About the Authors

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Jane Harvard is the daring pen-name of four friends from the Harvard Class of 1986. Read their shocking tale!

How did you get started?
Jane Harvard began writing THE STUDENT BODY half as a lark, half as a way to pay off student loans. Intrigued since college by the real-life Brown prostitution scandal our senior year, and concerned that someone else would write the hot Harvard novel first, we decided to see if we could collaborate without killing each other.

We chose Spring Break 1992 as our test date and Chicago as a midpoint location (the boyz were then living on the left coast, while the babes were on the right). Bennett's parents volunteered their summer cabin for the experiment (which was intended to take a week, not half a decade), and his mom drove up from the city with platters of homemade biscotti and an entire roasted turkey.

Armed with clippings from the Brown and Providence papers, 4 computers, and about 20 pounds of coffee, we settled in for some intense brainstorming (with the occasional break for cookies & meat and walks through the wintry countryside). By the end of the week, we had a chapter-by-chapter outline and 100 pages. The orgy scene magically appeared on our computers one day (no one has claimed authorship), and we were hooked.

But how exactly do four people write a novel?
Over the next 5 years, collaboration took a variety of forms. When together (in San Francisco, Boston, New York, and a summer rental in the Berkshires), we set up 4 computers in a row; if one of us got stuck, s/he'd yell "switch" and everyone would shift to another computer. When apart, we relied on conference calls, group e-mails, and computer file round robins. Faith, Mike, and Julia did the initial drafting, while Bennett oversaw editing and research, penetrated the real-world sex industry, and made contact with agents and editors. Mike served as project manager, much like a principal practicing tough-love in a rough high school. Despite what we may say individually, everyone was equally involved.

How did you find a publisher?
Soon after completing our first draft, we signed with agent/fellow Lowell House resident Liz Fowler '84. Then began a series of arduous rewrites, assisted by feedback from focus groups of Harvard grads we assembled. The crowning moment was when editor Jon Karp, a Brown graduate (also class of '86) and a journalist on his school paper during the prostitution scandal, read our manuscript, recognized us as the next voices of our generation, and eagerly snatched it up. Under his tutelage, the Fab Four, as he dubbed us, re-fashioned our original coming-of-age tale into an erotic thriller, and came up with our current penname and title.

Are you still friends?
Yes, we still speak to each other, though more often we speak about each other.

Do you ever confuse your fictional world with the real one?
We can be found at parties discussing our characters as if they were real.

Is that really how it happened?
Sort of. But for the true Secrets of Jane Harvard, read on.

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