Did It

Cheese, Eggs, and The Truth

Okay. So this week alone:

1. I had a new book come out.

2. I had an article on Huffington Post.

3. I had to remind myself of the famous Janeane Garofalo quote from The Truth About Cats & Dogs:“You can love your pets. But just don’t loooooove your pets…”

4. Glee had its season finale.

5. Someone named a chicken after me.

6. I had a blooper trailer come out on YouTube where I got attacked by a vampire a million times and consequently said a million swears (don’t worry, they’re blocked out).

I know. Check it out:

Here are some tips on what NOT to do if you want to make a Super Ultra Terrific Book Trailer in your own home:

1. DON’T put an ad on Craigslist saying that you’re making multiple book trailers about vampires. Because that will be who will answer your ad: Real life vampires. Who will want to know if you can pay them in your blood.

2. DON’T think you’re not going to get tackled.

3. A LOT.

4. DON’T think you will be done in a snap. There will be a LOT of takes due to laughing/wincing/swearing.

5. DON’T think it won’t be messy. My original suggestion for the ending of the First Trailer (below) was, “Fake blood could spurt up on the camera lens!” I never said, “A stunt man could tackle me, and then spit fake blood all over me, ruining my new shirt and sweater combo from Banana Republic.”

Instead, Brady, the director, handed me some padding and a tube and said, “Stuff these down your pants.”

In the end, he was so right though:

I had to do tons of research for Insatiable. And it turns out that many times the things we love—such as, for instance, cheese—have surprising, even disturbing origins (in the case of cheese, once you do know where it comes from, you may wish you didn’t).

The HuffPo piece I wrote is about how often we don’t know where these things—even very popular things, such as cheese, and, oh, vampires—come from.

The first rich, sexy vampire in literary history? He has an even stranger origin story than cheese. Read my revealing exposé of the origins of the first rich, sexy vampire in literature here!

Finding out how—and why—things become popular is something I’ll admit I’m a little obsessed with. I think it’s because we didn’t have cable or a VCR (or even People Magazine) in my house until I was practically in college.

No, these guys aren’t vampires. They’re just some of the sexiest men alive (according to People Magazine).

I just love it when everyone is excited about the same thing at the same time. Like sexy guys. Or e-readers. I’ve fondled them all. I love the way they feel! So nice.

But I read in the bathtub or at the pool. What if I drop them in?

But He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog is hooked. He LOVES his iPad (which I bought him as a present for putting up with me).

So how psyched was I when someone sent a link to show me that Insatiable was a featured book on iBooks?

So pretty!

OK, for this I might convert. But what if I drop it in the water?

There’s something so bonding about everyone loving the same thing at the same time. For instance, when I was in South Africa on a book tour two years ago, they were building all the hotels and stadiums in preparation for the World Cup soccer tournament which is on right now. Everyone was already super stoked about it (the cab drivers, the waiters, the people in my publishing house, my readers, EVERYONE).

That’s why I love pop culture: It brings people together.

Obviously people have been excited/scared about vampires for a VERY long time (as far back as the ancient Hebrews and Greeks). It’s fun to put your own spin on things that everyone is talking about. With Insatiable coming out this week, my favorite comment so far has been Jen Rothschild’s, which mentions that it contains “nuns kicking more vampire ass than Buffy.”

I’m so glad someone noticed the nuns! Mine belong to the Order of St. Clare. St. Clare is the patron saint of television. I thought this was particularly fitting, since Meena (the book’s heroine) writes for a TV show (named Insatiable). And of course, TV is my favorite source of pop culture.

You can buy your own St. Clare at Archee McPhee. My mom keeps hers on top of the TV. She swears it wards off the cable going out (such as, during the Glee finale which I haven’t seen yet because I was traveling. Don’t tell me what happened)!

St. Clare became the patron saint of TV after she became too bed ridden to attend mass. One of her miracles (you have to have at least 3 to be named a saint) was that the masses would magically appear on the wall of her convent cell. She could watch them from bed!

This was especially miraculous because it happened in the 1200s, before TV was even invented.

If you want to know how I know all this stuff, it’s because I was raised Catholic. I know TONS of saint stuff. I was going to include a Know Your Saints section in the back of the book but it got too late. Maybe I’ll put it on the Insatiable page!

My patron saint is Joan of Arc. I found this awesome necklace from this seller on Etsy, and have been wearing it ever since.

I chose Joan of Arc because she kicked butt while leading the French army. She’s also mentioned in Insatiable. Like Meena, the book’s heroine, Joan could foretell the future. But (also like Meena) when she tried to tell people, no one believed her (so she was burned at the stake at age 19 for witchcraft).

This necklace seems to be kicking butt, too (or maybe it’s just the book) since Insatiable‘s debut week has been fantastic! It’s been getting tons of great press, like this piece from The Omaha Herald and these videos from Daily Dish and Womans Day.

I also love this cute review on Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf, not to mention this one from Girls in the Stacks and this hilarious interview from the “slumber party” I had with the fun girls at ForeverYoungAdult (they’re over 21 and like cocktails with their books).

But what can compare to being told I’ve had a chicken named after me?

Nothing, really.

How amazing is Wendy from Good Egg, who has also interviewed (and named chickens for) the likes of Jodi Picoult and Judy Blume? I was so excited to do this interview with her and have a chicken named after me . . .

. . . especially because, living in Key West where chickens roam the streets freely, I have a lot of day-to-day interactions with chickens (generally involving my husband’s cat, Slutty-McSlut-A-Lot, who likes to chase them out of our yard).

Do I want my own chickens? I sort of do (and I’m sure Slutty would love it).

Although I would have to find a chicken-sitter for when I went out of town, like I did this week, to see a family member I hadn’t seen in THREE YEARS. When you have pets it’s hard to just take off and leave. That’s when I always think about Janeane’s line from The Truth About Cats & Dogs:

“This is a good time to talk about limits: You can love your pets. But just don’t loooooove your pets…”

(Remember, when the guy calls in to her radio show and says his cat won’t stop licking him and he just lets it?)

It’s hard to take off and leave when you’re self-employed (and love your job), too. Sometimes I like to change Janeane’s quote (in my head) to:

“You can love your books. But just don’t loooooove your books…”

I wish teachers would make aspiring writers memorize this quote. I missed out on a lot of fun events in high school (and even middle school) because I chose to stay home and “finish one more chapter” of whatever crazy Jane Eyre or Star Wars fan fiction I was working on instead of going out.

Always remember that quote above, aspiring writers! LEARN IT. LIVE IT. It’s OK to love your book, but it’s never OK to looooove your book. PEOPLE are more important than BOOKS!

In the meantime, I plan on finding out how more things are made (such as cheese), and where they come from (chickens!) and especially what makes them popular (big daddy of the rich sexy vampires? Lord Bryon).

Finding out this stuff never seems to spoil my enjoyment of it. It just makes me crazy to know more!

Stay tuned for more results of my research . . . . I promise to keep the swearing to a minimum.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Did It

Insatiable on the Bidding Block

Now you have a chance to bid on an exclusive sneak peek (and autographed) copy of my new book for adult readers, Insatiable (my first paranormal for adults, not due in stores until June 8), AND do some good for the flooded city of Nashville!

Just go here and bid!

According to the site, you have THREE DAYS to bid on items (well, until midnight CENTRAL STANDARD TIME on third day). When comments close, bidding is over. Highest bid/last commenter wins. Winners will need to email dtwtfn @ gmail dot com.

Who’s that handsome guy with the fangs?

*Originally Vampire Ken was not included in the auction but I decided if bids go over $250 he’ll be thrown in. He was made for a special purpose by some very talented and creative people (at great personal sacrifice that included going to NYC’s FAO Schwarz on foot in a huge rainstorm), and may be called upon for future duty (full confession: he co-stars with Kate Spade Barbie and GI Joe in an upcoming Insatiable book trailer).

Close up of Vampire Ken

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Did It

Runaway Book Tour, Day 1

I’m posting this as I jet across the country toward LA, tens of thousands of feet in the air, thanks to my Go Go in-flight Wi Fi service, which better work because I paid $12.95 for it, and my in-seat TV is broken, which is typical of my day so far, since I woke at six AM to catch what I thought was a ten AM flight only to find myself covered in feathers.

Except the reason for this was not because a vampire had ravished me in the night and had to bite a pillow to keep from devouring me, but because my husband’s cat had apparently spent the early morning hours engaged in unnatural activities with a small bird.

(Don’t worry, the bird didn’t die. It was alive the last time I saw it, where I put it behind a neighbor’s fenced yard so it could recover in safety from Gem, aka Slutty-McSlut-a-Lot, aka Mengele.)

Obviously, Gem was not happy that I took away her new toy. She expressed this disapproval in true cat-like form, by projectile vomiting.

A friend took this picture and for some reason Gem’s eyes appear to be two different colors, but they aren’t in real life. Also, Gem appears angelic and quite clean in this picture, when in reality her face is always dirty from engaging in what I can only assume is her part-time hobby of sucking on the exhaust pipes of parked cars.

While cleaning Gem’s vomit from his pants, He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog noticed something sticking out of Gem’s nose. “My God,” he said. “It’s a piece of grass. She has a piece of grass stick out of her nose.”

Since the last time we noticed grass sticking out of Gem’s nose, it took four hours, general anesthesia, and $300 to have it surgically removed, I took the opportunity to point out that I had a flight to catch in one hour and no time for something that I assumed was not bothering her too much, considering how she had apparently spent her evening.

“Look!” HWSNBNITB cried. “Look at how long this thing is!”

Without consulting either Google or me, He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog had pulled the blade of grass from Gem’s nose with his fingers in three seconds, without any anesthesia, and for zero dollars. He put the three inch blade of grass in a place of honor on that morning’s newspaper, classified section.

“Don’t throw it away,” he said. “We have to show it to everyone.”

Gem, now mortally offended, sought revenge by trying to eat her own vomit.

Choosing not to join in either the vomit-eating or the excessive celebration of successful blade-pulling, I instead checked to see if I had saved myself from Stark Enterprises. You can imagine my surprise at seeing that I had! What’s more, many Stark employees have come forward with their own tales of horror. Or not:

I then checked to see if my flight was leaving on time, only to find out it had never been leaving until noon in the first place, and that I’d gotten up at least two hours too early to begin with, and could have avoided all of the above (except the feathers, I guess).

If you missed any of my stops along my blog tour, here’s a nice round up of all of them (or almost all of them), along with a video of me answering 5 questions almost truthfully (I’m not quite done with Abandon. I still have some people to kill off).

But that shouldn’t make you afraid to join me for my Twitter party tomorrow night . . . not to mention my book signing at the Mission Viejo Library!

Hope I’ll see some of you there (or some of the rest of the events I have this weekend at the Huntington Beach Barnes and Noble, or the LA Times Book Festival)!

In the meantime, I’ll be giving Niecy and Kate* a hand with their choreography, hanging around Kitsons to see if I can catch a glimpse of Tori, and of course helping Sandra through this extremely trying time in her life (too bad I couldn’t bring Gem with me, since I’m sure in hand-to-hand combat with Jesse, Gem would win).

More later.

Much love,

Meg

*Oh, I just saw Kate will not be needing my help with this. I was busy packing and watching Glee last night. So I will be helping to console her.

Did It

Meg’s Do’s and Don’ts for a Long-Lasting Relationship

Happy Easter and Passover! And of course to those of you who celebrate the NCAA (as at least one person has been doing in my house all weekend), happy that, too!

For those of you who missed it, on April 1 I celebrated my 17th wedding anniversary (obviously, I was a child bride).

Many have asked, “What’s the secret to such a long-lasting relationship?”

I’ve been thinking about it, and decided to use the current Sandra Bullock-Jesse James drama as a teaching tool:

DON’T sweat the small stuff . . . and it’s ALL small stuff.

This is a popular expression in Al-Anon. It means don’t worry about the little things. And it’s ALL little things.

Girls email me a LOT about their relationships, freaking out over what I would consider small stuff (“He was looking at porn on his computer!” Uh, yeah. He’s a boy).

But there’s a lot about Jesse James that was apparently small stuff to Sandra that would have been big stuff to me. Such as:

DO object if he dresses like an ass clown:

Think about that photo of Jesse James wearing Nazi regalia, doing that Hitler salute. What if you were Sandra Bullock, and you were in that picture with him?

Your career would now be ruined.

See? How your partner dresses MATTERS.

So next time your boyfriend shows up to meet you wearing his pants around his knees with his underwear hanging out over the top, point out that he’s not being very respectful of you: Society judges us in many ways, and one important way it judges us is how we dress, and, by association, the way in which the people we’re with are dressed. It’s not fair, but that’s how it is.

Try to lead by example. If you look stylish, he’ll most likely try to smarten up when he’s around you.

If all else fails, refuse to be seen with him in public until he starts dressing in a more civilized manner. He’ll get the message.

Then later, you can gently suggest he “donate” the most offensive items in his wardrobe to “the poor” (who will in no way want them, but you don’t have to hurt his feelings by telling him so).

DO have a sense of humor.

Studies show that sense of humor is at least partly inherited, so keep in mind how your guy handles stressful situations is probably the fault of his genetics.

But whatever his parentage, you can defuse almost any situation with a joke. Just make sure he knows you’re laughing with him, not at him . . .

. . . unless of course you ARE laughing at him, because he’s so stupid he had unprotected sex with someone who had the word SINNER tattooed across her forehead and then was SURPRISED when she chose to sell her story to the highest paying tabloid.

(But that might just be the best thing that ever happened to you, because now you know his true nature and can get on with your life, while he will forever pine for you, knowing he ruined the one chance he ever had at true happiness. That’s funny. In a sad way.)

DO admit you made a mistake, apologize, then fix it:

No one is perfect. You’re going to make mistakes—say the wrong thing, do something stupid.

When you make a mistake, it’s important that you be upfront about what you did. Don’t cry and moan about how it wasn’t your fault. Even if you do have an addiction of some kind, saying this is what caused you to do the things you did just makes it look like you’re not taking responsibility for your actions.

The best thing you can do to show someone that you’re truly sorry is suck it up, admit you were wrong, apologize, and FIX IT.

Then maybe in a few years, if you truly behave yourself and help out in Haiti or something, people will forgive you.

DO forgive and move on.

When your partner treats you in a reprehensible manner, don’t be a doormat. Pack the Box and Change the Lox, which is what Sandra is apparently doing now.

But Packing the Box and Changing the Lox is an extreme measure only to be taken when your partner has truly crossed a line. I’m not talking about “He showed up in sweats to my office party!” or “He stayed out all night with the boys and didn’t call!”

I’m talking he drove all the kids to soccer practice . . . drunk. Or had unprotected sex with someone other than yourself.

The rest of the time, forgive and move on. Remember what I said about sweating the small stuff . . . most of it really IS all small stuff.

These keys to a long lasting relationship seem self-evident to me, but if you have questions about them, you can stop by any of my blog tour stops for the paperback release of Being Nikki, which is out now in paperback, and the final book in the Airhead series, Runaway (out April 20), and we can talk.

I had a blast last week at The Story Siren discussing the prisoners who are required to watch the first Princess Diaries movie as part of their jail indoctrination program (true story).

My latest stop was My Friend Amy’s blog, where I blogged about my worst travel experiences (because at the end of Being Nikki, Em takes a not-very-enjoyable trip. She’s still not enjoying this trip at the beginning of Runaway).

In the meantime, someone sent me this bit of news about the Avalon High movie casting. I have no idea if it’s true. But I did promise to keep you guys posted. So this is where to send your head shots. If I find out otherwise, I’ll let you know!

Finally, look what I got in the mail!

YES! Advanced reader copies of my June release, Insatiable! (I don’t know why this batch is so dusty. It sort of goes with the look though.)

If you’re on my Author Tracker with Harper you’ll be getting the first excerpt in your inbox THIS WEEK. If not, sign up for it here.

Now I have to go track down some chocolate bunny ears.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Did It

Newsflash

I finally turned in all my revisions (and the copyedits of those revisions)!

While I’m adjusting to life back on Planet What Passes For Normal Around Here, I’d like to take a few moments to say:

How cute was it when US Olympic women’s downhill skier Julia Mancuso showed up to accept her silver medal in a tiara? LOVED it.

And, yes, I’m sick to death of Tiger and DEFINITELY sick of hearing from all his lady friends. If Elin didn’t hit him with a golf club that night, I certainly hope she used one to smash up all his trophies.

The Meg Cabot and the Twitterverse Audiobook at BBC Audio Books America.com couldn’t be more fun! And I can say that because I’ve honestly had nothing to do with it, except for the first line. While I fear for their lives, I’m loving where the Twitterverse has taken Carly and Jake.

The latest Allie Finkle book, Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out, comes out in TEN DAYS! She’ll be in stores (with her brand new look) in March.

In Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out, Allie gets to take a limo to a frenemy’s birthday party, where she not only gets a makeover, but…I don’t really need to say more, do I?

(She and the birthday girl have a big fight.)

YIKES!

A number of you have written to say that you’ve noticed there’s a new cover up for my June release, Insatiable on BN.com and Amazon.com.

Many of you have asked, “Is this the final cover?” And “What is that symbol on the bracelet on her arm?”?

These and other mysteries will be revealed when the time is right!

Finally, people of Southern California: I will be coming to visit you (just in time for the April 20th release of Runaway)!

I’m so excited, because not only have I been invited to the LA Times Book Festival, but I’ll have several other book signings and appearances in the LA area, as well. Here’s a very tentative schedule.

I would LOVE to see some of you (in between the many trips I’m planning on making to In-N-Out Burger), if you can make it!

I can’t wait!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Did It

Birthday Thanks

Thanks to everyone who emailed, Tweeted, and sent me birthday greetings today! You’re all the best! Seriously, that was so sweet of you!

I was going to celebrate by going see Avatar because I’m the only person in the ENTIRE WORLD who hasn’t seen it yet and I feel like I’ve fallen behind on my popular culture.

But after treating myself to a day of beauty (manicure, pedicure, hair), I got a flat tire on my bike on the way home…

In the rain!

Fortunately I was right outside the bike repair shop. But still. It was a bit depressing, especially since I missed the afternoon showing.

But then I got home, dried off, and checked my favorite gossip site, Dlisted….

And I was so psyched to see I was a birthday slut again this year (along with other February Firsters Pauly Shore, Princess Stephanie of Monaco, and the fabulous Michael C. Hall of Dexter! I hope his recovery from cancer is quick, because we all love him so much)!

Then things kept getting better and better: Beautiful flowers got delivered! A 1905 edition of A Little Princess arrived from my agent!

Then I took the The Myers Briggs personality test to see how much I’ve changed since my last birthday.

(I think change is good. If we don’t change, we don’t grow. And if we don’t grow, we just stay the same, which means we haven’t learned anything. Not having learned anything isn’t good. I always want to have learned something since my last birthday. And not just about Snooki from Jersey Shore.)

So I was so excited to discover that my personality profile had changed, and my ideal career, according to this test, is a teacher or social worker! This means, according to this test, I’m a “giver”!

This makes me the same Myers-Briggs personality profile as Kirstie Alley, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, David, King of Israel, and Randy Quaid!

Awesome.

He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog didn’t believe me when I told him about the test results (about me being a giver).

Don’t ask me why. I think it had something to do with sharing the remote control.

So he made me take the quiz again and answer the questions “honestly” with him hovering over my shoulder going, “Tell the truth!”

So when I answered the questions that way, I got the same personality profile as Tom Selleck. Which isn’t quite the same as Barack Obama and Randy Quaid, I have to say.

If you want to find out what your personality type is, you should take the quiz. But remember it’s just for fun….it isn’t exactly scientific!

Thank goodness.

XXXOOO

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Did It

God

When I was a kid, and things like this horrible earthquake in Haiti would happen, I would get really mad at God.

Because I used to think God was a kindly old man with a long white beard who lived up in heaven (just like they told us in Sunday school), and who, like me when I played with my Barbies, looked out for us and protected us and got us new dresses or, if we prayed hard enough, a date with Ken.

Playing Barbies? Or playing God?

But as I got older, I began to wonder why God would let such terrible things happen to people, things I would NEVER let happen to my Barbies.

The more I thought about it, the further I plunged into existential despair (at age 12)….

…and the more others told me human misery was all part of God’s plan, and that I just needed to have faith in it.

This, however, was improving impossible for me.

Finally, in 8th grade, I got sent to the principal’s office for my lack of faith (it was Catholic school).

Fortunately the principal was Sister G, who turned out to be kind of a badass.

Sister G told me it was totally normal to question things…even God. She told me to keep on asking questions until I found the answers I was looking for. It was entirely possible, she said, that I was right. For all we knew, God might exist only in our hearts.

This made me feel a little better. Plus, she didn’t give me detention.

Then came last week’s episode of the show Mercy (which guest starred Michael Ian Black, playing a character who was having a spiritual crisis similar to the one I had as a teen).

This episode got a little sappy, but it had some really fun moments, like when Michele Trachtenberg busted out some figure skating moves….

(I was like, “Oh my God, she learned that during Ice Princess! A movie I wrote! Except that they didn’t use a single concept or line from my script, apart from the Zamboni!”)

But what got me was the scene where Nurse Veronica told Michael Ian Black about how while she was serving in Iraq, she saw horrible things that made her, too, lose faith in the idea of a kindly old bearded God who Had a Plan.

Now Nurse Veronica only had faith in people….

To her, God was in the selflessness shown by a young American soldier she’d operated on who’d given his own life to save the life of another. God was in his heart.

I couldn’t believe it! Sister G’s words, echoed by Nurse Veronica!

Nurse Veronica, who looks a lot like my friend Libby

Could it be that Sister G and Nurse Veronica are right? That maybe God isn’t a bearded old man sitting up in heaven, controlling our destinies the way little girls control their Barbie dolls, selecting who will live and who will die and who will go out with Ken?

Who knows.

What I do know is, there’s nothing you or I or anyone else can do stop terrible things like the earthquake in Haiti from happening.

But we can help prevent the suffering it’s causing.

Which makes all of us a little God-like, in my opinion.

And that’s something I definitely want to put my faith in.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

PS

Brian Russell is the husband of my friend Lisa, who is also one of my many former bosses from NYU. You know of him because he films and edits the Read Our Lips segments Michele Jaffe and I post here and on YouTube.

Brian has been doing volunteer relief work in Haiti for some time. And he takes his whole family down there with him at least once a year to help.

I emailed him as soon as I heard about the earthquake to find out where I could make a donation. This was his response:

I’ve received an overwhelming number of emails and calls of support today, and many have asked where they can donate money following the devastating earthquake in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Brian

Hands Together
PO Box 80985
Springfield, MA 01138
www.handstogether.org

Did It

25 Things You Don’t Know About…

…Meg and Christmas!

1. My favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story.

Luckily for me, they show this movie all day on December 25.

2. But I also love It’s A Wonderful Life.

3. And Die Hard!

4. Watching movies on Christmas Day is a long-standing holiday tradition in my family. Because dropping the kids off at the Cineplex at the mall after opening presents (and church) is what many parents did back in the 70s and 80s on December 25, so the adults could have some peace and quiet (also, mimosas).

5. He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog says that’s how his best friend saw Deliverance on Christmas Day when he was 12.

6. My favorite Christmas carol is Carol of the Bells.

7. The best (and yet worst) Christmas present I ever got was a gorgeous patent leather purse that HWSNBNITB’s brother and sister-in-law gave me. It was the best because I was completely broke and needed a new bag, and this one was AMAZING.

8. It was the worst because the day after I got it, I took it to a Christmas Day dinner party in someone’s fancy Upper East Side apartment in New York City…

9. …from which it disappeared…with one of the other dinner guests!

10. Weirdly, everyone at the party (except myself and my husband) had graduated from Harvard.

11. This is the only time I was ever robbed in the entire 15 years I lived in New York City.

12. Robbed! On Christmas Day! By someone who went to Harvard!

Edited to add later: I think it’s fitting that the one time I felt completely safe from theft– dinner party in a fancy apartment; distinguished guests from an Ivy League school; major holiday; etc–I got robbed.

I deserved it…for being so stupid!

13. HWSNBNITB says the worst gift he ever got was a Disney video of Aladdin.

(I really wanted to see it!)

14. HWSNBNITB and I do not exchange gifts at Christmas anymore.

15. It’s the thought that counts!

16. This Christmas Day, He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog and I plan on watching Four Christmases.

(I’ve never seen it!)

(I checked to make sure in advance…he wants to see it, too!)

17. Everyone who meets me through my husband assumes we’re Jewish, because he wears glasses, has dark hair, is super smart, and his last name is Egnatz.

18. My husband is not Jewish. Although it’s possible his Hungarian ancestors were.

19. My ancestors’ real name wasn’t Cabot (rhymes with rabbit). It was Caputo (rhymes with…nothing. Probably why they changed it).

20. I was too busy with deadlines and tending to HWSNBNITB’s broken ankle to put up a tree, so our friend Cathy, who is French, offered to decorate our tiny fake pink tree for us!

She even asked her husband, who is handy, to fix the dead pink lights for us.

Moral: Always say yes when a French woman offers to decorate your tree for you.

21. My favorite food at Christmas is peppermint bark.

22. I have already gained 3 pounds from eating so much of it this year.

23. If I’d been Mary, I’d have been all, “What? A manger? You have to be kidding me. What kind of innkeeper are you? Are you there, God? It’s me, Mary. And I’m outta here.”

Then I’d have taken out my American Express card, called 1-800 Air Ambulance, and had myself emergency air lifted to Mount Sinai….

Mount Sinai Maternity Ward in Beverly Hills, thank you very much!

24. Henrietta and Gem were quite naughty this year, and are getting lumps of coal.

Look at that face! How crabby is that?

Who me? I haven’t been going into other people’s houses and hiding under their beds.

(Yes! She has! She’s so naughty!)

25. In contrast, YOU all have been extremely good.

So I’m giving you a sneak peek of the third book in the Airhead trilogy (the release date has been moved up to April 20! Just for you!), Runaway:

Click here to read it!

Enjoy!

And have the most fantastic holiday ever!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Did It

Change…

Some of us love experiencing new things, while some of us (okay…me) prefer the comfort of the familiar.

Example:

When my best friend told me on the bus to school that her dad had bought this machine that played something called “video tapes”—movies that you could watch at home!— insisting that this was going to be the next big thing, I was like:

“That’s STUPID. No one is going to sit around and watch movies at home when you can just go to the theater at the mall instead.”

Another example:

About a decade later another friend got a job helping to design the graphics for this thing she called a “website” that was going to be on something called “the Internet.” She insisted THIS was going to be the next big thing. I was like:

“That’s STUPID. It’s cool that you’re working for the Gap, but no one is going to buy clothes from a computer when they can just go to the mall instead.”

What I learned from these experiences is that while preferring the comfort of the familiar is fine, change is almost always good (especially when it’s technology related), and should be embraced.

Take this blog, for instance.

When my editor, Abby McAden (the one who bought The Princess Diaries way back when no other publishing house wanted it) said I should start writing a “blog,” I was like:

“What’s a blog?”

See? I didn’t say it was stupid (well…not to her face).

And I did it! This blog has lasted almost SEVEN YEARS, way longer than almost any other author’s (according to my totally unscientific survey).

And now this blog has gotten the makeover it deserves, in the form of a fabulous glossy magazine-like look!

(You know how I can’t resist a magazine. But please don’t take your computer with you into the bathtub in order to read this blog.)

But don’t worry, those of you who still crave the familiar: along with tons of new content, everything you loved about my old site is still here!

See? Change is good!

You know there will always be more later.

Much love,
Meg

P.S. If you have any questions or comments about the new site, you can contact the admin using the link at the bottom of the page.