Dolly Parton has co-authored a novel with James Patterson
The country singer's first novel, Run, Rose, Run is due March 2022
Books News Parton
The perfect crossover doesn’t exi—
Legendary country singer, actor, philanthropist, Buffy The Vampire Slayer producer, and Moderna vaccine funder Dolly Parton has teamed up with prolific author James Patterson on the singer’s first novel, titled Run, Rose, Run. What a truly unexpected sentence.
Set in Nashville, Run, Rose, Run is a novel about “a young woman who comes to country music’s capital city to pursue her music-making dreams. The source of her heart-wrenching songs is a brutal secret she has done everything to hide. But the past she has fled is reaching out to control her future—even if it means destroying everything she has worked for.”
The queen of country has also written, performed, and produced a twelve track album inspired by Run, Rose, Run, which will release in partnership with the book in March 2022.
“I cannot be more excited about the release of my very first novel Run, Rose, Run with the great James Patterson,” Parton says of her writing counterpart. “All new songs were written based on the characters and situations in the book. I hope you enjoy the book and the songs as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it all together!”
While this is Parton’s first novel, it is certainly not Patterson’s. The Alex Cross writer has penned more than 200 novels over his career, spanning the thriller, romance, and fiction genres. Now: Are all of these books excellent? Far from it. But are they entertaining? Almost uniformly. Patterson’s most recent literary collaboration was The President Is Missing, a thriller written with former President Bill Clinton.
“It’s been an honor—and a hell of a lot of fun—to work with the inimitable Dolly Parton, whom I’ve long admired for her music, her storytelling, and her enormous generosity” Patterson says. “The mind-blowing thing about this project is that reading the novel is enhanced by listening to the album and vice versa. It’s a really unique experience that I know readers (and listeners) will love.”
Run, Rose, Run will be published on March 7, 2022.
21 Comments
Who hasn’t co-authored a book with Patterson? King may be an industry, but at least he writes all his own stuff.
In 100 years Patterson will be an also-ran compared to King, but I’m sure his millions will comfort him today.
Pictured: Alternate-universe Mitch McConnell, who became a shitty author instead of a shitty politician
He reminded me a little of the late, great Arte Johnson.
“Author” is a strong word.
Didn’t she also like fund the covid vaccine? And invest her proceeds from “I Will Always Love You” into the black community? And she has a theme park? And starred in 9 to 5? All those cool “facts” people used to say about Chuck Norris are true, only it was really about Dolly Parton.
And she also gave all children books.
it’s quite marvelous how anything dolly parton does is simultaneously surprising and unsurprising. the dolly parton paradox.
A MILLION bucks donated to develop a vaccine. She is the best of us. (Humanity)
Much like the Clinton collaborations, you’ll likely have to turn to the “Thanks to” page to see who really wrote it.
I know a guy who has co-authored a few books with Patterson. He does all of the work save for a few notes from Patterson, and Patterson takes all the credit in interviews. It infuriates me, but the guy I know doesn’t mind at all. He makes way more cash with those books than anything he’s written himself. So I stew silently.
Good for him, and Patterson!
Honestly, ghost writing for someone like Patterson is my dream job. I wouldn’t have to come up with my own story and I wouldn’t have to tie my ego to the book. Plus, I wouldn’t have to do any self-promotion.It’s not a bad gig for a writer, especially if they’re getting any royalties. It’s not like working for James Frey’s ghost writer factory farm where you get paid, like, 100 bucks for a full manuscript.
I’ll at least give Patterson credit that he includes his co-writers name on the cover (albeit in a smaller font), which is more than most authors with ghost writers.
The President (of Dollywood) is Missing
I bet neither of them wrote a single word of the book.
It’s not looking good for Jolene…
James Patterson is an absolute fucking hack who loves credit but hates writing.
Great work, if you can get it.
Hopefully Parton did the actual writing. James Patterson is an execrable prose stylist and his characters are flatter than roadkill. He may be the most successful author in the world, but that’s only because his marketing skills are as good as his writing is bad.
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