between two lockers with (OMG!) meg cabot

Welcome to another installment of our interview series, Between Two Lockers, where we ask YA authors the kind of hard hitting questions usually reserved for secret locker rendezvous and slumber parties.

omg! yes! the fabulous and fantastic MEG CABOT is joining us today for between two lockers, and LOOK OUT y’all cos she gets all kinds of deep and — if possible — even more awesome. after hanging out with her here for a while, make sure to go check out the latest on her new book, insatiable (OUT TODAY!!) — including awesome videos, deleted scenes and extras! (and ps, we loved insatiable and the last airhead book runaway). any author who wants zach galifianikis to play her is awesome in our book.

THE QUESTIONS:

FYA: THE BIG ONE: If your real life adolescence was a YA book…What would you, the main character, be like? (check out this super-cute picture of adolescent meg!!)

MC: Probably Suze Simon from The Mediator series.  I was obsessed with fashion and death, and definitely not at all popular, but I liked seeing bad guys brought to justice.

FYA: Who is your secret crush?

MC: This hot guy who was a senior when I was a freshman. Reader, I nailed him. (NOT when I was a freshman.  That would be against the law).

FYA: What is your number #1 source of angst?

MC: Directly, my dad, and indirectly, freshman Algebra.  I flunked it twice, though I really did try!  This was especially bad because my dad was a math professor.  He nearly had a nervous breakdown over my Math SAT score. My dad convinced me I would never be a success in life because I was so bad at math.  It took me a long time to realize that maybe I could be successful at the things I was good at instead of a failure at the things I didn’t do well. But in reality, my dad had his own problems (with alcoholism, from which he never recovered).  I learned that being grade-and-test smart doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart in other ways.

FYA: At what point would the reader pump his/her fist in victory?

MC: Probably when I got published.  And without ever having passed Freshman Algebra! I have never been a good test taker (which is one reason I still don’t have a driver’s license).  My dad died before he ever saw me successful in my career.  But you know what? It doesn’t matter.  I finally made peace with him—and my feelings about him—through Al-Anon.  THAT is probably my greatest victory.

FYA: And who would play you in the film adaptation?

MC: I know it’s a longshot, but Zach Galifinakis.  I wish his people would get in touch with my people.

FYA: What is your secret power?

MC: I have double-jointed thumbs.

FYA: What is your #1 favorite food?

MC: Cheese popcorn.

FYA: Tell me about your area of expertise.

MC: Anyone can you a tell story that will make you cry. That isn’t hard at all.  Throw in a handsome self-sacrificing doctor who dies in a Peruvian mudslide trying to inoculate orphans and you’ve got a room full of sobbing people (ahem, Nicholas Sparks).  What’s really hard is to make people laugh.  I can’t make everyone laugh, but I’m trying.

FYA: If you could assemble your own Ocean’s 11 of fictional characters, who would you pick and why?

MC: Mr. Spock and Captain James T. Kirk
Buffy, obviously, and Angel and Spike, even though they’d all fight.
Jane Eyre
Spenser and Hawk from Robert B Parker’s Spenser series.
And I’m going to have to say Meena Harper, Alaric Wulf, and Lucien Antonescu from my new book Insatiable, even though they’ll all fight as well.

FYA: What is your best karaoke song?

MC: “You’re So Vain.”  But that’s an easy one.

FYA: Tell me something scandalous!

MC: Contrary to popular opinion, I do actually write all of my own books!  I don’t know where this rumor that I have ghost writers got started.  Maybe because there are so many of them?  But I just love to write, and when you love something, you  want to do it as often as you can!

FYA: What is your favorite adult beverage?

MC: Grey Goose and Grapefruit.

FYA: What book have you read the most number of times?

MC: Recently, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Before college, probably Jane Eyre.

FYA: Who is your “freebie”?

MC: Honestly, I don’t go there.  My husband is from Hungarian ancestry.  There aren’t even pretend freebies with Hungarians. Their feelings get wounded incredibly easily.

FYA: YA authors are so cool. Who would you give a BFF charm to?

MC: Ha, cute!  But how could I pick just one?  And I have many author friends spanning the genres who are all cool, too. I could never pick just one.

FYA: Out of all of the characters you’ve written, which one do you most wish you could be?

MC: I once had a published writer I got stuck next to at a conference luncheon start telling me how her heroine speaks to her through sunbeams that shine on her car windshield.  She was totally serious.  Another one told me her hero came to her through a portal in time (from his Native American tribe. He’d been sent to her on a spirit quest). So I don’t even joke about this stuff, because for all I know, I’ll become the next Sunbeam Windshield Lady or Spirit Guide Woman.   When that happens, you guys have to promise to send me to Sierra Tucson, that rehab place where Jesse James went for his “rest” after Sandra kicked him out.  They have a crazy author wing, I checked!

FYA: If you were invited to the FYA slumber party (and natch, you ARE), what pajamas would you wear, and what is the most crucial snack food and/or movie you’d bring?

MC: Aw, thanks!  I’d wear my oversize Nick and Nora flannel PJs, bring salty, buttery popcorn mixed with M&Ms to eat, and something in the Natural Disaster/World Is Ending category to watch, although I’ve seen all of them way too many times.

isn’t she awesome? for real, go get a copy of insatiable. you’ll not regret it (unlike that extra brownie you had last night).