The description, both what she tells people around the world and what she writes in her books, Meg Cabot gives of her hometown is slightly different from her actual experience growing up in Bloomington.
“It’s very hard being a Hoosier,” Cabot said. “You have to tell people that you play basketball and eat corn.”
The “Princess Diaries” author will be returning to IU, her alma mater, for a reading and book signing at 6 p.m. Monday in the Indiana Memorial Union bookstore. She is visiting to promote the newest installment, “The Boy Is Back,” in her “Boy” series.
Some of her young adult books, like “Banished” and “Teen Idol,” have been set in Indiana, but the “Boy” series is her first adult project to take place in her home state.
The main conflict of the story revolves around professional golfer Reed Stewart, whose elderly parents are accused of fraud. Stewart’s parents claim it was a misunderstanding, but no one is quite sure whether their actions were accidental or not. A local newspaper picks up the story, which eventually turns into a national story.
Cabot said this part of her book was inspired by the small newspaper published in Key West, Florida, where she currently lives.
“Small newspapers have the best news,” Cabot said.
A story similar to what happens in “The Boy Is Back” also occurred in Key West, and it made Cabot start thinking about creating a fictional version. She said in a larger town like Bloomington, such a story would never have caught on in the same way.
“In a small town people notice things a little bit more,” Cabot said.
Although Cabot said the novel’s fictional town of Bloomville, Indiana, is much smaller than Bloomington, whenever she goes on tour, she uses a little bit of artistic license to explain what her version of Indiana is like. This includes changing the picture of Monroe County’s sleek library into an image of a much simpler building.
“When I travel around the world, I just lie to people because they don’t understand how sophisticated we are,” Cabot said.
She said people are often shocked to realize their stereotypes of the state are false, and it leads to complicated questions that take too long to explain. Reinforcing what everyone in places like Brazil and France already thinks about Indiana allows Cabot to talk more about her newest book than the realities of her home state.
The changes she makes to Indiana for everyone on tour does not mean she doesn’t love Bloomington, she said. Her dream is to have one of her tour events take place in the Monroe County Public Library, where she learned to read as a child.
Cabot said she has not been back to IU since receiving a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008 but is excited to be invited once again. She said she is looking forward to returning to Bloomington this week to visit old friends and return to her favorite location in town, Nick’s English Hut.
“I leapt at the chance, and IU was very obliging,” Cabot said.
