Novel Meg Cabot

[Tavarus Calamia]

AuthorJamie Beck returns with an engrossing series about family, friendship, and starting over. In this first Cabot novel, a legacy of secrets tests old friends seeking a second chance at life and love.

Hello, I'm feeling much better now. Thanks for all your get well wishes. Really, I could not have gotten better without them. Or antibiotics. Or bad made-for-TV movies, like LOCUSTS, which had moments of badness that actually bordered on brilliance.

A lot of people want to know who wrote Generic Romance, the book I blogged about a few entries ago. The author is, sadly, unknown, and destined to remain so, as this fine piece of entertainment is out of print (and besides, I don't think whoever wrote it actually put her name on it).

I did this not only because so many of you write to me, asking for novel-writing tips, but because this way, you no longer have to be dependent on us unreliable, slow-writing, slacker professional writers. Now you can make up your own books and, with luck (luck = 95% preparation and 5% opportunity), get them published!

Without any more ado, here are my top ten tips for writing a novel (note: these are just MY tips. Other authors may disagree with them, or have their own tips. I am not saying these tips work for ALL books or ALL writers. They are just things that have worked for me, as a writer and a reader):

How many words are there to a page? It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, using Times New Roman 12 point (remember, editors read a LOT. Do not make them go blind by using anything less than 12 point), 250-300 words per page.

Can you hand write your novel? Of course you can. But you cannot turn a hand written novel in to a publisher. You have to type it out first. Or pay someone else to type it for you. Moms are excellent in this capacity. $1 to $3 per page is standard.

4. Depending on how long your book is going to be, and also what kind of book it is (for the sake of consistency, I am going to assume you are writing a romance, because if there's no romance in a book, what's the point? Just kidding. Well, not really), you should plan on your hero and heroine meeting each other somewhere around pages 1-50. I prefer them to meet around page 10. You can have them not meet until later, but some readers won't stick around that long. Remember that the majority of us readers just want to get to the hot guy already.

5. There have to be some obstacles in the way of your hero and heroine getting together right away, or else your reader won't be compelled to read for the next 50,000 words or so to find out what happens. Remember, in a romance, what the reader is mostly interested in is: Will these two people ever find a way to make their relationship work? All other plotlines are secondary to the romance plotline, if you want your book to be a romance.

6. Chapters: I like my chapters to be no longer than 10 pages each, with one scene per chapter. But you can have as long or as short a chapter as you want, with as many scenes in each that you want. You can even have no chapters, if you want. But remember, readers have busy lives, and at some point they will have to put your book down to go the grocery store. It would be nice if you have chapter breaks so they could do this easily.

Some authors make an outline plotting out what will happen in each chapter, before they sit down to write the book. While I do think it's important when you're writing a book to know where you are going (and how you are going to get there), that kind of detailed plotting pretty much kills the fun of writing for me, so I don't do it. See what works best for you.

7. In keeping with being easy on the eyes for readers, I like short paragraphs, no more than two sentences long. I know your teacher said all paragraphs should be 4 sentences long, but long paragraphs like that, which can take up an entire page, hurt my eyes, forcing me to skip them when I read. Give your readers a break and leave lots of white space on the page if you can. They will thank you by buying your books.

8. Another trick of popular authors is giving your main character something to love other than the hero/heroine. Giving your character a pet or a sibling gives her a chance to show her softer side. Readers like characters who are kind to children and animals, and this is an easy way to show that your character is likable, even if she is mean to everyone else.

You have to decide what's important to you. I didn't write very much while I was in school because I had too much homework/hopes for a social life. There is no shame in waiting on the writing thing until you have more time. I know there are some published writers who are still in their teens, and that is great for them. But I didn't get published until I was 30, and I turned out OK, I promise.

If you are unfamiliar with Murder, She Wrote, let me give you a quick intro: It was an hour-long mystery show that aired on CBS from 1984-1996. It starred Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, a widow living in Cabot Cove, Maine, who became a bestselling author after her husband died. She wrote popular mystery novels, and she was also handy at solving murders, which was a good thing because people seemed to die wherever she went. (Life hack: If you want to reach old age, never hang around with Jessica Fletcher.) Like a cozy mystery novel, the show had very little sex or violence, and it featured a slew of famous guest stars on every episode.

Liberty Hardy is a Book Riot senior contributing editor, co-host of All the Books, and above all else, a ravenous reader. She resides in Maine with her cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, who hate to read.

Bestselling author Meg Cabot's new No Judgments tracks its own storm, and zooms in on a town prepared to fight it. Inspired by Cabot's own experiences during Hurricane Irma, the novel is half spirited roman clef, half Hallmark-sweet romance; it drops readers right into the eye of a storm, in the form of a buoyant small town love story surrounded by a nuanced critique of both neglectful pet owners and media and government responses to hurricanes.

The last thing she expects is to fall for their sexy nephew and bond over their mutual love for animals. Word on the street is that Drew Hartwell's a major player, and Bree wants to steer clear of men indefinitely; she's already been burned. But when she hears about all the pets abandoned during the storm, she works with her mom to send out a call to action, and teams up with Drew to break into houses and check on left-behind pets. (The story is inspired by a real woman who used Cabot's landline to execute an animal rescue mission during Irma).

And again, expanding outward from the eye of Bree's personal storm, the way she and Drew step up for the town is admirable, but it points up the lack of national assistance the island receives. In fact, Cabot portrays a media that all but writes Little Bridge off as decimated. In highlighting the extensive coverage and the storm's messy aftermath, she critiques the dissemination of misinformation and the delayed aid that affects real places hit by disasters.

Even so, the people of Little Bridge don't let these issues get to them. Cabot captures the beauty of the community and its unity in the face of adversity. Despite the wreckage they have to wade through, the camaraderie Bree builds with the Hartwells cements a sturdy foundation for Little Bridge, sturdier than any physical infrastructure.

Meg Cabot's newest novel, No Offense, is the latest book in her Little Bridge Island series. New to the Florida island, librarian Molly Montgomery finds an abandoned baby in a bathroom stall. When the local police department search for answers, Molly embeds herself in the investigation, much to the annoyance of Sheriff Hartwell. However, Molly's obsession with true crime proves more helpful than either of them expect, and as they work together on the case, they also develop very unexpected feelings for each other.

Yes! I was so curious about that. Your first book in the series, No Judgments, only had one narrator, Bree Beckham. But, readers get the perspective of both protagonists in No Offense. So what makes Sheriff Hartwell special where you wanted readers to get his side of the story, so to speak?

Even though Sheriff Hartwell is the professional crime-solver, it really felt like he took a back seat to Molly, who is obsessed with all things crime, whether it be mystery novels or true crime TV shows, which leads to her interfering with the investigation. Is there a favorite true-crime podcast, show, or book that you love?

ames Purdy's third novel, "Cabot Wright Begins," is more like his first, "Malcolm," than his second, "The Nephew." That is, it's a fantastic and ironic tale, told with great plainness and wit. As in "Malcolm," the theme is both funny and bitter: the travails of innocence. "Malcolm," which is more strictly picaresque in form, relates the encounters, with various worldly and decadent types, of a very young man, innocent to the point of uproarious numbness. In "Cabot Wright Begins," the figure of innocence is more complex. Indeed, it is split in two.

One innocent is Cabot Wright, recently released from prison after serving a sentence for raping more than 300 women. He is from a good family and was a model husband and rising young man on the Stock Exchange; now he is hiding out in a disreputable boarding house in Brooklyn Heights.

The other innocent is Bernie Gladhart, also young but already a professional schlemiel, most recently a used car salesman from Chicago, who has been dispatched by his middle-aged wife to Brooklyn Heights to find Cabot Wright and write the Great American Novel about him.

In the earlier novel, the young Malcolm dies, literally exhausted to death by his experience of the world, but in "Cabot Wright Begins" both of the innocents survive and even achieve a kind of wry triumph. Bernie returns to Chicago and selling cars, disabused of both man-eating wife and dreams of literary glory. And Cabot Wright, after running the gantlet of a number of wacky mentors, soul-healers and prophets, finally purges himself in a paroxysm of laughter.

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