 Join us in celebrating RUBI RAMOS's RECIPE FOR SUCCESS book birthday! We sat down with Musa Jessica Parra to learn all about the inspiration behind her book. But first, a little bit about this novel: Graduation is only a few months away, and Rubi Ramos’s “recipe for success” to get into prestigious Alma University is already off track.When Alma waitlists Rubi’s application, Rubi will need to be distraction-free to make the grade and keep her parents―who have wanted this for her for years―from finding out. Which means falling for her cute surfer-slash-math tutor, Ryan, definitely won’t work. And neither will breaking her mother’s ban on baking―her parents didn’t leave Cuba so she could bake just like them.But some recipes are begging to be tampered with. When the First Annual Bake Off comes to town, Rubi’s passion for baking goes from subtle simmer to full boil. Add to the mix her crush on Ryan may be turning into a full-fledged relationship and Rubi’s life is suddenly so different from what it was. She’s not sure if she has what it takes to win the Bake Off, or where the relationship with Ryan is going, but there’s only one way to find out―even if it means going against her parents’ priorities. Now Rubi must differentiate between the responsibility of unfulfilled dreams she holds and finding the path she’s meant for. What 3 words would you use to describe your book? Joyful, Yummy, Love. Because the story does deal with meatier issues such as diaspora, classism, and honoring familial legacy, it was very important for me to keep joy at the center of Rubi’s journey. As daughter of immigrant parents, I know how difficult it is to navigate life between the hyphens. I also know how honoring the sacrifices our parents made for us can sometimes come at the cost of our own dreams. So I was very intentional of always centering joy in exploring how a teen could find a way to combine duty and passion instead of choosing one over the other. Again, being a diaspora kid, I’ve never been to Cuba. Cuban cuisine has been the main way for me to connect with that part of my heritage. I don’t know when—or if—I’ll ever get to visit the island, but I can access part of it through food. Writing the food scenes, I often pictured baking with family members I’ve never met, or remembered cooking with my dad as a teen. I tried to pour the feeling of longing, love, and hope into each of those scenes. So far the reception on the baking has been great, and the book will feature several of Rubi’s recipes! While so much of Rubi’s story is about expressing and sharing parts of your history and honoring legacies through food. And it’s also about love. First love, the love of friends, and the love for family (no matter how complicated it is).  What was the most challenging part of the publication process with this story? The most challenging part of publication was reconciling Dreams becoming Deadlines. While there are a lot of artistic components of publication, pursuing publication is very different than “writing.” Pursuing publications means engaging in a corporate, commercial enterprise and as such, I could no longer enjoy long stretches of discovery writing, or fully indulge my cravings to pants my way through revisions of RUBI—let alone drafting and revising book 2. Learning how to draft and revise fast was challenging, but I’m glad I stuck to it because I proved to myself that I could became a better plotter and draft faster than I have in the past. What message are you hoping readers will take take away from this story? I created Rubi when I needed a reminder that I could change the “recipe of my life.” No matter how hard it’d been for my parents to obtain some of the “ingredients" for me, no matter how much time I’d invested in “baking” them, it was okay for me to adjust it. Or even start from scratch. This is the heart of the book, and one I wish I could say to every young person (and those simply young at heart)—life is what you bake it. I wanted this book to be a testament to that, but also to how wherever there’s a whisk, there’s a way. Honoring your legacies while also finding your own path is possible—writing Rubi, her parents, and her friends finding theirs was one of the sweetest moments of my life. I hope readers will enjoy the ride of these characters finding love, expressing and sharing parts of themselves and their history through food, and of sifting through dreams in order to learn not just to survive but to thrive; I hope they’ll laugh, reach for an extra slice of cake; but mostly I hope they’ll be reminded that they can always tamper with the recipes their lives—and that there is never an expiration date for creating new ones. What comes next for you as an author? I’m finishing up revisions on my next YA contemporary, out next summer with Wednesday Books. I can’t share too many details yet, but it’s about a Latinx teen event planner who unexpectedly finds love—and herself—after loss. I had a blast diving DEEP into my love of Disney Princesses and Star Wars with that one! While there is a romance thread, the heart of the book revolves around two sisters, Castillo and Mariposa, and Cas’s journey of going from planner to participant in her own life. She may or may not be inspired by one of favorite J Lo characters btw! 👀 I can’t wait to share more later this year!  What books are on your to-be-read list? Angela Montoya’s Sinner’s Isle. On my Goodreads review reads: Come for the pirates, stay for toppling the patriarchy!!!! With lush writing and swashbuckling (& swoony) adventures, Sinner’s Isle had me singing: Yo ho, yo ho(e), a pirate's life for me! I read a very early draft and I’m sooo excited to see the final version. Romina Garber’s Castle of the Cursed. Romina’s worlds are so beautifully crafted and I can’t wait to lose myself in her next series. I also am so thrilled for Gretchen Schreiber’s Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal. I know it will rip my heart out and then patch it back up again! As a lawyer and daughter of Guatemalan and Cuban bakers, Jessica C. Parra never objects to an extra slice of cake. She’s a Los Angeles native who loves to write about Latinas with big hair (and even bigger dreams), complicated families, cats living their best lives (all nine of them), and the healing magic of acceptance. When she isn’t drafting books you can find her sipping kombucha, cuddling with her kitties, or co-piloting the Millennium Falcon at Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge. You can visit Jessica at jessicaparra.com and on Instagram at @jessicatparra.  As a lawyer and daughter of Guatemalan and Cuban bakers, Jessica C. Parra never objects to an extra slice of cake. She’s a Los Angeles native who loves to write about Latinas with big hair (and even bigger dreams), complicated families, cats living their best lives (all nine of them), and the healing magic of acceptance.
When she isn’t drafting books you can find her sipping kombucha, cuddling with her kitties, or co-piloting the Millennium Falcon at Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge. You can visit Jessica at jessicaparra.com and on Instagram at @jessicatparra. Comments are closed.
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