I took a class in the fall of 2002 called Teaching of Writing. Toward the end of the term we were required to do a project/study on something that was of interest of us, related to writing. For my project, I chose to survey/study several authors of young adult fiction. I wanted to learn about how they wrote: were they prone to getting an idea and running with it, or did they meticulously plan out every last detail in outline form before beginning the actual "writing" process? Did they work better in the morning, afternoon, or evening? Did they prefer to work in absolute silence, or with music going on in the background?
I was able to find lots of answers to these questions in books and on the Internet -- at least for most of the authors I wanted to focus on. Judy Blume -- well there's lots of information about her. Paula Danziger -- ditto. Lois Lowry -- yeah, well you get the idea. These people have been around for decades! Even Ann M. Martin, who's only been writing professionally since the 1980's, had plenty of info. on her. I was also able to interview a relatively new author, via an email address on her website. So I had five, but I wanted a sixth -- I wanted to know more about Meg Cabot.
Now, Meg's website is great, but it didn't have the answers to the questions I was looking for. I tried emailing her, but I knew even then how busy she was, and that any email sent to her, if it was read at all, was probably read by her assistant or something. (I now know that she DOES read them all, but doesn't always have time to reply.) Sufficed to say, I never got a reply. So Meg was left out of my report.
Fastforward fifteen months: one day in early January, I got an email from HarperCollins.com, Meg's publisher. I'd joined their "Author Tracker" list, and they had an update on Meg's whereabouts. I halfheartedly checked the website to see where Meg was touring next (with the thought in my mind that authors never seem to visit my area!) and lo and behold, I discovered she'd be doing a book signing at a bookstore only 20 miles from me, later that week! Of course, that was the same week we got the worst blizzard our area had seen in ten years... and sure, the roads were treacherous on the day of the book signing... but I went anyway.
Meg looked great. Though she had self-declared "eighties hair" (due to not having a hairdryer with her on the tour), and admitted she was currently suffering from Lyme Disease (which, she said, made her forget things), she was all smiles and was as funny and bubbly as I would have expected of the author of the ultra-hysterical and teenage-minded Princess Diaries. The thirtysomething Meg looks -- and acts -- at least a decade younger than her true age, but it doesn't come across as fake or silly... in fact, she's very entertaining.
First, Meg gave a short talk about her career. She mentioned the movie Princess Diaries 2, which was currently in production, but would not have Michael (because actor Robert Whateverhislastnameisnow, son of Adriaaaan, is busy touring with his band Rooney... hey have you seen those guys from Rooney? Hot stuff!) Another one of her books, All-American Girl, is also being made into a film, and it is going to star none other than Raven-Symone (who dropped the Symone but I don't given a freaking care, she's still Olivia from the Cosby Show!)
After her talk, Meg answered questions from people in the audience...
*Despite not being mentioned on the dustjacket of her latest book, her one-eyed cat, Henrietta, is still very much alive.
*Her early books were under the name Jenny Carroll, named after (and in memory of) her "dead cat."
*After working for ten years in a college dorm, she can't see herself having kids, because eventually kids will get to be that age -- college age -- the kind of kids who throw jeans from an eighth story window onto the heads of cops.
*She is currently enjoying the Thursday Next series, by Jasper Fforde.
*She only works on one book at a time -- no overlapping for her.
Well, naturally I had to ask her my question -- after all that time, I needed an answer, darnit! So I asked her -- when she's writing, does she just get an idea and go, or does she do an outline? (Yeah, I know, real thrilling question. But hey, I'm curious about this kind of weirdly obnoxious stuff.) She replied that she always does an outline -- that that's the only way she can stay organized. She knows someone who does outlines that are almost longer than a novel, and she doesn't go quite that crazy, but that she still needs to have some kind of structure.
After her booktalk, she did a signing and I got the first three Princess Diaries books, so now I own them and can leave the darn library system alone. Wait... not really. Seriously, I would never actually do that. I think they need my patronage to stay afloat with some kind of purpose in life.
Okay, before I go, this is funny... this is from Meg's online diary, at her website, and the direct link is http://megcabot.com/blog/2004_01_01_cabot-archive.html, and these following words are (c)(tm) and (r) Meg Cabot and everything, but I just found them to be very amusing, because she's referring to the book signing I went to:
"So, I’m traveling all over in order to promote my new book, BOY MEETS GIRL. Tonight, I’m in Oregon, which, for those of you who don’t know, is in the very very Northwest of America. There was this really big snowstorm here last week, and everything was shut down for four or five days. Oregonian school kids got four days off (lucky ducks). They even cancelled my original flight because all of the planes were getting coated in ice and tipping over (not kidding—there was a photo of a tipped over plane in the paper today). Also they aren’t used to snow here so there’s only like one plow or something so they couldn’t plow.
That might be an exaggeration about there being only one plow in Portland.
Anyway, it was kind of cool flying into this winter wonderland—except that everyone else on the plane FREAKED OUT to see their native land covered in snow. They were all, “How will I dig my car out???” I guess this is the biggest snowstorm Portland has had in like a century. I am delighted to be here, because I love a weather crisis."
"Anyway, I had a fun time signing books and visiting with the Oregonians, who were a very good audience. In some places (such as…well, I won’t give examples. You know who you are) people are afraid to ask questions. But my whole speech is based on people’s questions. So if people don’t ask questions, I can’t do my speech. So if you’re coming to one of my signings in the next two weeks, ask questions, like the Oregonians!"
Hehe... Oregonians are good. Oh did I mention Meg thought we purposely brought on the snowstorm as a "welcome to Oregon" gift for her, in anticipation of her coming? ;)
She's cool, though. Go buy her books.
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(c)2004 AlligatorJuice.com
Photo capped from the Early Show, 4/04