My friend, author E. Lockhart, has a new teen book out, The Boyfriend List. I'm reading it right now and loving it - who hasn't gone through their own list of blasts from the past and thought, what was I thinking? (E has a blog of "boyfriend lists," and even I participated. You can read it here, just scroll down).

So, I decided to ask E some questions about this wonderful book, and here's what she said:

Q: How do you get into the head of a fifteen year old when you're beyond the years of teenaged angst (hopefully!)?

A: I am far, far beyond those years, but for some reason I remember them with near-pathological vividness.

Q: What's your boyfriend list look like?

A: I've had nine official boyfriends, starting in 7th grade, with lots of dry spells and several long relationships. Most of them were crap. I know that's mean. They weren't crap people. They were crap love affairs. And yet, I still think of them fondly. And then not fondly. And then fondly again. One of them became a famous poker player. Another is a dermatologist. One is a father of three. Two are lawyers in the same firm. One has disappeared into New Hampshire somewhere. One is a mechanic, so I heard. The others, I don't know. None of them are the boys I once knew.
My before-college boyfriend list (including many unofficial entries) can be found here, as part of The Boyfriend List site weblog.

From there you can see the increasingly large collection of boyfriend lists people have been sending in to my blog. Yours, Jennifer, was one of my very favorites.

Q: Why thank you, E. In the book, Ruby visits a shrink, Doctor Z. Did you have to get on someone's couch to know what it's like to see a shrink, or is watching Frasier for years enough research?

A: I had five years of psychotherapy as an adult -- never as a teenager. I loved it. It was helpful and generally excellent.

Ruby has a much worse attitude than I did -- and also a different set of problems. It was great fun imagining her snarky thoughts during therapy. The homework assignment in The Boyfriend List (Doctor Z asks Ruby to write a list of every sort-of, kind-of, wished-he-were boyfriend she ever had) is completely made up. I doubt any reputable shrink would suggest such a thing.

Q: Thanks for dropping by - your book is a riot.

A: Thanks for hosting me!