I Want Her Life: Meg Cabot

I want to be Meg Cabot when I grow up.

Meg Cabot was the first author I remember being aware of as a person. That sounds weird ... but when I was younger, Ann M. Martin and Francine Pascal and Carolyn B. Cooney all seemed like names on a book cover. When I came to my second go-round with YA, which was in my early twenties, I started to think of the authors as actual people. Meg Cabot was someone who actually sat down at a computer somewhere and made up the words inside the pages. Which as far as I was concerned was pretty rad.

I set out to learn more about her, which it turned out was a pretty easy task since Meg was an early Internet adopter and had (and still has) one of the coolest, most comprehensive author websites. She also had A BLOG. Which was pretty awesome, because now I could find out more about how she came to put all those hilarious words on all those pages. Meg's was the first author blog I actually paid attention to, the first one to which I subscribed, and it's still my favorite.

So if I were going to trade lives with any author, even just for a day, it would be Ms. Meg Cabot. Why?

• She's hilarious. I learned from her blog that she doesn't have to work very hard to make her books funny, because she's pretty effing hilarious in real life. From her silly videos to her crazy advice column, I never cease to laugh at her writing.
• She gets to live in Key West, which is endless summer. But she gets to visit her sweet condo in Manhattan. But she also gets to visit her farmhouse in Bloomington, IN. I know what you're thinking ... Key West, Manhattan, and BLOOMINGTON? But you see, I did two degrees at good old Indiana University, and over the course of my seven years in Bloomington I fell head over heels in love with the small, quirky, Midwestern, liberal, hippie college town. I'd give my right middle toe to go back as frequently as she does.
• She gets to go on tour. Like a rock star. Which she totally is, in my world.
• She has an endless supply of sassy heels and cute, frothy, vintage-inspired dresses.

 But while all of those things are good and well, there's really this one, big, giant, gargantuan, oversized gorilla reason why I want her life.

THE GIRL CAN WRITE. A LOT.

Every time I'm staring at a blank page and a blinking cursor, my mouse huddling over Firefox and Tweetdeck poised for hours of procrastination, I just think, "Meg Cabot wrote a trilogy before lunch." Seriously! The woman is nothing if not prolific (and I can say that because she's SO MUCH MORE). She's got something like twelve series in progress as we speak. She's got a book coming out on the fifth of EVERY MONTH. Ok, hyperbole, but seriously. The woman can not only write well, she can write fast. She must do what my mother always refers to as "buckling down." I'm not sure if this means she straps herself to her desk chair or if she's just that disciplined or if she really does love it so much she can't stop ... whatever it is, I want to know what it is. I want to pour it into a tea cup and I want to drink it every day from brunch.

But here's the thing. The more I think about it, the more I might actually have Meg Cabot's life. Or maybe I am Meg Cabot. Wait, what? No, just look:

It's uncanny, right? We're practically the same person! Conspiracy theorists? Start your engines ... no really, please. I imagine it can be nothing but golden for my career if people on the internet think I'm Meg Cabot.*

*let me state for the record that I am not Meg Cabot. Only in my wildest dreams. Or after a box of wine.