As best-selling author Meg Cabot walked to the podium at Schuler Books & Music Tuesday evening, the sound of camera cases opening could be heard throughout the store.
Cabot, best known for authoring “The Princess Diaries,” was at Schuler Books & Music, 2820 Towne Centre Blvd., to promote the release of her new book, “Size 12 and Ready to Rock.”
Cabot said she started her career writing fan fiction for her first love, “Star Wars.”
“I had a big crush on Luke (Skywalker) because I didn’t know Han Solo was the hot one,” Cabot said.
During Cabot’s senior year of high school, she attended a party at Indiana University — where her father was a professor at the time — and met her future husband, who warned her not to major in creative writing because it would suck the love of writing out of her.
After graduating from Indiana University with a degree in art, Cabot said she couldn’t get a job as an illustrator and took a job as a receptionist at a dormitory in the summer, just like the main character in her new book.
While working at the dormitory, Cabot said she started writing fiction, but it wasn’t until her father died that she overcame her fear of rejection from publishers and concentrated on her writing career.
“The worst thing that can happen is someone you love dying, not getting a rejection letter from a book publisher,” she said.
As motivation to write, Cabot said she and a fellow author take part in an agreement where they have to write five pages of a book by 5 p.m., or they have to give $5 to the politician they hate most.
Whitney Spotts, promotions coordinator for the Eastwood Towne Center Schuler Books & Music, said when Cabot came to the Okemos, Mich., store five years ago, it was the first event she helped coordinate.
“Meg is one of my favorites because all her fans come out, and they’re crazy,” Spotts said.
Of the more than 100 fans in attendance, fewer than 10 were men, which Spotts said was normal for an author like Cabot.
Jennifer Amato-von Hemert flew to Michigan from Littleton, Colo., just to see Cabot and get her to sign a few of her favorite books.
Amato-von Hemert said she has been reading Cabot’s books since she was in eighth grade, after she watched “The Princess Diaries” movie for the first time.
In the end, Cabot had a simple message for all her fans.
“If there is something you love, keep following it because you never know what’s going to happen.”
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