Meg Cabot Biography - life, children, parents, name, story, death, school, mother, young - 1 views
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Shelby Tomlinson on 25 Apr 11There is lots of info on Meg Cabot. I don't have enough time to read ALL of it!!
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February 1, 1967 • Bloomington, Indiana Author
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Meg Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, in Bloomington, Indiana. She was an avid reader from a very early age, at first gobbling up comic books and science fiction at the local library.
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At one point, Cabot, who began publishing in 1998, was pumping out a novel almost every month; by early 2006 she had published forty-four works of fiction.
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At one point, Cabot, who began publishing in 1998, was pumping out a novel almost every month; by early 2006 she had published forty-four works of fiction.
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In 2000, however, Cabot hit the jackpot when she penned The Princess Diaries, a young adult novel that quickly caught on with readers primarily because the wryly humorous author was able to accurately capture "teen-speak." In 2001, The Princess Diaries was adapted for the big screen by Disney and its popularity catapulted Cabot from writer to celebrity.
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In 2004, the movie The Princess Diaries 2 was released, which further followed the escapades of Mia, the Princess of Genovia. A few months prior, Cabot signed a seven-figure deal with her publisher, HarperCollins, to continue writing the Princess series and to build on her other young adult series. As Cabot told Teenreads.com, "I hope to write about [Mia] as long as people want to keep reading about her."
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s of fiction
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While cooling off in the library, Cabot soon discovered classic literature, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, by southern writer Harper Lee (1926–), and Jane Eyre, written by English novelist Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855). Jane Eyre, the story of the romance between a man and his daughter's nanny, in particular, had a lasting effect on young Cabot. As she explained in a 2004 interview with Christina Nunez, "It introduced me to the world of romance, which I have never left."
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In addition to reading, Cabot was also obsessed with princesses.
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"I was a traditional Disney-princess worshipper," she told Trudy Wyss of Borders. "You know, I had the Snow White birthday cake when I was six, drew Cinderella endlessly on my notepads." Cabot read about princesses (her favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast ) and fantasized about being a real-life princess, often telling her mom and dad that her "real" parents, the king and queen, would arrive one day in Indiana to find her.
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"It's one thing to be
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"I am living proof that it is possible to profit from being a high school freak."
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princess of a kingdom; it is quite another to be princess of an entire planet!"
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While in high school Cabot began to write her own stories because, as she claimed in an Onion Street online interview, there was absolutely nothing else to do.
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In addition, Cabot wrote for the high school newspaper and kept detailed journals. She also was active in after-school activities, including choir, theater, and the art club.
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Although she enjoyed writing Cabot never planned on becoming a professional author. Instead, she dreamed of being an actress or a veterinarian.
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Unfortunately, she flunked algebra and did rather poorly on the math portion of her SATs.
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Following graduation from high school, Cabot decided to study art at the University of Indiana, where she could attend tuition-free since her father was a professor.
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In 1991, with a bachelor of fine arts degree in hand, the budding artist moved to New York City to pursue a career as an illustrator. Instead, she landed a job as a freshman dormitory assistant manager at New York University. It was not exactly her dream job, but there were periods when work was slow, which gave her plenty of free time to return to her early love: writing.
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Seven years and thousands of rejection letters later (Cabot claims she has a mail bag full of rejections), her first novel was finally published. It was an historical romance called Where Roses Grow Wild (1998), and it was written under the pen name, or alias, of Patricia Cabot. Several more romances followed in 1999 and 2000. At the same time, Cabot was busy trying her hand at a novel, called The Princess Diaries, that was aimed at younger readers. Even though she was a published author, Cabot's young adult novel was rejected seventeen times before it was finally purchased by HarperCollins and released in 2000.
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The inspiration for Princess came from an event that happened in Cabot's own life. After her father died her mother began dating her daughter's former art teacher. Cabot was so horrified that she began keeping a diary. She expanded the diary entries into a story about a ninth-grader named Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, also known as Mia, whose mother is dating her algebra teacher. Cabot also visited her old high school diaries to add a true teen voice to her character, a gangly, shy freshman being raised by her single mom in a Greenwich Village loft in New York City.
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n addition to facing the trials and tribulations of teenage life, Mia's world is turned upside-down when she discovers that her father is actually the prince of a tiny European country called Genovia and that she is next in l
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Critics gave mixed reviews to the The Princess Diaries, claiming that at times it was over the top and cartoonish.
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"The reason girls are drawn to the book is an element of naughtiness—ooh, I'm reading something that's not supposed to be read."
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A few reviewers, however, were troubled by some of the questionable situations that appear in the book. For example, Mia's parents were never married, and her mother has a boyfriend who sleeps over. In her All About Romance interview, Cabot speaks to the objection by saying The Princess Diaries is timely. "It really does reflect modern-day popular culture, as well as modern-day teen problems and concerns. Many librarians (and parents, as well as teachers) have pointed to those scenes in particular as examples of timely issues, considering how many kids now have single parents or have friends with single parents."
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Regardless of the critics, readers were drawn to the book in huge groups.
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In just a few short years The Princess Diaries had become a mini-dynasty with Meg Cabot as its queen
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The Princess Diaries movies may not have been quite as successful if eighteen-year-old newcomer Anne Hathaway had not been chosen to play Mia Thermopolis, the nerdy American who is transformed into European royalty. In fact, even critics who panned the film consistently praised the fresh-faced, fledgling actress. As David DiCerto of the Catholic News Service wrote, "The mediocre material is elevated somewhat by the buoyant and beautiful Hathaway, whose sunny smile could light up a small kingdom of two."
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nne Hathaway was born on November 12, 1982, in Brooklyn, New York, the middle child and only daughter of Gerald Hathaway, an attorney, and Kate McCauley, a singer and actress.
