Sometimes a you see the cover of a book, and the title alone makes you want to pick it up. “How to Eat a Cupcake” is one of those books. I mean, who doesn’t love a good cupcake? But don’t let the title fool you, “How to Eat a Cupcake” is not just about delicious desserts—it’s about the power of forgiveness and the bonds that tie a friendship together.
It follows the tale of, free-spirited Annie Quintana and sophisticated Julia St. Clair, who come from two different worlds. Yet, as the daughter of the St. Clair’s housekeeper, Annie grew up in Julia’s San Francisco mansion and they forged a bond that only two little girls oblivious to class differences could—until a life-altering betrayal destroyed their friendship.
A decade later, Annie bakes to fill the void left in her heart by her mother’s death, and a painful secret jeopardizes Julia’s engagement to the man she loves. A chance reunion prompts the unlikely duo to open a cupcakery, but when a mysterious saboteur opens old wounds, they must finally face the truth about their past or risk losing everything.
In the name of research, how many cupcakes would you say you ate during the writing of your novel? What’s your favorite?
Oh, countless! I was pregnant when I was writing “How to Eat a Cupcake”…double whammy! My favorite is salted caramel (or, if you want to get extra fancy: chocolate-caramel fleur de sel).
Your book is themed around the power of friendship between women. How important is true friendship to you?
Friendship is incredibly important to me and some of my very best friends are ones I have known since elementary school. As a writer, it’s easy to get stuck in my own head, and as a mother and wife, it’s all too easy to get so wrapped up in family life that I lose sight of all the fun to be had outside our home. Friends are like a breath of fresh air in my life, making me laugh, acting as a sounding board, helping me reconnect with the person I am outside of work and motherhood—I hope I do the same for them.
“How to Eat a Cupcake” is getting great reviews! Did you make a promise to yourself to not read any reviews good or bad? Since your book is so well received any pressure as you write the next one?
I have to admit that I read the majority of my reviews. I have a good sense of what I believe to be the flaws in the book, so reading someone else spell them out doesn’t really bother me (I thought of them first! Ha!), and if someone finds flaws that I don’t agree with, those don’t bother me because I just don’t agree. It might be delusional, but it works! And the good reviews and positive feedback from readers make me so happy that I would hate to miss out on them just because I’m scared to run across a bad review.
I’m glad that I was well into writing my second novel by the time my first novel was published so that the reception of the first novel did not have much chance to interfere with my work-in-progress. Even now, I’m really thinking of the book I’m working on—entitled ALL THE SUMMER GIRLS—as such a separate, stand-alone project…I hope it speaks to fans of “How to Eat a Cupcake”, but I also hope it attracts a new wave of readers. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Do you have a critique group or partner? How important would you say they are to a writer’s career?
I do not have a critique group (or a partner beyond my wonderful editor, Jeanette Perez), but I’m hoping to cull one together once I’ve finished a first draft of my new novel. For my first book, my early readers were only my husband, my mother, and my editor. I loved having a critique group during grad school (an MFA program), but I also think there is such a thing as too much feedback while you’re in the thick of the first-draft process—the feedback can bog you down and make it hard to maintain forward momentum. That said, I like the idea of taking a complete draft as far as you can take it on your own and then seeing what a few other trusted readers in your life have to say about it.
What’s your writing process like? Do you set out each day to hit a certain word count? Are you an outliner or pantser?
I aim to write ten pages, or about one chapter, each week. I outline the entire novel chapter-by-chapter from the outset—it makes the whole process far less daunting. Some plot points and characters change over the course of writing, but for the most part I stick pretty close to that original outline.
Let’s talk social media. You’re on Twitter and Facebook, which outlets do you enjoy more? Would you say that having an online presence is vital to an author’s career?
I love both Twitter and Facebook, but it is so easy to lose whole hours of your day to them. I do think they are vital for many authors—especially ones who enjoy interacting with readers—but it’s hard to stay connected and also get your work done!
Did you decide to hire an outside publicist or did you stick with your in-house publicist? In what ways would you say you supported them to help get the word out about your novel?
I did not hire an outside publicist and feel so lucky to have been paired up with a wonderful publicity and marketing team at HarperCollins (Kaitlyn Kennedy and Mary Sasso). I let them know from the beginning that I was up for absolutely everything and that they should not hesitate to pass along any and all opportunities to me and to let me know what I could do to be proactive about promotion from my end. It’s exhausting, but I think it makes a big difference to say yes to everything, especially as an unknown debut author. I am grateful for every single opportunity that pops up in my in-box.
Now let’s get to the hair! In your photos your hair is gorgeous! Long and blonde, is that your go-to style? How often are you in the salon?
Thank you so much! Long and blonde is definitely my go-to style, but I usually have pretty thin, flat hair…my husband snapped my author photo soon after the birth of our second daughter while my hair still maintained some of the fullness it developed while I was pregnant. Pregnancy is good for my hair! Then it starts to fall out and flatten. I go long, long stretches in between salon visits…I feel like every time I end up in the salon chair it’s because my hair has become a total wreck in need of urgent attention. I should get better about going regularly instead of waiting until things get ugly!
Name a celebrity that you would switch hair with!
I adore Kate Hudson’s beachy, boho, blonde look. It’s sexy without trying too hard. I’m sure her glam team spends hours making her look like she just rolled out of bed.
What’s your biggest hair disaster?
A couple of years ago I wanted to try to add a golden strawberry tone to my hair and it ended up dishwater brown. I came home from the salon and the babysitter who was watching my daughter looked at me and blurted out, “Why did you do that?” I went back the next day. That might be the last time I take a risk with color!
Big thanks to Meg for stopping by and if you want a delicious read this summer then pick her book up pronto! To learn more about Meg visit her website, like her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter!
Hey guys, the wonderful Meg Donohue will be stopping by Wednesday discussing her book, How to Eat a Cupcake! Learn about her writing process, the celeb she’d switch hair with, and the most important question—What’s her favorite cupcake? Stay tuned for Wednesday’s interview!
 So I mentioned I finished my novel last month. But I’m going over this book like a fine-toothed comb, hoping and praying my critique partner and Mama don’t tear my book up. (In actuality, a good critique partner should tear your book up. It should be returned with plenty of notes on how to improve it. But more on that later in the week…) But as I’m going through it, I see soooooo many dropped plot points. To name a few…
- One of my main characters gets injured and chips her front tooth. Several chapters later no chipped tooth.
- Decided to have one of my characters go from two children to one. Several places in book I’m still naming her two kids.
- And lastly, the family I’m writing about gets a dog in one chapter and for the rest of the book, he’s never mentioned again. What happened to the dog?
A lot of this happens when I take too long of a break between writing. When I’m writing everyday, my characters stay fresh in my mind and so does my plot. And when I don’t? Well…I have to get that muse jogging, and get back into the swing of my novel. Now, I do tend to read a little bit of what I’ve written previously, but still somehow I can still forget details when I’m not writing everyday. (Mind you, this can happen even when you do write everyday. You can be so determined to get to the next scene or chapter that you don’t flush out the previous scene well enough, and you miss important details.)
So that’s what’s been keeping me busy lately—well that and about a zillion other things—but that’s where I’m at when it comes to my writing. So off I go, to find this missing dog. Been thinking of naming him Kristoph. Or my Mama’s favorite—Beauregard. Ridiculous isn’t it? Maybe I’ll just stick to Fido…
Lady Gaga showed up in Hong Kong over the weekend wearing a purple dress. Why does this interest me so much? Because it was made out of hair. Yep, she had a flowing gown made out of purple hair extensions.
The cool part is that she actually had her hair, (okay her extensions) braided into the bodice of the dress. I know some of you are thinking, “The cool part? What’s cool about wearing a purple dress made out of hair?”
I love all things hair, so for me, this is pretty cool. It’s not the first time I’ve seen an outfit made out of hair, go to a few hair shows and you will see all sorts of things made out of extensions. So I like it. Now that doesn’t mean I’d wear it, absolutely not. But for Lady Gaga, who likes to shock and wear crazy outfits, this seems pretty tame to me. Also, she must love wearing outfits out of hair, because this is her sixth outfit made out of hair.
And these are just a few examples. What do you guys think? Should hair be worn only on the head, or can it be used for fashion?
I was a pretty good student in school. I don’t know if you guys remember, or if you had report cards like I did growing up, but we always got grades on things besides math and science. There were a few parts of the report card that had questions like, “Does student complete homework on time?” or “Does student manage time effectively?”
But the question I always received high scores on was, “Is student self-disciplined?”
At a young age, even when my parents didn’t remind me, I came home from school and immediately started my homework. My theory was, ‘let me get this out of the way so I can watch TV later.’ I had a natural tendency to follow the motto, ‘work first and play later’.
I’ve gotten several e-mails asking what it takes to be a writer. And I would have to say, being self-disciplined is one of the most important qualities a writer can have. Most writers work under deadline, whether from their editor or a self-imposed. And no one tells you how to get the work done, no one is over your shoulder telling you how many pages to write, how many hours to clock in doing research. YOU have to set your own schedule and actually follow it to get your work done. There’s no simpler way to say it, as a writer you have to have the discipline to sit down and write. You have to write when all your friends are going to lunch, you have to write when your kids are sleeping, you have to write when your husband is beckoning you to watch TV with him, you have to write when your mom begs to you to go shopping. It’s true, you have to write when everyone else seems to be out doing great things, you have to learn to say no so you can get your book done.
Now I’m not saying you have to live in a hole and write, write, write. Of course you have to live life to even have the experience to write a book. But there are times you have to make sacrifices to write. And that’s where the self discipline comes in. What kept me going through all the rewrites and craziness involved in writing a book, is remembering that only I had to power to finish the book. In the end, it’s just you and the writing. And when you commit to getting it done, then you can celebrate and dance with joy when it’s finally done. Now excuse me while I dance the jig, because my book is done!
Words can’t describe what I’m feeling right now. After three years of hard work, several re-writes, (including one starting from scratch…) it’s done. Are you reading this folks—I said my book is done!
I think Mariah Carey says it better than I could ever describe it…
So don’t kill me. I know, I know I haven’t blogged in almost a month, but I have a good reason. A 100,000+ word count reason. A I-probably-will-finish-it-tonight-and-I’m-already-dancing-kind of reason. So am I forgiven? No? Okay, what if I give you a few small details this week about the book? Then am I forgiven? I am? *sheesh* (Wipes sweat from brow…)
So I’m a big fan of Anne Hathaway, ever since The Princess Diaries, and she is known for her long, brown locks. But for her upcoming role in the film, Les Miserables, she’s gone short. And I mean short.
So yeah, umm, I’m not a fan. But by looking at her face, I think she isn’t either. She sacrificed her hair for the role, (and now she has to cut calories too! Double ouch!) and I think she will immediately grow it back out. Maybe not as long as it was, but I promise you she’ll be reaching for extensions and rocking a wavy bob this fall.
So I’m going to applaud her for being such a dedicated actor, but…yeah. Get some hair girlfriend. Pronto!
 I have out-of-town guests coming, so I won’t be blogging much this week. But it’s funny, when you have guests coming to your house, how much you clean. And I mean clean. I’ve cleaned my carpet, all the baseboards and moldings, ceiling fans, blinds, refrigerator, even my washing machine for goodness sake. And then I opened my top drawer in my dresser and saw how un-organized everything was. T-shirts and pajama pants thrown in, underwear and bras tossed together.
And in a moment of haste I became one of them.
One of those people who sits down and organizes their clothes, rolls their socks in neat rows, shirts all neatly folded like a department store. Well, I did it. And I’m so proud of myself that I took the time to do it. I feel like inviting people over just to have them pull open my dresser drawers.
“Katrina! You are so neat and organized! I didn’t know you were one of them…”
Meaning: I didn’t know you were one of those women who keeps everything in its rightful place. Who irons her sheets and has her pantry organized by food group and expiration date…
No, I’m not that organized. I detest folding, in fact folding clothes is my #2 worst chore in the world. (A distant second behind ironing. We can send a man to the moon but can’t figure out how to keep clothes wrinkle-free?) The fact that I took the time to fold everything—the right way, I might add—is no small feat. But I enjoyed every minute of it, and couldn’t believe the stack of clothes I needed to donate or throw out. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why I had so many bleach-stained t-shirts, or tank tops in size XS. (Sadly, I haven’t seen that size in a while… *sniff, sniff*) Now, I can fold with the best of them, my husband’s pants have creases sharper than Bobby Flay’s knives. (Who knew to fold clothes when warm? Way better than my old system of leaving baskets of clean clothes sitting on my window seat, and pulling out one towel every time I took a shower…)
The hard part in all this will be maintaining the system and keeping things neat. I figure I’ll do it for a month, and then treat myself with acrylic organizers and separators. A true neat freak splurge.
So the iPad 3 made it’s debut yesterday. I’ve juggled with the decision of getting an iPad for years. Hubby is a strictly PC kind of guy, he waited months for the Windows phone, and is now waiting for the Windows tablet. He isn’t big on Apple products, and is leaving the decision up to me. But he has warned me, “If you decide to get one I won’t be able to help you with it. I don’t know much about Apple so if you have a tech issue I can’t help.”
For me that’s a big deal. I expect Hubby to answer all of my computer questions—he’s an electrical engineer for goodness sake! But that’s not my real problem. My real problem is that I’m nervous to buy a tablet. And not just an iPad, any tablet. The reason is crazy but I’m just so nervous about spending all that money and then a few weeks later another version comes out and I want to punch myself for not being patient and waiting on the newest version. But the thing is…I’ve been waiting. For years. And still I haven’t pulled the trigger and made the decision to purchase one. And Hubby has already agreed to get me whatever I want, and yet I haven’t made up my mind.
I think I want an iPad.
Or the Asus Transformer Prime HD. (Which isn’t even out yet…)
Or a Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Okay, I have one way to decide this whole thing and to put this to rest.
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
So it’s decided. I’m getting an iPad.
Does this mean I have to get an iPhone too?
Whew! Sorry about the blog break! I normally announce when I’m going to take a little break, but this time it wasn’t planned. It was one of those things wear life just gets in the way and you don’t make time to blog.
I’ve always admired consistent bloggers. I follow tons of hair, makeup and beauty blogs, fashion blogs, and of course several author and writing blogs. And one of my favorite things to do on a quiet Monday morning is to read through my favorite blogs. And I’ve often prided myself on being consistent, by writing a post every day, then at least three times a week, then two, but now? I’ve missed a whole week and not because I was too busy, I just stopped my routine of writing a post in the evening.
So I’m not going to lie and say I’m going to post something everyday. When I did keep that schedule I wasn’t on Facebook or Twitter, and now my new love Pinterest. (Which calls for it’s own blog post altogether…) So I don’t have that much time on my hands. But I do love to blog. And so I’m trying to work harder to keep up my routine of writing in the evening.
Being consistent is the key to being successful at anything. But once you stop, if you stop your routine for several days, it is incredibly hard, (for me anyway) to start again. So I’m working hard to keep up my routine. I’m not being rigid or anything, and of course things happen, but if you start thinking like that, then you’ll always find that things happen. And then there’s another day you didn’t exercise, or write, or make up your bed…
So I’m back on my routine. With the blog that is. The one-hundred crunches I’m supposed to be doing every night? Not so much.
So I knew this day would come. The day when I reach 90,000 words on my WIP and have three chapters left to write. The day I’ve been (slowly) reaching toward is almost here. I could finish this book in a day or two and yet…I hesitate.
It’s stupid I know, but when it’s over there is always more work to be done. I’m going to do another edit before it’s off to beta readers and I have to admit—I’m plain ‘ole nervous!
When you work on something for years, it’s inevitable that you get emotionally attached to it. When I’m close to finishing a book I normally feel two things—elation: I finished my book and it’s great! It’s my best work yet! Or dread: I spent all this time and effort on this book and I’m scared. What if it’s horrible? What if it doesn’t sell?
What if I have to write it over…again?
Right now, I’m teetering more on the dread side. I’ve always been a Negative Nancy, seeing the worst possible scenario in every situation. But I’m working hard to change my way of thinking, to be a Positive Polly and start seeing the bright side. My goodness, I finished (almost) my book! Twice! That stands for something, and no matter what happens, whether it sells or not, I write. Meaning, I still have to write my next book, no matter the outcome on this one.
So I’m keeping positive. I’m almost finished with my book. And now I’m off to actually finish it…
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Katrina Spencer 
I’m a Women’s Fiction writer with two novels under my belt, Six O’clock and Unbeweaveable. Curl Up and Write is where I fuse my two loves: hair and writing. You’d be surprised at the similarities! When I’m not writing, I’m watching How’s It Made with my Hubby (and pretending I’m not interested in learning how a tennis racket is built), or I’m reading to my daughter. I also dabble in gardening, love to cook, and watch way too much HGTV.
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