A Conversation with the Authors: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, You Are Not Alone

I got to take a deep dive in with the publishers and Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen as we learned a little bit more about You Are Not Alone and their history together. Enjoy - 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1QZBd893XuaU1pnKIR-IN2uoOvM6Nu50x
How do you both approach the process of writing a new book? How do you prepare separately and then together collaborate to integrate your ideas? Or is there a magic formula to working together?
We are both psychologically-minded and inquisitive, and we spend hours every day brainstorming potential characters and plotlines. When we’re gearing up to write, we fill our minds with storytelling: We read a lot (books, newspapers, magazines, and screenplays). We try to stay on top of the new television shows and movies, and we also love audiobooks and podcasts. We enjoy deconstructing what makes different creative projects work--the ingredients that compose compelling, unforgettable stories. We also love trying to figure out what makes people tick, and we share our observations with each other. Throughout the day, we constantly email, text, and call each other with ideas, insights, and
inspirations. We often park our ideas in a shared Google document (our one for Book 4 is creatively titled Book 4). Sometimes our notes seem brilliant at the time, but when we reread them, they occasionally don’t make any sense! The process of settling on a plot and the characters who inhabit it can take us several months. When we’re ready to write, we guard our work hours together zealously, carving out long stretches of time every day in which we talk over Google Hangouts while simultaneously penning every single line of our book together using a shared Google Doc. It’s a unique system, and one that works beautifully for us. Readers are often surprised to learn that we never fight. We are usually in complete agreement editorially, but when we have creative differences, they energize us as we talk through the possibilities and settle on a solution that feels right to us both.

What is it about New York City that appeals to you both as a setting for your novels hit the perfect balance of working together, or are you still refining how you go about it?
You Are Not Alone was originally set outside of New York City in a claustrophobic, retreat-like atmosphere. About a third of the way through our first draft we realized the story wasn’t working. We felt blocked in a way we never had before. At first we couldn’t figure out what the issue
was. The characters? The plot? Finally we realized that the setting was too restrictive and it wasn’t allowing our characters the range of motion they needed. Once we relocated the story to New York City, the story began to soar. We love the creative possibilities offered by the city--because of its diversity, our characters can have any background, occupation, income level, living situation, and collection of secrets that we dream up. 

Why do the rich bonds and deep secrets between friends make for such a compelling story?One of the themes throughout our work is ordinary women (Vanessa in The Wife Between Us and Jess in An Anonymous Girl) who are faced with extraordinary circumstances and must find the inner strength to overcome them. In You Are Not Alone, we wanted to continue that theme with Shay, while also exploring the issue of loneliness. These days we are more connected than ever via electronics and yet we feel more isolated. Social media can seemingly link us to others while emotionally separating us.We have also heard from a lot of readers that they have read many books about the “perfect” husband, nanny, or job that become dangerous or even deadly, but this is the first time they have read about the “perfect” friends in that role.
 
What is some of the best feedback readers have shared with you since the publication of A Wife Between Us?
We express gratitude for each other and our partnership every day. Our motto is “better together” since we are both aware we could never write our complex, twisty-turny books alone. Some of the best feedback we have received is about our relationship. Our audience seems very inspired by our collaboration, and the power and support women create when we unite. 
We also love connecting with readers during our book tours and on social media, and a number of women have talked to us about how they escaped an abusive relationship, and how A Wife Between Us helped them to feel validated and empowered. Those responses have brought us to tears.
 
What is next on the horizon for you?
We are hard at work on “Book 4” and, like our other novels, it will feature complex, compelling female
characters and a corkscrew plot. Because our plots are fluid--changing as we write--we can’t give too much away. But we’re committed to giving our readers our best book possible.

About S & G:

DYNAMIC DUO Sarah Pekkanen, an author, and Greer Hendricks, an editor, worked together on seven books before they decided to write one as a team. This week, their third thriller, “You Are Not Alone,” lands at No. 7 on the hardcover fiction list for 2020.


In the old days, the two were astonished by all they had in common. Hendricks says: “We both studied psychology and journalism. We’re both terrible cooks. We’re both close to our brothers, who are both named Robert. We’d always order the same food when we went out to eat. We’d show up dressed alike.”


In 2015, when Hendricks left Simon & Schuster after 20 years, Pekkanen went to her with a proposal: “I said, ‘Let’s write a book together! Why not?’ It was just this instinctual reaction because we were so close and our narrative instincts are so similar.”


Hendricks responded with a literary prenup: Either author could back out at any time if the partnership wasn’t working. She says: “We both went to our shelves and pulled down our favorite books from the past two years. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of overlap: S. J. Watson’s “Before I Go to Sleep,” and “Gone Girl”, and a lot by Liane Moriarty. We realized these books had strong female protagonists and were psychological in nature. So there was our launching point.”


As for the logistics of working together from remote locations —Hendricks from Manhattan and Pekkanen from Chevy Chase, Md. — the co-authors make it sound blissfully copacetic. Pekkanen says: “We write every single line together. We’ve created this system where we’re looking at the same document and typing at the same time while simultaneously talking over Google Hangout. It’s a one-brain, mind-meld process that you almost have to see to believe.”


Their motto, “Better together,” seems to resonate with fans (“We remind readers of themselves with their best friend,” Pekkanen says) and it also applies to being on a book tour together. Hendricks says, “We look after each other like a happily married couple.”

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