Happy 4th of July (in advance)!

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays because it involves eating delicious grilled foods, explosions, and water sports (depending on where you live, of course).

In fact it was a year ago this 4th of July that I was snorkeling and my snorkeling partner purposefully woke up a sleeping nurse shark right in front of me (it swam away without attacking us, fortunately).

So I decided to write that experience into the opening scene of Being Nikki.

So who knows what will happen during my water sport adventures this July 4th ? Maybe it’ll end up in Runaway (cover art coming soon!).

From last year’s Being Nikki cover shoot.

Anyway, just to let you know, lots of stuff is happening this July! I have two book signings in Minnesota!

And July is Meg Cabot Month at Teen Scene Magazine. They’ll be giving TONS of my books away all month. So if you didn’t score a book in my contest last week (and you should have heard by now if you had), this is your big chance!

The schedule goes like this:

July 3-Airhead Contest
July 6-Being Nikki
July 8-Queen Of Babble
July 10-Queen of Babble in the Big City
July 13-Queen of Babble Gets Hitched
July15-Victoria and the Rogue
July 17-Nicola and the Viscount
July 20-Size 12 is Not Fat
July 22-Size 14 is Not Fat Either
July 24-Big Boned
July 27-Pants on Fire
July 29-Meg Cabot Interview

So be sure to drop by Teenscenemag.com to check it out!

Also every Friday this July, Girl’s Life Magazine is giving away 5 signed Allie Finkle books! Log on to girlslife.com, look for Give Away of the Day, and click Enter Now. Check the “Winners List” each Friday. Enter as many times as you want!

Not the most recent GL cover. I couldn’t find that one!

And don’t forget, July 31 was declared Meg Cabot Day in Bloomington, Indiana. We celebrate it by floating in the pool, reading, and refusing to help with any housework.

I’ve been getting a lot of mail recently, so I thought I’d answer some of your letters before I took off for the holidays!

So here goes:

Q: What’s the deal with you writing all these books for tweens and nothing for us adult readers?

A: I know! I got a little distracted by all the sparkle lip gloss those fourth graders are wearing. But there’ll be a new book for adult readers coming out next summer (more info coming soon…I don’t want to give away too much because the new book is such a departure for me. And I’m pretty far into a new installment of the Heather Wells mystery series, too, so look for updates on that as well)!

Q: Why are you so obsessed with Michael Jackson’s funeral arrangements?

A: Because if he is in an open casket in his drum major uniform wearing a single white glove, as reported by the NY Post, I will find it such an amazing coincidence…because my grandmother was dressed exactly the same way at her funeral last week.

Q: Hi Meg, I was wondering when “Being Nikki” will be available for sale in e-book form.

A: Soon! I don’t know the exact date, but I can assure you, it’s going to be any minute now. My publisher has a whole new deal worked out with Kindle.

Q: Meg, when will your next book be out?

A: In September I’ll have TWO books out! Stage Fright, the next Allie Finkle book:

And Hunter’s Moon, the third and final book in my manga series (and my last manga ever):

Q: Dear Meg, I want to be a writer, but my parents don’t believe in my dream. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it without their support. What should I do?

A: You’re probably not going to make it without their support—their FINANCIAL support—unless you start planning now for your future career, keeping in mind that only a small percentage of writers make enough money from their writing alone to support themselves.

So you shouldn’t be so hurt by the fact that your parents aren’t over the moon with your dream of being a writer. Your parents want you to be happy…and self-supporting!

So stop talking about your dream, and start making it a reality by focusing on getting an education that will allow you to get a great “day job” so you can support yourself until you make it big in publishing. Learn to type. Learn to teach. Learn to stick needles in cats. Learn SOMETHING that helps people so someone will want to hire you, in case the novel you wrote your senior year doesn’t get published right away (or bought for very much money).

Although some authors do make large advances on their first books, most only make advances in the mid-to-low five figures. After taxes and your agent’s cut, there’s very little left to live on. Keep in mind, most authors spend their first advance marketing their own books (putting up a website, etc), because publishers don’t tend to spend a lot marketing new authors.

So try to be more understanding of Mom and Dad. Instead of focusing on your dream of being a writer when you talk to them, focus on what you’re going to do to support yourself until that dream comes true (getting a good day job, with benefits like lots of vacation time, which you can spend writing).

THAT is what’s going to make Mom and Dad (and ultimately, you) happy…and also what’s going to keep you fiscally stable until you’re making the big bucks from your writing.

Q: What do I do about friends who aren’t supportive of my wanting to be a writer?

A: There could be lots of reasons why your friends aren’t supportive of your writing dream. Maybe they’re jealous because they always wanted to write, too, but were too lazy and so never did. Maybe they’re freaked out because you used to like to hang out with them, and now all you want to do is write.

It’s fun to have people to hang out with, so if your friends just aren’t the type to understand something like the fact that you write, just don’t talk about the writing thing with them. Not everybody is going to get it.

This applies to family, as well. Keeping a cherished dream to yourself is OK if you don’t want people to make fun of it. That’s just being self-protective.

In the meantime, remember: Be your own cheerleader! You don’t need the support of your parents, or anyone else, to achieve your dreams. As long as you believe in yourself, you’re going to be fine.

Here’s a video from this year’s Book Expo America where I talk about my own road to becoming a published author. Sadly, I should have worn a lot more make up. Live and learn. AND you can’t see my accompanying Power Point.

But you can see Julie Andrews, which is better.

Good luck, and keep writing! If I can do it, so can you.

Have a great 4th of July!
More later.

Much love,

Meg

PS More writing tips for those of you looking for them!

I seriously tried to quit the Internet this past weekend because there was just too much news. I couldn’t take it!

However, as you can see, I’m back.

Internet, you’ve won. I can’t quit you.

But this doesn’t mean I like you as much as I used to. You’re like that boyfriend who cats around behind my back, then lies and says you’re “just friends” with that other girl, even though all my friends TOTALLY saw you making out with her behind the Orange Julius at the mall.

But you’re such a good kisser I don’t care. Dang you, Internet!

I mean, Ed McMahon passing away wasn’t much of a stretch, and Farah Fawcett, while really sad (I love her. Extremities is seriously one of my favorite movies ever), wasn’t unexpected.

But poor Michael Jackson!

While it’s true Michael’s personal life seemed a bit odd, that doesn’t negate the fact that he was extremely talented, brought a lot of joy to people, and was an inspiration to many. My younger brothers played with a Michael Jackson (and O.J….let’s be honest…) doll as little kids, had all of Michael Jackson’s albums, and one of them even read Michael Jackson’s biography….

…which was kind of amazing, because neither of them were big readers growing up.

Michael Jackson was hugely influential in my house, as I imagine he was in many homes. I would still have my tape of Bad except that one of my brothers left it on the carport roof when we were sun tanning and it melted. I am not naming names, except that it was MATT.

Anyway, just as we were coming to terms with the loss of Michael…we lost the Oxiclean guy. I realize it is not nearly the same, but we were all fond of the Oxiclean guy. What is up with that?

And then the thing with the governor of South Carolina (who, okay, isn’t dead, but those emails. Santa Maria)! And then Billy Bob Thornton’s daughter’s baby! Not to mention, you know, the elections in Iran….

And don’t even get me started on those crazy housewives.

Honestly, at a certain point, it all got to be a little too much news, even for me. And I love news.

And I know there’s that little button where you can disconnect from the Internet.

But then you turn on the TV and it’s there! Or you go to the store and it’s there, right by the cash register! Or you open your mailbox, and it’s there!

You. Cannot. Escape (although I did hear there’s an island where there is no news or Internet. However, moving there seems cost prohibitive).

So that’s why there are books: You can grab one and go to the pool or the beach and just chill for a while. So rejuvenating! I did it, and I felt much better. For about five minutes.

Speaking of which, the Summer Outfit/Free book contest is over, and entries are being processed. Winners will be notified by email. We got SO MANY entries, from all over the world! I wish EVERYONE could have won, but we only have so many books. Still, I can’t wait to share the photos with you.

Few of you, however, were able to hold a candle to Adithi’s summer outfit:

YAY! Okay, she admits, this isn’t a casual summer look. But it’s still great!

While we’re sorting through your entries, you can watch the latest episode of Read Our Lips, and find out how to make the first move on a guy. We use King Arthur action figures to illustrate our point! It’s not to be missed (especially because it’s a record three minutes long!).

More later.

Much love,

Meg

Tonight is part one of the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion, and I. Cannot. Wait!

Why do we (okay, I) care about these people? Why do I care about Bethenny and Jill Zarin and Susan Boyle and her cat Pebbles and Jon and Kate and their divorce?

Because watching them battle with their problems takes us, just for a little while, away from our own problems. Duh!

We all have problems, right? Maybe our problems aren’t as serious as Danielle’s (former “prostitution whore”) or Theresa’s (allowing her children to leave the house in matching elastic floral headbands).

But many of us have problems that are way more serious. In which case, thank goodness we have Danielle and Theresa.

Because it’s very soothing to leave our problems behind for a little while in order to watch a skinny little Italian lady flip a table over in a nice restaurant while screaming obscenities. You could almost even call it cathartic. Face it, who hasn’t wanted to flip a table over from time to time?

This is why shows like the Real Housewives andThe Closer (so good! I actually had to give my old cat Jenny intravenous fluids, too. Except one time I forgot and left the needle in for like an hour and the whole bag went in and Jenny swelled up like a little watermelon and was walking around like a basketball with legs. But she was fine! Really) and Weeds and Nurse Jackie are so great.

Just like a great book, these shows take us on a little vacation away from our own lives and problems.

And the better and more engrossing the book or show, the more thoroughly we forget our own problems, just for that little while.

Of course, in the case of reality shows, it’s a fine line…Jon and Kate are not exactly going through their problems for our entertainment.

However, if they stopped filming now, that would spoil the day so many of us are looking forward to: Mady’s eventual graduation from Yale law school, when she’ll turn around and sue both Jon and Kate for exploitation (of course as a responsible sibling, she’ll split the bounty with those of her brothers and sisters who haven’t yet become drug addicts and appeared on Intervention).

Anyway, one of the many problems I have that I’m trying to avoid is that I have way too many copies of my own books. I even had to start renting an office space to store them all in (on the bright side, now there’s room for the scanner for when we want to show you fun foreign covers).

So in order to make some space, we’ve decided to donate a bunch of them to the International Book Project (where hopefully some will make their way to Pakistan, where the Taliban just blew up another girls’ school. Do you think the Taliban know everyone thinks of them as the new Nazis? Or maybe they’d think that was a compliment?) and a few other literacy projects.

We also want to give some to you, because I know YOU have problems, too (you write to me all the time, telling me about them. I DO read my mail, even if I don’t always have time to write back), and I want to make sure you have a little something to help you escape from them for a little while.

But! Because you most likely aren’t being menaced by the Taliban, we’re going to make you work for your free copies a little.

Don’t worry though, it’s going to be fun work!

If you’d like a free book (the books we’re giving away—while supplies last—are: US paperback copies of Jinx; UK and US copies of Airhead; UK and US copies of Being Nikki, as well as paperback copies of Queen of Babble Gets Hitched) just do the following:

Sorry! As of 6/27, this contest is over! Winners will be notified in the next ten days.

Contest ends when we run out of books.

If you don’t want your photo posted on this blog if you win, please specify. This won’t exclude you from winning a book.

This idea is based on Teen Vogue’s Girl of the Week, where they pick a snap of a girl (there’s actually also a boy of the week) and then ask what she’s wearing and what her inspiration for it was. Sort of like this:

“Oh, hi, yeah, that’s me, Meg. I’m sitting at the airport with my cat. I’m wearing an old pair of leggings I found in my sock drawer, a sleeveless dress I just bought on sale from Anthropologie, and a long blazer because it can get cold on airplanes. I have on my favorite comfy flats, and those are my reading glasses (the novel is by Dennis Lehane) and my 100% polyester Stella McCartney bag. My inspiration for this outfit was style and yet comfort because I knew traveling with my cat was going to be difficult.”

Or this:

“Oh, right, see here I’m in another sundress from Anthropologie and I’m putting on Band-Aids because it’s not really a good idea to go on a long walk in brand new Havianas.”

Or this:

Here’s my neighbor Emily who is NYC for the summer attending a program at NYU:

Emily is in Converse; A Big Sweater; A Top; Cut Offs; and she has her hands in Rob Pattinson’s hair. Emily and Rob have been very close ever since she found out he’s filming a movie right around the corner from where she’s staying in NYC. As you can see, Rob really likes her back, although it turns out he’s much larger than any of us knew. What a surprise! Sometimes he puts her in his shirt pocket and they go out to lunch.

You see how easy it is? Fashion is fun!

Now you try! Have fun with it! Do a good enough job, and you can win a book!

Don’t forget to follow the rules (above) though!

(This should be obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway: While Emily’s photo, above, is all right, because SHE is in it, please do NOT send pictures of models, celebrities, or photos from other sites, and try to pass them off as YOU. This isn’t fun, and will disqualify you from the contest. The fun of this contest is seeing what kind of creative outfits and poses YOU can come up with. IT IS NOT A BEAUTY CONTEST. It’s about having fun with fashion while putting together outfits from YOUR closet. CREATIVITY, not beauty or name-brand designers, IS WHAT COUNTS.)

Okay, now go raid your closets!

More later.

Much love,

Meg

I’m keeping busy writing Runaway, the sequel to Being Nikki, and revising Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls #5 (which just had a title change—from Birthday Bash to Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out, which is more appropriate given that there’s both a great deal of glitter and girls acting fake in it).

And I just got a BIG box of Jinx in paperback (which reminds me…we need to have another contest, so check back for that soon). Look for that in stores, in addition to Airhead (er, both available now in paperback)!

But I wanted to take a moment to thank you for taking time to express condolences on the passing of my mom’s mom.

She was a nice lady, though very proper, and was in fact the grandma from whom I tried to hide the fact that I was writing sexy historical romances under another name for a while.

However, eventually she caught on. She was actually such a good sport about it (I was married, so it was OK that I knew about “those kind of things”), she threw a big book party for me, to which she invited all her nun friends.

It was at that party that I learned that nuns and grandmas don’t really mind smutty books. My book An Improper Proposal had just come out, which was the book where I tried to see how much smut I could throw in before my editor said, “Stop! That is too much smut.”

Only it turns out, there is no such thing as too much smut to a romance novel editor. If you are an aspiring romance writer, this is something you should keep in mind.

And so An Improper Proposal is what I like to call my Dry Humping On A Pirate Ship book.

Moving on, what is going on with the new Harry Potter movie? I’ve really been looking forward to this one, because the trailer makes it seem really dark and scary and great.

But now a few websites have pointed out that they’re starting to market the movie as more of a “romance.”

Obviously they’ve heard: romance sells (might I humbly suggest they add some dry humping? I can personally attest that everyone, even nuns and grandmas, like that sort of thing).

These are some of the posters they’ve trotted out:

Seriously? First of all…Ron? Is that you?

Second of all, what is Susan, the girl from my Sunday school class (you know the girl I’m talking about. That girl who was in everyone’s Sunday school class, the girl about whom everyone’s parents went, “Why can’t you be more like Susan?”) doing in this Harry Potter movie?

I understand why Hermione wants to kick her ass. I felt the same way when Susan told Father Chuck she spent all day on Good Friday visiting sick children at the cancer hospital up in Indianapolis.

But she couldn’t possibly have been in Indianapolis, because my best friend totally saw her hanging out at Orange Julius at the mall, sucking face with the basketball team.

Stupid, lying, perfect, two-faced SUSAN!

PS I would like to point out that I spent Good Friday going around to all my elderly neighbors’ houses, giving them cookies, and listening to their long boring pointless stories about olden times. Also, when I told them I was Vic Cabot’s daughter, they all went “Dick Cavett’s daughter! Come on in!” And when I corrected them, and said I was not Dick Cavett’s daughter–no, VIC CABOT, not Dick Cavett–they were all pointedly less interested in me. Jesus and I both suffered greatly that day.

Susan, on the other hand, had a super duper DUPER good time.

Then this happened:

I’m sorry, but why did Ron get the beefy shoulders and leather accessories? I thought Harry was the star of this movie. Is this Daniel Radcliffe’s punishment because we’ve all seen him with his clothes off on YouTube?

Check it out:

Ron:

Harry:

Now, I probably shouldn’t say this, but WHAT IS GOING ON WITH RON’S BROOM?

Seriously, look at that again:

Now look at Harry’s wand:

Do you see what I’m saying? If you were a teenaged girl, who would you rather go out with? Which one of these guys seems more potent and manly? As an observer of popular culture, I’m just saying.

It just goes to show, in your down time from shooting movies, you should never star in Broadway plays in which you’re naked, or you’ll get the losery movie poster and the teeny tiny wand.

And then there’s this one:

For this one I have to borrow the caption they used on Videogum, which they, in turn, borrowed from the movie Say Anything:

I wrote sixty-three songs this year. They’re all about Ron. And I’m going to sing each and every one of them tonight.

So wrong! Hermione would never do this.

And I actually don’t like the fact that they are trying to play up the jealousy angle of this story. I don’t remember Hermione being THAT jealous of Lavender. I remember her as being more irritated that Ron was making such a fool of himself.

What exactly are Ron and Lavender doing in the background of the poster above? They look like monkeys.

And does Lavender buy her clothes at Hot Topic? I think so. Obviously, Lavender is a fail.

And then there’s this one:

Videogum captioned this one: “Whatever, dad. I’m going out. What? TO THE MALL, THAT’S WHERE.”

That sounds about right. Oh, Draco! So much anger.

And now see what’s happened, Draco? All that pent-up anger has made you look like you’re wearing a bad hairpiece. And also one of my new boyfriend jackets from Shopbop. This is not a good look for you. Do you want to grow up to work as a wine sommelier on a cruise ship? Because that is where you’re headed.

Sigh. But whatever.

I’ll still be there opening day.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

So I think I saw the second worst movie in the world (after Benjamin Butthead, of course).

It’s kind of a toss up because the other day I was feeling a little down (my grandma has been sick and things have been a little sad in my family. After I posted about my dad last week, many of you wrote to me about your own family problems, and some of what you wrote brought tears to my eyes. And I really appreciated how many of you wrote to say that my books have helped you through your hard times. Thank you…), and I was flipping around with the remote, trying to find something on that would cheer me up, and there was this Debra Winger made-for-TV movie on the Lifetime Movie Channel about this woman who was suffering from a horrible brain disorder.

“Perfect!” I thought.

The woman had to re-learn how to walk and speak and feed herself, with the help of her loving doctor and boyfriend (it would have been more romantic if the doctor ended up being her boyfriend, but that didn’t happen), and her loving children (I missed the beginning, but I guess her husband had walked out on her. Excellent).

Debra Winger haz a sad.

And then years later when she finally regained the ability to walk and talk and eat on her own again, Debra Winger got a job coaching a high school volleyball team, and her boyfriend asked her to marry him, and everything was going great, and it was all a big triumph of the human spirit, and I was getting ready to sigh and go, “What a great movie….”

…when Debra Winger dropped her youngest daughter off at her high school. Columbine High School. On April 19th!

I’m serious.

And guess what? Fully based on a true story, of course.

And that’s what I get for not checking the ending first on IMDB.com.

But Dawn Anna wasn’t the worst movie I’ve seen this week (actually it was a totally good movie, even if the ending was a huge bummer).

We went to go see Angels and Demons, which I really wanted to see because I so wanted to watch Robert Langdon, aka Tom Hanks, jump out of that helicopter at the end, and parasail into the Tiber, using the helicopter’s windshield cover, which is fully what happens in the book.

Only guess what, fellow book lovers? That scene isn’t even in the movie.

What happened, Ron Howard? You took the best (because it is the most ludicrous, and therefore my favorite, scene) part of the book out of the movie! Millions of people have gasped aloud while sitting at airport gates during hideously long delays reading that scene, and said to themselves, “No. Freaking. Way. Could. That. Ever. Happen.”

But obviously that is what makes it so great. Kind of like girls turning out to be princesses and vampires sparkling.

Poor RPatz. Yes, my friend Em is at NYU this summer and saw him there yesterday.

And you just left that scene out? How could you? Don’t you realize scenes like that are WHY PEOPLE GO TO MOVIES MADE OF THEIR FAVORITE BOOKS???

When Robert Langdon (who should have been played by Matt Damon. I love Tom Hanks dearly, but nevermind) leaps from that helicopter using that windshield as a parachute and survives that antimatter explosion over his head, then lands in that river with only minor injuries, then staggers back to the square to see that other guy land ON THE STATUES (oh, yes. He’s supposed to land ON THE STATUES) on top of the Vatican without a scrape, it is the best part of the whole book (and the only part I remember because it made me laugh so hard and go, “Yes, Dan Brown, yes, you are a balls out genius. You deserve that $75 million private plane I read in US Weekly that you own.”)

So why isn’t that part in the movie? Was Tom Hanks afraid to jump out of a helicopter? No way! He appeared SHIRTLESS in the first scene! HE’S TOM HANKS! Tom Hank isn’t afraid of anything.

Tom Hanks on the ground instead of jumping out of helicopter.

Anyway, HOLLYWOOD IS KEEPING TOM HANKS DOWN! Be free, Tom Hanks! Be free!

And when they make the movie of Dan Brown’s next book (which I will be first in line to read, then watch), it had better follow it TO THE LETTER. Do you hear me, Ron Howard?

Jamie Foxx parties with Ron Howard. Prepare to laugh and laugh. I know I did.

Anyway, my grandmother passed away yesterday. She probably would not have enjoyed “Angels and Demons,” not because of the lack of Robert Langdon-jumping-from-the-helicopter-scene, but because she was a very Catholic lady who kept a big poster of “The Princess Diaries” movie on one wall and a big photo of my cousin meeting the Pope right next to it. Like her husband, she liked to have a cocktail (just one) and a cigarette before dinner. Her preferred cocktail was bourbon and ginger ale in a tall monogrammed highball glass, like these:

That always struck me as so Nick and Nora Charles (only my grandparents never, to my knowledge, solved a mystery). Loved it.

She also sent me, at every birthday and Christmas until I turned 16, a new Madame Alexander doll.

So she is indirectly responsible for my own little movies (but in no way did she resemble any characters in my books), which I hope is a legacy she doesn’t mind. My movies can’t, I know, compare to either Dawn Anna or Angels and Demons. But God knows Brady, the director, and I tried to make them entertaining.

Finally, here’s the latest episode of Read Our Lips. This one is about what to do if you don’t have a boyfriend by the 8th grade. We also bring up a sensitive beauty problem we need YOUR help solving.

I think Grandma (and even Dan Brown) would approve.

More later.

Much love,

Meg