I’m just trying to help make a better book. It’s ultimately the writer’s name on the book, so whatever suggestions I might make, they are very much take-them-or-leave them. There are strict roles when you’re an editor and a writer. How was this experience different?Ĭhristine Pride: I’ve been an editor for 20 years, so it’s very surreal to be on this side of things.
Christine, you’ve collaborated with Jo before, but don’t normally work on this side of the writing process. Let’s talk a little about the writing process.
“Why do they think they’re such good friends if they’re not talking about race?” (The deal wasn’t the first co-authoring venture for journalist Piazza, who previously collaborated on two books - The Knockoff and Fitness Junkie- with former Marie Claire Fashion Director Lucy Sykes.)īelow, Pride and Piazza talk with Bustle about faulty characters, sidestepping stereotypes, and book two. Soon after, Pride stepped away from a 20-year editing career, and the duo sold We Are Not Like Them and another co-written novel to the HarperCollins imprint William Morrow. The impetus for the novel came after Pride edited Piazza’s 2018 novel, Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win, sparking a friendship between the two women. They’ve been best friends since kindergarten, but never really talked about race before. Riley steps in to cover the news event, putting her friendship with Jen in jeopardy - and on the news. Their friendship is put to the test when Jen’s husband, a local police officer, shoots Justin, a Black teenager, while in pursuit of a crime suspect. The novel introduces two best friends in contemporary Philadelphia: a Black news reporter, Riley, and a white, pregnant homemaker, Jen. Instead, We Are Not Like Them has earned starred industry reviews, been picked for Good Morning America’s book club, and chosen as an Amazon editors’ pick for Best Fiction & Literature since its October release.
Sounds obvious enough, right? But their plot could easily have led them down a wayward path, toward a public-service-announcement packaged by a book publisher. “We wanted full humanity, presence, and dimension all of the characters that were part of the story,” says Pride, who’s a former Simon & Schuster editor. When Christine Pride and Jo Piazza started co-writing the book We Are Not Like Them, they wanted to zero in on a contemporary friendship.
0 kommentar(er)
