I’ve been really blessed to attend a lot of AMAZING author signings over the past two years. But let me tell you, I have never flipped out about an author signing the way I did when I found out Meg Cabot was going to be at Kepler’s. I’ve written countless times on the blog about how The Princess Diaries was the first and most formative YA I ever read (at the ripe young age of 10) so meeting Meg in person was a true highlight of my reading journey.
Max and I arrived at Kepler’s a little over an hour early to ensure we snagged good seats for the event. He hasn’t read Meg Cabot himself, but knows how influential she is to me and has listened to many hilarious snippets of her writing that I’ve felt compelled to read out loud to him when I can’t stop laughing. She was there promoting the third book in her newest middle grade series, Royal Crush, which is a spinoff series that focuses on (spoiler alert!!) Mia’s younger half sister. I haven’t read the new series yet, but I picked up the first two books at Kepler’s to add my enormous stack of original Princess Diaries books.
Meg was truly a riot and the funniest author I’ve ever heard speak. Rather than being in conversation with an interviewer, she flew solo, using her storytelling skills and an awesome PowerPoint presentation that she made to aid in her talk. Rather than hyper focusing on her new book, I actually learned a lot about her own backstory and career journey as an author, which was a really neat experience!
Fun Facts and Interesting Insights From Meg
- She started writing as a child was is essentially now considered to be Star Wars fan fiction.
- She attended to Indiana University where her dad taught quantitative business analysis.
- She majored in art after she was warned by a guy at a party not to major in creative writing.
- After college she moved to New York and got a job at NYU in a dorm (similar to Heather’s job in the Heather Wells mystery series). She then ran into the guy at the party all of those years ago who had warned her not to major in creative writing, as he was now getting his master’s at NYU. They ended up getting married (!!!)
- She can neither confirm nor deny that there will be a Princess Diaries 3 movie…
- She has a short story coming out in an upcoming Star Wars anthology!
- Some interesting Princess Diaries film tidbits- the movie was switched to be filmed in San Francisco instead of New York because the director (Gary Marshall) wanted to stay near his grand kids. They also ended up killing Mia’s dad off in exchange for getting Julie Andrews to play Mia’s grandmother, as they needed the role to play a bigger part in the series.
- Anne Hathaway came up to Meg after the Princess Diaries premiere and asked her if she thought she did a good job in the movie. So adorable!
Honestly I didn’t take as many notes during Meg’s talk as I usually do at author events because I was so start struck and wanted to soak up every moment of the event!
Have you had a chance to meet Meg Cabot? Have you read her books? What series of hers is your favorite (I’ll admit I have a few series to catch up on!) What’s been your top bookish event of 2017 so far? Let me know in the comments!
Aww this is great! I felt similarly at the Dessen event because she was the most formative for me when I was younger (I mean, minus JK Rowling obviously). I still haven’t read any Meg Cabot books somehow!!
OMG really??? I feel like you would love them! Have you read the Princess Diaries or the Mediator series by her?
I would be on the floor freaking out if I ever met Meg Cabot in person. While I don’t read her books now, she was a staple on my shelf as a teenager and she really fostered my love of reading.
Glad you had a blast!
I was pretty close to doing that myself, to be honest. I was not very chill hahaha. For as many books as I’ve read by her, I also feel like there are a lot I haven’t, so after meeting her I want to read all of her backlist books I never got to !
thanks for the Meg Cabot recap. sorry I missed this event at Kepler’s. I have read several of the Princess Diaries books thanks to my niece . . . however, the funniest piece of Meg Cabot writing I have read was a short story in a book called Girls Night In, it was laugh out loud hilarious!
I didn’t know she had a story in an anthology! Her work is so expansive it’s hard to keep track!