Welcome to Day Two of the Meg-A-Thon

Disclaimer: This is one of my longer posts, but bear with me. I've got pictures. And ice cream. (Oh, but the ice cream is just for me. Sorry.)

This is the banner I made for Meg's Facebook contest. I didn't win. But it's okay. Because the winner's banner was quite nice. (Notice the change in cover styles since that blessed summer day in 2001.)

Hello fellow Meg Cabot readers. You're obviously here because of the Meg-A-Thon made of awesome, because I usually only get about 4 hits on my blog (and I'm pretty sure they're all from my mother).

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

But seriously, I'm very excited you're here. Welcome to my humble virtual abode. And, in the words of my grandpa, "take off your coat and stay a while." We can have tea and scones and, of course, talk about Meg, since that's why you're here anyway.

I met Meg, hypothetically, on a very special day: my 14th birthday. (Well, officially it was two days after my birthday because I was in Kentucky for work camp on my ACTUAL birthday. But whatever, I like to acknowledge that the first Princess Diaries book was released on my actual birthday because it makes it seem serendipitous.) See, here's the thing, back in 2001, before the first Harry Potter film created the massive hysteria - forcing non-readers everywhere to crack open the book, making reading officially cool - I was considered the weird kid who didn't take advantage of the full passing period because I preferred to get to my seat early and spend the extra time reading a few more pages. So, when I returned from Kentucky, and my mom told me I could pick out my own birthday present, I naturally directed her to Borders.

(::sigh:: RIP, Borders).

I remember it like it was yesterday. You'd think my mother would have been glad that I was so devoted to reading and expanding my schema, but no. The whole way there she kept shaking her head, asking me if I wouldn't prefer to go to the mall and get a new outfit for the upcoming school year. But I was adamant.

When I walked into Borders I made a beeline for the Young Adult section. Back then, it was only a row and a half of shelves. (I know. It's horrifying.) Being that it was brand-spanking new, the Princess Diaries book was on special display. But I passed right by it. I don't know why I did this. Maybe it was because it was (Meg, if you're reading this, I apologize) pink, or maybe it was the tiara on the cover, but whatever the reason, my brain was clearly not functioning at its full capacity at that moment.

I remember picking up a few books and checking them out (one of them was Go Ask Alice, which was recommended to me but, to this day, I have not read) until I got to the section of the shelf where "Cabot" popped up again. Here's the difference: someone had placed the Princess Diaries on the shelf with its back cover facing me. Something about that Doc Martin boot on the back cover (I mean, I HAD those boots) caused something inside me to stir. I grabbed the book and read the excerpt and I KNEW. I knew I had to have this book. I knew that somehow, some way, Mia was me in some alternate universe, and the author had reached into my soul and found a way to reach out to me in manuscript form.

Okay, that's a bit dramatic. But seriously, as soon as I read that back cover I felt strongly connected to it. Also, it might have been the reference to Baldwin, because I had a huge crush on Alec Baldwin when I was a kid (who didn't? I also had a crush on Bill Clinton before the whole Monica scandal thing went down, so maybe my judgement wasn't the greatest. Don't judge me, I was 10.)

Anyway, the Princess Diaries not only made me journal my life religiously in the event that someday my life might be as entertaining and exciting as Mia's (unlikely), but it introduced me to chick-lit and that honest, confessional style of writing that has been perfected by our esteemed Meg. Not only that, but it made me realize that I don't have to become as famous as Meg to be a great writer and if I can make one person laugh the way Meg has made me so many times,well, then I have succeeded.

Geez, I'm such a suck-up.

I've read all of Meg's books, including her first published novel ever, a romance novel that she released under a pseudonym. I recommend her to my friends and random people I meet any time I have the opportunity. (Seriously, sometimes I just shout "Read Meg Cabot!" across the street to strangers.) I reread my favorites (which change year to year) in between my heavier grad school reading. And last year, I finally got to meet Meg (not hypothetically) in Naperville, IL at a book signing. She was charming and beautiful and everything I imagined her to be. I only wish I had had the foresight to bring that romance novel I mentioned because I think she would have gotten a kick out of that.

Any book Meg writes, I know I'll read and love. But there will always be a special place in my heart for the Princess Diaries. It was released on my birthday. I was 14. Mia was 14. I grew up with her (albeit, maybe a little faster, because when Forever Princess was released in 2010, Mia was graduating from high school while I was graduating from college). But no matter how old I get, Meg keeps me young.

Obviously.

P.S. I've made it a habit at bookstores to shelve books with the back covers facing out, now, because sometimes it's just as, if not more, aesthetically enticing as the front. And let's face it, we do judge books by their covers, but sometimes we just need to get the full picture.

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May 2012

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For the Bride

One of my best friends is getting married in a little over a month. She just moved out to Boston. For her bridal shower, we had to get a little creative and find gifts with one of the letters from her name (they were assigned). Naturally, I received the letter "Z." I went with a zebra theme (which matched the animal print theme of the Bachelorette Party, so...win) and wrote her a poem instead of getting a card. I thought I'd share it with y'all. Disclaimer: this poem includes inside jokes.

That Grammar Stuff

Truth.

Adequacy/Inadequacy

I was feeling a little inadequate, in some regards, because I'm taking a creative writing class, which I love, but which is focused solely on literary fiction.

Don't get me wrong. I like literary fiction. Reading it. Not so much writing it.

I'm more of a genre gal.

But I was getting the impression that writing genre fiction, especially the genre I mostly write (which is chick-lit), is not respectable.

I don't really know how this can be so, however, when one of my favorite authors - Meg Cabot, in case you haven't been paying attention. And if you haven't, well, come on. Get with the program here - is so great at it and her books are bestsellers and people love her.

(Plus she just won a Distinguished Alumni Award from her Alma Mater, Indiana University.)

But I no longer feel inadequate. I know that I am a good writer (sure I could always use some polishing), and I have a niche. And different people have different tastes, so it's perfectly fine that I want to write light bubbly fiction geared mostly towards women. Because that's what I like to read. Because it cheers my most stressful and depressing days. And if I can do that for someone else that I think that is pretty respectable.

The only place I'm still feeling slightly inadequate, however, is the amount of time I'm able to put into my novel.

As you can see, my NaNoWriMo count is only at 4,786 words. And the month is half over. I've come to terms with the fact that I am not going to finish by the end of the month.

(But, I finished chapter four last night. And I'm feeling pretty good about it. Especially since one of my best friends is sitting next to me reading parts of it and I can hear her giggling at the funny parts. It brings me joy.)

Anyway, I asked Meg Cabot - on her message board, not really expecting a response from her but maybe from one of the moderators - about how many words/pages she writes a day. And SHE responded personally! But the amount she told me is like TEN TIMES the amount I write a day. And some days I don't write anything, because I'm too busy studying for an Acts exam.

So I feel inadequate. And it's only slightly helped by the knowledge that I'm trying to write a novel at the same time I'm trying to finish my senior year of college and bring up my GPA so that I can graduate Summa Cum Laude (which suffice it to say is NOT going to happen after this semester's results from Acts).

Okay. I'll just keep taking it one day at a time.

Thanks Meg Cabot for responding personally to me. And congratulations on your discipline. I admire it greatly.

By the way, readers, if you are at all interested in Meg Cabot (as you should be) you should read her blog/check out her website.

NANOWRIMO

So, I've taken the NANOWRIMO challenge.

If you don't know what that is, NANOWRIMO is the National Novel Writing Month, where you are supposed to write a whole novel during the month of November.

Today, I finished the first chapter. It's a bit short, though, only 651 words. I might have to go in a change that later.

Anyway, I'm going to try and update on my progress so a) you can know how I'm doing and b) so I have incentive to keep working at it that way I dont have to come back here at the end of the month and feel like a tool because I didn't finish something I committed to.

So...there's that. I'm going to try and get a widget or something. Or I'll just post my word count at the end of each post.

Maybe when I finish it I can publish it. And you can buy it. And read it. And love it. Maybe.

Sharing With You

I've been doing a lot of reading on agents and publishers and the such. I've also been doing a lot of procrastinating by reading blogs and movie news and such. Well, I stumbled upon this article by Meg Cabot, author of the famous Princess Diaries series as well as numerous entertaining adult lit, such as the Queen of Babble series which I am currently reading (when I'm not doing homework, blogging, writing the next great American novel, or working on my new feature script).

Anyways, in this article Meg lists her top ten reasons why she loves writing Young Adult fiction, and it's cute so I wanted to share:

10) It is one of the few jobs in which you can legally work in your pajamas.

9) Your readers talk about interesting things like: what happened on The OC last night, and: Do you think this boy likes me?

8) YA is one of the few genres in which it is perfectly acceptable not to have any sex scenes at all.

7) If you make a mistake in a YA, your readers will not hesitate to let you know about it.

6) They will also not hesitate to let you know that your book was so good, they read it in 90 minutes while standing up at Barnes and Noble, and so they didn’t need to buy it.

5) When I used to research my historical romances, I would have to go to the library. To do my YA research, I just have to turn on the WB or MTV, and it’s all there!

4) Writing YA is one of the few ways you can actually profit from having an inner voice that is approximately 14 years old.

3) You get to relive all the traumas you experienced as a teen, only this time, you can give them all a happy ending.

2) You can get back at all the cheerleaders who were mean to you in high school by modeling characters after them.

And the number-one reason writing YA rules is:

1) I get to meet fellow lovers of YA books—teenagers, teachers, librarians, and discriminating adult readers as well!

By the way, if you haven't noticed already, I'm a name dropper. And I'll probably dropping names like Meg Cabot's and Cameron Crowe's quite frequently. Just so you know.