Fiction author Meg Cabot reigns with younger readers

By Stephanie Dunnewind
Seattle Times staff reporter

	MICHELLE KUMATA / THE SEATTLE TIMES
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Meg Cabot is not 14. Or even 20. Really.

Sure, she channels the slang and pop-culture references of high-schoolers in her popular romance novels, "The Princess Diaries" and "All-American Girl." OK, she actually talks like them, with phrases such as "I was just, like, well," mixed in her speech. And yeah, she did dye part of her hair pink, to match her new book, the fifth volume in the "Princess Diaries" line, "Princess in Pink."

But she swears she is, in fact, 37.

"I get e-mails from teens who are suspicious about how I came across my ability to think the way their friends do," says Cabot from her New York residence, which she shares with her husband and cat. "They'll ask, 'How old are you really?' "

But the knack comes not from age but experience. "I never forgot what it's like to be a teen," says Cabot, who describes herself as a "great big freak" in high school. "It was the most traumatic period of my life. It's ingrained in my brain."

Meg Cabot appearances Meg Cabot will read from her new book, "Princess in Pink" (HarperCollins, $15.99), and answer questions at three bookstore appearances. • 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, All For Kids Books, 2900 N.E. Blakely, Seattle, 206-526-2768. • 7 p.m. Wednesday, Barnes & Noble, 2700 N.E. University Village, Seattle, 206-517-4107. • 7 p.m. Thursday, Secret Garden Bookshop, 2214 N.W. Market, Seattle, 206-789-5006.

So while the lingo might vary — Cabot watches MTV and stays in touch with teens' some 200 e-mails a day — the feeling of being completely out of it hasn't.

Teen girls can relate to Mia — despite the fact she's a princess — because she has really bad hair, a really big mouth and feet that look like skis. And they can see themselves in Sam, who dresses entirely in black and mocks her popular cheerleader sister, even as Sam saves the president's life and falls in love with the First Son.

Cabot hopes to write more books than her age but so far she's only up to 35, which include adult and young adult books written under several pseudonyms. She's sold more than 3 million books, helped by Disney's 2001 hit movie version of "The Princess Diaries" with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. Its sequel is slated for August.

Unlike the book series, which still follows Mia in high school, "Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement" was created entirely by Disney and is set post-college. Cabot says she plans to end her series with Mia's graduation.

	Cabot has written 35 books, including "Perfect Princess" and her newest, "Princess in Pink."

But don't worry: That could take a while. "Princess in Pink" takes place over a scant two-week period, with Mia's prom woes supplying its dramatic tension. Book 5 barely gets the lead character to spring of her freshman year.

"Perfect Princess," a spinoff book that describes real and fictional princesses, was released late last month. Cabot's other advice book from the series is "Princess Lessons."

"I get a lot of e-mails asking for advice," Cabot explains. "I try to tell them, 'Well, when you e-mail a boy 20 times a day ... Maybe you should let him e-mail you once first.' There's clearly a very grave need for this kind of thing."

This summer comes "Teen Idol," about a high-school newspaper's advice columnist. In the fall, her paranormal Mediator series will be reissued under her real name, with the sixth book out in late 2004 or early 2005.

The Lifetime TV show "1-800-MISSING" is based on Cabot's young adult series "1-800-WHERE-R-YOU" (written as Jenny Carroll). Raven Simone (of the Disney Channel's tween comedy "That's So Raven") is cast as the lead in the movie version of "All-American Girl," which is still in production.

Cabot's talent for portraying teens originally earned her only rejections, as publishers feared the books would be quickly outdated with their "whatevers" and references to Heath Ledger and Gwen Stefani. "I was just like, well, that's why the books strike such a chord with kids," Cabot says. "The books talk about stuff that's familiar to them."

Her first-person narratives include Top 10 lists ("Top 10 Reasons I Can't Stand My Sister"), instant-message exchanges, homework notes, compilations ("Movies That Feature The Prom as Prominent Plot Device"), copies of school newspapers and plenty of capitals and exclamation points, as in "HELLO!!!!"

For those who question the boy-crazy characters, Cabot assures them, "I was totally obsessed with boys, and I think I turned out OK. When people complain that all the characters do is think about boys, I say, 'Well, didn't you?' It's true to the age."

At the same time, "I do make sure it's understood that getting boys is the icing on the cake, not the cake. Finding themselves is the first goal. And usually, in doing that, they also get the boy."

Unlike some teen romances, where the ugly-duck-turned-swan joins the in-crowd and gets the hunky guy, Cabot's main characters aren't concerned with popularity.

"I hate that," she says of the popular-crowd transformation. "It's so stupid and so not true."

Indeed, "it's good to be a freak when you're a teen and feel bad. Then when you graduate, things can only get better. If you're popular, you're in for a shock, because suddenly life is hard and you have to work for stuff."

In addition to counseling teens, she comforts adult friends who read their teenage daughters' diaries. She warns them not to take rants personally. "All I wrote about was boys and how much I hated my mother," says Cabot, who kept a diary in high school but now won't risk her private thoughts falling into the "wrong hands."

But she does have a confession that will prove once and for all she's closer to 40 than 20. When it comes to "hotties," she'd pick Aragorn over Legolas. But though she's a Viggo Mortensen fan, it's her young readers' — and of course her characters' — adored Orlando Bloom who will show up "in the next three or four books."

Stephanie Dunnewind: sdunnewind@seattletimes.com

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