is being released by Scholastic Press this June, Nerissa delves into the world of two fourteen year old girls who decide to form a rock band. Chronically their struggles to be themselves in a world that tells them to just fit in, Nerissa employs her own songwriting skills, and along with sister and singing partner, Katryna Nields, has recorded and released a CD companion piece to go along with the book. “The CD contains all the songs mentioned in the book,” says Nields from her home in Northampton Massachusetts. “Some of the songs were ‘written’ by the characters in the book; others by the father of one of the characters, The CD acts as both soundtrack and artifact.” Nerissa & Katryna Nields will follow the book release with a tour in which they will sing the songs from the book, interspersed with short readings. Nerissa and Katryna have been performing together as a duo and as part of the five piece band, The Nields, since 1987. Nields shows are high energy, combining a wide range of emotion, humor and their trademark sibling harmonies.
How to Be an Adult, Mercy House, 2008
Musician Nerissa Nields has written a book to help college graduates navigate the aspects of life one doesn’t learn from in a typical liberal arts education.
In 1991, Nerissa’s sister Katryna graduated from college. She was a religion major embarking on a career as a folk singer. She had absolutely no clue how to do anything vaguely grown-up, except drive a car. But she didn't know how to take care of the car, change its registration from Virginia to Connecticut, figure out how to get health insurance, or put together a balanced meal. Naturally, she turned to her older sister, Nerissa, with whom she lived. Except for the balanced meal part, Nerissa wasn't much help to her.
"Can we go to the bookstore and find a book called How to Be an Adult?" she asked. They did go to the bookstore, and even though there was a book by that title (it's by David Richo and it's a handbook for psychological growth––really great) it was not what she wanted. So Katryna decided she and Nerissa should write such a book. But that meant they would have to do research, and as they were too busy driving around the country in a 15-passenger van trying to get famous in their folk-rock band, The Nields, the project was shelved, indefinitely.
Fast-forward fifteen years. Nerissa is pregnant and Katryna is the mother of two kids. Neither of them knows how to be an adult, but they’ve been passing pretty effectively for several years now (at least they fooled Katryna’s kids). But something about being pregnant lit a fire under Nerissa, and she decided the time had come to finally write this book. She figured the research would do her good. And so, two years later, (pregnant again) the book is now out and available!
Some of the topics covered:
-How to figure out what you want to be when you grow up
-How to get a job -How to get along with annoying people
-How to take care of yourself, inside and out (nutrition, exercise, mental health, etc.)
-How to be a good citizen of the world (and lower your carbon footprint)
-How to rent an apartment
-How to choose a pet
-How to keep your house clean (enough)
-How to fix a broken toilet
-How to have a swell dinner party
-How to cook lots of yummy things
-How to budget and save
-How to get insurance-health, auto, life
-How to take care of your car
-How to register to vote
-How to date
-How to get married
-How to get divorced
-And some final thoughts on parenthood