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Meg Cabot

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Meg Cabot
BornMeggin Patricia Cabot
(1967-02-01) February 1, 1967 (age 57)
Bloomington, Indiana, United States
Pen nameMeggin Cabot
Patricia Cabot
Jenny Carroll
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
GenreChick-lit, Mystery, Romance
Notable worksThe Princess Diaries
The Mediator
Avalon High
Website
http://megcabot.com

Meg Cabot (born Meggin Patricia Cabot on February 1, 1967 in Bloomington, Indiana, United States[1][2]) is an American author of romantic and paranormal fiction for teens and adults and used to write under several pen names, but now writes exclusively under her real name, Meg Cabot. She has written and published over fifty books, and is best known for The Princess Diaries, later made by Walt Disney Pictures into two feature films of the same name. Meg's books have been the recipients of numerous awards, including the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, the American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, the Tennessee Volunteer State TASL Book Award, the Book Sense Pick, the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, the IRA/CBC Young Adult Choice - as well as many others (see awards section for specific book wins).[3][4] She has had numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers. Cabot has more than fifteen million copies of her books—children's, young adult, and adult—in print worldwide.

Personal life

After Meg graduated from Indiana University, Cabot moved to New York City, with the original aim of pursuing a career as an illustrator.[1][2] in 1991. However, she soon quit this job and started working as an assistant manager of the freshman dormitory at New York University.[1][2]

Meg Cabot married financial writer and poet Benjamin D. Egnatz on April 1, 1993. Their wedding date,[3] April Fool’s Day, was a deliberate play on her husband's belief that only fools get married in the first place. The wedding was actually an elopement in Italy. Her novel Every Boy's Got One is loosely based on her own elopement. She has two cats, Henrietta (a one eyed cat) and Gem, about whom she often blogs.

After living in Indiana, California, New York, and France, she now splits her time between New York, Key West, Florida and Bloomington, Indiana.[5]

Young adult novels

The Princess Diaries series

Main article: The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries series is the most notable series written by Meg Cabot, and has been published in more than 40 countries.[6] The first book in the series was published in October 2000; the series spent 38 weeks on the New York Times Children's Series Best Sellers List and was sold to publishers in 37 foreign countries.

In 2001 and 2004 respectively, the series was brought to the big screen by Walt Disney Pictures as The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.

Note that in the UK and Australia the books are published under titles based on the volume number (e.g.: Mia Goes Fourth).

Illustrated by Chelsey McLaren:

  • Princess Lessons (March 2003)
  • Perfect Princess (March 2004)
  • Holiday Princess (November 2005)

On January 6, 2009, a companion book to Volume X: Forever Princess entitled Ransom My Heart was published under the name Princess of Genovia, Mia Thermopolis by Avon Books, the adult division of HarperCollins, the Princess Diaries series publisher. All author proceeds from the novel, which was printed on 100% recycled paper, go to Greenpeace.

The Mediator series

The Mediator Series is about a 16-year-old girl named Susannah "Suze" Simon. Suze is a mediator, whose role is to help ghosts finish their business on earth so they can pass on to the afterlife. To this end, she can see, touch, communicate with, hit, punch, and 'kick ghost butt' when she has to. The series begins just after Suze's widowed mother marries Andy Ackerman, so Suze has moved to Carmel, California, to live in an old house complete with three stepbrothers. To make matters worse, her bedroom is haunted by an attractive male ghost named Jesse de Silva, who died 150 years earlier. Suze remembers that back in New York a fortune teller had told her that she was a mediator (which proved correct) and that she would only fall in love once but it would last for an eternity. Her one love for eternity just might be Jesse. But does he love her back?

The first four books were originally released under the pseudonym Jenny Carroll (this was when Cabot was working with different publishing houses). Haunted was the first title to have Meg Cabot's name on it. The first four books were later reprinted under Cabot's real name in 2005 with new cover art when Twilight was released in hardcover. The UK titles for the series were as follows: Shadowland- Love You to Death, Ninth Key- High Stakes, Reunion- Mean Spirits, Darkest Hour- Young Blood, Haunted- Grave Doubts, and Twilight- Heaven Sent.[7]

The Mediator series rights have been sold to producer Julia Pistor, and will be made into a movie in the near future.

In December 2010, HarperTeen reprinted a omnibus edition titled The Mediator: Shadowland and Ninth Key.

In 2011 and 2012, Cabot discussed on her personal blog the possibility of a seventh Mediator novel and the series becoming a TV show instead of a movie.

1-800-WHERE-R-U series

  • When Lightning Strikes (February 2001)
  • Code Name Cassandra (August 2001)
  • Safe House (March 2002)
  • Sanctuary (September 2002)
  • Missing You (December 26, 2006)

This series revolves around Jessica Mastriani, an ordinary 16-year-old girl given extraordinary psychic powers after being struck by lightning. Her powers allow her to know the exact location of missing children; after seeing a picture of a person, they appear in her dreams. The first four books take place over less than a year, and chronicle her attempts to help missing children while trying to avoid the scrutiny of the federal government. The fifth book, published four years after the fourth book, picks up the story line after Jess has turned 19. Over the course of the books, Jess is romantically involved with Rob Wilkins, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks.

The first four books were written under Cabot's pseudonym, Jenny Carroll. After poor sales, the series was discontinued. Sales improved when the books were re-released in 2004 under Cabot's real name. Cabot was unhappy with the discontinuation; she stated that she wanted to take the series up to eight books. Her current publishing house agreed to publish one more installment. Missing You was released in December 2006 and that was the end of the series.

The 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU series was the basis for the television show Missing, which aired on the Lifetime cable network for three seasons from 2003 to 2006.[6]

The series has been reprinted in the US in an omnibus edition, and retitled Vanished.

All-American Girl series

The series revolves around Samantha Madison, a Washington, D.C. native, who, while skipping her after-school art class, saves the life of the president, and becomes a national hero. The two books are about her rise to fame and her love life with the president's son, David, who appears to want to take their relationship to the next level in the second book. There is also a short story called Another All American Girl in the anthology Our White House:Looking In, Looking Out, about Samantha's experience in the White House.

Avalon High series

  • Avalon High, December 2005
  • Avalon High: Coronation (three-book manga series)
    • The Merlin Prophecy (July 3, 2007)
    • Homecoming (June 24, 2008)
    • Hunter's Moon (September 1, 2009)

There is a sequel to the first Avalon High novel. However, instead of a regular novel, it is part of a new partnership HarperCollins brokered with Tokyopop (a leading United States manga company). It has been released as a three-book manga series, called Avalon High: Coronation. The first manga, titled The Merlin Prophecy, was released on July 3, 2007 and was drawn by manga artist Jinky Coronado, who does the Banzai Girl manga. She also illustrated the other two manga.

The Avalon High film was shown on Disney Channel on November 12, 2010. Britt Robertson played Allie, while Gregg Sulkin played Will.

The Airhead trilogy

This three-book series is about Emerson Watts, an overachieving high school student. She wakes up after an accident, and discovers that her brain has been transplanted into the body of teen supermodel Nikki Howard. Now, she is no longer judged by her grades but by her looks, and she has to fight the worldwide corporation, Stark Enterprises, if she wants to find out what really happened to her old life and to protect her friends and family.

The Abandon Trilogy

  • Abandon (26 April 2011)
  • Underworld (8 May 2012)
  • Awaken (TBA)

Blurb for the first book in the trilogy, Abandon:

She knows what it's like to die. Now Death wants her back.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce knows what happens to us when we die. That's how she met John Hayden, the mysterious stranger who's made returning to normal life—or at least life as Pierce knew it before the accident—next to impossible. Though she thought she escaped him—starting a new school in a whole new place—it turns out she was wrong. He finds her. What does John want from her? Pierce thinks she knows... just like she knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven. But she can't stay away from him, either, especially since he's always there when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most. But if she lets herself fall any further, she might find herself back in the place she fears the most. And when Pierce discovers the shocking truth, that’s exactly where John sweeps her:

The Underworld.'

Other young adult fiction

Children's novels

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls

  • Moving Day (2008)
  • The New Girl (2008)
  • Best Friends and Drama Queens (2009)
  • Stage Fright (2009)
  • Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out (2010)
  • Blast From the Past (2010)

Adult novels

Boy series

These books are loosely connected romantic comedies told in emails, IMs, and brief journal entries. The Boy Next Door was a Kelly Rippa Book Club Pick on LIVE! with Regis and Kelly.

Heather Wells series

  • Size 12 is Not Fat, December 27, 2005
  • Size 14 is Not Fat Either, November 28, 2006
  • Big Boned, December 26, 2007
  • Size 12 and Ready to Rock, July 10, 2012
  • Size 12 is the New Black, 2013

The Heather Wells series is an adult mystery series that features former pop star Heather Wells. Heather was once a teen star, but was fired by her recording company when she asked to sing songs she had written instead of the ones they composed for her. The book opens just after Heather has gotten a job as a residence house coordinator at New York College and quickly discovers that young girls in the dorm are being murdered.

The second book was originally titled Phat Chick, but this was changed by the publishers to It's Not Over Until The Size 12 Chick Sings, and finally, Size 14 is Not Fat Either, which continued Heather's amateur sleuthing adventures.

The third book in the series is published under the title "Size Doesn't Matter" in Australia and Great Britain. (In other countries, such as the U.S. and Canada, it was entitled "Big Boned".) In 'Size Doesn't Matter', Heather solves another mystery, and is involved in a love triangle with Tad, her boyfriend, and Cooper, whom she secretly loves, but rejected her.

In March, 2008 the series was contracted for two additional books, which should be released in 2012 and 2013.

Queen of Babble series

  • Queen of Babble (May 2006)
  • Queen of Babble in the Big City (June 2007)
  • Queen of Babble Gets Hitched (June 2008/April 2009 - Paperback)

Queen of Babble debuted at #27 on the New York Times Bestseller List[citation needed]. The main character of this romantic comedy, Lizzie Nichols, is a recent college grad who isn't sure what she wants out of life. All she knows is that she can't keep a secret, even her own. This causes her many romantic, friendship, and work-related problems, especially after moving to New York City after graduating from college.

Insatiable series

  • Insatiable (June 2010)
  • Overbite (July 2011)

The first book in Meg's latest series for adult readers, Insatiable, was released on June 8, 2010, and became an instant New York Times bestseller. This series is a modern retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but with a twist. The main character, Meena Harper, has a special gift: she can foretell people's death . . . just not her own. Even worse, she's being forced by the television show for which she works to write vampires into the plot due to their popularity. Meena, however, hates vampires (she doesn't believe in them, and doesn't like how they always go after — and kill—girls). This complicates things when she finds out from Alaric Wulf, a demon-hunter with a secret unit of the Vatican called the Palatine Guard, that vampires are attacking girls all over her native New York City, and that her new boyfriend might be one of them . . . Lucien Antonescu, Dracula's son, the Prince of Darkness. A sequel to Insatiable called Overbite[8] will be out in the US in July 2011. In the UK the title is referred to as "Craving."

Romance novels

These novels were written under Cabot's pseudonym Patricia Cabot:

Written under Cabot's characters

  • Ransom My Heart (January 2009) - Written by Amelia "Mia" Thermopolis, Princess of Genovia with help from Meg Cabot

Other works

  • She Went All the Way, December 2002 (as Meggin Cabot)

Short stories

  • "The Christmas Captive" (as Patricia Cabot), included in the adult romance anthology A Season in the Highlands, which was published in December 2000.
  • "Girl’s Guide to New York through the Movies" included in Metropolis Found: New York Is Book Country 25th Anniversary Collection, published in August 2003.
  • "Kate the Great" included in Thirteen: Thirteen Stories That Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen, published October 2003.
  • "Party Planner" included in the adult short story collection Girls' Night In, published September 2004.
  • "Connie "Hunter" Williams, Psychic Teacher" included in the teen short story collection Friends: Stories About New Friends, Old Friends, and Unexpectedly True Friends, published August 2005.
  • "Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls" included in the CosmoGIRL! short story collection Shining On, published April 2006.
  • "Reunion" included in the adult short story collection Girls' Night Out, published June 2006.
  • "Cry, Linda, Cry: Judy Blume’s Blubber and The Cruelest Thing in the World" included in Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned From Judy Blume, published Spring 2007.
  • "Ask Annie" included in Midnight Feast, published July 2007.
  • "The Exterminator's Daughter" included in Prom Nights From Hell, published May 2007.
  • "Every Girl's Dream" A short story written by Cabot out of the Mediator Series.
  • "Princess Prettypants" A short story in the anthology Zombie vs. Unicorns published in September 2010.
  • The Night Hunter A short story in the anthology Fear: 13 Stories of Horror and Suspense published in September 2010.
  • "The Protectionist" included in the young adult short story collection What You Wish For, published September 2011.

Screenplays

  • Early versions of the screenplay for Disney's Ice Princess, released in 2005, were written by Meg Cabot

Film Adaptations

In 2001, the film version of the Princess Diaries was released. The film starred Anne Hathaway as Amelia "Mia" Thermopolis and Julie Andrews as Clarisse Renaldi.

The Disney Channel original movie version of Avalon High premiered late fall 2010.[9] the film starred Gregg Sulkin as A. William Wagner and Britt Robertson as Allie Pennington (Ellie Harrison)

An Untitled Queen Of Babble movie is currently In Development.[10] The book has been optioned by Jeffrey Sharp of Sharp Independent, with Kristen Bell slated to star.[11]

Awards

  • Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best British Isles Historical Romance, 1999, for An Improper Proposal
  • Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers selection, Best Book selection, American Library Association, and New York Public Library Teen Book for the New Millennium citation, all 2001, all for The Princess Diaries
  • Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, best young adult category, Mystery Writers of America, 2003, for Safe House
  • The Princess Diaries was voted "one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels" by the British public as part of "The Big Read," British Broadcasting Corporation, 2003.
  • Queen of Teen nomination (2008) for her work
  • "Airhead" nominated for Teen Choice Book of the Year, 2009

Charity

Meg has teamed with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Starlight Children’s Foundation to mentor seriously and terminally ill children.

Events

In March 2012, Meg helped raise money for Authors for Henryville to benefit tornado victims in Indiana.

In 2010, Meg donated proceeds from books purchased at the Kappa Book Fair and Dinner to the Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver. The hospital specializes in spinal cord and brain injuries.

In 2009, Meg held a Tiara Auction to benefit the New York Public Library. Tiaras decorated by celebrities, authors, and designers such as Julie Andrews, Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Lauren Conrad, Mo Rocca, and Julianne Moore were auctioned and raised over $15,000 for teen programs at the library.

Short Stories and Books Benefitting Charities

In 2012, Meg’s short story, “Wooden Animal,” appeared in Significant Objects, an anthology that benefitted Girls Write Now.

And in 2011, Meg contributed the story “The Protectionist” to the anthology What You Wish For. One hundred percent of proceeds benefitted the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, which builds libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad.

All of Meg’s proceeds from her story, “The Exterminator’s Daughter,” in the anthology Prom Night’s From Hell, benefit First Book, a nonprofit organization connecting book publishers and community organizations to provide access to new books for children in need.

All of Meg’s proceeds from The Princess Diaries, Volume 4 1/2, Project Princess, go to benefit The Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York City. Editions sold to publishers in 10 countries outside the US benefitted local charities in those countries.

All of Meg’s proceeds from the novel Ransom My Heart by Mia Thermopolis, Princess of Genovia (with help from Meg Cabot) go to benefit Greenpeace (Ransom My Heart is also printed on recycled paper). The proceeds from sales of Ransom My Heart to publishers in 8 countries have also gone to Mia’s favorite charity.

Meg's story, "The Night Hunter," was included in the anthology Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense. All author proceeds from this book benefit the Reading Is Fundamental literacy program for children.

In 2008, Meg contributed a story (“Another All-American Girl”) to the anthology, Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. All proceeds benefit the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.

Meg’s also written short stories for anthologies that have benefitted the Teenage Cancer Trust, War Child, No Strings, Lisa Libraries, Kids Company, and the New York Public Libraries, among other organizations


References

  1. ^ a b c Meg Cabot Biography
  2. ^ a b c Historical Romance Writers Author: Patricia Cabot
  3. ^ a b http://www.megcabot.com/princessdiaries/pd_v1_princessdiaries.php
  4. ^ http://www.megcabot.com/allamericangirl/aag_allamericangirl.php
  5. ^ Biography of Meg Cabot, Meg Cabot
  6. ^ a b Meg Cabot Biography – Airhead Author – CosmoGIRL!
  7. ^ MegCabot.dom
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ "Disney Channel & Disney XD Present Programming Plans for 2010–11 – TV Ratings, Nielsen Ratings, Television Show Ratings". TVbytheNumbers.com. 2010-03-03. Retrieved 2010-07-11.
  10. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183920/
  11. ^ http://www.megcabot.com/?s=queen+of+babble&x=0&y=0
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Meg Cabot.
  • "Meg Cabot." Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 50. Gale Group, 2003. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006.
  • MegCabot.com

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