Rajani LaRocca's Blog, page 40

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I’m writing to share things I love that are related to the themes in my books. For the most part, this means family, friends and food, but I may throw in some Shakespeare and science for good measure.

In celebration of the announcement of my middle grade debut, MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, a Shakespeare-inspired, Indian-American foodie story about discovering your talents and finding your place in the world, the theme for my blog from now until June 2019 will be “Found in Translation.” I’m going to share memories—some from childhood, some from adulthood, some from time spent with my own children—and translate them into sweet treats!

I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to comment on this post, or reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram.

Malted Milk Mornings

My childhood memories of visiting my family in India are filled with food.

My family lived in Bangalore, which had (and has) some of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. But they paled in comparison to the mouthwatering food that came out of my aunties’ kitchens every day. Homemade, vegetarian, and healthy, they were filled with heady spices and made with love.

But today, I’m thinking of a beverage—one I started my day with every morning in India when I was a kid, before I became old enough to drink the tea and coffee enjoyed by the adults in my family.

I’m referring to Bournvita, a chocolate malted mix made by Cadbury and sold in the UK and India (and many other places, I’m sure, but not in the U.S. when I was a kid) as a healthy drink for children. It was really sweet, and really tasty, and no matter what vitamins it contained, I’m not sure it qualified as healthy. But that didn’t matter to my cousins and me, giggling at the table in the cool mornings, somehow feeling a little cold and a little sweaty at the same time. Before we took our baths, before my cousins got ready for school, we sipped Bournvita out of stainless steel tumblers. We felt the love and care that went into heating the milk and mixing it with just the right amount of Bournvita powder. We enjoyed the grown-up feeling of starting the morning with something hot. We tasted the sweetness of another day together.

For my treats inspired by those memories, I opted to use malted milk powder rather than Bournvita per se in order to better control the amount of sugar in these cookies. The cocoa powder makes these plenty chocolatey. If you eat them warm—I dare you not to try one—the malted milk doesn’t come through as much…but when they cool down, I think it’s a more prominent flavor.

These cookies bring me back to summer mornings in India sipping Bournvita with my cousins, looking forward to the day ahead. I don’t recommend you eat them for breakfast…but if you do, I won’t tell anyone!

Bournvita-Inspired Double Chocolate Cookies With Malted Milk

Makes 40-45 3-4 inch cookies

Ingredients :

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup malted milk powder (I used King Arthur)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, cornstarch, and malted milk powder in a large bowl and stir with a whisk.
Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, until everything is well-mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg mixture and mix until just incorporated.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop in rounded tablespoons and space at least 1 ½ inches apart on cookie sheets.
Bake for 9 minutes, rotating sheets hallway through, until the cookies have lost their raw look. Cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling. Enjoy!

 

Giveaway Time!

Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win a copy of LOVE SUGAR MAGIC: A DASH OF TROUBLE by Anna Meriano! This delicious middle grade novel is full of themes that resonate with me: family, friends, food…and magic!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sometimes, Dreams Do Come True!

I am bursting with joy to announce that MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, my Shakespeare-inspired, foodie Indian-American middle grade debut novel will be published in summer 2019! Stay tuned for more exciting news!

Here’s the announcement in Publisher’s Weekly!

And here’s the announcement in Publisher’s Marketplace! (login / subscription required)

 

 

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I’m writing to share things I love, related to the themes in my books. For the most part, this means family, friends and food, but I may throw in some Shakespeare and science for good measure.

In celebration of the announcement of my middle grade debut, MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, a Shakespeare-inspired, Indian-American foodie story about discovering your talents and finding your place in the world, the theme for my blog from now until June 2019 will be “Found in Translation.” I’m going to share memories—some from childhood, some from adulthood, some from time spent with my own children—and translate them into sweet treats!

I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to comment on this post, or reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram.

Malted Milk Mornings

My childhood memories of visiting my family in India are filled with food.

My family lived in Bangalore, which had (and has) some of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. But they paled in comparison to the mouthwatering food that came out of my aunties’ kitchens every day. Homemade, vegetarian, and healthy, they were filled with heady spices and made with love.

But today, I’m thinking of a beverage—one I started my day with every morning in India when I was a kid, before I became old enough to drink the tea and coffee enjoyed by the adults in my family.

I’m referring to Bournvita, a chocolate malted mix made by Cadbury and sold in the UK and India (and many other places, I’m sure, but not in the U.S. when I was a kid) as a healthy drink for children. It was really sweet, and really tasty, and no matter what vitamins it contained, I’m not sure it qualified as healthy. But that didn’t matter to my cousins and me, giggling at the table in the cool mornings, somehow feeling a little cold and a little sweaty at the same time. Before we took our baths, before my cousins got ready for school, we sipped Bournvita out of stainless steel tumblers. We felt the love and care that went into heating the milk and mixing it with just the right amount of Bournvita powder. We enjoyed the grown-up feeling of starting the morning with something hot. We tasted the sweetness of another day together.

For my treats inspired by those memories, I opted to use malted milk powder rather than Bournvita per se in order to better control the amount of sugar in these cookies. The cocoa powder makes these plenty chocolatey. If you eat them warm—I dare you not to try one—the malted milk doesn’t come through as much…but when they cool down, I think it’s a more prominent flavor.

These cookies bring me back to summer mornings in India sipping Bournvita with my cousins, looking forward to the day ahead. I don’t recommend you eat them for breakfast…but if you do, I won’t tell anyone!

Bournvita-Inspired Double Chocolate Cookies With Malted Milk

Makes 40-45 3-4 inch cookies

Ingredients :

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup malted milk powder (I used King Arthur)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, cornstarch, and malted milk powder in a large bowl and stir with a whisk.
Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, until everything is well-mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg mixture and mix until just incorporated.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop in rounded tablespoons and space at least 1 ½ inches apart on cookie sheets.
Bake for 9 minutes, rotating sheets hallway through, until the cookies have lost their raw look. Cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling. Enjoy!

 

Giveaway Time!

And now, for a giveaway! Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win a copy of LOVE SUGAR MAGIC: A DASH OF TROUBLE by Anna Meriano! This delicious middle grade novel is full of themes that resonate with me: family, friends, food…and magic!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Writing Like a Doctor, Doctoring Like a Writer

My piece reflecting on writing and medicine and how they intersect was published on the #MGBookVillage blog! Check it out here:

Writing Like a Doctor, Doctoring Like a Writer

Pitch Wars!

I was fortunate enough to be selected as a Pitch Wars mentee this year. Pitch Wars is a contest run by the amazing author Brenda Drake in which unagented writers apply to be mentored by established authors. Once the mentors select their mentees in late August, they have 2 months in which to revise their novels and make them shine! Then comes the Agent Showcase in early November, where Brenda posts pitches and excerpts from each of the novels on her blog, and agents take a look at them and ask to read them!

I entered my middle grade novel, MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, and I was so lucky to have been selected by my spectacular mentor, Joy McCullough-Carranza. Her edit letter was stupendous — it was so clear that she really got my story. But she also made a huge suggestion, to “kill” a darling character, and asked a bunch of questions that really got to the heart of what my story is about. Revision wasn’t easy; at times it felt like I’d “broken” my novel and didn’t know how to fix it, but with a lot of sweat and time and not a few tears, it ended up so much better than before.

There have been countless success stories in the six years that Brenda has run this contest — stories of writers finding agents, and ultimately publishing their books. But Pitch Wars really is so much more than a contest…it’s a community of writers, a support network and cheering squad that has been so deeply meaningful. I’ve made friends through Pitch Wars that I will treasure for life.

Here’s a link to my Pitch Wars interview with Joy:

Pitch Wars Team Interviews: Rajani LaRocca with mentor Joy McCullough-Carranza

Pitch Wars has been a life-changing experience! More news to come soon!

The Writing Community

Writing, when it’s going well, is full of joy. Something that starts in your head makes it onto a page and has a life of its own.

But writing isn’t always easy. It can be fraught with frustration, whether it’s because you’re straining to find the right word, or you’re stuck on a plot point, or you’re worn down by the geologic pace of the industry. There are no quick, easy answers, and it’s so easy to get distracted and waste time rather than moving closer to your goals.

What keeps me going? Aside from the sublime moments of finding the perfect word, the elation at finishing a piece that I’ve worked on for a long time? My favorite thing about writing is the people.

I have met wonderful, open, creative, kind, hilarious people: writers, illustrators, agents, and editors. And I’ve been fortunate enough to have the best critique partners in the world — women who are like sisters, mothers, therapists, and cheerleaders to me. They have listened patiently while I despaired that I couldn’t, didn’t want to finish something, that I had no idea where it was going, and then quietly encouraged me to get back up and sit back down and get back to work. And I did. They have shared in my excitement about something that is going well — a word or a phrase or a chapter or an entire manuscript that they love, or exciting news in my quest for an agent.

I’ve cheered my critique parters’ successes, and commiserated over disappointments. Sometimes, I’m the support and the fresh eyes that they need. And I’m a better writer — and a better person — for it.

My critique partners have become some of my best friends. That wasn’t something I expected at his point in my life.

Writing is not a zero-sum game. The world will always need more great books. And in my experience, the children’s writing community is characterized by generosity and friendship.

And that’s what keeps me going.

SCBWI NYC 2016!

SCBWI’s annual winter conference took place in New York City on February 12-14 and was filled with fantastic speakers, fascinating panels, helpful workshops, and plenty of networking opportunities! I particularly enjoyed taking the train to and from the conference, where I managed to do a lot of thinking and writing.

The Writers’ Roundtable on February 12 enabled writers to workshop 500 words with a table of seven other writers and an agent or editor. I was able to get valuable feedback on both my MG novel and a picture book.

The rest of the conference was full of inspiring speakers and workshops in smaller settings where we still had access to some major members of the kidlit community. It was wonderful to feel the enthusiasm of so many who love literature for young people!

I was lucky to share a hotel room with one of my critique partners — it felt like a three-day slumber party! The temperatures in NY were literally sub-zero, but luckily we never had to go outside since the hotel was right over Grand Central Station.

All in all, this was an excellent way to start off 2016. I’m going to ride this energy until my next conference in April!

NESCBWI Agent/Editor Day!

On November 21, 2015, I attended a brand-new NESCBWI offering, an Agent/Editor Day, at Mt. Wachusett Community College in Gardner, MA. Several of my writing friends and critique partners participated in this wonderful event, which made it even more enjoyable.

Each writer brought a 500-750 word piece from a MG or YA novel, and we read these aloud to a group of six to seven fellow writers and either an agent or an editor. In my morning group, we received insight from an editor, and I was amazed by how much advice she could give and how much insight she had into such short pieces of writing! In my afternoon group, we met with a lovely agent, and were able to give feedback to our fellow writers as well. Best of all, I now have even more writing friends.

This was an excellent event, both in terms of craft and networking, and a fitting lead-in to Thanksgiving and the holiday season. I continue to be humbled by and grateful for the generosity and enthusiasm of everyone who loves children’s literature!

Boston Writing Workshop 2015!

On November 14, 2015 I attended the Boston Writing Workshop, where I spent a full day learning about the business of writing. This year’s speaker/instructor was Chuck Sambuchino of Writer’s Digest, who spoke eloquently (and often hilariously) on these topics:

The advantages and challenges of traditional publishing vs. self-publishing
How to query and pitch agents
Marketing and how to build your writer’s platform
Important practices for writers to succeed and get published

Mid-day, the packed room of writers was treated to a spine-tingling round of “Writers’ Got Talent,” a real-time first page critique event in which brave writers (not me, at least not this time!) submitted their first pages. Chuck read each page aloud, and a six-agent panel read along. Agents raised their hands when they came across something that would stop them reading further, and once three agents raised their hands, the reading stopped. The agents then had the opportunity to talk about what they found problematic and/or excellent. This was a fascinating look into what agents are thinking when reading our work. As I listened, I also made my own determinations about what I found compelling. This exercise also made me reflect on how difficult and useful it is to try to be objective about my own work (particularly after thinking about it and reading it over and over again for weeks and months), and how asking someone else to read it aloud is an excellent way to do so.

Writers attending the workshop also had the opportunity to pitch to agents in speed-dating style ten-minute sessions. I asked to meet with six agents, all of whom were lovely.  Even though each of them spoke with 20 to 30 (!) different writers during the course of the day, they all remained friendly, open, and interested during our conversations. We chatted about my work and inspirations, about books we love, and once, even about haircuts! I was thrilled to meet each one, and I will be in contact with them all.

During the course of the day, I met many warm, enthusiastic, and encouraging fellow writers and got to make connections with them as well.

The day wrapped up nicely with Chuck’s advice to writers on what we can control during the frustrating and often bewildering process of trying to get published: keep writing, and make your work the best it can be.

That’s what I’m going to keep doing!

Agent/Editor Brunch at The Writer’s Loft!

On November 7, 2015 I attended an Agent/Editor brunch at The Writer’s Loft. Along with some other lucky writers, I got to meet agent Emily Mitchell of Wernick & Pratt, and Karen Boss, editor at Charlesbridge. They gave a fascinating presentation on everything that happens behind the scenes during the book publication process — now we finally understand why it takes so long! We also had the opportunity to have very helpful one on one critiques with Emily or Karen. And if that wasn’t enough, we enjoyed delicious food and had the opportunity to network with other writers.