Meg Cabot has made a name for herself in American contemporary fiction writing. She produced multitude of novels under varying genre, including historical romance, contemporary adult fiction and mystery thrillers. However, she earned reputation as a successful author for her young adult and paranormal fiction work. She is best known for her popular The Princess Diaries series.
Meg Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, in Bloomington, Indiana as Meggin Patricia Cabot. From an early age, she was an avid reader with a keen interest in sci-fi and comic books. She started writing short stories in high school out of boredom. She used to participate in extracurricular activities like choir, art club and theater. Initially, she had no intention of pursuing career in writing.
Cabot’s dream of becoming a veterinarian was crushed when she flunked a subject in her SAT exams. Therefore, after high school graduation she opted for fine arts at the University of Indiana. Subsequent to receiving her bachelors of arts, she set out to become an illustrator. Life had something else planned for her as she instead got a job as an assistant manager of the freshman dormitory at NYU. Having plenty of spare time on hands, she returned to writing.
In 1998, Cabot had her work published, although her earlier works failed make any major impact. Published under the pseudonym Patricia Cabot, her first attempt was a historical romance, Where Roses Grow Wild, followed by more novels under the same genre. While publishing romance, she started working on a young adult project. Despite being a published author, she received rejection letters in abundance for her YA writing project.
It was not until release of the first The Princess Diaries novel that she got her much awaited lucky break. The Princess Diaries is a young adult series that has been published worldwide. The first book in the series appeared in the market in 2000 and stayed on the New York Times Children’s Series Best Sellers List for months. There are 10 novels in the series. The instant success of The Princess Diaries led to its film adaptation by Disney starring Anne Hathaway as Mia. The release of the major motion picture brought Cabot out of the oblivion and turned her into a celebrity.
It is a story about a social misfit and an outcast at school, Mia, who turns out to be a princess. Cabot drew inspiration for this series from her own life. Like Mia, her father had died and her mother started dating her high school art teacher. The absurdity of the whole situation and being labeled a freak at school made Cabot find solace in writing her journal which the two of them have in common. Unlike the young readers, critics gave mixed review to the books. The strengths of her work included her true to life depiction of teenage angst and social issues, the diary format of the books and its wittiness. However, some of the content of the book was criticized for being scandalous and for its use of certain language.
Cabot’s other works include The Mediator Series (2000), 1-800-WHERE-R-U series (2001), All-American Girl series (2002), Avalon High series (2005), Queen of Babble series (2006) and many more. Meg Cabot is one of those prolific and talented writers who has produced work of fiction at an astonishing frequency. In the span of eight years she had penned more than 40 novels.
Buy Books by Meg Cabot
