(This Bestselling Author is Big News…No Bones about It!)
Meg Cabot
Heather Wells’ adventures at New York College are, in part, based upon your own experiences working at NYU. What’s the most outlandish situation you ever had to face as an assistant dorm director?
It would have to be the time someone walked into my office and told me there was a brain on the elevator. And there was…a cow brain. It took the New York City coroner’s office to determine it wasn’t a human brain, though. And we had to shut down the elevator for seven hours and rope it off as a crime scene until we knew for sure.
Is there something about college life that still calls to you?
I think college kids are great, because they’re at that age where they’re still exploring who they are and what they want out of life. They aren’t set in their ways yet, because they don’t know what their ways are! There’s something great about that, and I loved working with kids that age. Every day was different, and I never, ever was bored at work.
How much inspiration do you draw from tabloid tales of fallen teen idols in crafting these wild and witty Heather Wells mysteries?
Well, I have to say, these days, not much. Heather is definitely the anti-celebrity. About the only thing she has in common in with some of her rock ‘n roll peers is a tendency to get a little rounder as she ages. She definitely won’t be shaving her head or checking into Promises any time soon.
What feedback have you received from readers “graduating up” to the Heather Wells and Queen of Babble books?
Quite a lot. So many readers–but by no means not all–of these books started out reading The Princess Diaries and Mediator books, and have graduated to my adult books (although all of them swear they’re still reading the YA books too). Strangely, lot of the adult readers who started on these books also tell me they’ve started reading the YAs as well….
Your two adult series, featuring Heather Wells and Lizzie Nichols, show the heroines heading towards the wedding aisle…any reason you’re getting all matrimonial on us?
Well, it’s a natural progression for these ladies. I think the only real question is which of the many guys in their lives are they going to marry (if any). For some them, THAT is the real mystery.
Please say we’ll see more of Heather?
It seems like she’s got at least one more adventure in her before she ties the knot… Who knows? I certainly don’t think the murder rate in Manhattan is going to go down anytime soon. And as long as there is crime in Fischer Hall, Heather is going to be on it.
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