What challenges did you face in writing this book?
Writing a book is hard. Writing a book with someone else is hard. All that vulnerability and fear and self-doubt that’s so much a baked-in part of the process is on full display. It’s like letting someone watch you sing badly in the shower after eating a sheet cake. And then add difficult talks about race to the mix? Woo-wee is the only term that captures this particular perfect storm. There were times when we were truly tested and worried our friendship might not recover. There were weeks when our emotions were rubbed raw and we often joked about going to couples’ counseling. We’ve also thought about writing an essay called “How Writing a Book About Race Almost Destroyed Our Interracial Friendship.” But it was also one of the most meaningful things that either of us have ever done. In a single day of writing, we could start out laughing, butt heads, cry alone in our bathrooms, send a shy apology text, nail an incredible paragraph/page/chapter, laugh together, and push each other harder. And the result, at the end of a string of a million days like those, is a book we’re proud of and a friendship and professional relationship that’s stronger and better because of this journey together.
Were there any other novels or works that inspired you during this writing process?
The most excruciating part of the writing process is feeling like everyone else is doing it better and having an easier time of it. When you read someone else’s perfect sentence, or ending, or a scene that brings tears to your eyes and you think, Wow, I want to be able to do that. That said, it’s incredibly motivating too. And we’re both such voracious readers—during the period we wrote this book, we probably read well over one hundred books between us—so it wasn’t so much any one book that inspired us, but all of them, collectively. All of these fellow writers who inspired us with their characters and stories and craft and sparkling prose. Reading widely while we were working really pushed us and educated us, and often helped us troubleshoot when we were wrestling with something thorny. The way to become a better writer is to be a better reader, after all. We’re constantly awed and adoring and deeply admiring when it comes to people who put their hearts on the page and create these beautiful words, and it’s a privilege to be in this company.
Christine, this is your first novel. What was your journey to becoming a writer and how did you know this was the right book?
Being an editor for the last fifteen years has truly been a gift; some people have jobs, but I’ve really felt lucky to have found a calling and to have gotten to work with wildly talented writers and publish books that have touched readers. But throughout my career, I’ve also witnessed how the industry has been woefully underrepresentative in the types of stories and characters that are championed. As a kid, I craved more books （and TV shows, for that matter） that featured people who looked like me, that reflected my reality and my community, and as an adult, despite lots of great strides, I still notice that gap. There’s a thirst and moral imperative for even more offerings that reflect more diverse experiences and stories and voices. I realized I could offer that; I could write that book—a novel that featured a character and a friendship and realities about being a Black woman in America that were familiar to me. And furthermore, that could tackle a topic that feels urgent and important to boot. My greatest goal as an editor—and now as a writer—is to give readers a vehicle to reflect on their lives and experiences in a meaningful way, and to feel emotionally stirred in a way that leaves an imprint long after the last page of the story.
From a practical standpoint, it’s a little surreal to be on the other side. The thing about working in publishing for so long, “behind the scenes” so to speak, is that I know firsthand the overwhelming passion and commitment my colleagues bring to the table, working tirelessly on behalf of books they love in a business that’s not always easy. It’s a special experience now to have that support and community and vision from a different vantage point. Getting to see things from another perspective has also made me empathize with my authors more. For example, all the times I’ve reminded someone over the years that they shouldn’t constantly check their Amazon ranking or read too much into it, I now understand how futile that was, and how difficult it will be to not give into the irrational inclination to hit that refresh button.
Jo, you’ve written many novels before, most recently Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win. How was writing We Are Not Like Them different for you?
My past novels have been told from one point of view. For We Are Not Like Them, we needed to get into the heads of two completely different women and see a single event from their very divergent and emotional points of view.
It can be exhausting to try to be two people at once. Each character really was a collaboration with Christine, so we each had to inhabit Jen and Riley at different times. I’d go for weeks only working on Riley chapters because it was the only way I could nail down her feelings and intentions without Jen getting in the way. I often did the same thing while reading through the book. I would read Jen’s chapters all the way through and then Riley’s chapters all the way through as if each of them were their own book.
Are you planning to write more books together?
Yes! We’ve already started the next one.
What do you hope readers will take away from We Are Not Like Them?
Our running joke about We Are Not Like Them is: Come for the friendship, stay for the social justice. We hope we give readers a starting point for difficult conversations about race. We know that a lot of women don’t have close friends of another race, and we’re hoping that the friendship between Riley and Jen can give them some perspective on what it is like and an entryway into the conversations Riley and Jen are forced to have with themselves and with each other.
We also hope that the book can help readers initiate hard conversations about race when they’re confronted with a shocking headline about a racially motivated shooting, hate speech, bias, and racism. We want to provide readers with new language and stories to approach these really difficult stories and events.
But above all that, even, we hope that readers will relish this book as a celebration of friendship and be inspired to take stock and appreciate their own close friends. If readers turn the last page and want to call their bestie, it means we’ve done our job.