Claire Cook hits the beach again

Even before Claire Cook's seventh novel, "Seven Year Switch,'' was officially released on June 1, it had racked up endorsements from USA Today, The New York Times, and The New York Post in the beach reading category.

The Scituate resident will celebrate her new book with a party June 8 hosted by the Scituate Town Library and the Front Street Book Shop. She spoke recently with the Globe about her latest book and the whole beach book phenomenon.

The book is essentially the story of a woman who, like so many of us, finds her life didn't turn out quite the way she planned. Her husband abandoned her seven years ago to join the Peace Corps and left her with a 3-year-old.

Her life revolves around the school bus and everything she has to do as a single mom, so just when she's getting it together, the ex-husband shows up and she has a 10-year-old who really wants a dad. So in order to be a good mom, this person that she would just as soon kill has to be let back into her life.

A year ago, I knew the arc of the story, but I didn't know exactly how it would resolve itself. I try not to know the ending of my books until i get there. I love that Robert Frost quote: 'No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.'

I've been on panels with other authors, and when I say I write that way, they say, 'What are you, crazy?' because they outline everything.

Readers always say, 'I was so surprised at the end.' And I say, 'Yeah, me too.' But as I'm writing, because my books are so character-driven, even though there are twists and turns, you see that it's kind of inevitable that these particular characters will make these choices....

Early in my career, an editor said to me, 'You're so much better than this whole chick lit, beach read stuff,' and they tried to position me away from that. But I thought, 'I don't care what people call me, as long as people like my books.'

To me, the 'beach read' thing is a plus. It's very identifiable. I think it's almost becoming it's own little category, and I think it's interesting that some of the book lists are now adding it. I used to have to fit into general fiction, which is too broad, and then chick lit, which I don't think I write at all. I think I'm too old to write chick lit -- I'd have to write hen lit...

The event in Scituate is essentially a party to celebrate the launch of the book. I feel very strongly that you're always a hometown author first, so each of my books has started with an event in Scituate, and then I get on a plane the next day and do a national tour.

I grew up here and went to Scituate High School, and I look out and there are people I graduated with. At one of those events, my English teacher Peter Nord showed up with a gradebook from 1976 and said I still owed him a paper on 'Moby Dick.' I said, 'I'm just about done reading that sucker.'

The hometown part is the best thing about writing books. People from the South Shore are so supportive; I feel a local author has never had it so good.

The launch party for 'Seven Year Switch' takes place at 6:30 on June 8 at the Scituate Public Library, 85 Branch St. Call 781-545-8727 for details.