I just saw writer Meg Cabot speak at the LA Times Festival of Books. I love her more than ever now!
Meg is a terrific public speaker - funny, smart, self deprecating, and best of all, inspirational. Today she talked about where she gets her ideas, making us all laugh with stories of how an abandoned dog named Jack Bauer showed up on her porch. It turned out he was owned by an evil man who looked like a vampire... hence the idea for her new book Insatiable - about an evil man who IS a vampire, and the woman who takes him down.
Meg's all about girl power, whether it's in her novels for tweens, teens, or adults. She kept telling us we could make our dreams come true, if we just persist. For me, as a writer, it was particularly wonderful (in a weird way) to hear her say that she'd gotten thousands of rejections over the course of years before she landed her agent. 25 books, a few movies, and millions of dollars later, she still remembers how hard those years of rejection were. BUT - persistence paid off.
She wants us all to believe in ourselves. She, after a difficult childhood with an alcoholic father, managed to do it, so we can too.
I so want to read her books now. This whole book tour thing is most enlightening. Once you get to like the author personally, you really want to keep her around by having her books in your hand and in your head. Genius!
If you get a chance to see Meg speak, I highly recommend it. Meanwhile - keep believing in yourself, keep working hard, and your dreams can come true.
4 comments:
Thanks, Nina! I had to miss Saturday's session, so this is great. I did see her on a panel on Sunday and she was just as funny and insightful. I too, liked when she talked about having 5 years of rejections before she was published. She, and the other speakers on the panel, stressed that you have to like writing for it's own sake, in order to persevere—it could take years to get published.!
So glad you got a chance to see her too! I'm sorry I couldn't make it Sunday and go to more of the YA panels and stuff at the YA stage. But thank goodness for the LAT Festival of Books!
Saw you on Meg's blog. You go, girl! I have found her such an inspiration. Her energy is contagious. I'd love to see her speak but she doesn't really hang out in Tennessee much! You and I share the same last name, by the way, although I write under my maiden name. Stephanie Berry is my married name.
Stephanie Berry! What a lovely name! Congratulate your husband for me. I'm not married, so I've always been Berry, and I'm very fond of it. So I can understand you writing under the name you were born with.
I am fortunate to be in a place where great speakers like Meg tend to come. she's just as cool as her website, books, and blog make her seem.
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