A Visit with Meg Cabot
The author event tonight was so fun. virtualinsomnia and I got there a bit early. 'Tween girls wearing tiaras greeted us and showed us to our seats. My contest-winning tickets allowed us into the special VIP section, so we were down front and center -- 4th row.
Meg was a lovely, fun interviewee. She told many fun stories about her life, her stories, her inspiration. She wore a kicky black dress with black polka dots and a bouncy knee-length skirt, and she had on very cute black heels. Her hair was a longish-short, and her defining gesture was pushing it back out of her eyes.
The best story she told concerned Lana from the Princess Diaries. Apparently Lana was based on a mean girl she really knew in high school, and after the movie came out the real Lana wrote Meg a letter. Meg was so sure that she was going to be sued that she called her lawyer. Her lawyer encouraged her to actually read the letter, and when she read it, the letter said, "Meg, I saw your movie, and I didn't know you were really a princess!" :-) The moral of the story: always well-disguise the characters that you take from real life! ;-)
She will always remember her trip to Texas because, apparently, no other state ever wore princess tiaras! LOL! Well, hey, at least we're memorable, right?
I also enjoyed the story that her book called "How to Be Popular" was originally intended to be a sequel to "Teen Idol," but now it isn't, and the reason why is because she wanted to be able to sell the film rights to the new book, and if she had made it an actual sequel, the film company would already own the rights to it, so she wouldn't get paid again. LOL! A look at the greedy, cut-throat world of best-selling writers! But... you know... I can understand that, actually.
I had my question all prepared, in case there was a Q&A. I filled virtualinsomnia in beforehand. What I really wanted to know was how she writes such young-sounding heroines. That is the most remarkable thing to me about her books. And then, toward the end of the Q&A, virtualinsomnia leaned over to me and voiced the thing that I had been thinking for quite a while. "You already know the answer to your question!"
And it was totally true. Meg Cabot writes a great, believable teenage girl because she talks like a teenage girl herself. She talks in circles, she doesn't finish sentences, she mumbles jokes/insults/etc. under her breath... She is Mia Thermopolis!
The host asked her if she ever thought about retiring from writing, and I loved the fact that she said no. She has too many stories to tell. And I love how her stories come from random incidents in her life. That is a great way to make writing more real.
There was a signing afterwards and I had brought a book with me just in case; however, I elected not to stay. serenityveritas arrived in town tonight, and I wanted to get home. Also, things were not very organized in the lobby. The signing line was mixed up in the line of people trying to leave the building, and there was no way to find the end. Every time someone official told us which was to go, the line was never there. **shakes head** But, really, I must say, as much as I enjoy her books, we would have been there for an hour or more standing in line by that point. I guess a bunch of people snuck out of the talk to get in line early. I'm not sure why anyone would do that. The talk is the best part. But, anyway, I decided that it was better for the teens and 'tweens to have a chance to get their books signed anyway.
So, overall, it was a really enjoyable evening, and I'm so happy that I won those tickets! :-)
Meg was a lovely, fun interviewee. She told many fun stories about her life, her stories, her inspiration. She wore a kicky black dress with black polka dots and a bouncy knee-length skirt, and she had on very cute black heels. Her hair was a longish-short, and her defining gesture was pushing it back out of her eyes.
The best story she told concerned Lana from the Princess Diaries. Apparently Lana was based on a mean girl she really knew in high school, and after the movie came out the real Lana wrote Meg a letter. Meg was so sure that she was going to be sued that she called her lawyer. Her lawyer encouraged her to actually read the letter, and when she read it, the letter said, "Meg, I saw your movie, and I didn't know you were really a princess!" :-) The moral of the story: always well-disguise the characters that you take from real life! ;-)
She will always remember her trip to Texas because, apparently, no other state ever wore princess tiaras! LOL! Well, hey, at least we're memorable, right?
I also enjoyed the story that her book called "How to Be Popular" was originally intended to be a sequel to "Teen Idol," but now it isn't, and the reason why is because she wanted to be able to sell the film rights to the new book, and if she had made it an actual sequel, the film company would already own the rights to it, so she wouldn't get paid again. LOL! A look at the greedy, cut-throat world of best-selling writers! But... you know... I can understand that, actually.
I had my question all prepared, in case there was a Q&A. I filled virtualinsomnia in beforehand. What I really wanted to know was how she writes such young-sounding heroines. That is the most remarkable thing to me about her books. And then, toward the end of the Q&A, virtualinsomnia leaned over to me and voiced the thing that I had been thinking for quite a while. "You already know the answer to your question!"
And it was totally true. Meg Cabot writes a great, believable teenage girl because she talks like a teenage girl herself. She talks in circles, she doesn't finish sentences, she mumbles jokes/insults/etc. under her breath... She is Mia Thermopolis!
The host asked her if she ever thought about retiring from writing, and I loved the fact that she said no. She has too many stories to tell. And I love how her stories come from random incidents in her life. That is a great way to make writing more real.
There was a signing afterwards and I had brought a book with me just in case; however, I elected not to stay. serenityveritas arrived in town tonight, and I wanted to get home. Also, things were not very organized in the lobby. The signing line was mixed up in the line of people trying to leave the building, and there was no way to find the end. Every time someone official told us which was to go, the line was never there. **shakes head** But, really, I must say, as much as I enjoy her books, we would have been there for an hour or more standing in line by that point. I guess a bunch of people snuck out of the talk to get in line early. I'm not sure why anyone would do that. The talk is the best part. But, anyway, I decided that it was better for the teens and 'tweens to have a chance to get their books signed anyway.
So, overall, it was a really enjoyable evening, and I'm so happy that I won those tickets! :-)