Have Judy Blume and Meg Cabot ever met?

On Sunday just gone, the journal.ie sent me an email entitled "Long Reads" where they had a round-up of 6 or 7 different articles from during the week, published by various news and publishing outlets.  They summarized each one and gave an idea of how long it would take to read (e.g. 25 mins/31 mins etc).

So first of all, each article looked well chosen and interesting. And secondly because I am (a) disgustingly competitive and (b) pride myself on being a very fast reader, I took it as a challenge to read each article in a minimum of half the time they suggested it would take.  Yep.  That's the kind of petty I am.  Sorry.

The last one, it being the anniversary of 9/11 last week, they linked to Meg Cabot's blog post written around, or soon after September 2001. This, I thought was going to be "just someone's blog" but what would be of great historical interest to read - a capture of what someone was going through at an awful point in time.

So I am reading the blog.  And crying. It's a horrific tale of course, and she tells it from a couple of different, equally personal, perspectives. As I am reading, battling through the tears, I am like "who is this writer"??  This is no hobbyist blogger (like me and this silly little ol' blog of mine). This is someone with pure talent and real skill.

At the point where she mentions she now lives in Key West I put her name into google.  Meg Cabot, she of the Princess Diaries series, only one of the most popular teen writers of the last decade.  My generation had Judy Blume, millennials have Meg Cabot. And they both live in Key West.

So yes I am a week or so late in linking to this.  But really the message is timeless.  I leave you with the words of Meg Cabot, the introduction to her September 11th post, and the link to her blog:

"This year is the eighteenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93.

Every year in remembrance I post this essay about my experience living in Manhattan a few dozen blocks from the World Trade Center on 9/11.  I think it’s important that we don’t allow the memories of those we lost (or the brave acts that so many men and women performed) on that day be forgotten.

So if you have a few extra minutes in your day, please read on. And if you think what you read was important, please share it with a friend".

Full blog post here