7 Secret Facts About Sophomore Switch

Wohoo! Today is a very special day: Sophomore Switch releases in shiny new paperback! So, to celebrate, I’m going to give you some behind the scenes info; the bonus feature section, if you will.

1. The first draft was written almost exclusively in Diesel Coffee house, and the Davis Square Starbucks in the fall of 2007. I was living in Cambridge, MA, which has a bounty of great writerly coffee spots, but my routine was set. See, Diesel had the couches, the amazing caramel apple cider, and the cute baristas; Starbucks had the superior baked goods. I’d get an early start at Diesel, stake out my power outlet (gold dust!), have some lunch, and then come afternoon, hop over the road (and I mean, over the road – Starbucks is EXACTLY OPPOSITE) and hang out there with cake for a while. Stopped me feeling like I was spending 10 hours straight in the same place, let me people=watch with a whole new crowd… The only people who didn’t like it, were the poor Diesel students who had to stare at my pile of belongings for hours from their cold, hard chairs. Whoops!

2. Originally, I had Tasha exchange from a non-specific campus around LA. But as soon as I rolled into Santa Barbara on my, ahem, research trip, I knew I’d found the perfect spot. Beaches, cute shopping, and a distinct (yet filthy rich) college town feel. So, tax people, if you ever read this: that 2 week trip I took down the  Californian coast on Amtrack was totally a legitimate expense.

3. There is actually no women’s health centre for the Oxford students, which is ridiculous, and neither is there an awesome feminist called Eliza Card who dallied with JS Mill – as far as I know. But all the other locations in the book are true: Blackwells bookstore (where students scribble meaningful notes into poetry volumes), G&Ds ice-cream (oh, the Blueberry!), and the Jericho Picturehouse cinema. But Borders, my love, my life, is no longer with us. Sniff. Sob. Whimper.

4. Emily recieves a MySpace message from her ex-boyfriend that may, or may not, be a word for word duplicate of a MySpace message *I* recieved from a college ex-boyfriend of mine…

5. I’ve never been surfing, but I really, really want to learn. Except for the fact I hate being underwater. And wear contacts. And don’t want them to swim away.

6. Clearly, I’m Team Kristin.

7. One day, I want to write a sequel with Em and Tasha hanging out in LA together doing summer internships and flirting with cute boys and eating Krispy Kreme and making movies (BUT NOT THAT KIND) . So if you want to make that a reality, order your copy of Sophomore Switch today. It’s cute! And makes a great gift! And don’t you love those red shoes on the cover?

Click through here to find out more and read the first chapters.