Meet Meg Cabot
10:30 in Rennes.
As I make my way to the little conference room where Meg Cabot will meet all her fans, there is no one. A staff member let me know that I am the first one to arrive. Quite stunned (I mean, we are talking about Meg Cabot the writer who probably changed the life of hundreds - if not thousands - of girls), I take a sit on the front row (come on! I don't want to miss a single thing). Some girls around my age join me about 20 minutes later.
Meg Cabot finally joins us around 11:10 due to some delay with her train. She is absolutely amazing and beautiful inside and out. She is relax and funny, just like her characters. Here is the little interview we had with her. Try not to fall in love with her ;)
- Allie, Olivia, Mia... All these stories are written like a diary. Why did you choose this format?
I had a diary myself since I was 9. Actually many ideas of my books come from my own diary, which explains why I have so many ideas and why the stories I write can be considered as very realistic as it is taken from my own diary. Except the part of being a princess I mean. So in a way, I am kind of cheating because I just go through my own diary to find some ideas.
- What kind of teenager were you?
I think I was more like Suzanna from the Mediator with the leather jacket but I did not see ghosts. Like Samantha (heroine from another one of her series) I have an interest in art. The only thing is that I would have loved to find out that my father and mother are king and queen but it did not happen. I also loved theater and I really wanted to become an actress. But when I was on stage repeating the words of someone else, I realized that the real power is to be the writer.
- We all know another famous diary that had been published a few decades ago The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Did it inspire you in any way?
Wow! This is a very serious diary. I took some inspirations from fictional diaries but I like to think that mine are more lighthearted diaries. As I said before, I use my own diary a lot but I did not write down everything in my own books because obviously my mom reads all my books and I do not want her to know everything.
- Allie, Olivia, Mia... Your stories focus around girls. What does being a feminist mean to you?
For me, it is important to be socially, economically and there is another word that I cannot remember, equally. My mum is a feminist. I remember that in one of my first job at Sears we had to move the vacuum cleaner from one side of the store to another one. Men were paid $0.35 more than women. We all know that women do the job better and faster (laugh!). So we confronted the manager about this problem and he told us it was normal because they were men. Anyway, we had a huge fight about it and we were all fired.
- In Princess Diaries, Mia's grandmother asks Mia to do a list of the 10 women she admires the most. Who would be your top 10?
My mum would be my first one. Then, there would be some important women in my family, such as aunts and grandmothers. Wow! There are so many people actually who influenced me: neighbors, teachers... I mean, women do not have to be famous to have a great influence on you. Just to explain you how to put on your mascara before an interview so you can look nice is already quite influencial. As for the celebrities, I would probably take the same list as Mia. Hillary Clinton was on it.
There is also a writing teacher back in New-York who was purely amazing. I was the kind of girl who wrote funny stories during her class while my classmates would actually write very sad stories about suicide for example. I was the only one writing funny stories so one day I tried to write a sad story. My teacher pulled me apart and asked "What are you doing?" and I just told her that I thought I had to write sad stories because that's what everyone was doing and she replied "You have a talent to make people laugh. It is very rare! You should pursue that. Everyone can write sad stories and make people cry." I did as she said and I am actually the only one being published from my former classmates (laugh). But when you look at ceremonies like the Oscars, they only reward sad movies. But I think I got used to the idea that I will never have an Oscar.
- Mia is very engaged. She is vegetarian, she is against McDonald's, she supports Greenpeace... Are you a bit like her?
Actually Mia is based on my cousin. I love having a nice cheeseburger from time to time. I am writer but I am more an observer. Writers do not have time to engage. One of my writing teachers told me "If you want to write, you need to stop talking and start observing".
- You are writing stories from a girl's point of view, will you ever write a story from a guy's point of view?
Well, I always said no a few years back. But now I do not know. Maybe. I have two little brothers I could probably find some inspiration of but they are crazy.
- It is funny because most of the girls dream of being a princess when they are young but not Mia. Can we say that Mia is not any typical girl?
Is there any typical teenagers? I think there are different type of girls.
- In Mia's list of the 10 women she admires the most, she cites Lady Diana and Grace Kelly. Are you more Lady Di or are you more Grace Kelly?
I actually wrote Grace Kelly because my mother likes her but I think she was less impactful than Lady Di. I will always remember when Lady Diana was the first celebrity to embrace someone who had AIDS. It was very important because at time in the U.S, the President thought that AIDS was not something important.
- Usually, Disney princesses are the first princesses little girls know about but Mia doesn't like Disney princess because she finds Disney misogynist. Who is your favorite Disney princess?
Now I can say Princess Leia because Star Wars is now Disney. She saved the whole empire, saved many lives... But I also like Belle from Beauty and the Beast and I am so excited for the new movie.
- Ironically Princess Diaries has been adapted by Disney. What did you think of the movie?
Oh, right! I remember that Whitney Houston - who was the producer - kept calling me while I was working on another book of mine. They still need to pay me by the way (laugh). She told me they wanted to do the movie but they had one problem: they had to kill the father who is a very important character in the books. I asked them "Why would they do such thing?". She told me they found a great, famous actress to play the grandma and they wanted to give her a much bigger part with the father's lines. So I asked them "Who is this actress?" When they told me it was Julie Andrews, I told them "Just kill the father". I liked the movie and I liked it even more because many girls bought my books afterwards. However, I received many letters from these girls that said I had the book wrong because the father was still alive and had a great influence on Mia. But I love when people tell me Princess Diaries are the first books they ever read. It is just amazing! So it is my favorite movie (laugh).
- On your blog, you say that you would like to see Princess Diaries adapted as a musical. Where is it at?
Some musical producers are working on it. But that's it. The priority right now is the third Princess Diaries movie, in which I will have a small part. I asked them if they intended on making it a musical but they said no (laugh).
- You are a very well-known writer and you also illustrate some books. Why do you illustrate and why do you illustrate some books and not all of them?
I actually studied Illustration and I found it was the right time to use my education for something.
- You seem to be very francophile. Mia spends her holidays in France, Genova can be seen as Monaco and Allie went to Paris.
I lived in France for a year when I was 6 years old because my father had been promoted. He taught school in Grenoble for a year. I should speak a better French, sorry.
- What do you like about France?
I love cheese, food in general, wine, people. The language is so beautiful compared to English.
- On your blog, you talk about a little girl from a book who we know quite well in France: Martine. Have you read Martine?
Yes, I read them all. They were my first books as I was 6. I learned to read with them.
- Will you continue to write Mia's stories?
Yes, I just do not know when.
- Will you continue Olivia's stories too, Mia's half-sister?
Yes. Mia's father had adventures when he was younger, which led to Olivia's birth. Olivia is the chance for me to continue writing stories for a younger generation. What is funny is the difference between countries. When mums bought Princess Diaries books after their girls watched the movie, I received many hatred mails because there were a lot of French-kissing in the books that were not in the movie. America has quite a trouble with the kissing parts, so I eased up a bit. France is very different. A nine-year old girl came at a signing-event with the first Abandon book and she told me "Not enough kissing". Personally, I prefer the French culture for that (laugh).
- But it could be frustrating for Mia's readers who are now older to go back to a younger reading.
Well, Mia and Michael will be present in Olivia's books.
- Do people follow you from their first reads with you, then teenage books and finally adulthood?
Yes, quite a lot actually.
- How do you manage to write so many books?
It is quite tough but I write with a friend of mine called Rachel. We do what we call the 5 by 5 or 5. Basically, we had to write 5 pages by 5 o'clock or we had to donate $5 to Donald Trump. My first motivation was fear (laugh). But now that he is president, I do not really know how we are going to do that. But usually, it starts with an idea and I wait until I am ready to write it. It can take up to a year before it is finally mature. Then I contact editors who could be interested in publishing my book. They have me a deadline and I start writing two months before the deadline is due.
- Will we have Mia's reaction to Donald Trump's election?
I do not know yet.
- Where do you live?
I live in Key West in Florida, which is probably the most unpopular region at the moment.
- Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Indiana, which is also very unpopular. Maybe it is just me who curses every place I go (laugh). But then I lived for a few years in New-York.
- Did living in Indiana motivate you to write?
It sure did! There was nothing to do there but write.
- Do you have one last story to tell us?
When my last book was released, I went to the first book-signing in Indiana. An old friend of mine came and he told me "I read your book and I have to ask you something. At the very first page, you talk about Summer Walters being the biggest bitch in town. Were you inspired by the Summer Walters who was our classmate?" And I had totally forgotten that I had a Summer Walters in my class. He then called her just in front of me and I think she hates me now. So if you want to be a writer, remember all the names of people you went to school with (laugh).
**** END ****
And this is how I came back home with a huge smile on my face :D
Tags: books, writer, Meg Cabot, signing-event, interview
0 commentaires: