Today we celebrate the book birthday of Old Clothes for Dinner?! We sat down with Musa Nathalie Alonso to learn all about the inspiration behind this book. But first, a little bit about the book: OLD CLOTHES FOR DINNER?! is a lighthearted picture book that tells the story of a girl named Magaly, whose grandmother recently arrived from Havana. Magaly is enjoying all the Cuban dishes her Abuela has been whipping up in their apartment — until she learns her grandmother is making a batch of ropa vieja. Old clothes for dinner?! Gross! To make things worse, Magaly’s sweater has gone missing, and she feels the urge to hide her other clothing before it too ends up on the dinner plate. What inspired you to become a writer? I’ve been writing almost constantly since I was a kid. When I was around 10, my grandmother bought me an electric typewriter (this was in the mid-90s right before PCs really took off) and I used to spend my summer vacations writing stories. Then I became a journalist, doing a very different kind of writing. And that led me to become interested in writing articles for children’s magazines, which evolved into a desire to write children’s books. I'm a creative person overall and I think I became a writer largely because I love the challenge and the thrill of creating something from nothing. Are you agented? If so, can you share how you got one? Yes. I am represented by Heather Cashman at Storm Literary Agency. Heather reached out to me after I participated in a Twitter pitch event called #PitMad in 2020, back when the app was still called Twitter. I pitched my picture book biography of Puerto Rican ballplayer Roberto Clemente, which will be released in August 2024 by Astra/Calkins Creek, and it caught her attention. I had only been querying agents for about six months at that point. I know different writers feel differently about sharing their ideas on social media (which is valid!) but the pitch party really sped up my timeline, I think, because I was able to put my manuscript in front of a lot of agents at once and connect with the person who was interested in my work. Can you share your path to publication for this book? OLD CLOTHES FOR DINNER?! began as a magazine article. I wasn’t able to sell it, so it sat in a drawer for a few years. In 2019, the Highlights Foundation awarded me their inaugural Diversity Fellowship in Children’s Literature. I was paired with a mentor, fellow Cuban American author Emma Otheguy. At that point, I dusted off the story and turned it into a picture book manuscript with Emma’s help. Before I was agented, Lisa Rosinsky, my editor at Barefoot Books, had seen my bio on the Highlights Foundation website and reached out to encourage me to send her manuscripts. So after Heather offered me representation, I remembered Lisa’s note and we sent her OLD CLOTHES FOR DINNER?! So glad it found a home with Lisa at Barefoot! What was the most difficult scene to write in this story? I would say the moment when Magaly finds out what ropa vieja really is. It’s the resolution that ultimately brings her closer to her Cuban heritage and her grandmother, so I had to ponder how I wanted her to react and make it funny yet also heartfelt. Humor is, in my opinion, hard to pull off, so it was challenging. I also had to set up that moment earlier in the book. It had to be written in a way that the reader would also understand that the truth had been right in front of Magaly the whole time. What comes next for you as an author? I have three more baseball-related projects under contract, in addition to the three books that I have published/announced, so I will be writing and revising quite a bit in 2024. One of them is historical fiction, which is a new genre for me and really exciting. I also have a couple of STEM-related projects on submission and other STEM ideas I want to pursue. I would say my next goal is to publish a STEM book. I am fascinated by nature and wildlife, perhaps because I live in New York City, where there isn’t much of either. I also want to write YA nonfiction at some point and attempt a spooky middle grade or YA novel. As a journalist, nonfiction comes a lot easier to me though, so I have to muster up a lot of courage to try writing more fiction — but I definitely want to!
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