interview with Meg Cabot

You know how much I love Meg Cabot, right?

I adore her to bits and itty bitty pieces.  Her books have brought me great pleasure during some of the hardest times in my life.  Do you have books or movies that transport you completely, entertain you so thoroughly, you start googling in the middle of the night to find out where you can get more of the good stuff?

That’s how I feel about Meg.

It’s on my Life List to have lunch with Meg someday, and I got just a little bit closer last week when I interviewed her about her newest book, Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls.  Even though we weren’t sitting at a cafe in Key West drinking cold Diet Cokes, we might as well have been because it was like talking to an old girlfriend.

Do you know how great it is to talk to one of your idols and have them turn out to be exactly like you hoped, only better?

It’s great, that’s what.  Makes you feel like there’s still good in the world, and all that.

Here’s kind of how it went down:

My cell phone rings & I pick up:

Meg Cabot: “Hi, this is Meg Cabot”

Promising myself I won’t implode

Allison: “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!”

Unsuccessful.

Once we got past me being all squealy and super excited, wherein I told her I’ve read every single one of her books, we got down to chatting about her books.

A: “So Meg, I have about a zillion questions for you, but we’ll start with the first, how do you write so fast?  I mean seriously, it’s like you’re whipping them out in your sleep or something.”

M: “Well, it’s the only thing I’m good at.  I was never good at Math or Science or anything else, but I was always rewarded by my teachers for my writing, so that’s what I do.  Even in my time off, when I’m not supposed to be writing, I write because I have a million story ideas.”

A: “Do you have a favorite series out of all the books you’ve written?  My favorite is the Heather Wells series.  I love Heather.  I also really love the 1-800-Where-R-U books.”

She’s written 61 books, at my last count.

M: “I really like Heather Wells, I’m actually writing two more in that series.”

A: “That was actually the first series I read.  I’m a size 12, and I picked up ‘Size 12 is Not Fat‘ and bought it without even reading the back.  I was like ‘you better believe size 12 is not fat!’ and I loved the book, the whole series.”

M: “I know! A lot of women are size 12 and size 14 {the 2nd book in the series is ‘Size 14 is Not Fat Either‘} and there aren’t any books about it.

{tell me about it}

A: “She’s a great character.  I’m so excited you’re doing two more books in the series, I absolutely cannot wait to read them.

“So, the next thing I’m dying to know is how you feel when your books are made into movies.  Does it drive you crazy when they change up characters and details?  It would drive me crazy.”

Her New York Times Bestselling series The Princess Diaries was turned into a movie starring Anne Hathaway, and her book Avalon High just premiered.

M: “No, not at all! Honestly, by the time the movie comes out I’m so far past the project and onto something else that it’s fun to see what they’ve done with it.  Sometimes I can’t remember what lines I wrote and which ones the screenwriter came up with because it’s been so long and I’ve had so many projects inbetween.”

A: Wow, that’s crazy!

{I know, I’m super prolific when I’m excited}

A: “Okay, so what made you segue from teen and adult books into Allie Finkle, your series for girls?”

M: “Well, my readers asked me for it.  The little sisters and daughters of the women who read my other books wanted something for them.  Not all parents are okay with even The Princess Diaries books, so I wrote something for the younger girls.  Plus, those years are so hard and I wanted to address that by having Allie write her own set of rules to live by in Elementary School.”

A: “Those years are so hard! I have an 11-year-old daughter who’s in the middle of those years right now.  Girls can be so mean and catty.  The rules of the playground change every week, and there’s always a mean girl ringleader who’s instigating all the antics.”

M: “Oh, I know! And Allie’s best friend in the books isn’t very nice, so Allie writes some rules for herself so she can deal with her.”

A: “I love it.  I wish I’d written my own set of rules for dealing with my bratty friends growing up.”

Then we discussed a bunch of random stuff, and I asked her how to get published because I’m super interested in writing a book.  She basically told me it’s really, really, REALLY hard to get published but she can’t wait to read my book when it does come out.

I  love Meg, and when we do have lunch together someday, I’m positive we’ll become girlfriends and start exchanging holiday cards.

A girl can dream, right?

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!