Friday, June 09, 2006

Author: Meg Cabot

Good golly, Miss Molly! Meg Cabot is going to be here locally tonight at 6 p.m. We are going to jump in the car to go see her.

Now how early do I have to leave to get across H-town in Friday rush hour traffic?

Update: Ah Zut! I herded the entlings into the car, we tooled down the West Park Toll Road (they finally built a road going places I need to go) and arrived at Murder by the Book on the stroke of 6 p.m. After double checking and replacing the batteries in the camera and actually remembering to put the camera in the car AND going back to the parking lot to get the camera out of the car-- I completely forgot to take her picture. Sad, so sad.

She looked so elegant in a simple black dress with cool necklace of pink and rose colored stones. Terrific haircut. Wish I could show you.

Meg Cabot is promoting her books, Queen of Babble and Size 12 is Not Fat which are classified "For Older Readers" on her website. Of course she is also the author of The Princess Diaries, the not-just-for-teenagers books that I find completely hysterically funny. (At one time, author Gail Gauthier shared my fandom for the first movie.)

As a youngster, Cabot's hobby was writing. She wrote all the time, especially Star Wars and Beauty and the Beast (TV show) fan fiction. I was heartened to hear that fan fiction writers can go on to become New York Time best selling authors IF they come up with their own characters.

She shared some very funny stories from her own life that were "inspirations" for the new books. In Size 12... the character is a manager of a dorm at "New York College" as Cabot was at NYU.

She began sending off her stories when she was twenty-six years old and was getting used to c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t rejection when an agent took an interest in her writing. She sold her first book when she was 30 years old. She feels there was a real element of luck also.

Princess Diaries stuff:

There will be 10 in all, the last one, slated for 2009, will take Princess Mia through high school graduation. When Disney began casting the first movie, they contacted her to let her know they were killing off Mia's dad because they wanted to give the actress who was signed on as Grandmere more lines including some of the Dad character's lines.

Cabot: Who is the actress?
Julie Andrews.
Cabot: "That's fine!"

The second movie had nothing to do with the books as they aged the characters and put Mia in Genovia but they paid her so it was ok.

I asked her about her blog, Meg's Diary. She said the publisher told her she needed to have one and at first she had no idea what to write but she enjoys it now. Her blogging is as funny and breezy as her presentation.

She also started the Meg Cabot Book Club hoping it might garner a few girls who wanted to talk about the books. She said there are now over 15,000 register-ees and they talk about everything, including the books on occasion.

Judging from the number of young girls there, her books are very special to her fans. My daughter has disappeared upstairs with her new copies the Princess Diaries we did not already own.

Her blog entry today discusses Meg Cabot's Author Guide to Surviving a Booktour Tip #4: YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SHTICK.

Meg Cabot has a great delivery and a very funny shtick.

2 comments:

nornna said...

I've met her. Like, SERIOUSLY! :)

Camille said...

She is very funny in person. I enjoyed hearing her speak.