Now that I have your attention…hee.
Seriously, before I get to the guys, I just want to say thanks to everyone who sent me get well wishes and supportive, Don't-listen-to-the-mean-people emails recently. You guys rule, and if I haven't replied personally yet to anyone who wrote to me in the past couple weeks, please note that I'm trying, it's just tough since my lyme disease seems to have settled in my wrists, so it hurts to type, AND I'm leaving this week for my Boy Meets Girl tour, AND I have a book due, and, and, and….
But I AM trying….
Anyway, a lot of people—um, girls, to be specific—write to me wanting to know if the guys in my books are based on anyone real. By guys they mean Michael from Princess Diaries, Jesse and Paul from the Mediator series, Rob from 1800-Where-R-You, David from All American Girl, John from Boy Next Door, Mitch from Boy Meets Girl, etc, and if these guys ARE real, where can they meet them?
The truth is, none of these guys are based COMPLETELY on any one guy. Most of them are sort of composites of a lot of guys I know, or have known…although some of the things they say are lifted from stuff guys in my past have said to me—like the Michael prom thing is something one of my high school boyfriends pulled on me. And the thing with the big salad fork and spoon that Dave says in All American Girl, which I actually stole from another girl's boyfriend (whatever, she so didn't appreciate him).
Oh, and that part in Haunted where Suze walked home barefoot rather than make out with Paul and got blisters all over the bottoms of her feet? So happened to me with the guy Paul is based on.
But the one guy I probably get the most emails about is Rob from 1-800-Where-R-You (and if you haven't met him, now's your chance: the 1800 books are being re-released in paperback under Meg Cabot and should be in stores this week). What is with you girls, liking the bad boys? Not that Rob's bad. But he is on probation—although he won't tell Jess, the heroine, why.
So that's probably the number 1 question I get, via email (besides “How old are you?” I told you: I was born on the same day at Princess Stephanie, but two years LATER. So subtract two years from Stephanie's age—or add two to the year of her birth–and you'll get mine. Those of you who are writing to me, insisting I was born two years BEFORE Stephanie—I AM NOT THAT OLD–could not be more wrong).
Anyway, the Rob probation thing in the 1800 series is based on the fact that a bunch of the guys I knew back in high school were on probation, and they were all on probation for doing the exact same thing (my brother, who is now a 6 foot eight inch cop, was on probation for doing it, too). The only guy I know who comes from Indiana who DIDN'T get arrested for doing what Rob did is my husband.
Here is a hint: it has nothing to do with drugs, alcohol, driving, theft, girls, fighting, or weapons of any kind.
Now that so many people are asking what Rob's on probation for, I guess I'm going to have to fess up someday—probably in a 5th 1800 book, when I get around to writing one.
But I digress.
MOST of the traits all these guys possess come from my husband. When I tell readers this, they always want to know how he and I met, I guess to see if we were high school sweethearts, like Mia and Michael.
The truth is, I DID meet my husband in high school. I was in high school. He was in college. He was, in fact, one of my high school boyfriends' college roommate (when I was in high school I dated a guy who was in college for a while).
Anyway, I was sixteen and I went to this party with my boyfriend and he introduced me to his roommate, and it wasn't very long before I decided that I didn't like him (the roommate, my husband-to-be). For one thing, he drove a red BMW and back then I thought anyone who would drive a BMW was a horrible person. Don't ask me why, because I don't remember. I don't feel that way now.
And another thing against him was that he made fun of me because I had to leave the party at eleven, as that was my curfew. So he was all, “When's the babysitter coming to get her?” and stuff to my boyfriend.
So if you had told me at 16 that at 26 I would end up married to this person, I'd have KILLED MYSELF.
So that is the story of how I met my husband. There is a lot that went on in between then and now, obviously, since clearly it wasn't love at first sight…or WAS it????
But I will save that for another day.
So that's how I met my husband, for those of you who wanted to know.
Now I have to leave for my book tour (you can check and see if I'm coming to a town near you by reading the entry below this one. And please, if I'm not coming to your town, remember that I can ONLY GO WHERE I'M INVITED. I don't hate your town. I wasn't INVITED to your town. What's with all the emails? If you want me there, let your local bookseller know for next time!)
Later this week I'll let you know about Princess Diaries 2, the movie—I'm reading the script now!
Love,
Meg
