Q&A
Love, Cake
and Writing
Millburn author Judith Natelli McLaughlin talks about her
new novel, her writing process and why she loves cake
J
udith Natelli McLaughlin celebrated the release of her latest
novel, Love, Reality Style, in June
at Millburn’s Splurge Bakery, a
fitting choice given her main
character’s passion for cake.
A Millburn resident for 23 years,
Judith has been writing since childhood;
she still has a book she wrote as a little
girl, The Bunny and the Eggs, now
bound together by masking tape. Today,
Judith juggles her roles as mother to
three daughters and her full time job as
Director of Corporate Governance at
Neca, with writing and illustrating. She
sat down at The Squirrel and the Bee in
Short Hills to discuss her book, her life
as a writer, and cake.
Love, Reality Style is a wonderful
romantic comedy. How did you
come up with the idea? The first
novel I wrote, This Moment, is a real
tear-jerker. When I finished that, I wanted
to write a straight up comedy. I wondered, what if a woman in her thirties,
who was never the belle of the ball, is
proposed to by a man she might love,
but after accepting she begins to get all
this other male attention? I also knew I
wanted to include a reality show in the
story, and then the characters emerged.
Your main character, Mary Grace,
loves cake. How did cake become
a theme? It began with the notion
that Mary Grace was a woman who was
always carrying 20 extra pounds. Then I
thought, why? What was her weakness?
CAKE! So I put cake in one scene and it
kind of took over and began to pop up
over and over, with her often enjoying
dessert before dinner. Then it introduced
50
itself into her childhood and Anytime
Cake was born. So, as a theme, it wasn’t
something I had outlined or expected, but
rather a natural evolution to the story.
Did you create Mary Grace’s
Anytime Cake? I did. While Anytime
Cake in the book is chocolate, my
Anytime Cake recipe is for a yellow cake.
I figure Anytime Cake is exactly that,
cake to be eaten anytime.
You have cake related quotations
as chapter headings. Which is your
favorite? I thought that was a cute and
unique way to begin each
chapter. My favorite is by
Angela Falcone, who says,
“There is no problem in life
that can’t be solved with a
good piece of cake.”
Do you have a particular
routine for writing? I am
an early riser, so I do my writing in the early morning and
once I have finished a manuscript, I put it away for a while
to make it fresh again. Then,
when it is time to edit it, that
is something I do all the time. I
am always thinking about it. When you
start a story, you don’t know the characters yet, but by the time you finish, they
are your friends. They are in your head
all the time. I love to run and if I have a
problem I am trying to solve with a storyline, I put it in my head for the run and I
brainstorm. I can’t tell you how many
times I come back with the answer.
How long did it take to complete
your book? From start to finish, it took
around two years to write. I hired a pro-
MILLBURN • SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE HOLIDAY 2016
fessional editor so that was another block
of time, and then another year to find a
publisher. This is not for the faint of heart!
After self-publishing your first
novel This Moment, how different
is it to work with Blue Moon
Publishing for Love, Reality Style?
I found this concept called Twitter Pitch
Parties. You tweet your pitch and edi tors,
agents and publishers review them. That’s
how I found Blue Moon, a small boutique
publisher, who liked my pitch. The beauty
of working with Blue Moon is that you get
an editor and a publicist working with you
every step. This experience
has been amazing. When I
self-published, it was just me,
making it up as I went along,
making up the marketing and
the public relations.
What are you currently
working on? I have pub-
lished two books for children,
Dear Diary, E.P. Thompson
Here and Mackenzie Goode
Here,
Makes a Mistake
Mistake. I’ve written
the second in the Mackenzie
Goode series, and I am working on the illustrations, which will be published this fall. I am also working on the final
draft of a novel tentatively titled You Got
Friend, for Blue Moon.
What is your favorite book? I can’t
say! It is a big joke in my family; they
make fun of me because my favorite is
always the last book I read! Whenever I
finish a book, I say it was the best, and
they say what about the one you read
just before it? ■
– AS TOLD TO JO VARNISH