AS: What’s your book about?
Mark/ Rachel: Cinderelliot is stuck at home taking care of his ungrateful stepsister and stepbrother. When Prince Samuel announces a kingdom-wide competition to join the royal staff as his baker, the stepsiblings insist that Cinderelliot bake their entries, leaving no time for he, himself, to compete.
Fairy Godfather Ludwig appears and magically helps Cinderelliot bake his best chocolate cake, clean up, and get to the competition via limo. At the bake-off, Prince Samuel falls in love with Cinderelliot’s cake, but our hero has to run off as the clock strikes midnight, leaving behind his chef hat.
The next day, Prince Samuel searches the kingdom for the owner of the hat and finds that it fits perfectly on Cinderelliot’s head. The prince is delighted to find not only his new baker but also the man of his dreams, and Cinderelliot creates a magnificent wedding cake–and the two live scrumptiously ever after.
AS: Tell me about yourselves. What inspired you to write this book?
MARK: I came up with the idea after reading the book Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack. This is a picture book about a prince and knight who fall in love and get married. Soon after I read it, I thought about Cinderella and wondered what it would be like to write a gay version. I wrote the first draft in July 2018.
The first draft had a sporting competition and two stepbrothers. That version had some trouble spots. I sent it to Rachel for feedback as we were friends and had met through Minnesota SCBWI conferences. We had also given each other feedback on other stories before CINDERELLIOT. www.markceilley.com
RACHEL: I graduated from the Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in writing for children and young adults. During my time there I fell in love with writing picture books. When Mark sent me the original draft of CINDERELLIOT for editing, I was charmed by Ludwig and excited about the story potential—but my editing started to change the story, so I asked Mark if he would be interested in co-writing the manuscript. He agreed, and we spent the next 12 months passing the manuscript back and forth before we shared it with my agent, Dawn Frederick. Here’s a quick plug for my other three books—middle grade mysteries CHEER FEARS and TRACK AND FIELD TRICK, and biography MILLICENT SIMMONDS: ACTOR AND ACTIVIST—published by Capstone Press and available to order from your favorite bookstore. www.rachelsmokarichardson.com
AS: Can you tell me about the illustrator?
Mark/Rachel: Our editor invited us to send her a list of illustrators we thought might be a good fit for CINDERELLIOT, which included Stephanie Laberis. Our editor and art director selected two illustrators (one being Stephanie) and sent us their websites for our thoughts. Ultimately, they chose Stephanie—known for illustrating the infamous Grumpy Cat in several Little Golden Books—who was the perfect fit. You can see more of her work at https://stephlaberis.squarespace.com/.
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