Two authors sharing a mutual love of witches and old time Hollywood in such a hilarious and fascinating conversation is my cup of tea.....
Yes, Meg Cabot really knows how to get a really good conversation started and keep it going (screengrab from the Zoom webinar organized by Blue Willow Bookshop taken by yours truly)
(Event poster courtesy of Blue Willow Bookshop on Facebook)
I have been following Meg Cabot on her social media because I do find her to be not your average author on social media. She makes all sorts of posts about her cats, her thoughts about Princess Diaries (it was Julie Andrews who made me wanna read the Princess Diaries movies), and since the onset of the COVID pandemic, she has been mingling with authors virtually. It doesn't matter if it's in a Zoom webinar or on an Instagram live, she does not just do a completely average author interview, she just loves other authors and would love to explore them a little further. And I have been very lucky to join such a conversation along with Cabot sometime back in 2020, but I barely remember which other authors she was with or what they were talking about.
It's been a hot minute since I have been watching or listening to a Meg Cabot author panel, so when I noticed on my Facebook newsfeed that Meg was going to have a free virtual event hosted by Texas-based Blue Willow Bookshop, I signed up for it with a sense of not even knowing what to expect from the conversation.
And when that conversation started, boy oh boy I was so hooked on it!
The humor and chemistry between the two fabulous female YA writers was something I never even expected, but it left me in awe once the event has finished.
You see, Meg Cabot's latest novel, "Enchanted to Meet You" is based on her family's experience in the world of witchcraft (some of her ancestors were witches) and has a title that some may consider a sign that Cabot is a big time Taylor Swift fan (Who seriously doesn't love Taylor Swift these days?) and Maureen Lenker's novel takes place in the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s where the streets of Los Angeles were filled with the stars, the glitz, and the glamor of all that is moviemaking. But hey, many authors these days have a mutual admiration for each other and the things they see from other writers and that is what makes the whole conversation between Meg and Maureen a wee bit more interesting.
Personally, I really loved when Meg Cabot brought up the aspect of witchcraft in the novel and how she feels very connected to the novel's setting in Connecticut where she grew up, as it was also the place where the first persecution against supposed witches in the United States occurred. This sorta reminded me of Dana Terrace, creator of Disney Channel's The Owl House, who also grew up in Connecticut `around the same kind of witchy lore. Then the conversation shifted to a reference to a Hollywood classic Bell, Book and Candle in Meg's Enchanted to Meet You then things really began to start clicking. Lenker is such a maven for classic Hollywood and Cabot was also fascinated by the world of 1930s Hollywood, and all the rest was still very interesting to listen to, from Meg's influence from The WB in the early 2000s, the tea they all love to drink, and so on.
But overall, what really stood out to me in this conversation is among the most liveliest I have ever heard from writers in the last two years or so. I could really listen to Meg and Maureen talk about whatever's under the sun, their passion for how old movies have a certain magic to them, which writers influenced them, the music and movies they really love, their favorite writing experiences, boy I could really listen in to 'em all day and discover even more interesting things about them....
Find "Enchanted to Meet You" and "It Happened One Fight" wherever books are sold.
