Jeri Smith-Ready

Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit Tour - Kristina Springer

Wow, it's been a long summer (don't even get me started), but we're back to say goodbye to the season of sun with an incredibly fun book!

This week's Girlfriends Cyber Circuit guest is Kristina Springer, author of My Fake Boyfriends is Better Than Yours, which was released this past Tuesday from Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.

Yeah, I'm pretty much sold on the title alone. And that cover cracks me up to no end.

It also reminded me of something I'd forgotten: when I was Tori's age, I made up a fake boyfriend. I wrote my best friend a series of letters from vacation, about the cute boy next door (Dennis, who did in fact exist--we played together all the time as kids, but when I was 12 and he was 14 I got maybe a glance, maybe).

In each letter things got progressively more romantic, until finally he kissed me! It was my very first attempt at YA romance, with me as the heroine.

I would pay anything to read those letters again, but I think my BFF burned them in a fit of jealousy. When I finally 'fessed up that Dennis had never kissed me, she wasn't mad--she was relieved!

So that's my fake boyfriend story (and shows I was a liar creative writer from a very early age). I'm sure Tori's is much better:

Seventh grade was supposed to be fun, but Tori is having major drama with her BFF, Sienna. Sienna changed a lot over the summer—on the first day of school she’s tan, confident, and full of stories about her new dreamy boyfriend. Tori knows that she’s totally making this guy up.

So Tori invents her own fake boyfriend, who is better than Sienna’s in every way. Things are going great—unless you count the whole lying-to-your-best-friend thing—until everyone insists Tori and Sienna bring their boyfriends to the back-to-school dance.

Praise for My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours

“The sheer exhaustion of a fake-boyfriend arms race, with the need to create fake email accounts and to come up with competing romantic gestures on the fly, is cleverly depicted.” –Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“The themes will resonate with any girl who’s ever gone through the hardships of middle school: friendship, boys, popularity, and, most importantly, choosing to do the right, but often more difficult, thing. A fun read.” –School Library Journal

“The dialogue is realistic, and Springer brings refreshing personalities to standard character types; Tori’s parents are divorced, but both parents are active in her life, for instance, and the popular girls aren’t mean.” –Kirkus Reviews


Author Bio

Kristina Springer is the author of THE ESPRESSOLOGIST, MY FAKE BOYFRIEND IS BETTER THAN YOURS and the forthcoming PUMPKIN PRINCESS (fall 2011). She has a Masters in Writing from DePaul University and she resides outside of Chicago with her husband and children.

Visit her at www.KristinaSpringer.com, or on Twitter or Facebook. She blogs at her own blog and on author2author.



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And now...my interview with Kristina!

1. If you could inhabit the life of any of your characters, enter their world and deal with it as that person, which one would you choose?

Jane in The Espressologist. I’d have so much fun!

2. What's the weirdest tidbit of research you've ever incorporated into a book?

How to clean pumpkin gush off a leather shoe.

3. What's your earliest memory?

Swimming in the baby pool in my back yard. I think I was two.

4. Do you have any phobias?

I’m afraid of sky-diving, bungee cord jumping etc. No plunging to the ground for me!

5. Which author, living or dead, would you most love to collaborate with?

Meg Cabot

Thanks to Kristina for stopping by and for reminding me of my complicated relationship with the truth!!

Labels: GCC, guests

• posted by Jeri @ 11:13 AM
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