Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series, which is currently being published in over 38 countries, was made into two hit movies by Disney. Meg also wrote the Mediator and 1-800-Where-R-You? series (on which the television series, Missing, was based), two All-American Girl books, Teen Idol, Avalon High, How to Be Popular, Pants on Fire, Jinx, a series of novels written entirely in email format (The Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl, and Every Boy’s Got One), and a chick-lit series called Queen of Babble.

From a Q & A with Cabot about The Princess Diaries:

What inspired you to create the character Mia from The Princess Diaries? Do any of Mia's characteristics, qualities, childhood (aside from the princess thing, of course!) relate to your own?

I was inspired to write The Princess Diaries when my mom, after the death of my father, began dating one of my teachers, just as Mia's mom does in the book! I have always had a "thing" for princesses (my parents used to joke that when I was little, I did a lot of insisting that my "real" parents, the king and queen, were going to come get me soon, and that everyone had better start being a LOT nicer to me) so I stuck a princess in the book just for kicks...and VOILA! The Princess Diaries was born.

The voice of Mia, of course, is taken directly from my own diaries that I kept when I was in high school...I still have them, though I am the only one who will ever be allowed to read them. I was pretty much a huge geek in high school—although I was pretty involved with the school's drama group. Most of what's in my journals from those days is about boys, boys, boys, and that's why I am the only one who is allowed to look at them! It is too embarrassing!

New York City is described in such rich detail. Do you feel the setting of a story is important?

I really do think New York City would be...[read on]

Visit Meg Cabot's website.

--Marshal Zeringue