That is unless the world ends today (which it is supposed to do according to this one cult).

(I’m kind of mad because I was looking forward to the dead rising up from their graves, but since I live 2 blocks from the Key West cemetery, I can personally attest to the fact that so far NO ONE is rapturing and I’ve seen 0 dead bodies rising from graves).

But since cults tend to be wrong about this kind of thing all the time (why do people keep giving cults their money? Tell all your cultist friends to spend their money on books! Also bidding on tea with me at the Plaza for diabetes research!) I was sort of prepared for this and made up this list ahead of time of super fun stuff for you to do today instead of look at dead people rising from graves or die in a lake of fire:

First, you can read the amazing review Abandon got in the Sunday New York Times:

“There’s nothing like coming back from the dead to ruin a girl’s life. . . .” (And that’s just the first line! Honest. I’m not making it up! Click here to read more . . . if you dare! Cuz “death’s just getting started. . . .” I swear it says that. And this way before this rapture thing ever even got started. It’s like I’m psychic or something. Well, obviously I am.)

Second, I finally have a cover for Overbite (my July 5th adult paranormal release, the sequel to last year’s bestselling Insatiable) to show you! (Not to mention, the brand new cover for the paperback of Insatiable!)

Is the apocalypse avoided in Overbite, as it has been (so far) in real life? Well, there’s going to be an Overbite webpage that will spill all sorts of juicy gossip about that, and what Meena and Lucien and Alaric have been up to lately, coming soon (pending rapture).

But in the meantime, you will just have to be satisfied with reading a plot summary here (and you can also pre-order the book . . . you know. . . .if you’re feeling confident there will still be mail by Monday).

Meanwhile, have you been seeing how much coverage all the fun female empowerment books that are coming out this summer have been getting in the media lately? I love it! First the totally sweet CNN interview I had when I was in Atlanta, then this great round up in the Washington Post that talks about how many adult readers are reading YA! It even breaks down some of the summer selections for readers by “interests,” none of which (sadly, I’m sure, for cultists) are burning in a lake of fire.

We even have Al Roker talking YA on the Today Show! Notice the pink book behind Al’s head?

Yes! It is Princess Lessons! He didn’t mention it, but you can tell he’s DYING TO READ IT.

I have a million of them. And I’ll be here until the apocalypse is over. Because I care.

What’s so great about this YA love is that it means hopefully we’ll see even MORE people at the THIS IS TEEN events this summer (if we make it through today)!

And I finally have an updated schedule for these signings, so please put these on your calendar (and contact the stores in advance, because it’s my understanding that some of these events are ticketed and selling out to all of you scandalous unbelievers).

Tuesday, May 24
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Barnes & Noble
91 Old Country Road
Carle Place, NY
Please contact the store directly for details and for any event requirements/rules specific to this event: 516-741-9850.

Thursday, May 26
6:30pm – 7:30pm
The Scholastic Store
557 Broadway
New York, New York
Please contact the store directly for details and for any event requirements/rules specific to this event: 212-343-6166

Monday, June 13
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Books Inc. Opera Plaza
601 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA
Please contact the store directly for details and for any event requirements/rules specific to this event: 415-776-1111

Wednesday, June 15
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College (hosted by Anderson’s Bookshop)
171 E. Chicago Avenue
Naperville IL 60540
Please contact the store directly for details and for any event requirements/rules specific to this event: 630-355-2665.

Thursday, June 16
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Wellesley Books
Wellesley, MA
Please contact the store directly for details, location, and for any event requirements/rules specific to this event: 781-431-1160.
(I have never been to Boston before so this will be my FIRST TIME in this city!!!)

Saturday, July 23
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, FL
Please contact the store directly for details and for any event requirements/rules specific to this event: 305-442-4408.

And don’t forget my Overbite signings in July! But how COULD YOU???? Because they’re all listed on this mind blowing interactive map right here!

It was so insanely fun to meet so many of your teachers and librarians at IRA in Orlando last week (hint: they must really like you because they had me sign a LOT of copies of Abandon for you to give to you as graduation gifts) . . . not to mention so many fun AUTHORS!

ME AND AUTHOR LINDA SUE PARK!

Then I flew off to Toronto where I got to experience book signings, Canadian style (cold weather, WARM WELCOME)!

Everything was so organized, despite the crowds, the signing went like lightning (uh, for me . . . I don’t know about the people waiting). They even had a “photo booth” that printed out free photos for everyone on line!

You can see a ton more fun photos from the signing on my Facebook page! I even had an “Indigo Moment” that turned out to be much more of a moment than anyone intended (most of all me):

Click here to view the embedded video.

By the time I got home (after almost being kicked off the plane for reasons that were never fully explained to me but I think it had to do with my exotic sounding name: It’s MEGGIN AS IN BEGGIN’/CABOT RHYMES WITH RABBIT) I was exhausted . . . .

But not too exhausted to see the movies Bridesmaids (OMG so good! I demand a sequel) and Jane Eyre (OMG so good! But not as good as the book) and attend my first chat ever on Good Reads! It was so fun being on Good Reads, I will definitely visit more often!

And in case anyone didn’t notice (they announced it last night on the local Miami news–which I have started taping because Florida has the weirdest news in the ENTIRE country, confirmed by the AP News Corp), while a Biblical rapture is unlikely in our lifetime, a viral zombie apocalypse is a theoretical possibility according to the CDC.

I have been telling all of you this for years. Now will you stop laughing?

I leave you with this sobering thought: Since the rapture didn’t happen, THERE ARE ONLY TEN DAYS LEFT IN THE AUCTION TO HAVE ROYAL TEA WITH ME AT THE PALM COURT IN NEW YORK CITY THIS SUMMER!

Time is running out! The auction ends on May 31! Remember, all the money goes to help researchers find a cure for diabetes (which, unlike today’s fake rapture or a zombie apocalypse, is a very, very real thing and a disease from which millions of people, including some of my family members, suffer)!

Thank you for all your generosity, read more books, and if worse comes to worst today, see you in the Underworld to be sorted by John Hayden (if you don’t know who I’m talking about, you need to watch this video or go here)!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mwah!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

My 18th wedding anniversary!

No joke.

You can read more about it here. Or just read my book Every Boy’s Got One. (Every boy’s got a heart, silly. I know what you were thinking. You are naughty.)

Have a great April Fool’s Day! It’s the best day to fall in love (also to get married. You don’t even have to elope to Italy).

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Just out of curiosity, have you spent the past twenty-four/thirty-six hours asking yourself the same question I have been asking myself?

Anne Hathaway

Olivia Wilde

Which one?

The thing is, they’re BOTH gorgeous.

And what does best even mean, when you get down to it? I would die for EITHER of those dresses. I guess the answer is, both.

Sunday night was a good night if you’re the type of person who likes looking at your favorite actors and actresses all dressed up in pretty clothes, getting awards they deserve . . . and you also like shows filled with romantic intrigue set in British manor houses in the early 1900s . . . and you ALSO like shows about crazy polygamists. Because then you, like me, had all your dreams come true.

Big Love, that show about a polygamist family that I always swore I was never going to watch (as opposed to that reality show about the polygamist family that I always swore I was never going to watch), came back to HBO for its final season on Sunday, and I am SO EXCITED because it is SO GOOD.

Hello, we are totally cRaZy.

I’ve also gotten sucked into Downton Abbey, the new Masterpiece Theater dramedy about the romantic entanglements of the servants and blue bloods in a country manor house in England in the early 1900s. If you aren’t watching this show, you TOTALLY need to, because it’s as dishy as Big Love.

If you live in England, Downton Abbey was already shown in full, so no spoilers please! (I already know they’re making a second season, which is fantastic, because we need more shows like this.)

Hi, we’re cRaZy, too, only we aren’t polygamists. Although some of us might be blackmailers and possibly murderers. The rest of us are searching for love and happiness!

Back to the Golden Globes:

Besides the clothes and all the empty boxes of Godiva chocolates on everyone’s tables, my favorite part was when Chris Colfer won for his role as Kurt on Glee. I loved his acceptance speech! I knew so many Kurts in high school, and I love the way he’s portrayed on the show (and I can’t wait for Anne Hathaway’s guest appearance as his aunt)!

I actually love the way ALL the characters on Glee are portrayed, except I can’t help thinking that in real life, Rachel is the kind of girl who, if her boyfriend dumped her, would not cry and beg him take her back. I feel like in real life, Rachel would narrow her eyes and go, “Really? You’re dumping me?”

Then she’d channel all her rage (not despair, because in real life she’d just feel sorry for him for making such a deeply tragic mistake) into her performances.

Then Finn would be all, “What’s happening? I’m scared. I thought this was supposed to be The Sound of Music. Why is Maria von Trapp biting me?”

And then Mr. Shu would have to step in and try to perform an intervention. But it would be too late because by then Rachel would just be all, “Later, losers! I’m leaving on a bus for LA!”

Which I realize is the prequel to Burlesque. But you know it’s true.

In Meg Cabot news, don’t forget our discussion on the Mediator begins today!

And you only have a couple more days to post your story if you want to win the January short story contest!

And there is a NEW contest to win books here! We’re giving away limited copies of the new re-issues of Vanished (used to be 1-800-Where-R-You) and the new Mediator reissue to a very few lucky winners!

And now I have something to point out that basically only people from Indiana or college basketball fans are going to understand, but it needs to be said:

Bobby Knight, the former basketball coach from Indiana University.

Sue Sylvester, the cheerleading coach from Glee.

Bobby Knight had his own television show, was prone to hissy fits, swaggered around like he owned the entire school, and won more championships than any other head coach in his field.

Sue Sylvester has her own television show, is prone to hissy fits, swaggers around like she owns the entire school, and has won more championships than any other head coach in her field.

Ryan Murphy, the creator of Glee, did go to Indiana University during the years Bobby Knight was coach there.

Coincidence? You be the judge:

More later.

Much love,

Meg

And the best part is, this isn’t some snobby premiere out in Hollywood that only the stars are invited to . . . it’s a premiere we can ALL go to, right in our living rooms!

Because it’s on Disney Channel, which we all get (well, unless you don’t have cable or you live in some country that doesn’t have Disney Channel, in which case, I’m sorry! But I’m sure the movie will come out soon where you live)!

So let’s get together for our premiere party on Twitter! I’ll be live-Tweeting my thoughts on the movie (No! I’ve never seen it!), and you can Tweet back yours (I’ll also be on Facebook!) all night! Join me on Twitter or my Facebook page, or both! Be there at eight sharp! You don’t have to dress up, but do try to have popcorn.

Here is the official movie poster. Isn’t it AMAZING????

I love it!

Now, I know some people have already gotten to see this movie On Demand where they live, and have said it doesn’t quite follow the book. Remember how Anne Hathaway didn’t have blond hair, and there was no Tina or Boris, and Mia’s dad wasn’t dead in the Princess Diaries movie? There are changes like that in the Avalon High movie, as well.

But everyone ended up loving The Princess Diaries movie anyway, because it was like it’s own separate Princess Diaries universe, which was very sweet. I know Avalon High is going to be the same way.

As we know, it’s hard to cram 300 pages into a 70 minute film (that’s one page of book per minute of screen time)! I know about the changes that have been made to this story, and I understand why they did them. To quote Britt Robertson, who plays the movie’s heroine (this is from the Jacksonville Observer) about Avalon High:

“Avalon High” is adapted from Meg Cabot’s (“The Princess Diaries”) book of the same title. “If you read the book, you see she does a brilliant job incorporating lightheartedness with the mystery, combining all these different elements,” says Britt. “The screenplay writer did the same thing. There’s action, comedy, drama, romance and mystery. It’s got a little bit of everything. A few things are different from the books for time’s sake, working within the hour-and-a-half time constraints. But they did a brilliant job of adapting it.”

Not ALL the changes were made for time’s sake. Some were made to draw new, younger viewers into the story more quickly, and to keep them there, which to me is a good thing! Now a story that means a lot to me is going to find a whole new audience that might never otherwise have heard about it . . . something that happened after The Princess Diaries appeared on film.

I can’t tell you how many letter I got after that movie came out that said, “I never read a book before I saw that movie, but I wanted to know more about the story, so I bought the book, and now I can’t stop reading.”

To me that’s the point of having books made into films! One reason I became a reader as a kid was because of a movie: The Fantastic Voyage (about a group of scientists who get shrunk down to microscopic size and injected into a man’s veins to destroy an embolism in his brain using teeny tiny laser guns)!

I went to the library after I saw it on TV and asked, “Are there any books like the movie The Fantastic Voyage?” and the librarian said, “There actually is a book OF that movie. Let me get it for you.”

I was so happy! That movie got to me into reading (and writing) books forever.

If that happens to kids because of MY books (and the movies of them) I’ll feel as if I have reduced the suckage here on earth significantly.

Maybe that is why I was so super excited when I turned on my TV this morning and saw THIS on the guide:

Yeah, I took a picture of my TV. So what? It says my name on my TV Guide!!!!

I REALLY hope I see you tonight at 8! XXXOOO

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Apparently, my lying on the couch watching a ten-hour Say Yes To The Dress marathon does not count as “relaxing.” This, HWSNBNITB says, is “re-energizing.” Much in the way a golden lioness re-energizes before the next day’s hunt, when she will eviscerate yet another gazelle on which the pride will gorge themselves.

I’m not sure I understand this analogy, but I do know this: I prefer relaxed animals to relaxed people. Because while relaxed puppies are cute, people who wobble around wearing no pants (like Ziggy) are kind of weird.

What I super love are high-energy New Yorkers. Their reputation for being rude is totally undeserved. It is not rudeness. They are just GETTING THINGS DONE.

You can usually rely on non-relaxed people (especially New Yorkers). On the very rare occasions when they mess things up, it’s because they genuinely goofed—possibly while trying to get so many things done at once, they inadvertently missed a step. This is absolutely forgivable (so long as they come straight out and admit it, apologize, and take steps to improve themselves).

This is why characters like Nick and Nora Charles and Alec Baldwin—New Yorkers, FYI—are so beloved. Because, after they’ve apologized for messing up, they usually head straight for the liquor cabinet (or in the case of Liz Lemon, her night cheese), down a martini, then go back to work.

When people around HERE tell me to relax, I want to kick the margarita out of their hand, then karate chop them in the Cuban cigar. What do they think I’m doing? By actually moving to the place where I would go to relax should I ever choose to do so, I have actually significantly cut down on the amount of travel time it would take to get here. I have taken relaxation to scientific new levels of efficiency, though some people apparently don’t choose to see it this way, which I find super annoying.

As soon as I turned in my book (Abandon, the first in a new YA series. It will be out in April. Look for more info coming soon) and finished filming the promo stuff about it (yeah. The day after I handed in the book, the filming of the promo stuff for it started), He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog announced he had booked us a birthday vacation. At a local spa. TO RELAX.

Apparently this has something to do with the fact that Abandon is mostly set in a cemetery (which it’s not really, it’s mostly set in a high school and the Underworld). He said, “That just makes me even more worried about you. You need to RELAX.”

I do not see what the problem is. The Key West cemetery is NOT where the book is set. The book is set on a fictional Floridian island. And yes, there is a cemetery in it.

And yes, the Key West cemetery is where we filmed the promos.

And yes, Tropical Storm Nicole roared in that same morning.

But I told He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog that he was worrying unnecessarily.

I highly doubt our filming in the cemetery invoked the wrath of any death deities.

I don’t know what the problem was. Just because the photo shoot for the cover looked like this:

No one actually killed that model. She was relaxing!

I do feel bad about all the dirt, though.

But when you’re playing a girl who goes flat line (which means her heart stops, for those of you who’ve never watched ER), but then she gets resuscitated, and she has to move to a new school because she kind of assaults someone (who totally deserved it), but really the person who did it was the guy she met while she was dead (and maybe he wants her back in the place where she met him in the first place), but she can’t tell anyone that because everyone already thinks she’s crazy, well, things are gonna get dirty.

But we did have to flee the cemetery during filming due to the coffins suddenly popping up out of the earth (ha, okay, not really. But it did start raining due to the tropical storm), and ended up filming the rest on my back porch.

It’s called Abandon because some of the characters die and end up in the Underworld, like in Dante’s Inferno. Get it? They ‘Abandon All Hope.’

Oh, you didn’t know there’s an Underworld? Well, this book by Edith Hamilton explains it all. Check out the Persephone and Hades chapter. Only in my version, they’re both teenagers. And they live in Florida, not Greece.

No, there’s no coffee in the Underworld. Or Coke Zero either. But we have both at my house! Which would you prefer?

After everyone left, He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog announced that now that the book is turned in, we’re done invoking the wrath of dark lords. At the spa (which is a little ways down the road), we’re going to be relaxing, doing yoga (they have classes ALL DAY LONG). They also have Dead Sea mud wraps, therapeutic aromasteam treatments (I have no idea what this is but I signed HWSNBITB up for it as a birthday surprise—don’t tell him!), a crystal steam room (this is apparently steam room, with crystals. Right? What else could it be?), a room where you can set it to rain at different levels, a Finnish sauna, multiple hydrospas, an igloo (I am not even kidding about this), and many thermal heated lounges (because you cannot get this in Florida by walking out your door).

At first, much like my character when she first finds herself being held captive in the Underworld, I was just like, “No. This is not happening.”

But then He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog was like, “I hear Turkey is very nice this time of year. Maybe we can rent a villa for a month. Turkey sounds relaxing, right?”

So then I said, “Never mind. The spa down the road for three days will be fine.”

It is VERY hard for people who like to drink a six pack of mini Coke Zeroes with her oatmeal in the morning to contemplate even a short stay at a place with something called an Herbal Laconium.

But that is where I will be, pretending to relax, because it sounds better than Turkey (no offense to anyone who is from Turkey. It’s just that I have to go to Texas in two weeks and I don’t have time to go to Turkey and back).

Updates on my progress will be posted. Unlike the Underworld, spas have wi-fi.

Wait.

Spas have wi-fi, don’t they????

More later.

Much love,

Meg

He Who Shall Not Be Not Named In This Blog did not accompany me to this movie, even though, although he has no ovaries, he would have liked it. He loves romances (and looks a bit like an even scruffier version of Javier Bardem, if such a thing is possible. I personally enjoyed this part of the movie best), especially the collected works of Nicholas Sparks, which is why we made an agreement long ago that he wouldn’t read my books, a pact that has served us well.

I don’t think literary criticism from someone you live with is necessary (especially from someone who thinks an appropriate ending for a romance is a Peruvian mudslide that kills the male lead).

Anyway, thanks to so many of you for entering the Back to School contest! We got tons of great entries, and the office elves are busy sorting through them! Be sure to check your school mailboxes in the next week or so if you entered. Contests like these help schools/libraries stock their shelves, and they help ME empty mine so I can fill them with incoming stock . . . like Allie Finkle #5 Stage Fright (now out in paperback)!

In other news, we visited the Greenpeace boat, Arctic Sunrise, which stopped by Key West this weekend on its way to take researchers out into the Gulf to track oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, just because the leak has been plugged, that doesn’t mean the oil isn’t still out there . . . somewhere. Greenpeace is supplying the boat so that universities can supply researchers to find it.

It was fun to tour the ship, and also educational. Greenpeace ships, unlike those you might have seen on shows like Whale Wars (a totally separate entity than Greenpeace) aren’t out there trying to stop Japanese fishermen from killing whales. Greenpeace feels that crises like the one caused by the Deepwater Horizon (and future disasters like it, if we continue to allow drilling off our shores) as well as global warming will kill far more sea life than Japanese fishermen ever will.

I know! I was surprised to hear this too!

Sometimes I wear hats.

I don’t know if you’ve already figured this out, but I’m a little obsessed with natural disasters, and this includes bad weather. Climatologists have already concluded that this past decade has been the hottest in the historical record (with the past four months alone having been the warmest on record in the history of the world). Seventy-five countries have set extreme hottest temperature records (that’s 33% of all countries).

The weather blog I mainly follow is Dr. Jeff Master’s at the Weather Underground. According to Dr. Jeff:

“The Great Russian Heat Wave of 2010 is one of the most intense, widespread, and long-lasting heat waves in world history. Only the European heat wave of 2003, which killed 35,000 – 50,000 people, and the incredible North American heat wave of July 1936, which set all-time extreme highest temperature records in fifteen U.S. states, can compare.”

Dr. Jeff points out in this interview in the NY Times (in which his site is named “the best ongoing tracking of these extraordinary weather events”) that the horrible floods currently happening in Pakistan seem to be directly connected to the Russian heat wave.

(Does the fact that I just revealed that I follow all this weather stuff make me a huge nerd? Yes, it does. Do I care? No, I don’t. Why? Because I AM a huge nerd.)

Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News says to donate to these places to help the poor people of Pakistan.

Another place you might want to consider donating is Greenpeace. Because if we’re going to save the whales, it really is about reducing our dependency on fossil fuels, and trying to lessen our carbon dioxide emissions. And if things with the weather keep on the way they have been, they’re gonna need a bigger boat.

Anyway, I have to admit, after this weekend, I was feeling a little down. It didn’t help when I read about Tila Tequila and the Juggalos. And no, I’m not linking to them OR Tila. But I do want to point out that Method Man also got hit in the face with a full beer can. To paraphrase TMZ: Really, ICP? You want to mess with the Wu Tang Clan?

But then, Monday morning, a miracle occurred. We got an envelope from Disneyworld. Inside it was:

My passport that got “stolen” at Disneyworld a month ago apparently turned up in the Lost and Found, and they mailed it back to me (there was no note, so that’s what we’re assuming happened).

So thanks, Disneyworld!

See, it’s people who do the little things—like keep climatology blogs and send boats out to look for the microscopic oil droplets and make movies with Javier Bardem in them and give money to Doctors Without Borders and send people’s passports back in the mail that keep us all going.

So take heart everyone! It really is a small world after all.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Okay, so I’m definitely no Christiane Amanpour because I’m finally home and I know I did a horrible job of reporting from the front lines (except for the occasional Tweet/Facebook update). Which sucks because there’s so much I meant to tell you guys (especially those of you who want to be writers).

But don’t worry. I kept notes so I wouldn’t forget!

Like during my “Chat With” that I gave during the conference: To the person who asked, “What do we do about the fact that some agents don’t seem to want to hear the words chick lit?”

There’s a reason why books by authors like Janet Evanovich, Sarah Dessen, Jennifer Weiner, Sophie Kinsella, and Candace Bushnell continue to sell so well! These women write books with strong female characters who have heart, and with whom all readers can identify. So the problem obviously isn’t with the genre: it’s with people who dismiss it based on what it’s called.

My favorite author quote ever is:

“Write about the idea that bites you like a shark, and won’t let go until you write the whole story down.”

(I hate that I can’t remember who said this, or even the exact quote. But I read it in the Author’s Guild Bulletin, one of the best publications ever!)

Particular genres come and go. But the idea that originally bit you always stays the same. And you never know—nor does anyone else in publishing, including all those people who say “such and such genre is dead”—what’s going to be the next “big one” . . . the next big idea that captures everyone’s imagination, and swallows the reading public whole.

So if you feel like there’s a “chick lit prejudice” out there, just say, “My book is about a strong female character with heart, with whom readers will identify, because she . . . ” blah blah whatever it is she does that makes her such a strong individual.

Like Nora Roberts said in her keynote, writing is hard! It’s supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it, and everyone would be a bestselling author.

So ride the hard! The hard is what makes it so worth it in the end.

One of my favorite stories is one I heard a famous actress tell on a talk show. It was about her first ever acting class, and how the teacher announced the first day, “I’m sorry, but statistically, only one of you is going to make it in this business. That’s just how it is. Only one in one hundred ever do.”

The actress looked around at the ninety-nine other kids in her class and felt an overwhelming sense of of sadness for them. Because of course she knew they were the ninety-nine ones who weren’t going to make it. It never occurred to her that SHE might be one of the ninety-nine.

And because that was her attitude, she was right!

I can’t remember who the actress was (I know, this totally ruins the story), but she was someone totally famous, so I’m just going to say it was Julia Roberts.

Like Julia in this movie, I’ve been looking for things at which to marvel lately.

THIS THE ATTITUDE YOU HAVE TO HAVE as a writer. Not snobby. Not superior. Not inflexible, like “My story is so great, I’m not going to change a word.” You just have to have complete, blinding faith in yourself (while also having sympathy and compassion for others).

Because no one else is going to believe in you. It’s just you and all those idea sharks biting you. Never stop writing until they let go.

From Harry Potter World

OK, so, when we last left off, my passport had been stolen at Disneyworld, the most magical place on earth, and I was freaking out because how was I ever going to get back on a plane to come home to Key West (or to NYC, my next destination) without a valid form of photo ID?

Well, guess what? You don’t need ID to ride on planes! The FAA says you can show any old piece of photo ID, expired for up to a year, to get on board. They don’t care. Just so long as you don’t have any bombs in your panties.

I was so distracted by all this, I forgot to post that they released the stills for the movie of my book, Avalon High, that’s coming out this fall on Disney Channel. Click here to see them!

(Sorry, I couldn’t get them to fit on the page. And yes! Allie (Britt Robertson) is blonde! And her name really is Allie, not Ellie! But I promise there’s a good reason why (and that you’re going to love it). You’ll find out when you see the movie.)

But wait, there’s more:

Because the new Mediator bind-up is out today in the UK!

And because you guys here in the States were so vocal about how unfair it was that the UK is getting reissues of the Mediator (same books, new covers), WE’RE GETTING THEM TOO! No covers to show yet, but they’re coming soon.

Oh, and in the middle of all of this? I got emailed the script for the Mediator movie!

That’s right.

THE. MEDIATOR. MOVIE.

I know, right. Seriously. I’ve been finding little things at which to marvel! How much excitement can a girl take?

(This is a picture from Eat, Pray, Love not the Mediator movie. Filming hasn’t started shooting on that yet! I just like looking at Julia.)

Oh, and then this very cute librarian-to-be wrote to let me know that in one of the scenes of the new Ramona and Beezus move, Selena Gomez is reading my book Airhead!

EMOTICON! (As Aziz Ansari would put it). Go see Ramona and Beezus now!

Honestly, when I got to NYC I had to spend a whole day in bed eating M&Ms and watching TV, hoping the spinning would slow down (it didn’t work).

I mean, I met about a zillion authors I’ve always wanted to meet (and some totally cute new ones, like Erica Ridley) in Orlando! I got to hold Simone Elkeles’s RITA (she wrote Perfect Chemistry—you remember, I blogged about her awesome musical book trailer for it. She won for Best YA Romance).

And I got to hold BOTH of Julia Quinn’s RITAs! She won TWO (one for getting into the RWA Hall of Fame)!

PS Ritas are very heavy. I think they would make good weapons for Colonel Mustard to kill Mrs. Peacock in the library.

I’ve had to depend on the kindness of strangers (mainly the kindness of readers who’ve scrolled through other writers’ Twitter and Facebook accounts and sent me links!) though to send me their photos from last week because I totally forgot to take any pictures (although I DID remember my camera. Just not to put it in my purse).

So that’s how I got sent this funny photo from writer Liza Palmer’s Twitter of me taking someone else’s photo (that’s writer Ally Carter in the background!). I’m sad I didn’t get to meet Liza Palmer. Both she and Ally Carter (and Megan Crane!) also write strong funny female characters with heart (with whom we can all identify)!

Oh, and the Avon Romance Blog has tons of cute pictures (and updates from the conference)! Like me in this dress, which wins for Dress Most People Asked “Where Did You Get That Dress?”

(One lady asked, “You aren’t wearing that dress tonight, are you? Because I was planning on wearing that dress tonight!” I’m telling you, this dress is the bomb).

Get the best dress ever at Anthropologie. It’s called the Traced Twirls Dress and it’s on sale for $158! It looks good on everyone, especially writers.

There were so many funny moments I didn’t get pictures of that I wish I had! Like this one:

Reader Diana sent me this photo of HarperCollins publicist Christine, me, Julia Quinn, my editor Carrie Feron, editor Lyssa Keusch, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips (I have no idea why I don’t have a tiara and everyone else does) at the Avon Books party. Susan Elizabeth Phillips, in case you were wondering, is as nice as her books! (Really! And she also writes strong female characters with heart!)

(Avon Books is a division of HarperCollins, which publishes my adult books, and which generously donated a copy of my new book Insatiable to EVERY SINGLE PERSON who attended the RWA conference! SO NICE OF THEM! Although so many people came up to me and were like, “Is this YA? Because I want to give it to my niece” after a while I was like, “Sure, why not! The sex is more, um, implied.”)

Everyone was so nice and it was fantastic to meet so many authors whose books I’ve admired for so long (or that I’ve written with, but never met), like Diana Peterfreund, who has a story coming out this fall in the anthology Zombies vs. Unicorns, just like I do!

Sometimes people assume when authors contribute to the same anthology, we all meet in a room during a long weekend and write it together, but this isn’t true. I’ve never met most of the authors in any of the anthologies I’ve contributed to (except RL Stine, for this one coming out next month)!

But thanks to RWA, I now know Rosemary Clement-Moore, who writes the fun “Hell” series, the first one of which “Prom Date From Hell” came out at the same time as “Prom Nights from Hell” (No relation. Just coincidence)!

It turns out there’s a whole chapter of RWA just for YA writers now (yeah, OK, so I’ve been a little out of touch. I live closer to Cuba than I do mainland US! But I realize this is no excuse).

Here is a picture of me with Vanessa Barneveld. She’s also in YARWA. Vanessa was one of the Golden Heart finalists for YA romance. Because I was the presenter of the Golden Heart award for YA romance, I had to practice saying her name (and all the finalists’ names) fifty times. Hers was especially hard though because she says it with an Australian accent, so I had to make a mental note not to say “Vahnessah Bahnehvehld” like she does when I read her name off the teleprompter:

The Golden Heart is the most prestigious romance writing award given for a manuscript that’s yet to be published. Erica O’Rourke won for the category for which I presented, for her book, Unchosen (except it did get chosen)! I hope we’ll be seeing works by Erica (and ALL the Golden Heart finalists!!!) in stores soon!

The Golden Heart finalists’ acceptance speeches during the awards ceremony totally gave me something at which to marvel (like Julia wants in EPL), by the way.

Because there’s something so inspiring about someone who’s been working for so long for the sheer joy of it, and who’s finally getting some recognition for that work!

(PS I would be a professional presenter if this were a real job. You just get to read the names of the finalists off a teleprompter, then hug the person when she comes up, give her her award, then escort her off the stage after her speech is done, all while wearing nice shoes! Seriously, it was SO FUN.)

Author Tera Lynn Childs presented Best First Book. She has a new book, Forgive My Fins, which has what I personally think is one of the prettiest covers I’ve seen in a while:

(I got a sneak peek at this book, and it’s delicious, like sushi.)

And I’ve decided author Margaret Carroll should have been presented an award for Author Who Seems Most Unlike Her Books: Her Rita-nominated book, A Dark Love, was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the top five mass-fiction titles of 2009! I sat by her on the bus to the Avon Romance party, and she seemed totally normal . . . but it turns out she writes completely creepy stuff! I love meeting people like that.

But I met so many authors like that! I was marveling ALL NIGHT, it seemed. And if I sat here and tried to list them all, I would be here all day. So maybe it’s best to move on to Harry Potter World now:

This is Pam Jaffee, Tavia, me, Wendy, Christine, and Seale. They all work in publicity at Harper. And by “work” I mean they were the ones who put together all the signings and everything for all the Avon authors during RWA, and who also have to deal with me on a regular basis when I need bailing out of one jam or another (as did the RWA staff, who were SO amazing). So it was so nice of them to let me tag along with them to Harry Potter World!

When you walk into Universal, they jump out at you and make you point at nothing on the ground, then later put a dinosaur there and make you buy the picture (well, they don’t MAKE you buy it, but you want to. I wish they had put a big butterbeer there instead, though).

To get to Harry Potter, you have to walk through about a hundred miles of other parks through the sizzling heat. Dr. Seuss is one of them, or, as I like to call it, Hell on Earth because they play this creepy music that sounds like something the nanny would play as she’s stealing your husband and making your baby hate you while you’re at work.

(Dr. Seuss is where Christine suddenly asked, “What’s a muggle?” Yes! She had never read the books, or seen the movies! After we found this out, we beat her up and stuffed her in one of the cups on the Hop on Pop ride.)

Hogsmeade!

Don’t let the fake snow fool you! It was still hot!

There are only three rides in Harry Potter land, one or the other of which is broken down at any given time due to constant use. When we were there, the broken one was the one that goes upside down so that was okay because I don’t go upside down having once looked at myself in a mirror this way.

(Try it sometime. You’ll see why hanging upside down is a bad idea for ladies after a certain age.)

Me with Sirius Black! (This was broken. But they fixed it later. It’s supposed to show Sirius Black but Seale suggested it would be better if you could stick your own head through it. TRUTH).

We ate in the Three Broomsticks and the food was really, really good, even for someone who has to eat gluten free. The frozen butter beer was AMAZINGLY good.

I thought the atmosphere in the place was exactly the way it was described in the books. It even SMELLED nice, like a wood-burning fireplace.

I found this picture on the Internet. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be of, but it isn’t the restaurant I went to. There were no midgets dressed as pirates when I was there. Sadly.

The funny part about Harry Potter World is that a lot of families try to bring their own food into the restaurants in giant coolers and sit down to eat there without ordering anything like it’s a picnic facility. I am not familiar with this dining tradition but at Harry Potter World it appears to be very common. When this happens, Dobby chases them out, screaming and hitting them with a stick.

OK, not really. But they did make these families leave.

Ollivanders! Inside the shop there is even fake dust!

(The line to get into Ollivanders is a zillion hours long because there’s a little show inside. Only ten people are let in at a time. A child is picked to “get” a wand and the funny part is, the kids totally think the show is “real.” It is SO CUTE. Afterwards you can go into the post office and the wandshop to send postcards marked “Hogswarts” to friends and buy your own wands. TOTALLY worth the wait).

Honeydukes! The candy packaging is so cute and nice. But the candy will melt the minute you get it outside. Totally worth the wait though.

HINT: You can get most of the candy at the Universal store on your way out of the park.

All the shops were just great, even the shops that are permanently “closed” (you peek in the windows and things are happening inside.)

Gilderoy Lockhart!

Hogwarts!

The Forbidden Journey ride is the one inside Hogwarts. I’d heard incredible things about this ride, like that it was a total breakthrough in “ride technology.” Basically, I yearned to marvel at it. I expected it to be the Avatar of rides.

During the 105 minute wait in the blinding sun, signs along the way remind you that you must remove your prosthetic limbs (NOT A JOKE) to go on this ride (they provide lockers with cool fingerprint technology to put your spare limbs and change in).

Which begs the question, if you only have one leg, do you hop the rest of the way down the line to get to the ride? I do not know.

I got very worried because of the signs that this ride might go upside down, but they assured me it didn’t.

If you do not want spoilers about what you see inside Hogwarts on the Forbidden Journey ride, SKIP THIS PART.

OK, it was no Avatar (by which I mean, the film parts of it were not even in high def, let alone three-D).

First, here is what I did NOT see on the Forbidden Journey, which are the things I was expecting (hoping) to see:

Grand Staircase
Great Hall (with Floating Candles)
Gryffindor Common Room

I know! I’m such a girl. I wanted to see all the romantic parts, not the scary parts. I wanted to be asked for the password to be let into the Gryffindor common room. Don’t hold your breath for this.

Instead you are strapped into a movie theater seat (which is wet from the person before you, I assumed because he had wet his pants with terror, but no, it was for another reason), and Hermione is a disembodied head urging you to hurry!

One funny part was that the teen strapping me into my seat gave himself the sign of the cross and told me he hoped I’d make it and that not many do. So, I thought that was funny considering the kid I was sitting beside was four and I doubted she’d appreciate the irony.

Harry and Ron are flying on brooms on the screen in front of you, while the seat you’re in shakes and lifts up, and things are projected above and below you (but not in High-def, so to me it looked fuzzy and out of focus, and I assure you my vision is fine except for reading), and then sometimes “real” things, such as dragons and spiders and death eaters, come at you.

Then they spit fog, steam, or “venom” at you. This is why the seat is wet.

I will say that all the kids and teenage boys I saw LOVED this ride. The girl who got her glasses broken when some of the spit hit her in the face? Not so much. And Harry Potter land would not reimburse her because the sign said to remove your glasses (only then how are you supposed to see the not-in-high-def quality film? This, like the prosthetic limb question, was not answered to my satisfaction).

I went in the “single riders” line because I heard it was faster, so I didn’t see a lot of things I heard other people saw in their lines before the ride, such as Dumbledore’s office, the choir with the singing frogs, etc. I saw three moving paintings and the sorting hat in small rooms along the line before the ride. The sorting hat didn’t sort me, however. It, like the paintings, warned me to keep my arms inside the ride and not to go on the ride if I was pregnant.

I did briefly fly over a Quidditch field (on film) and into Hogwarts (on film) at the end of the ride (on film).

Maybe when I went on it, the High Def function of the ride was broken, or something? I don’t know.

At the end of the ride I was let out into a shop where I could buy all sorts of cool stuff, including a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for Christine, so she could find out what a muggle is. This made me happy! Also, I was happy never to have gone upside down, and that the spitting was over, and that the four year old hadn’t cried.

Anyway, that is all. I just would have liked to have flown through the Great Hall, seen the Grand Staircases, and gone into the Gryffindor common room. Maybe they’ll add these features later? I hope so!

Because as a reader who LOVED these parts of the books, these are the things I wanted to see most (is it too much to ask for some kissing? I MEAN IT’S A MOVIE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD). And the castle is so huge for the outside! What’s in the rest of it? I’m hoping these parts are being added on (maybe not the kissing, but the Great Hall and moving staircases, at LEAST).

END OF SPOILERS.

When night falls in Hogsmeade, the enchantment begins!

OK, so Harry Potter may not have provided me with all that I wished to marvel.

But then after I flew to NYC, I got to present my new book, Abandon (coming in May/June 2010!) to Scholastic (sorry, no hints. But it’s way dark! It does involve the Underworld, after all).

And they presented ME with my new cover. And it’s amazing! I wish I could show it to you. But you’ll see it soon enough. I got to have all this input for it, and my main comment was, “No! She needs to look more dead!” and “More dirt!” if that gives you any indication. Only later did it occur to me that the poor model had to roll around in dirt. So I feel bad now.

To celebrate, I went to see the movie Winter’s Bone (super good. Basically, 17 yr old Ree wants to find her daddy, even though everyone warns her, “Girl, you don’t want to find your daddy”), and on my way to the theater, you’ll never guess who I ran into, because it turns out she lives in my neighborhood:

Yes! Christine! And look who she brought home with her from Disneyworld. You guys, you shouldn’t judge. Christine may never have read Harry Potter, but I think these two crazy kids are going to make it!

Then He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog got a call from his best friend since kindergarten (he was the one who had to run from the dust cloud with his whole family during 9/11 and ended up at our old place on 12th St with everyone from HWSNBNITB’s office, which was across the street from the Twin Towers). David works in the music business and is friends with someone VERY NICE who got some VIP passes (like sixth row seats. And access to the green room! Yes. Hate me now) to Arcade Fire at Madison Square Garden on August 5 (the show Terry Gilliam directed and was live-streamed on YouTube).

He was all, “Do you want to go?” and I was all, “Why not?” So we were in the green room when someone asked, “Is Spoon over yet? Maybe we should get our seats.”

Me: “WHAT??? SPOON????” I love Spoon. Like, LOVE them.

Of course Spoon opened for Arcade Fire and was done playing by the time I rushed out to our seats. I was in total despair, like, “I am never going to get to marvel at anything again.”

But you know what? I was wrong.

Because when Arcade Fire came out, they were so awesome, you just couldn’t help, well . . . marveling! They were just so excited to be there. You could feel it in the air!

And their fans were SO EXCITED to see them there (especially the ones who stole our seats because we weren’t in them for Spoon and they figured we weren’t coming. They were HUGE Arcade Fire fans. But there was plenty of room for all of us. And we did suck for having missed Spoon)!

And everyone on the floor knew all the words to all their songs (just like I knew all the words to all the Spoon songs), and they were singing along and jumping up and down and crowd surfing, and it was just . . . just . . . MARVELOUS!

And then there was Regine! She whipped out an accordion! And played keyboards! And sang! And danced! IN THIS GOLD DRESS!

And she obviously had so much heart, and I identified with her so strongly! I wanted to BE HER!

These guys totally played their guts out.

And one of them threw all the tambourines out to the crowd.

And at the end, two gigantic canons shot confetti at everyone!

And it was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to, if not the best ever.

And then He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog went home and bought all their music (on vinyl AND CD, because of course he has a turntable and forces me to listen to his old records from the 70s all the time. But I won’t mind listening to Arcade Fire on vinyl even though I already bought them on iTunes).

OK, that is all. I am NEVER going to wait this long to blog again! Now that I am home I am going to keep this thing updated faithfully EVERY DAY even though Flickr changed all their settings and I don’t understand them.

I SWEAR!

And now I have to go write more books about strong female characters with heart.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Then the US got knocked out of the World Cup (but congrats, Brazil)!

Then I couldn’t remember where I was when Michael Jackson died, and everyone on the news kept saying NO ONE could forget where they were on this historic day one year ago.

But I did.

So all that left me feeling very overwhelmed and a little blue.

And okay . . . opening my copy of Us Weekly and seeing myself in it (although sadly not on the “Celebs! They’re Just Like Us!” page) was a very nice lift.

OK, I’m not really in it. INSATIABLE is though.

And waking up this morning to see INSATIABLE chosen as a one of Summer’s Hottest Page Turner’s by the Early Show on CBS rocked. John Searles is officially one of my favorite people in the world right now.

Still, when you find yourself with a bad case of the blahs, it can be hard to rally.

I knew exactly what I needed. The fakeness of a Hollywood blockbuster, preferably with explosions! But no one wanted to go to the movies with me this weekend. Why?

The reviews.

It seems like these days a lot of critics are more interested in outsnarking each other than in remembering that some people just want to go to the movies and have fun.

Only the kid movies that have opened this summer have gotten semi-decent reviews, and no one without kids will go see a kid movie with me.

(Which I don’t understand. There’s nothing wrong with going to see a kid movie, such as Toy Story 3, even when you yourself don’t have a kid. Just don’t sit near a kid, so his parents don’t think you’re there to kidnap him.

Although considering the way some kids behave at the movies these days, I’ve had a number of parents look at me desperately, like, “Please, lady . . . abduct my kid. I’m begging you. I don’t want it anymore.” Sorry, no dice. At least my cats know to go number two in their litter box, not on the seat.)

But the adult movies have all gotten horrible reviews. To which I say: Who cares?

If I still listened to reviews, not only would I have driven a stake through my own heart a long time ago, I’d have missed out on some of my favorite movies of all time! Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion? Empire Records? Super Troopers? Grandma’s Boy? These are all cult favorites that got panned by reviewers at the time of their release.

Here is what I know about reviews:

All of my friends who work in the hospitality business in both New York and Key West say that at least 50%, if not more, of the reviews on places like Tripadvisor are actually written by people who either work at that hotel or restaurant, or at a rival establishment.

At first I was shocked when I found that out. Now I’m addicted to the Tripadvisor review wars.

And we know from the great Amazon Canada Review Glitch of 2004 that many reviews on Amazon are actually written by rival authors (or the authors themselves).

Really, how can you not love this?

That said, I cheered myself up this weekend by watching Semi-Pro starring Will Ferrell, which I’d never seen because He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog has an absurd Will Ferrell prejudice.

(Yes. He’s obviously just jealous, because whenever I turn on anything starring Will Ferrell, HWSNBNITB comes slinking into the room, “just to get something.”

“I’m not watching this,” he’ll declare. “I just need to something.” AND YET HE NEVER LEAVES UNTIL THE MOVIE IS OVER.)

That’s because Will Ferrell was sent down to us by Heaven on a very special mission . . . maybe not quite like Mother Theresa, but sort of, considering all the work Will does for Cancer For College, an organization a fraternity brother of his founded that helps pay college tuition for kids who can’t afford it because their parents had to spend all their money on the kid’s cancer treatments.

Every time I’m a little down and one of Will’s comedies, like Talladega Nights or Stepbrothers or Land of the Lost or Semi-Pro or Anchor Man comes on, it cheers me right up. It’s like being touched by a chubby, silly, hairy, dirty little angel who uses the F word and then screams like a girl and rolls around in the dirt.

I know it’s kind of weird. But in the end, you have to admit you liked it.

But if I’d ever actually believed any of the reviews of Will’s movies, I’d never have watched any of them! And then my life would be bereft in so many ways. I’d have missed the bunk bed scene from Step Brothers (if you’ve ever had little brothers, you’ve experienced the “We’ll get so many more activities done with all the extra room!” speech. In fact I believe I once did this with a friend, with similar results.)

And I wouldn’t ever have seen this, considered (by movie goers of taste) one of the most inspiring and moving musical numbers of all time.

So, this is why I try always to ignore the snark and judge things for myself. It’s why I don’t care about the reviews, and want to see Liam “Release The Kraken” Neeson in The A-Team anyway. It’s why I don’t care how big EW says Cameron Diaz’s head looks in Knight and Day.

It’s also why I think we should make a special Oscar category for Best Review. Not the snarky or needlessly mean reviews, but the review that actually makes you want to go see a film.

And for that I would like to nominate this review, which I found on the IMDB page for the movie Wide Sargasso Sea, which I accidentally watched one night when there was absolutely nothing else on.

In case you don’t know, Wide Sargasso Sea is the “prequel” to Jane Eyre. Wide Sargasso Sea was not written by Charlotte Bronte. I have not read the book.

But I defy anyone not to want to see the movie AT LEAST A LITTLE after reading this review:

Wide Sargasso Sea

We watched this in school, my English teacher had no idea why it would be rated R so we just watched it. It was funny because there was so much nudity and sex and stuff. It was great. It got to the point where she had to run up and cover the screen grade school style and I got a kick out of it. Sex is funny! I have nothing against nudity if it’s done right, this is just there for lonely boys … well, anyway. We watched the movie and it’s slow and I really hated “Jane Eyre” so I didn’t like this one much either. If you’re a fan of nudity (all kinds featured here) check it out!

Now THAT is a review.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Because in times like these—when volcanic ash is spewing all over one part of the world, and oil is gushing up from the ocean in another, and we’re apparently going to be without new episodes of Law and Order (at least, the non-SVU kind) for the first time in 20 years—what we need is fun, pure and simple.

And what’s more fun than a super hilarious spoof of your own book, in book trailer form?

Book trailers are a new (and sadly mostly ignored by the mainstream media) art form.

This is just wrong! Because there are so many ultra terrific book trailers out there (not many of us can get Zack Galifianakis to pose as ourselves in our own book trailers, though we all wish we could), along with some excellently dopey ones (what is wrong with this author?).

With this first book trailer for Insatiable, we (me, filmmaker Brady Hall, and the Harper Team) hoped to meld the super dopey with the ultra terrific, and come up with a new genre of book trailer:

The Super Ultra Excellently Terrific Book Trailer.

Personally, I think we succeeded.

Stay tuned for our next attempt, along with a post about The Behind The Scenes Making of The Insatiable Trailer (in which I Am Tackled a Million Times and People Spit on Me), coming soon, which will include clips such as:

Padding. That is padding he is looking at. On my butt. To protect it. What did you think was going on here???

OMG.

OK, that actually didn’t feel so bad.

This would SO never happen to Nicholas Sparks.

OK.

But wait:

It gets even better! Here’s the Publishers Weekly review (of the book. Not the trailer. Publishers Weekly isn’t reviewing book trailers. Yet)!

Insatiable 
Meg Cabot, Morrow, $22.99 (464p) ISBN 978-0-06-173506-6 


Cabot (Princess Diaries) winningly applies her trademark likably fallible protagonists and breezy storytelling to a vampire war in New York City. TV writer Meena Harper creates fabulous plots for Insatiable, the second-highest–rated soap opera, thanks to her burdensome if lucrative psychic ability to see into the future and determine how people are going to die. And just as Insatiable is switching to a vampire theme to attract a younger demographic, a spate of chilling murders-by-exsanguination grips New York City. Enter Lucien Antonescu, a sexy, melancholic Romanian history professor/vampire who recognizes that the murders are the work of rogue vampires who have broken away from his order. (Lucien happens to be the son of Vlad the Impaler, whom Bram Stoker gave such a bad rep.) Lucien’s opposition: Alaric Wulf, a sympathetic detective from the Palatine Guard, who hopes to use Meena and her prophetic gift to stop the murders and track down Lucien. Unfortunately for Alaric, Meena is a little in love with Lucien. Cabot is less concerned with creating a convincing family tree for Lucien than with creating sparks between her characters, who feel pleasantly natural even as they live alongside the vampires next door. (June)

Whenever I hear the word “breezy,” I always think of Monica from Friends, and that episode where she leaves the message on Tom Selleck’s answering machine, trying to sound “breezy.” But she ruins it by actually saying:


Get This Quote - Find more at TVLoop

I love Monica. Therefore, anytime anyone describes anything I do as “breezy,” I consider it a win. So, BIG HUG, PW.

Although honestly Insatiable took me more than a year of staying up until 3AM to write, with my husband yelling, “It’s THREE IN THE MORNING!”

So there was nothing breezy about actually writing it, I can assure you. But once I got the idea for it, I was possessed. True, my editor is the one who suggested I write a vampire novel. But at the time, I said, “No way!”

Then this dog came into my life, and changed everything.

Find out how here. The ideas wouldn’t stop flowing and . . . well, there I was, at 3AM. For a year.

Stupid dog. More on him later, too.

(For regular readers of this blog: I apologize for not telling you about the dog. There are many things I can’t talk about with you here, either because people close to me don’t want me to, or because they’re just too upsetting to me. The dog fell into the latter category. I try to keep this blog a happy place, not just for you, but for me. So the fact that I’m finally letting you in about the dog now should tell you something: his story ended up with a Happily Ever After. Stay tuned for it.)

Anyway, we’re gearing up for Insatiable’s release by reading Dracula! Yes! You can join our discussion group right here! Win prizes for your insightful vampire-knowledge . . . but most of all, enjoy one of the dishiest, most romantic, creepiest classics ever . . . get Draculed!

Official Slogan of the Dracul, not to be transferred or used for any other purpose than Pure Evil

Finally, congratulations to “M”, who bid over $600 for a signed copy of the Insatiable ARC (I also threw in the first official copy, hot off the press!), as well as Vampire Ken (who’ll play one of the main characters from the book in a future book trailer) at the auction for Do The Write Thing For Nashville.

I had no idea who “M” was. I was sort of suspecting she was my mother.

So you can imagine my surprise (and relief) when “M” contacted me after the auction was over with her mailing address, and I found out I don’t know her at all! She’s actually one of the many extraordinarily generous and kind people who came out to help raise money for TN flood victims.

(I couldn’t believe it when I overslept and lost in my own bidding war for Rachel Vail’s Brilliant! But then I remembered I could donate directly! And pre-order a copy of Brilliant! So I did both!)

So, thank you, “M”! People like you (and all of you who created Do The Write Thing, and donated money, time, and goods to it!) are what’s helping to make this world a better place in its time of greatest need (floods, volcanoes, oil spills, no more Law and Order, etc).

You, and fun new book trailers of course!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go try to get HWSNBNITB to tackle me. It’s actually quite fun (you don’t even need padding if you do it on a bed)!

Uh, that came out wrong. Well, you know what I mean.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

I thought a look behind the scenes might give you a few hints.

Check out my book trailer blooper reel!

As you can see, book trailers are a team effort, with me mostly messing things up (see all the Runaway book trailers here).

Anyway, I’m home now, finally, recovering from what I’m convinced was food poisoning, and someone just called with this great news:

Scott Turow Elected President of the Authors Guild

The lawyer and the queen of teenage lit are in the house!

Scott Turow, the author of “Presumed Innocent” and the coming sequel, “Innocent,” has been elected president of the Authors Guild, a trade group that represents writers, and Judy Blume, the author of the perennial favorites “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” and “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing,” has been elected vice president.

The guild also elected the authors Meg Cabot, Michelle Richmond and T.J. Stiles to its executive council.

Yes, it’s true!

So now instead of just sitting around complaining when I’m upset about something book-and-publishing-related, I’m actually going to be one of the people helping to do something about it (or trying to, anyway)! I’m so excited!

(PS Have you noticed that BN.com no longer has links up to Common Sense Media reviews?)

(Edited May 2: Aaand now the links are back. Interesting.)

I wish I could do something about this oil spill in the Gulf, too.

I’m very worried about our sweet pod of friendly dolphins, our silly pelicans, our manatees, and my friend Captain Bob, who makes his living spear fishing for all our local restaurants here in Key West.

“Drill, baby, drill” doesn’t sound very catchy anymore, does it?

I guess that’s one reason why writers write books: to help people escape their own worries, at least for a few hours (I know that’s why I’m SO glad my copy of the new Precious Ramotswe mystery arrived today).

If you need to read something to get away from YOUR troubles, don’t forget that in addition to Runaway here in the US, the new Mediator double-editions are out in the UK territories.

Mediator 1 and 2

Mediator 3 and 4

Mediator 5 and 6

And tomorrow, May 1, is a very special day:

HRH Princess Mia Thermopolis’s birthday!

Be sure to check Mia’s blog for a special birthday update . . .

. . . like maybe the lyrics to Lana Weinberger’s new hit single, guaranteed to make even a reluctant princess forget her troubles.

More Later.

Much love,

Meg