St. Paul author puts a spin on children’s classic from the perspective of a gay baker – Madison.com

The fairy tale Cinderella has been retold many ways, but St. Paul, Minnesota, author Mark Ceilley’s “Cinderelliot, A Scrumptious Fairytale,” co-written with Rachel Smoka-Richardson, takes yet another spin on the popular story, retelling it from the perspective of a gay baker.

In the picture book, Cinderelliot loves to bake, but finds no joy in churning out treats for his horrible stepsister and stepbrother. A chance to enter the Royal Baking Competition brings a glimmer of hope, until his siblings force him to bake their entries instead. A fairy godfather helps save the day and Cinderelliot’s chocolate cake wins him a place as palace baker and in the heart of the prince.

Ceilley will discuss his new book, which came out May 3, during an event at Mystery to Me bookstore next month.

Q: I understand you have a background in teaching in addition to writing, is that correct?

A: I do have a background in teaching. I’ve been teaching for 30-plus years and I started out teaching kindergarten. I had the opportunity to go overseas and I taught in Italy for two years, pre-K and first grade. After that I went on to teach in Saudi Arabia. I worked for an oil company so I taught the children whose parents worked for the oil company. It was a wonderful experience, I got to travel quite a bit. (After that) I worked on my master’s degree in developmental reading (and then) moved to St. Paul in 1994 and … worked in the St. Paul Public Schools for 15 years. In 2010, I enrolled in (Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults) to go to the next level with my writing. I graduated in 2012 … about a year or so after that I got a job in a suburban school district just south of St. Paul and right now I have been a reading interventionist.

Q: How have you fit in writing while teaching?

A: I’ve been a writer for a long time. I wrote when I was in junior high and in high school I was on the yearbook staff and newspaper staff. When I became a teacher I enjoyed reading picture books to my class. I had a wonderful professor in undergraduate school who loved children’s literature. Around 2005-06 I became interested in writing picture books. I started taking some correspondence courses (and) I got a really strong foundation in writing for children. I was sending stories out to be published. It was a long road for me because I had accumulated 250 rejections. There were times when I wanted to give up, but I just kept at it.

Q: How were you inspired to write “Cinderelliot?”

A: In the summer of 2018 … I had read the picture book called “Prince and Knight” where a prince and a knight meet and they fall in love and get married. (I thought) “What would it be like if there was a gay version of Cinderella?” I started writing the first few drafts of “Cinderelliot.” At that point the storyline was a lot different than it is now. … There was a sporting competition … one was hunting and one was swimming. I sent it to my friend Rachel Smoka-Richardson … she really liked the story and she asked me if I might be interested in collaborating. She suggested (Cinderelliot) might be a fashion designer or pastry chef. I liked the pastry chef idea. My co-author, Rachel Smoka-Richardson and I worked on revising Cinderelliot from July 2018 until spring 2019. The week before Christmas of 2019 we got an offer and we signed the contract in 2020.

Q: What is it about fairy tales that young readers somehow find a way to relate them to their lives?

A: I think fairy tales are a slice of life and I think children can make connections to stories in their own mind. I think fairy tales have happy endings, which give hope — good overcomes bad things — that happiness can be found.

Q: Because this is a gay retelling of Cinderella, what advice do you have for parents/teachers/adults on how to explain to children why it’s important to have different tellings of the same story?

A: I think different tellings of the same story is important because there are many perspectives and different points of view in our world. It’s important to honor and respect different cultures and ways people live. It helps kids understand there is more than one way of looking at things.

Q: “Cinderelliot” features a pastry chef. Do you, too, like to bake?

A: I do, but I haven’t in the last few years. There was a time in my life I would bake cookies, (especially) with my grandmother. As I became older I made candy and caramel corn that I gave as Christmas gifts.

Q: What do you plan to write next?

A: I have a picture book about a ghost that’s trying to make a friend. I’ve been revising that. I have a story that was inspired when I was living in Italy about a boy who buys focaccia. … It has some Italian words interspersed in the text. I also signed with an agent earlier this year … and have two different stories out on submission right now.