Dolly Parton can officially add novel author to her long list of career accomplishments.
She penned an autobiography back in 1994 called Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, and released Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics last year, which dives deep into her songs and the real-life stories behind them
She announced today, though, that she is teaming up with the famous best-selling author James Patterson to write her very first novel, a book called Run, Rose, Run. It will be published by Little, Brown and Company and released on March 7th, 2022.
She is also creating an accompanying record to go with the book that is set to be released on the same day. It will include 12 original songs inspired by the book, all of which she wrote, performed and produced.
She told People that the songs will be based on specific characters and situations in the novel:
“I cannot be more excited about the release of my very first novel Run, Rose, Run with the great James Patterson. I also have a new album to go along with the book.
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!”
The storyline focuses on a young girl moving to Nashville to chase her dreams, but she carries a dark secret with her that inspires all of her heartbreaking songs— yes, I think Dolly probably pulled from a lot of personal experience for this one.
She’s one of, if not the, greatest storyteller’s of our time, so I can’t wait to finally get to read this book.
Her co-author, James, has more than 114 New York Times bestselling novels and holds the record for most #1 NYT bestsellers by a single author.
I’m sure we’ve all seem his name taking up entire sections of shelves at the local bookstore, or in my case, on the shelves at my grandma’s house collecting dust.
The seasoned author is clearly one of the best at what he does, and of course Dolly is the Queen of country music, so these two together are going to be quite a force.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, he said working with Dolly was a dream:
“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.
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.”
Dolly is an avid reader herself and has an entire foundation dedicated to encouraging young children to read called Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
It looks like her dreams of writing a novel one day are finally coming true.
