Journal entries may be sporadic as I attempt to vacation…without access to the Internet!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

So I’m posting this sneak peek to Princess Diaries 10, the last (for now—sob!) book in the Princess Diaries series, for people to enjoy in between reading my latest release, The New Girl!

Check it out! Princess Diaries Sneak Peek:

What’s Princess Mia been up to since we last saw her at the end of Princess Mia, Princess Diaries 9?

teenSTYLE Magazine caught up to her and tried to find out!

Princess Mia’s Interview with teenSTYLE Magazine

More later.

Much love,

Meg

It’s here! The New Girl is in stores at last! And to celebrate Allie finally getting her kitten (maybe), Scholastic has created some adorable virtual pets just for you:

Just go here and you can pick your own cute puppy or kitten, name it, and give it cute toys and baths, and pet it all you want (virtually, of course). What could be more fun (besides reading the book, of course)?

Other Announcements:
–The Teen Second Life chat that was planned for tomorrow, August 8, at 4PM, has been post-poned. I’ll let you know as soon as I have the new date!

–Paris Hilton is running for President.

–Over here at Casa Cabot, we’re trying to get ready to go on “vacation.” If you’ve read about any of my past vacations you’ll know I share author Maureen Johnson’s feelings on the subject of vacations (what, exactly, are you supposed to do during them? Coupled with…bother? Not to be a pessimist, but don’t they almost always end in disaster?)

I’m particularly nervous about this one. Why? Because I’ve never been to the place where we’re going to before, which is

1. in super northern Maine

2. on an island

3. where the Internet is sketchy

4. and there may not be cable

5. and there may possibly be a lot of deer, and therefore, deer ticks

6. and there is no CVS

7. and it’s near my mother’s boyfriend’s vacation cottage.

Yeah. I’m sure it will be fine though!

So, while I will continue to try to post while we’re there, I’m just warning you, it might be hard, what with the sketchy Internet thing and the ticks and the beautiful ocean sunsets and all.

So, anyway. I have to figure out what people do on vacation. I’ve read about vacations and seen them on TV and here are the results of my research.

Here are the things I will do on vacation:

1. Take pleasant bike rides, preferable along flat, non-hilly areas.

2. Sit on the beach, careful not to go too near the water.

3. Eat at pleasant places.

4. Enjoy nice talks with people, possibly in front of cheerful fires.

5. Recline in hammocks (sitting perfectly still on vacation is always good).

6. Read books, as long as they have a great deal of dialogue and/or dirty words in them. Magazines are good too.

7. Go to the movies as long as they don’t have sad endings.

8. Drive around, especially if I am driving, even though I am not yet a licensed driver. However, I am excellent at driving despite what people say. Possibly it will be easier for me to get a license in Maine than in Florida.

Here are things I categorically will not do on vacation:

1. Play any kind of game except Pictionary (at which I am completely excellent), or card game except Spoon (at which, ditto). I do not think games such as Scrabble, Monopoly, Poker, Chess, etc, all of which you frequently see people play while are on vacation are very good games. Because I suck at all those games.

2. Actually go in the ocean, unless assured there are no rip tides, sharks, etc.

3. Hike (ticks, serial killers, physical exertion, etc)

4. Eat outdoors if there are mosquitoes or ticks anywhere in the vicinity.

5. Exert myself in basically any manner.

6. Wear matching T-shirts that say Cabot Family Vacation In Progress.

If I can manage to avoid all of the above, the vacation might turn out all right. But I am, as you might imagine, justifiably nervous.

And please don’t worry about the cats while we’re gone because they’ll be kept under the watchful eyes of our professional catsitter and forced (gently) to perform daily cat calisthenics while watching Meerkat Manor in the hopes that they’ll pick up some better habits and possibly learn to earn their keep (doubtful) by catching some of the wood rats that creep around the edges of our property.

That’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted as the vacation progresses.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

We finally have photographic proof of the heinous criminal behavior enacted on our property over a week ago!

View the shocking truth and share the horror. As you can see, the evidence is clear: Someone—or something–threw themselves upon the striped chair in an aggressive and/or gaily madcap manner while running wildly through the house in the middle of the night….

…breaking the dining room window.

After a brief investigation, and ruling out all other parties in the home at the time, who were asleep, the guilty party was captured and brought to justice:

Note her expression, which alone should prove her guilt (she’s only sorry to have been caught)!

Punishment was soon determined and swiftly dealt:

Banishment until the glass was cleaned up.

(Note that she’s trying to use mental telepathy to make us let her back in: “You…are…under…my…control. Let me in…now!”)

However, as you can see, the perpetrator harbors no remorse whatsoever, and minutes later was having a fine old time:

Chance of recidivism is considered likely to be high (the chair has been removed, just in case).

I’m not sure if Allie Finkle knows what she’s getting herself into, bringing a kitten into her home! If you want to read about it (there’s a class bully Allie has to deal with, in addition to the kitten…it’s not ALL fun and games for Allie), The New Girl should be in bookstores everywhere tomorrow (I found this amazing independent bookstore locater online), and is now available to order online on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

And here’s a cute review!

Now I have to go move some more furniture away from the windows, in case Slutty McSlut-Slut-A-Lot gets midnight madness again.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Hey! Congratulations to Maliha, Heather, Ren, Emily, and Menisha, all of whom won free copies of Airhead (and one grand prize winner received Queen of Babble Gets Hitched, as well) from www.megcabot.com!

It’s not too late to sign up to win free books for next month’s contest! And look out for free copies of The New Girl, in stores August 5, to be given away here on the blog soon (and watch for some major new and totally addictive games to show up on alliefinkle.com, as well! Hint: Adorable pets will be involved, to tie in with the adorable kitten Allie may or may not finally receive in The New Girl)!

Speaking of contests, readers keep writing in to ask me who won the Seventeen Magazine fiction contest, which I helped judge. Well, the results will be out in the September issue, due on shelves August 12! So be sure to grab your issue as soon as its hit stands.

Let me tell you, we really loved so many of the entries…frankly, most of them were perfect. It was so hard to choose! I wish I could tell you who the winners were, but I’m sworn to secrecy. You’ll just have to check out the magazine (and Being Nikki, next year, in which the winner’s name also appears as a minor character as part of the prize package).

Remember, I entered the Seventeen Magazine Fiction contest every year from ages 13-20, and I never won, so don’t feel bad if you don’t win either. I went on to become a bestselling author, owner of very many sparkly shoes, and a Seventeen Magazine Fiction Contest judge. So not winning really doesn’t mean anything, except that out of the thousands (and I do mean thousands) of entries, yours didn’t make the cut, for some reason. Don’t take it personally. If I’d taken it personally, would I be here now?

(I don’t really own these shoes, I just thought they looked pretty. So here they are.)

–Click here for a little something for those of you who read this blog who are over thirty-five. I’m not saying any of us need this, but some of the tips may come in handy some day, such as the one about not admitting you’re unfamiliar with certain technology (I asked He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog the other day, “Do you think I need to start using Twitter?” and he said, “What’s Twitter?”).

–We had a really hard time choosing the kitten for the cover of the new Allie Finkle book. Obviously, we wanted the cutest kitten we could possibly find. So I went to Kitten War.com to look for one and easily found this:

But of course, we don’t own the rights to this picture, plus, we needed a real kitten, not a photo of one. But look how cute!

But in case you want to know, that’s Allie Finkle’s kitten, Mewsie, above. Awwww. I mean, if it turns out she ever gets one. Cough.

Now enjoy this equally cute video by my friend Sophia’s friends KaiserCartel:

More later.

Much love,

Meg

So much to blog about! Really, lots has been going on–aside from the usual stuff, like trying to make my deadline and attempting to avoid my summer nemesis: bugs. I hate them. They love me. There are a lot more of them than there are of me. They are winning–mostly involving the amount of (not necessarily positive) attention the New York Times has been paying to commercial women’s and YA fiction lately.

There was this article mentioning all the new books in which fashion plays a large part in the narrative, and the vicarious thrill readers can get from reading about Birkin bags and Hermes scarves, and this article by a concerned dad wondering if the authors get paid for mentioning these products (they don’t), and if it’s really good for young readers to be exposed to so many mentions of Prada (it turns out it’s fine).

Honestly though, from a writer’s point of view, sometimes you just need a good brand name to set the tone, or define the character. And hardly anyone has bothered mentioning that describing your characters by what or who they’re wearing isn’t anything new in literature. Chaucer and Shakespeare did it, for God’s sake (Fustian gypon, anyone?).

I thought the YA article by the concerned dad was particularly satisfying (and had the cutest ending), as it contained the quote “Educators should not ignore the pleasures of reading romance novels,” especially in light of the fact that this week is the Romance Writer’s of America national conference, which will take place in San Francisco this year. I won’t be there as I’ve got a deadline, but if you’re in the SF area, you should definitely check out the literacy signing at the Marriott Wednesday night, where tons of your favorite Chick Lit, YA, women’s fiction, and romance writers will be selling and signing their books to raise money for literacy. Get there early as the lines will be long!

There was another article in the Times this Sunday saying today’s youth don’t read anymore. This isn’t the first article to sound the death knell for reading, and it won’t be the last. I was going to blog about it, but now I don’t have to, because A Chair, a Fireplace, & a Tea Cozy already said everything I was going to say about it. So thanks for that! I owe you a Fiesta Giles action figure.

Anyway, I used to babysit for someone whose daughter would read nothing but The Sweet Valley High books. I mean, she wouldn’t read anything but those books. And her parents despaired of her, because they didn’t think those books counted as reading.

I used to go, “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” because my reading choices were not what some people would consider the best either. Oh, sure, I read “the classics,” too, but given the choice, what I totally went for at the time were Barbara Cartland romance novels—

(Okay, I just Googled Imaged Barbara Cartland and this came up. That’s Hugh Grant! He was in a Barbara Cartland made-for-TV romance! And yeah, I totally saw it.)

Time passed, and I would just like to point out that I was right. The kid grew up to get a PhD, and now she’s a professor…in guess what?

That’s right, children’s literature.

So, I’m just saying. Don’t ever judge people by what they read, especially for pleasure. It doesn’t measure how smart they are, or what they’re going to be when they get older.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Thanks to everybody who came to my online chat! You asked such great questions, I was blown away.

And if you missed the chat, never fear…the transcript will be going up here (click on where it says CHAT TRANSCRIPTS at the top of the page) soon!

And you can always join me for another virtual live chat at Teen Second Life on Friday, August 8, at 4PM (EST). Ack! Sorry, this actually had to be rescheduled for a later date. I’ll let you know as soon as I know what it is!

Here are some questions I got from the chat that I didn’t get a chance to answer, because there were soooo many people in the room, and I couldn’t get to everybody in the time we had:

Meg, I really really really want to be a writer when I grow up. I’m always writing stories, but I can never seem to finish them. What do you think this means?

Not finishing your story could mean lots of things. Maybe you’re better off being a songwriter or a SCUBA instructor…or maybe it just means that you haven’t found the right story. Usually when you find the right story, you love it so much, you want to finish it (well, sort of. 99% of writing is keeping your butt stuck in the chair while the rest of your friends are out having fun. Try to think of how good you’ll feel when you get paid for it write the words THE END. That always helps me).

My advice would be either to spend more time with your butt in the chair, switch to a new story that means more to you, or give up and become a professional figure skater. Hey, it worked for the girl in the movie Ice Princess (based on a story idea by Meg Cabot). Anyone can do it!

Meg, how do I get an agent?

Unless you are born into the literati world and know someone who knows someone, the only way to get an agent is via the query letter. Go here and read how I got my agent (I think it’s the second question down) using a guide. This is the guide I used (mine was the 1997 edition):

You should never pay an agent (until you’ve started making an income from writing. Then he or she takes 15% of your advances/royalties).

BTW, the editor who originally signed my Princess Diaries books for my UK publisher, Sarah Davies, is an agent now at The Greenhouse. She only reps YA and children’s lit. She’s tough but good!

Meg, did you know what was going to happen at the end of Queen of Babble Gets Hitched before you wrote the whole series? Because it really surprised me.

Yes, and so did my editor and agent, because I pitched it to them before I even wrote Book One. It shouldn’t have surprised you too much, there were a lot of clues from the beginning. It’s based on a semi-true story, you know, so I missed a lot of those clues, too, right along with Lizzie.

Meg, what’s going on with the sequel to AIRHEAD, Being Nikki?

Shhhh! I’m working on it. The more you talk about a work in progress, the more it crawls back up, in the immortal words of John Bender from The Breakfast Club.

Meg, what star are you keeping a watch on right now?

Remember Kelly Osbourne? Cute then:

Cute now…

…just so different I didn’t recognize her! Which look do you prefer? I like both.

Meg, I saw a bunch of things this weekend (Dr. Horrible, Dark Knight) with endings that bummed me out. What can I watch that will make me feel better?

I KNOW! And I’m sorry. But the Entertainment Doctor is here to help. Okay, right now I’m watching:

–The Closer—
Love Kyra. Love love love her. And always so cute with her relationship with her FBI agent boyfriend and her cat.
–Weeds—
Love it! So far, it’s hilarious and nobody has died (well, who didn’t want to) or anything.
–Kathy Griffin Life on the D List
Come on, she’s hilarious!
–Tori Spelling’s reality show—
Very dishy. I want to read her book next. I know, so shoot me, whatever.
–How I Met Your Mother–
Even though this show is in reruns I just started watching it, so they aren’t reruns to me. And NPH is adorably cocky in this. And hasn’t killed anyone yet, even inadvertently.
–Made–
This MTV show is enormously uplifting for the most part, but they need to get over that thing where they surprise girls at school with the mega high heels and make them walk in them all day, that is just cruel with the blisters and all. Not all high heels feel great (in fact most don’t).
–True Life–
OK this isn’t that uplifting but did you see the one with the compulsive shoppers? Oh. My. God. So dishy!
–Eastern Promises–
The movie with Viggo Mortenson, did you see that? So violent, but so good, and the ending! So good! I was so happy. You should really watch it. But He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog was too sensitive and had to leave the room. But I promise it turns out all right in the end.
–Hellboy 2–
There could not be a happier ending. It was so happy I almost barfed.

I’m sure there are some more shows/movies with uplifting endings/themes I’ve seen lately but I’m spacing right now. Oh, wait you know what—MY BOOKS!!!! READ MY BOOKS!!!! I can guarantee they will not bum you out.

Okay, that’s it for now. Be happy!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Don’t forget, I’m doing a live chat this Sunday, July 20, at 2PM EST, right here!

I’m really bummed right now, because even though the elements have stopped attacking me (part of it might have been my fault…I like to poke this palm tree outside my bedroom window with a metal broom handle because the trunk periodically sheds its skin, but this can be very dangerous because the skin is super huge and heavy and could gravely injure a cat or husband if it falls from twenty feet in the air, so I try to help it along with a controlled fall when it turns brown and is only hanging on by a few fibers…however, it is not such a good idea, it turns out, to do this during a lightning storm), now technology has turned on me.

Case in point: all the photos He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog took with his digital camera, and which I was going to use in today’s entry, didn’t download because the battery ran out.

And they were really good photos of his cat Gem, who last night BROKE A WINDOW IN OUR DINING ROOM!

Yes. You see sometimes Gem gets the Jimmy Legs in the middle of the night and runs crazily around the house, leaping from one piece of furniture to another like a howler monkey.

And last night she apparently leapt onto a dining room chair with such force it tipped over backwards and crashed against the window.

This morning when we came downstairs we found Gem sitting outside, staring in at us through the window of her cat door, wearing the Cat Face of Shame.

Then we found the chair, leaning against the shattered window. And all the carpets flipped upwards, more evidence of her Jimmy Leg spree.

She has been hiding under the car ever since, too embarrassed to show her face.

It’s really too bad the photos didn’t turn out because they were truly fantastic.

Old photo of Gem in Jimmy Leg mode. “I weell keell you.” PS I have no idea what that big white thing is, this photo is so old.

In conclusion, don’t poke palm trees with metal broom handles during lightning storms, or expect digital cameras to always capture the moment.

See you at the chat!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Go here before it disappears forever (well, I mean, except on iTunes and DVD. It’s free on this site until July 20 only).

Joss Whedon! Neil Patrick Harris! Together at last….

And it’s a musical! Hooray!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

The rumors are true! Sometimes I do feel down. Especially after a crummy day like yesterday turned out to be.

I know people don’t believe it, because I am so naturally sunny and upbeat. Even the emergency room doctor who had to deal with me when I broke out into all those hives that one time (see the Queen of Babble Gets Hitched video) was like, “I’d give you a prescription for a mood stabilizer, but you seem like you’re in such a good mood already, in spite of the disfiguring rash covering your entire body….”

—Author’s Note: I was not in a good mood. But I didn’t see any reason to take it out on a poor ER doctor who had nothing to do with getting me into the state I was in in the first place.

I just don’t like to burden strangers with the Many Moods of Meg. I save that for my friends and family (thanks for being there, guys!).

But when I get some of your emails and letters, I can’t help feeling better! Like, I just read some of your nominations for that Queen of Teen thing, whatever it is…and can I just say, Awwww! You guys are too nice.

And now that the nominations for Teen of Queen are in, voting has started. Since you’ve already been so kind as to nominate me, I hope it wouldn’t be too much to ask you to go here to cast your vote…would it?

So, anyway, yesterday…where to begin ? I was basically victimized by all four elements. During the course of running ordinary errands, I almost got struck by lightning (fire), I developed a UTI (apparently from sitting too long in the pool over 4th of July weekend, so water), my latest disfiguring rash turned out to be from an ant bite (earth), and the water pressure thingie on my bath tub broke so now when I turn the water on, the air trapped in the valve makes a terrible moaning noise like EEEAAAAAARRRRRRGHHH that is so loud it causes Henrietta to flatten her ears back and run to the other side of the house every time I bathe (air).

Oh, and I got called to jury duty…AGAIN.

Milla Jovovich, the Fifth Element, also known as Jury Duty

I’m not sure what’s going on (I blame Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel for breaking up and throwing the earth’s chi out of alignment).

And okay, yes, some good things happened—I was eating Chinese food for lunch and I realized my gyno’s office was right down the block from the restaurant (so convenient and forward thinking of my gyno), and I was like, “I’m going to go in there and see if they can check me out,” right between the hot and sour soup and the shrimp in lobster sauce, leaving He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog going, “What? WHERE are you going? What’s going on?”, and they did, and I got a prescription (is this an overshare? Well, shut up, we’re all human here) on the spot without even having an appointment, which was AWESOME!!!!

I was back in time for the next course and then fortune cookies (which I couldn’t eat, but mine said something like, “You are very pro-active” (in bed) and I was like, “Damn straight! Now let’s go to the pharmacy to get some Cipro and Uristat, baby, pronto!”)

Oh, and then thanks to reader Mallory, I found out Avalon High is a 2008-2009 Eliot Rosewater nominee! How fantastic is that? This is an Indiana book award so it’s extra cool, being that I am a Hoosier and still own a house in Indiana, and where I frequently go back to partake in Hoosier heritage and Indiana stuff such as driving my Ford Hybrid Escape around my property without a license eating corn.

Sarah S., say it isn’t so!

And people who’ve been asking me why I never come to their country? Well, if you live in England, Sweden, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Thailand, you’ll be able to come see me (Brazil…you’re next, when I hit the Bienal do Rio de 2009). Click here to see the tentative UK, Sweden, and South Africa schedule…tentative because although the book festivals and public signings are pretty much set in stone, everything else is TOTALLY UP IN THE AIR!

Still, even if things KIND of turned out okay yesterday, I do know one thing: No way am I leaving the house again, not even to see the new Batman movie, Dark Knight, this weekend. It’s just too risky.

Instead I am going to stay home and read some funny books, like Michael Ian Black’s My Custom Van And Other 50 Essays That Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face, because obviously I need to read something hilarious after the week I’ve had (and it’s only Tuesday), battling the four (or possibly five) elements.

Wish me luck.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

I got many supportive emails about my last entry concerning “age banding,” for which I’d like to thank all of you. But none summed up the situation better than Kathryn, who stated, “Any mother who writes to you complaining about the content of your books not being appropriate for her child has abrogated her job as a parent.”

Bravo, Kathryn! Bonus points for using the word “abrogated.”

Honestly, though, people are abrogating their job as parent right and left, if you ask me. I just got back from a PG-13 movie, where I was shocked to find myself sharing a viewing screen with kids as young as three and four. I think one kid might even have been younger because when he was standing in front of me in the concession line, I got the distinct odor of Le Poop in Le Pants.

Most of the people in the audience of the movie I was going to see, as a matter of fact, were parents with kids who appeared to be wearing diapers. You would think I was going to see Wall-e but I was not. The movie I was going to see was Hellboy 2.

And, okay, there was zero smut in it, and most of the violence in it was directed at monsters (except when it was directed at Selma Blair).

(In a recent interview, Selma described her new hairstyle as being “exactly like Suri Cruise’s.” Yep. But it looks good on her!)

But still. There were some extremely violent previews before Hellboy 2 started, including one Spike Lee war movie in which American soldiers get blown into multiple sections, right there on screen in front of Mister Poopy Pants, and another movie in which blood from a man’s decapitated body actually sprays onto the camera, a sight at which the little Poopy Pantsers in the theater laughed delightedly.

This just makes me wonder—apparently it’s offensive if I mention condoms in my books, but parents will let their little kids see people being ripped apart limb from limb with blood spurting out everywhere? Really? Really?

Anyway, Hellboy 2 was good, except for all the dumb babies and pre-adolescent boys in the audience who kept rattling around their boxes of Nerds which then caused me to not be able to hear what Hellboy said.

***Added later: Some people want to know why it’s OK with me for kids under 12 to read books that are meant for readers ages 12 and up, but not okay with me for kids under 13 to see movies that are for kids over 13 and up.

The reason is a totally selfish one: My personal comfort. Babies, including toddlers, get scared and cry during violent movies. It’s distracting. I always think, “Are they crying because the movie is too scary, or because they want more popcorn?” As for the other kids who were at Hellboy 2 when I was there, they distracted me too, by talking loudly, throwing things, texting people, using their cell phones as flashlights, playing tag with their friends in the theater, and rattling their candy and chewing so loudly that I couldn’t hear the movie. And these kids were with their parents, who did nothing to stop them, apparently because that kind of behavior was acceptable to them, although I can assure you it was not acceptable to those of us who had paid ten dollars to sit near them.

Obviously, some kids are mature enough to handle it, so there are exceptions. I myself saw many R-rated movies at a young age because I would not stop whining until my parents took me (but if I’d pulled any kind of stunt like those kids tried at Hellboy 2, I would not be here today typing this). However, my parents did not take us to adult movies when we were toddlers. If they could not find babysitters for us, they simply did not go to the movies, one of the many sacrifices parents with young children have to make, and the reason my brother, father of two kids under five, doesn’t understand many of my pop culture references. But he has two adorable daughters to make up for it, and soon they will make sure he is drowning in them.***

Anyway, at least I had a good book to read this past week, to help me forget my post-traumatic stress experience from the movie theater….I just finished World War Z by Max Brooks, which is the most awesome book ever about the world zombie epidemic (okay, it’s the only book I’ve ever read about a world zombie epidemic).

Of course it’s made me even more paranoid about the approaching zombie apocalypse. I’ve informed He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog that we’re moving to a remote rural area and starting our own sustainable farm for when all the food runs out at Publix. He said fine, whatever, as long I finally get a driver’s license (I said let’s not get crazy, now).

People in the countryside definitely fared better in the zombie epidemic than people in the cities. Plus, living on our own sustainable farm, aside from the zombie thing, will obviously reduce our carbon footprint and support the slow food movement. This is something I want to look into further. I just need to find animals to have on the farm that sleep late and clean up their own poop.

In the meantime:

–The Allie Finkle/New Girl Galley give-away is over. Librarians/bloggers/reviewers can still try emailing me for review copies, but we have run out of copies for civilians, alas.

–Do you like Joss Whedon? Do you like Neil Patrick Harris? Would you like to watch a musical starring Neil Patrick Harris and written by Joss Whedon? Well, now you can (it premieres July 15. Read the Master Plan by clicking on the link).

–My friend Jen sent me this CNN news story on murders that have been turned into movies, specifically Lifetime made-for-TV movies. This is why I love my friend Jen. We both know quality entertainment when we see it.

–Feeding the hungry is super important, and that’s why, as I’ve mentioned before, FreeRice.com is so cool (started by a guy from my hometown of Bloomington, IN, which if you ask me could use another sustainable farm, so I’m checking out available acreage. Alas my barnhouse is only on six acres, not big enough to escape the zombies with an electrified fence or grow enough corn to feed the number of people I’m sure will want to live on my farm).

Well, now we have FreeKibble.com, for hungry pets (specifically pets abandoned during the US foreclosure crisis). What’s cool about it is, every time you click on it, pet food is donated to an animal shelter. Even cooler, it was started by a kid! Is that amazing or what?

–Have you been watching the new season of the Tori Spelling reality series? I can’t believe she gets a make up artist who follows her around to each and every signing on her book tour to do touch ups when she gets a lip gloss smudge! I hate love her! Also, love the show, it’s such a train wreck (my husband leaves the room when it comes on).

–Also I can’t stop watching Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods on MTV. I especially love it when the girls complain about how hard they work, then they get kicked off. So sad slash train wrecky good!

I wanted to be a Broadway star when I was 16, so since that obviously didn’t work out for me (vocal nodules. Also, can’t dance) now I get to live vicariously. It’s cut throat out there, girls!

–And did you see on Kathy Griffin MY Life on the D List when she got to meet Cyndi Lauper and Margaret Cho at the gay pride parade in Australia? My mouth was hanging open and He Who Shall Not Be Named in this Blog said, “Oh My God, she’s living out your fantasy. Look at you, you’re in shock right now,” and it was so true.

–And how much do I love this new show, Queen Bees, that came on the N last night, about a bunch of girls who are so mean that their own family members nominated them to be sent (unbeknownst to the girls themselves) to Queen Bee boot camp to learn to be nice? The girls really ARE mean, especially to each other. LOVE IT!

Are YOU a queen bee? Find out by taking this quiz.

On last night’s episode, the bees were told to get ready for a beauty pageant, and spent TWO HOURS fighting over the mirror in their cramped house…only to get there and find out the judges were BLIND and would be judging them on their INNER beauty. It was awesome. I’ll be glued to this show, and also Student Body.

….Well, I have to go do some more research on my farm work on Being Nikki. Don’t forget, there’s a live chat here on megcabot.com on Sunday, July 20 at 2PM! And we’ve just updated the Frequently Asked Questions and the Coming Soon sections! There is no rest here on megcabot.com or anywhere, really, now that we know the zombies are coming.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

You read that right. We’re giving away free stuff!

What kind of stuff, you ask? The kind of stuff that is free.

Just email Allie with your name, age, and home address (the address at which you receive package deliveries) and Allie just might send you an advanced reader copy of the latest installment of Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls The New Girl (which isn’t due in stores until August), along with a totally cool Allie Finkle dry-erase board—the perfect size for a school locker (not that anyone is thinking about back-to-school supplies just yet) for you to write your OWN rules on!

Updated 7/11/08: Sadly, this contest is now over! We have had so many entries that we can no longer accept any more entries! Thanks for entering though!

The Dry Erase board…it comes with a marker and magnets to hang it with! So fun!

(The Book, due in stores August 2008)

If you are the owner of (or a reviewer for) a book review website, a teacher, or a librarian, and you’d like an advanced review copy of Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girl’s: The New Girl, just email me with your name, the name of your website, school, or library, and your mailing address (the address at which you receive package deliveries), and I’ll see what I (or Scholastic) can do!

Thanks for all your excited emails about Kristen Bell as Lizzie Nichols, the Queen of Babble! I agree, I think she’ll be perfect, too. Keep your fingers crossed the project gets the greenlight and we’ll be seeing Lizzie on the big screen soon!

I hope you had a great 4th of July. I spent mine eating (of course) and lounging in the pool (and I did not wait thirty minutes after eating before getting back in the pool, either. Yes, I was living dangerously). While lounging, something bit me (AS ALWAYS), and I developed a disfiguring rash. Probably I have West Nile. Stay tuned.

In gossip news, people are saying Blake and Penn are only together in real life for the publicity but I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.

I feel so horrible about what happened with Anne Hathaway and this guy. What can I say except we’ve all been there (well, maybe not with guys who said they were working for the Pope, but whatever), haven’t we, girls? Hang in there, Annie!

I was kind of surprised by how many emails from readers I got this weekend, considering it was a holiday. I thought I’d share a sample of what some people were thinking about during this anniversary of our nation’s independence (all letters guaranteed real and printed exactly as received except when edited for sake of clarity):

Subject: The book of the passion

Hello, My name is Lisa, I am French.

I find your fantastic books, and I would like you ask: How you inspire you?

I by the music, but every time I commençce a book, me not the finity not because I say to myself that he (it) will be invalid (useless)!! You can help me?

Lisa, French.

I know exactly how Lisa feels, because I go through the same thing every single day! I think all writers do (if they say they don’t, they’re either lying or James Patterson).

What Lisa means, in case you don’t know, is that she listens to music to get inspired to write. This works at first, but then she can’t seem to finish the project, because it all starts to seem so useless. What’s the point? No one is going to read what she writes, so why bother.

But if we all just gave up, there would be no books, or movies, or music. Nothing!

So you just have to power through. I can’t give Lisa any better advice than that. The ability to power through the sense of futility is what separates the published (well, that and a few thousand rejection letters) from the unpublished. Bon chance, Lisa!

Meg: My 9 year old niece was reading one of the Princess Diaries books and was very confused and had a buch of “sex” questions for her mother. There are no warnings on this book which looks as if it is marketed for young girls who have watched the Disney movie. It is not fair that she was uncomfortable reading this book and brought it to her Mothers attention. A warning should be on the series to make sure this does not happen to another innocent child who thinks this book is for them and then comes across the nasty adult content that a young child should not read or even know about yet for that matter.

I get these kinds of emails a lot. Actually, in the US the books usually say For ages 12 and up or For Grades 7 and Up somewhere on the back cover and are located in the teen section, not the children’s section. This is usually a tip off that the book isn’t for young children.

But a surprising number of readers either don’t look for the advisory or have purchased the book in another country, such as England, which has only just recently started to weigh the idea of putting reading level advisories on books (in the UK they call this “age banding”). Some people, including many famous authors, are against age banding.

Although in the US we’ve had a form of “age banding” for some time, certainly no teacher, librarian, or bookseller ever kept me or anyone I else knew as a child from accessing a book we wanted but weren’t the appropriate age for (although a a parent once did. More on that in a minute.)

But what’s weird about the “reading level advisory” idea is that they only put the advisories on childrens and YA books. There’s no “reading level advisory” on Jane Eyre, for instance, but guess what? The hero tries to get the heroine to marry him even though he already has a wife yet living! That is some dirty stuff. And at age eleven, when my mom handed me that book, I ate it up!

Jane Eyre, kinky classic. After reading the book, try this hot Masterpiece Theater version!

Other dangerously kinky classics like Lorna Doone (John Ridd fully attempts to feel Lorna up at one point–“For I was carried away so much by hearing her call me “John” so often, and the music of her voice, and the way she bent toward me, and the shadow of soft weeping in the sunlight of her eyes, that some of my great hand was creeping in a manner not to be imagined, and far less explained, toward the lithesome, wholesome curving underneath her mantlefold”–I used to read that passage OVER AND OVER when I was kid) routinely fall into the hands of innocent children, who could be scarred for life over the fact that Lorna had boobs and John Ridd wanted to touch them. (I’m not going to tell you, dear reader, if she lets him. You’ll have to read it for yourself to see. But this is a DAMN good book)!

Obviously, the reader above would consider this “nasty adult content.” And yet Lorna Doone doesn’t have an age advisory on it either.

Hot times on the Doone tonight

The problem with the age advisory thing is that–EVERY KID IS DIFFERENT. One nine year old might be freaked by the mention of a condom (and that’s all there is in the Princess Diaries. No one has actually HAD sex in the books. On screen. Yet). While another nine year old will be all, Yeah, so?

Then there is the fact that most kids ESPECIALLY want to read what you tell them not to (or at least I always did). It wasn’t until another mother flipped out and demanded that Judy Blume’s classic “Forever” be taken away from the kid who brought a copy to school (um…yeah, I think it was me) that every nine-year-old girl in my fourth grade class became determined to read it.

The use of the name Ralph for babies declined dramatically after the publication of this book. According to Wikipedia, Judy Blume said it was nothing personal.

Forever is how, at age nine, we found out about premature ejaculation, a fact we made sure to describe to the girl whose mom freaked out about it. We (okay…I) performed page 96 ( All About “Ralph”) out loud in front of the girl on the school playground in a dramatic reading. And okay, this wasn’t very mature of us (okay, me), but what do you expect? We were nine.

Anyway, when I get letters like this, I just feel sorry for the kid. She was put in a bad situation (from now on, she’s going to be afraid to ask her family questions about sex, because she’s under the impression it’s “nasty,” which is sad). Hopefully she’ll try the Allie Finkle series if she really was that uncomfortable.

Guaranteed boob free!

But I personally suffered no ill consequences from reading “inappropriate” books when I was nine…unless you count the fact that I now write books that some people consider “inappropriate.”

And I consider my doing so a vital service…arming girls for what’s out there, since they start receiving conflicting messages about sex way younger than nine. And because some girls have family members–like the author of that email, and the woman who freaked out about “Forever”–who are the ones giving them the conflicting messages in the first place.

Subject: Writing a Book

I am an aspiring author. At age 13 I have decided to write a Novel this summer. However I have a hard time thinking up original ideas because there are so many ideas already out there! I have kind of a main charicer and one other charicter, but at this point in my story I have to make some critical descisions. I really need help, inspiration, and advice from people who know about writing, and what makes a book seem exciting! One that teens like me will really enjoy! Please help!

Dear Anonymous,

Welcome to the club. When you find out the answers to these questions, please let me know. In fact, maybe we should both call Lisa in France, because we all seem to be in the same boat!

(Hint: I actually addressed the whole How to Write a Novel thing here. If you still have questions, or you want to know how I got published, go here.)

I think we’re both just going to have to trust our instincts—and listen to some really great music—and hope that powers us through until we are able to finish our “book of the passion!”

Ready? OK? Meet you at iTunes!

And don’t forget to sign up for some free stuff, above, okay? Hopefully that will inspire you, too!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Thank you! Oh my gosh, because of all of you, Queen of Babble Gets Hitched hit #20 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list! That is just too fabulous for words!

But because I’m the original queen of babble, of course I have some words anyway: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

And for those of you asking if there’ll be a fourth book featuring Lizzie Nichols, well, right now there are no plans for one. The only storyline I can think of is that Lizzie writes a book about her life called Queen of Babble, and someone makes a movie of it, and her exes find out about it, and sue her.

Only I don’t think that would make a very good story, do you????

Okay so I just want to tell you that when I went to Ft. Lauderdale on Monday to do the satellite media tour for Queen of Babble Gets Hitched, HarperCollins put me up at the St. Regis, and my room, which was a super fancy suite overlooking the ocean (think Kate Winslet’s bedroom in Cameron Diaz’s house in the film The Holiday, with the remote control lights and curtains and everything) came with a BUTLER.

(Photo of my actual room, or one just like it.)

I have never had a butler before so to be honest I wasn’t sure what to do with mine. But he wouldn’t go away, and he seemed like he really wanted to do something.

So I gave him the dress I was going to wear on TV the next morning to iron. And he DID IT! It was so AMAZING!!!! I WANT A BUTLER ALL THE TIME NOW!!!

Anyway, after he finally left, I got into my enormous St Regis tub which looked exactly like this:

(my actual St Regis tub, or photo of one just like it.)

I was soaking in there with all the spa magazines they give you, having a fabulous time just zoning out and pampering myself when I heard all this booming and I swear I thought there was some kind of terrorist attack even though it was ten at night, and I put my fluffy robe and slippers on and hit the button to open my curtains and I saw this outside my windows!

(actual photo of storm at sea out my window, or one just like it.)

Yes! It was a full on storm at sea! And it went on ALL NIGHT LONG! Crackle! And then BOOM! So loud it made the walls shake!

And the surf raged outside my windows, just yards away on the beach below! I kept thinking about the wide Sargasso sea and Mr. Rochester and his crazy wife Bertha and I was sure we were all going to be killed, only not by a crazy woman, by a STORM!

I tried to go to sleep but it was hard with all the BOOMING of the thunder. It seemed like almost no time went by before my BUTLER was bringing my tea as part of my wake up call (YES! I SO WANT A BUTLER. Only not one who wakes me up so early)!!!!

(Photo of actual tea brought by St Regis butler, or one almost like it.)

Then I was off to do my media satellite tour which was, you know, every shade of stressful because basically you get your hair and makeup done (that’s the fun part!!!!) but then you have to be miked up and sit in this tiny room facing a big camera that you look into but you don’t see anyone. You just see a note card that says RICK and then a voice comes in your ear and RICK starts asking you questions about your book and for two minutes you’re on the air with RICK in SCOTTSDALE or where ever (RICK and his viewing audience can see you but you can’t see RICK) and then the notecard (held by the cameraman) changes and then it says TINA and for two minutes you’re on the air with TINA in GREENSBORO and TINA asks you the exact same questions as RICK did and you do this for four hours with however many newscasters on their local news shows as you’ve been booked for. Basically, it’s like a press junket. You stay in the same room, and the reporters change, but it’s all done by remote.

The only problem was there was NO GLUTEN FREE FOOD at the studio except grapes. Also melon slices but I hate melon except watermelon.

If you are new to this blog, you may not know that a few months ago I was diagnosed with celiac disease which is an autoimmune disease where you can’t eat wheat, barley malt, or rye, or your body will stop absorbing nutrients (it’s genetic, and very common. Currently they suspect 1 out of 100 people have it, most undiagnosed). The “cure” may sound easy enough—just stop eating wheat, barley malt, and rye—but it hasn’t turned out to be easy AT ALL, because there is wheat, barley malt, and rye in things you would never suspect, such as soy sauce, Rice Crispies cereal, movie theater popcorn (which totally sucks because I LOVE MOVIE THEATER POPCORN), cheese dip (wheat flour is added as a thickener), beer, the glue on the back of envelopes, imitation crab found in California rolls, commercial salad dressing, almost everything that is fried, many flavors of Doritos, the list goes on and on, but basically if I like it, it has wheat or barley malt in it (I’ve always hated rye so that’s been no problem).

So you have to read the ingredients on EVERYTHING, ask the waiter (who usually doesn’t know, and often makes you feel like you’re Sally from When Harry Met Sally, tiresomely asking for everything on the side), or look it up on the Internet before you put it in your mouth, unless it’s like, an apple.

So by the end of my four hours in the studio I was starving and ready to get to the airport, where I had my usual two hour wait for my flight, but I wasn’t worried because airports in Florida always have the one thing celiacs CAN eat….

…MEXICAN FOOD!!!! Yes, viva la TACO! Because celiacs can eat anything made with CORN such as corn chips and corn tortillas which means NACHOS. Mmmmm just thinking about delicious nachos is making me hungry right now.

I was quite excited when I got to the Ft. Lauderdale airport because I knew they had a Chilis and I knew Chilis has nachos and stuff.

Only guess what? ALL THEIR NACHOS ARE MADE WITH WHEAT FLOUR, not corn. In fact, every single thing on Chilis’ menu except the salads (with no dressing) and the baked potato (with nothing on it) and the hamburgers (with no buns) and steaks (with no sauce) have gluten in them (good thing I ordered and ate the chili thinking it would be gluten free. But it turns out it’s not. I checked their website. AFTER I ATE IT).

FATE KICKING MY BUTT AGAIN (because I used to think my best friend was faking being allergic to my cat. I thought the REAL reason she wouldn’t spend the night at my house was because we didn’t have air conditioning and she did, so we always had to spend the night at HER house. Now fate’s karmic retribution is that I have an autoimmune disorder that makes it so I can’t eat ANY of the foods I love)!!!!

There is good news though: I got to have a butler for a night!

Oh, and Queen of Babble Gets Hitched is number 20 on the New York Times bestseller list right now!

Did I mention the film rights for the Queen of Babble series have been optioned by Sharp Independent Films, and Kristin Bell of Veronica Mars and Forgetting Sarah Marshall has agreed to play Lizzie Nichols???

YAYYYYY!!!! I love her.

So eat a hot dog (WITH A BUN) and some ice cream (IN THE CONE) for me this July 4th and celebrate!!!!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Did you see Queen of Babble Gets Hitched featured on Good Morning America today? What about in Parade Magazine on Sunday? Well, here’s a link in case you missed it (there are some other books on there that sound really good, too)!

–Speaking of which, how excited am I for Michele Jaffe’s new book, Kitty Kitty, the long-awaited sequel to Bad Kitty, which comes out July 1? VERY EXCITED. I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive, but the illustrious YA YA YAs got an advanced reader copy (luckies), and they gave it a
rave review!

I also can’t wait to read Michele’s first manga, featuring an all new adventure with Jas and the gang, in Catnipped!

–Here’s some more book news, but it’s not happy: Reader Jen writes from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that the main library there has lost two-thirds of its collection to flooding, including all the YA books! Jen says:

It’s incredibly sad to me for many reasons — because when I was a kid my family made a monthly pilgrimage to the Cedar Rapids Public Library to check out vast quantities of books; because as a reader it’s just sickening to see so many books lost; and because I worked at the library as a teenager and know every inch of the currently filthy muddy building.

Anyway, obviously lots and lots of awesome book-loving people read your blog so I was hoping you could possibly include a few lines about the library and information on donating. They are NOT accepting donations of books and media — they just don’t have any place to store it — but need any financial contribution that people can spare, no matter how small. Plus it’s tax-deductible!

More information is available in this article. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

And thanks for taking the time to let us know about this, Jen!
If you want to make a donation, mail your contribution to the Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation. All donations are tax deductible and needed! Mail to 500 1st St. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA, 52401.

Please help if you can, readers! There’s nothing worse than a town without a library…except a library without books. So sad!

–So I’m writing this from the Conch Flyer Restaurant at the Key West airport because I’m off to a studio up north (Ft. Lauderdale to be exact) to do TV satellite interviews on Tuesday for Queen of Babble Gets Hitched. If you’re flipping around on your local morning news shows Tuesday morning (or later in the week), you just might see me (I’d post the exact times and stations I’m going to be on, but many of them are pre-taped to air whenever the stations feel like it).

–I’m so excited about the American Girl movie, Kit Kittredge!

I personally can’t wait until my nieces are old enough for me to start buying them American Girl stuff. Some people think the American Girl dolls have gotten “commercial,” but I don’t. $90 is a lot for a doll (and book), it’s true, but that’s why there are so many different ones—each girl can find the one doll that speaks to her and then she can befriend girls who have the other dolls and they can play detect-the-serial-killer, or whatever.

I just love that American Girl has a doll beauty parlor in their stores where any doll owner can bring her doll for repairs/beautification, providing a great source of entertainment for people like myself, who like to go and watch the “beauticians” employed at the doll beauty salon nod sympathetically as they listen to the girls describe the horrible hair accident that happened to their dolls’ head, and how they want it fixed.

Not to mention the American Girl café where girls can dine with their dolls (and family members). They have gluten-free menus available, including gluten-free birthday cake!

Finally, the girls learn about history through the books about their dolls (123 million in print and counting). Can you say that about Bratz? No. You cannot.

True, there was the great American Girl scandal of 2005, when American Girl donated money to Girls, Inc, enraging a certain segment of the population who believes Girls, Inc has a radical leftist liberal agenda. But American Girl did not back down, despite protests.

Obviously, what with the beauty parlor, the gluten-free menu, and Julie, the new hippie doll, some may still suspect there is a radical leftist liberal agenda at work at American Girl.

Which means Abigail Breslin must be American Girl’s Che Guevara!

This is undoubtedly true, especially since Kit is teaching girls to be, in the words of The New York Times, “brave, smart, determined and kind, but never off-puttingly full of themselves or intimidatingly superior”. A.O. Scott of the Times muses that his daughter’s American Girl doll becomes, at varying times, “an athlete, a musician, a clothes horse, a bookworm, a pet owner, a loner and a confidant.” In other words, a typical American girl. Nothing wrong with that, if you ask me.

–Mark your calendars…we’ll be having our first live chat in months on Sunday, July 20 at 4PM! We’ll be chatting about Queen of Babble Gets Hitched and whatever else people want. I may even spill some spoilers for Allie Finkle’s Rules For Girls: The New Girl (due in US stores in August) and possibly even Princess Diaries 10….

Now check out Michele Jaffe’s Kitty Kitty book trailer…then go to her YouTube channel!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Some other stuff actually happened this past week besides Queen of Babble Gets Hitched coming out. And it all involved people with the name Liz.

On June 24, Liz Phair celebrated the 15th anniversary of her fantastic album Exile in Guyville by releasing a brand new remastered version of it (yes! You can finally buy it on iTunes!) with four new bonus tracks….

This is the theme album of my life. If you don’t think of the guy you’re crushing on the way Liz thinks of the guy in “Flower,” I guarantee he’s not the right guy for you. Think of it as the “Flower” test. I ended up marrying my Flower, and we’re still going strong fifteen years in, so the Flower test works.

(FYI, Exile in Guyville is explicit—some have said offensive, although they’re just threatened by female sexuality. If your parents will be mad at me for recommending this album, please play it while wearing earbuds, the way I do in airports so no one will know what I’m smiling about.)

The second amazing thing that happened on June 24 involved yet another Liz…are you sensing a pattern? Lizzie Nichols? Liz Phair?…and now Lizzie Skurnick–who writes my favorite column on Jezebel, Fine Lines, the retro-YA book review that appears every Friday afternoon–has gotten a book deal with none other than my adult editor and publisher, Carrie Feron at HarperCollins! Read all about it here. I can’t wait to read the book next summer when it comes out!

Will the awesomeness of people named Liz never stop? Because we still have Liz Sherman from Hellboy 2 to look forward to on July 11. I am so going to be at the Regal Cinema in Key West, my feet sticking to the gummy floor, for this one.

Meanwhile, over in the land ruled by Queen ELIZabeth, where I’m going (amongst other places…more on that in a later entry) for a book tour this fall, which will include the the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, someone is sponsoring this event called the Queen of Teen. I don’t quite understand what it is, being a foreigner and all, but I do know they’re asking girls ages 10-18 to nominate female authors for it. The girls who write the best 200 word nomination essay get to attend this grand event along with the author they nominated (so long as they are already in the UK at that time…sorry, airfare to the UK is not included in the prize).

So if you know of a girl aged 10-18 who will be in the UK on or around September 18, who would like to ride in a limo to a fancy dinner with me, here is the link to the form she can fill out to make that happen.

You can go here to read more about the event if you have questions, though I should warn you, many of your questions will go unanswered, as have mine, such as…What if James Patterson gets nominated for England’s first ever Queen of Teen event? Can HE be the Queen of Teen? What if the Queen of Teen is discovered to have posed for nude photos in her past, a la Vanessa Hudgens? Will her title be stripped like it was for another Vanessa? What if the Queen of Teen is incapacitated and can no longer perform her duties as Queen of Teen? Will her crown be passed on to the Queen of Middle Grade Books? Will JK Rowling be there, even though technically she is the Queen of Everything? And so on.

Hopefully answers to these questions will be posted soon, as they are distracting me from my book writing and forcing me to watch Animal Cops: Detroit over and over.

If you go to my UK site, www.megcabot.co.uk, you’ll find a new section called Meg’s Soap Box, which features all new, never before seen videos of me giving advice to the lovelorn, and whatnot. And under Fun Stuff, check out a video of the Most Embarrassing things that have happened to some of my UK readers! Their British accents are so cute! They say “knickers”! I am going there all the time now so I can practice for my trip in the fall.

I promised an excerpt to Avalon High, Coronation: Homecoming would be posted soon, and I wasn’t lying. It’s up now! Just click here (sorry it takes so long to load. It’s a big pdf).

And finally, to celebrate a week of Lizzies, here’s a link to a vintage Liz Phair video. Careful, they didn’t bleep out the bad words!

But when bad words come from Liz P, they’re poetry. Unlike when they come from me, like they did just now when I hit my knee against my computer. Then they’re just another example of my tendency to babble, like another Liz we all know.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

It’s here!

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched, the last book in the Queen of Babble series, is in US stores everywhere today!

In case you missed it, I made a little video about my own obsession with brides (which matches my heroine’s—although she has an excuse, being a professional wedding gown restorer, and all). I swear, I have seen every episode of Bridezilla, Buff Brides, and lately, my new favorite wedding-gown-themed reality show, Say Yes to the Dress, that has ever been shown. I am so obsessed with brides and their gowns, I want to enter this Queen of Babble/SugarLoot contest to win a Jessica McClintock wedding gown…even though I’m already married.

It really makes no sense whatsoever because I am not a wedding-y person. I have never even been in a wedding (except as a flower girl when I was eight), and He Who Shall Not Be Named in this Blog and I actually eloped.

Well, here, you can just watch while I explain (and by the way, that shirt is going straight to Good Will now that I have video proof of how it looks on me. What was I thinking?):

(And yes, Brady, who filmed that, did catch the bouquet. I don’t think he knows he has to get married now. Sorry, Brady!)

I guess I just can’t resist a long dress (worn only for a few hours, then ditched for life—or better yet, donated to fight against breast cancer).

Anyway, things on the Queen of Babble film front are very exciting, but I’m not allowed to talk about it. Which is like telling…well, like Lizzie Nichols not to talk about it. But I’m really trying. At least I haven’t blogged about it. Yet.

And I managed to keep quiet about it in Memphis, where I just attended two book signings sponsored by Justine Magazine (they’ve just started a new book club, Spark, check it out!) and Davis-Kidd Booksellers.

Honestly, I got to meet so many fantastic readers there, including Katie F, who made me the most beautiful princess box (she MADE it! It’s so purple and sparkly)! My readers are truly the best. No, seriously. They’re the BEST.

Here are some photos….

Me and Jana Kerr Pettey, Justine Magazine Publisher and Director

One of the fashion shows!

More of the fashion show!

Cute models (yes, I did squeeze myself in there)

Davis-Kidd Book signing

More Davis-Kidd Book signing….

Fantastic gluten free goodies! How nice of Justine Magazine (thanks, Janice!) was that?

Book group meeting!

I had a blast, as you can tell. But it’s good to be home, because I have a lot of work to do!

In other news, swallow any fluids in your mouth before you read the following:

New York Magazine is reporting that Alex and Simon of the Real Housewives of New York City are coming back for a second season. Finally, something to look forward to!

Still no word if Lucy Griffiths will be back to play Marian on BBC America’s Robin Hood Season 3, though. It’s not looking good as she’s signed on to be in another movie.

Poor Mimi La Rue, Tori Spelling’s pug, definitely won’t be back for another season of Tori and Dean, Inn Love. She passed away last week.

RIP, Mimi La Rue! You will be missed.

While most of you were going, “What? How could George Clooney dump Sarah Larson, there was just an in-depth profile of him in The New Yorker and they seemed so happy in his LA pad with his giant poster of Steve McQueen beaming down on them,” I was already on the case. It’s all right here in last month’s Harper’s Bazaar, where Sarah spilled the beans about how George makes a big deal about being environmentally friendly, but likes to fly on private jets (given the chance, who wouldn’t? What’s he going to do, risk being seated next to someone like ME????). Of course he dumped her.

Now he’s back on the market, ready to be snapped up by someone who knows how to keep her mouth shut (i.e., not me). So go get’im, girls.

Okay, when I saw this photo last month of the allegedly previously uncontacted tribe in the Amazon, I had some questions:

Like, who goes around in red body paint just for everyday wear? That seems like a lot of trouble. Usually full body paint is just for special occasions (i.e., self-tanner before a party), not when a plane you don’t even know is coming is flying over (especially if you’ve never even seen a plane before). What gives?

Now the news comes out that this village wasn’t so previously uncontacted after all. In fact, they’ve known about this village for a hundred years, and they even know the red paint signifies war and that the villagers heard the plane coming, got out the paint, and took away the Welcome mat, because they were scared it might be MTV dropping off some of those bratty My Super Sweet Sixteen kids for Exiled (totally understandable).

No wonder they got out the war paint! Seriously, I would not want that one girl who cried because she didn’t get the Lexus living with me for a month. I’d paint myself red just to keep her away, too.

Finally, another book of mine will be in stores today as well, the continuation of the Avalon High manga series, Coronation: Homecoming. Click here to read all about it (excerpt coming soon)!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

I spent the weekend fielding phone calls and emails from friends who were surprised to find a review of one of my books in their local paper (the New York Times). You can read the review here.

I actually knew in advance there was going to be a review of Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day in the Sunday Times book review section, but I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t know until right before it came out what the review was going to say. Basically I was having a prolonged nervy b (thanks for that expression, Louise Rennison) over it.

Fortunately, I think Allie escaped unscathed. I’d like to give a big thank you to the review’s author, Lauren Mechling. Sadly I do not write sequels in my sleep or I’d have finished the one I’m currently writing a long time ago.

I do sometimes wish elves would come and write my books for me while I slept, the way they made shoes for that one guy in the Grimms fairy tale, so when I woke up all my work would be done. That would give me a lot more time to watch “America’s Next Top Model” and the 100th episode of “Made” and finally get around to watching “The Wire,” which everyone says is so good, and all.

But alas, this has never happened, even though I turn on my laptop eagerly each morning, hoping against hope to find my book done. I’ve finally added elves to my list of things I don’t believe in anymore, along with natural looking highlights and Manolo Blahniks that are actually comfortable, despite what Sarah Jessica Parker is always insisting.

I do not believe you anymore, Sarah Jessica! Those shoes cannot possibly be comfortable!

I also spent the weekend recovering from my first endoscopy, which, in case you’ve missed out on one of these, is when you go to the hospital and a gastroenterologist sticks a long tube down your throat, and looks around your GI tract with a camera (but you are unconscious so you don’t feel it). I had a Demerol drip (which I highly recommend) the whole time!

I had a whole lot of episodes of Intervention recorded to watch when I got home from the hospital because I thought it would be fun to watch a show about drug addicts while I was actually on drugs. He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog said I kept going, “I hafta get home…to watch… Intention…right now!” while I was in the recovery room.

But when I actually got home, I just passed out. For the whole rest of the day (and night), all I did was sleep. What a waste!

While recovering from my weekend in the valley of the dolls, I saw on the news that humans aren’t the only ones suffering in the Midwestern flooding.

Rescuers are doing all they can to help four legged victims, too. Check out this slideshow showing some of the pets being rescued (and reunited with their human families) and then click here to see how you can help, too (and find out how you can help their owners here)!

Don’t forget–always have your pet Evac-Packs and supplies ready just in case of an emergency or natural disaster! When Gem and Henrietta see their Evac-Packs come out during hurricane season, they both run in the other direction. Maybe it’s the mini football helmets from Dairy Queen we make them wear. But they’re for their own protection (kidding…about the helmets, not the packs).

Finally, I’m on my way to Memphis tomorrow! Look for me Thursday on WREG-TV Channel 3 (CBS) “Live at 9” (in the morning) and don’t worry, if you didn’t get tickets to the Hilton luncheon event, later on that day at 4PM at Davis-Kidd booksellers, there’s ANOTHER fashion show and book signing! Click here for more info, or go here!

So please meet me there if you can! I’m going to be fully recovered and will maybe even spill some secrets about the sequel to Airhead (which I am writing now, sadly not in my sleep and with no help from those crappy noshow elves) AND Princess Diaries 10.

Hope to see you there!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

I know what you’re thinking: Where on earth has Meg disappeared to?

Well, I’ve been in Toledo, where I met a ton of great readers (and some Lefty Librarians)!

Many thanks to everyone who showed up to see me (and special thanks to Amelia, Elizabeth, and Sara who brought me a ton of gluten-free goodies, as well as a beautiful poster that I could tell they’d worked on really hard!), and of course to everyone who had a hand in putting on such a special event!

Next week I’m off to Memphis for my June 19th events, where, if my turn-out(s) are even half as big (and as nice) as in Toledo, I’ll be hugely pleased!

Meanwhile, even though my publishing schedule may not indicate it, I’m all over the slow movement.

I know this sounds crazy given how many books I’ve written, but I can’t help that when I told my mom when I was in the eleventh grade that I wanted to be a writer, she made me take typing. Now I can type 80 words a minute. Mom was afraid, thanks to my seriously bad Math SAT scores, that she’d have to support me forever! She figured at least if I could type I’d be able to get a job somewhere other than Rax Roast Beef, where I did work for a short while before quitting over how fast they made me do everything (not to mention the green polyester pants they made me wear).

Whoa, Rax has a Myspace! Check it out! That one guy’s comments are hilarious. Actually, I think I used to work with him…Oh, no, wait, he was 2 years old when I worked at Rax. Never mind.

But I mean, in every other way except writing, I’m slooooooow (while working at Rax, they were always yelling at me to be faster, especially while putting that cheesy stuff on the baked potatoes for the people in the drive-thru. Dude, putting that cheesy stuff on the potatoes is an art. You cannot hurry it. My manager Deb just could not understand that. Deb and I had serious issues with each other).

For instance, I ride a bike everywhere now. And even though I own a Blackberry, I don’t know how it works, except to make calls. I have never written or received an email on my Blackberry. Why do I own one? Because T-Mobile automatically upgraded me to one, and I thought, “Cool! I’ll be like a lady business executive!”

But I can’t figure out how my Blackberry works. But I like it, because it’s pretty.

And while I haven’t given up on my dream of one day owning a driver’s license, I live on a two mile by four mile island. Where am I going to go if I DO get a license? Into the ocean?

And now that my hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, where I frequently visit, is underwater, I’m probably better off getting a kayak anyway. Check out what happened there earlier this week:

White water rapids outside the student union!

Bloomington’s main drag, Kirkwood, outside Nick’s English Hut, my favorite place to get cheese dip and breadsticks (which I am no longer allowed to have anyway thanks to celiac disease. But I could just eat the cheese dip with fries, a recipe I made up while working at Rax).

Everyone gazing in wonder at the flood on Kirkwood (I saw soooo many movies at the Von Lee theater, which is now, sadly, a noodle shop. Anyway, see those gates, where the bus is, way in the background? Those are the Sample Gates, on which someone–NOT ME–spray painted in 1987 Bobby Knight is Scum From Hell. This incident was the inspiration for my book Pants on Fire, or Tommy Sullivan is a Freak, as it is known in the UK. But I will have you know I was FALSELY ACCUSED).

Of course people couldn’t help but wonder if this was all because my friend Sophia’s water broke this past weekend in Bloomington, when she gave birth to a little baby boy named Finn.

But honestly, I don’t think that had anything to do with it. It was all Mother Nature’s doing.

Anyway, come rain or shine, I’ll be at the Justine luncheon and then the Davis-Kidd book-signing in Memphis next week! Hope to see you there.

Oh, and here’s a video I made back when I was still allowed to eat cupcakes. Mmmmm, cupcakes, I wish I could eat twenty of them RIGHT NOW:

More later.

Much love,

Meg

It’s summer! Or at least it feels like it around here. I’ve got my new summer hair cut, which ended up making me look a little like Pat Benatar….

…or really more like Billie Jean from “The Legend of Billie Jean”…not the style I was going for exactly….

My hair looks like this. Only shorter. And redder.

I’m hoping with strategic use of mousse I can at least mold it into more of a Demi-Moore-from-Ghost-do, or something—

Well, okay, maybe that’s not the best look either.

Anyway, I know it’s summer, because I can’t seem to stay away from the pool….

…so it’s a good thing I’ve got my Alphasmart, which works on three double A batteries, so you can use it while floating on a raft. Hey, I’m not the most coordinated person, so I’ve even dropped mine in the water a few times and it still worked after it dried out. Thank God.

But if updates to the blog are spotty in the next few weeks, it’s because I’m in the pool busy writing Being Nikki, the sequel to Airhead, which should be in stores this time next year, or I’m jetting around the country, hanging with the residents of Toledo and Memphis.

If you live in or around either of these cities, DO try to come see me either June 10 in Toledo at the Stranahan Theater Great Hall, or the following week in Memphis at Davis-Kidd Booksellers at 4PM on June 19 (and earlier that day at a luncheon to which YOU are invited…sign up here).

Meanwhile, the busy bees over at Trashionista have already read and posted a review of Queen of Babble Gets Hitched here…Cute! I can’t believe it’s only seventeen days until it comes out!

Speaking of bees…for people who keep asking what I’m listening to: The Bird and the Bee, especially the song Again and Again. This may become my summer anthem. Love it!

If you’re looking for summer reading book giveaways, stop by Book Chic. They’ve gotten their hands on tons of Meg Cabot goodies and will be giving them away this whole weekend.

In book news, Jezebel did “A Wrinkle in Time” as their Friday Fine Lines this week. Oh my God I love this book. Meg Murry was my hero growing up. I wanted glasses and braces and my parents to stick me in an attic bedroom so I could mentally accuse them of thinking I was a witch and not mean it, like she did. And I so wanted to save Charles Wallace from IT!

Reading about this reminded me of another book I loved at the same age… The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl. Holy smokes, did I love this book as a kid.

Unlike “A Wrinkle in Time,” which has some warm fuzzies, this book was hardcore sci-fi–but great. What I loved about it was how Elana’s captors put her in a sensory deprivation tank, but she ENJOYS this because it only makes her mental telepathy stronger, and she uses the opportunity to send out telepathic SOSes into space. Also how she’d roll crumbs of bread into “pills” that she’d give to her fellow prisoner who believed the pills would give her courage like Elena had—and because she believed the pills would make her brave, she WAS brave…until Elana ran out of crumbs. Then she had to be brave on her own. And she WAS brave, to her own surprise. Such an AWESOME and amazing book, and a perfect summer read for anyone brave enough to take it on.

Speaking of which, right now my friend Beth has given up her cable for the month of June as an experiment (an extremely insane one if you ask me) because she believes there is “nothing on in June” (wrong: the new season of Kathy Griffin starts June 12 and Weeds starts again June 16. But whatever).

I told Beth to download MTV’s series “The Paper” here. SO. INCREDIBLY. GOOD. And you don’t need cable to see it, just Internet.

Finally, it wouldn’t be summer without a new Queen of Babble book. Queen of Babble Gets Hitched (the final book in the trilogy) comes out June 24…and the page is up now!

Click here to view it, along with FOUR—yes, FOUR!—sample chapters! Enjoy!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Congratulations to Ellen B, Amanda L, Haleigh L, Brittani Y, and Amy L, all winners in last month’s megcabot.com contest! They were just supposed to win copies of Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day, but because I’m in such a good mood, they each got a copy of Airhead and an American Apparel Airhead T-shirt as well.

If you want to know why I’m in a good mood, read on. Though I warn you…it’s not for the faint of heart.

In the meantime, if you entered the contest and didn’t win, don’t despair! There’s always this month’s contest!

And for those of you interested in winning copies of the entire Queen of Babble series, including Queen of Babble Gets Hitched, go here!

I actually have a VERY few advanced reader copies of Queen of Babble Gets Hitched leftover….I know it’s short notice, but if there’s anyone who runs a review site who is interested in a copy, let me know.

Quickly (but importantly):

It’s finally here! In stores now:

Declare Yourself.

Speak. Connect. Act. Vote.

50 celebrated Americans—from Adrian Grenier to Hayden Panettiere to Alice Walker to me (I know! Me?), with a foreword by Norman Lear—share their perspectives on voting and civic involvement in this one-of-a-kind book. This collection of more than fifty essays and unique pieces explores topics ranging from “The First Time I Voted” to “Why the Personal is Political,” all straight from the pens of public figures you know and (hopefully) love (including America Ferrera and Amber Tamblin. Read their pieces here).

My essay is on the summer I spent working for Manpower, where I was a victim of an unspeakable act of sexism involving wet/dry vacs, and how if we want to keep things like that from happening again and again we have to vote NOW…because the people we elect today will be making the Supreme Court appointments that will effect all of our rights (including our daughters’ and their daughters’ rights) in the future. Read this book—and then Declare Yourself!

This is me with two adorable friends at about age 18, the time of the Manpower incident. Check out my stylish shades and killer center part.

So I guess I wasn’t the only one who went to see Sex and the City this weekend, since it was the highest grossing film of the week! I was practically the only person in the theater who was with a manfriend and not a girlfriend (and in flip-flops and not Manolos). I think I would have preferred to watch it on TV as an extra season rather than a movie, though. There were so many people in the theater, I couldn’t put my feet up!

Plus, the people next to me wouldn’t stop TALKING, and NOT about the movie (I am pretty sure they were drunk. At a matinee). We actually had to move. And then the next people we sat next to wouldn’t stop text messaging, DURING THE FILM. So we had to move again.

People next to me from the movie: I hate you.

Also this is why I see almost everything six months after everyone else, when it comes on Pay Per View.

Anyway, when we got home from the movie, I noticed Henrietta was coughing. It’s weird when cats start coughing because—well, normally cats don’t cough. I couldn’t really tell what she was doing until she barfed all over my Martha Stewart bath mat from Kmart. WHY GOD WHY? Why the bath mat? I’d just washed it, too. Well, okay, He Who Shall Not Be Named In This Blog had just washed it. But still.

Then she still kept coughing. And barfing. So I made an appointment at the vet, since this didn’t seem like normal behavior. But of course I couldn’t get an appointment until Monday.

Meanwhile Henrietta kept swanning around, coughing and throwing up (always on the bath mat).

So then I made the mistake of Googling coughing in cats.

Let me just tell you—Do not Google this. Congestive heart failure. Or a hairball.

But in Henrietta’s case, I was convinced it was heart failure. I started planning her cat funeral and my subsequent sabbatical from writing due to heart break.

So it was a very tense weekend.

Of course by the time the vet appointment rolled around, she’d stopped coughing AND throwing up (her last, massive barf–on my bath mat, of course—was a giant hairball). And the vet said her heart and blood work was all fine. This was after she both pooped and peed on him and the vet technician, because she was so pissed off about being at the vet when there was clearly nothing wrong with her. They so love her there, FYI.

So anyway. That’s why last month’s contest winners got copies of both Allie Finkle AND Airhead AND a free T-shirt. To celebrate Henrietta’s clean bill of health.

Who knows what will happen during next month’s contest?

Stay tuned.

More later.

Much love,

Meg