Meg Cabot's Blog, page 19

Pass the Luck

I just got home from Birmingham, Alabama, where I got to speak at a luncheon in front of a BIG audience of Books-A-Million sales managers and buyers (hi, guys)!

A lot of people think being a writer is just sitting around writing books, then jetting off to sign those books for fans, and then getting served freshly sliced mangoes poolside and going to parties.

(I know I'm partly to blame for this misconception.)

But lot of it is also hard work like this:

And that's only a small fraction of the...

Separated at Birth

Don't I know you from somewhere?

I knew the cover for the new book in the YA series by Robert B. Parker looked a little familiar.

I just couldn't figure out where I'd seen it before.

Then I was like, Oh yeah….

[image error]

That's where!

Well, they're a little similar.

And no, you can't find that Jenny Carroll book anymore, she's the pen name I used to use when I wrote for Simon Pulse (that was my dead cat's name) and she's out of print! You can find that book with a different cover, under Meg Cabot:

(I know, ...

Some Things I've Been Reading* And Watching

Since getting home from Brazil I've been really tired, as you can probably imagine. Who wouldn't be after all those crazy but fun signings; the party bus; the monkeys…

…then coming home to get a flu shot that has caused my arm to inflate like a piñata; all the work I have to catch up on; unpacking and reading all your wonderful cards and letters…

And now repacking because I have to leave on Sunday for a Totally Important Business Trip in Alabama.

Plus my cat, who won't shut up.

But here are...

Party Bus Goes Home

What can I say?

Big love to all the Julianas, Giulianas, Juliannas, and Giuliannas, Marinas and Ana Carolinas, the Luisas, Luizas, Ana Luisas and Maria Luisas, the Andressas and Alessandras, the Isabels and the Marianas, the Helenas and Rafaelas and Raquels, and everyone in between!

(Not to mention a big shout out to all the Thaises, Tamarises, and the one and only Talita)!

Also the TiTis, the ViVis, the Viis, and the Cats!

You were all wonderful and I can't wait to see you again someday.

And...

Princesses and Popstars

I have a LOT to say about what happened at the Bienal. Brazilians. Love. Books. And. Authors.

Really, though, words cannot describe. Except to say: WOW.

And thank you!

(Obrigada!)

But first, it's been pointed out that my post on Clarice Lispector has disappeared!

I can't believe that, especially because the other night at the official Bienal party, Clarice's son Paulo introduced himself (and his lovely wife) to me, because he heard I was a fan of his mother's work!

It was so amazing! ...

BRAZIL!

WHERE I HAVE BEEN: Rio de Janeiro!

WHY I HAVEN'T WRITTEN IN SO LONG: Because I have been in Rio de Janeiro!

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE: You seriously wouldn't believe it I told you. Do you know what time people eat dinner here? 10PM. Yes, 10PM. EVERY NIGHT. The car comes to pick us up at 9 for dinner.

A (very) BRIEF SUMMARY: I'm at the XIV Rio de Janeiro International Book Fair (Bienal do Livro)!

First of all, thanks so much to all the girls who advised me on what to wear! You were completely...

The Other Clarice

Thanks so much for the love, everyone who wrote me with tips on what to wear during my book tour in Brazil over the next two weeks! I think I'm going to be fine.

But if not I'll know who to blame! (Ha, just kidding.)

Anyway, now that I've got the clothing down, I've realized I still need to learn Portuguese.

Fortunately there's YouTube, and this amazing(ly boring, but helpful) video:

So I've got the basics (kind of).

The two top questions Brazilian interviewers keep asking me (in English...

Brazilian SOS

Calling all fashionable Brazilian girls (which, according to my research, is all Brazilian girls):

I'm leaving for my trip to Brazil for the Rio Book Fair and my book signings in Sao Paulo, Curitiba, and Salvador, and I just realized:

I have NO idea what to bring to wear in Brazil. NO IDEA. And I leave, like, NOW!

I need your help! Can any of you email me with some tips and photos?

One thing I'm pretty sure I need to bring is pants, so I can avoid looking like Leann Rimes in this photo:

Poor...

Cancer Girl

So a few months ago, my mom is talking to me on the phone about, oh, I don't know, her boyfriend, aka my former teacher, or whatever, when suddenly she goes, "Oh, remember that time the doctor had to pull your ovary out of your bellybutton?"

Which is not exactly how I would describe having a laparoscopic oophorectomy, but it's my mom, so I go with it.

Me: "Um…Okay. Yeah?"

Mom: "Well, my doctor has to do the same thing, only out of my vagina."

!!!!!!

Okay, first of all, what?

And second of all, W

How to Foster a Hatred For Reading

There was a big article in the NY Times today about kids picking the books they want to read in school, versus assigning them reading from required reading lists.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with the book The Fantastic Voyage (a novelization by Isaac Asimov that was based on the movie of the same name), in which a group of scientists shrink down to microbe size to go inside a diplomat's brain to perform life saving surgery on him.

[image error]

Along the way they are attacked by white blood cells and nearl