Lisa Schroeder Talks Inspiration for It's Raining Cupcakes

Posted on September 30, 2011

Author Lisa Schroeder talks about the inspiration for her young adult novel, It's Raining Cupcakes. Twelve year old Isabel is eager to find a way to get out of Willow, Oregon and experience some new places. Isabel's mother is opening a cupcake shop, so it looks like Isabel is going to be stuck in Willow for the summer. Fortunately, Isabel finds a potential way out when she learns of a baking contest that includes an all-expense paid trip to New York City as a prize.

Lisa Schroeder says she came up with the idea on her way home from work. There were a lot of depressing problems happening in the world at the time, such as the financial markets crashing. She wanted to write about something happy so she tried to think of words that bring a smile to people's faces. She thought of the word "cupcake" and this led her to writing a story centered around a cupcake shop. Take a look: