TITLE: The Nobodies
PUB DATE: 9/10/2019
PUBLISHER: Flatiron Books
AUTHOR: Liza Palmer
“Liza Palmer's voice is fresh, exciting, and necessary. She's a must-read author.”
―Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & the Six
Wunderkind journalist Joan Dixon took an internship at the Los Angeles Times straight out of high school and never looked back. That is, until the newspaper business collapsed, leaving her to patch together soulless freelance gigs and live with her parents. Desperate to get back on her feet, Joan takes a job as a junior copywriter at the tech startup Bloom, where her bosses are all a decade younger and snacks and cans of fizzy water flow freely. But once a journalist, always a journalist. As Joan starts to poke beneath Bloom’s bright surface, she realizes that she may have accidentally stumbled onto the scoop of her lifetime. Is it worth risking everything for the sake of the story?
About the Author:
Liza Palmer is the internationally bestselling author of Conversations with the Fat Girl and several other novels. An Emmy-nominated writer, she lives in Los Angeles and works for BuzzFeed. Like Joan in THE NOBODIES, she never went to college.
I am so excited to present Liza Palmer's Interview to the NURSEBOOKIE BLOG
Q: Your leading lady, Joan Dixon, is closer to 40 than 30, single, living with her parents again, and starting over at an entry level job. Is there anything of yourself in there?
A: It’s the new thing, right? Being somewhere new, starting a new job, starting a new school, being the new kid… even trying a new hobby or food? It’s all so tender and vulnerable. I hate not knowing how to do things – I’d like to be perfect on the first try, right? But, of course… that’s not how it works. And that’s what this book and Joan and I really went through together. That being bad at something is actually something we should try from time to time. Letting ourselves learn and staying curious and not knowing everything? Is actually – and annoyingly – exhilarating. I had that experience when I started at BuzzFeed and I infused that begrudging bewilderment into Joan.
Q: Joan works at a fictional tech startup, Bloom. Even though it's completely made up, everything about it, from the impossible to navigate coffee machine to the weird lingo, feels real. What is startup culture made up of? How can you spot it?
A: It’s a world people THINK they know because it’s been depicted a certain way in pop culture, but in most cases those were portrayals drawn by people not on the inside. You can tell. Or at least, I can after almost five years at BuzzFeed. The office itself is a lot quieter than people think – feels like a library, actually. One thing they do get right: there is a lot of La Croix.
Q: Joan meets some very awesome and some very terrible people at Bloom. Who was your favorite employee to write?
A: I love and would throw myself in front of a car for Hani Khadra. Her pure joy, her gooey kindness, her exuberant shiny-penniness… she’s a beacon of light and goodness. Every time she was in a scene, she made it brighter and better.
Q: It's not a spoiler to say that it's not always great to work at Bloom, and it's definitely not Liza's dream job. What's the worst job you've ever had?
A: I once temped at a local convention center from 6AM – 2PM. I would count the revenue from the various events. Upon arrival, my manager put butcher paper up on the windows by my desk “so I wouldn’t get distracted” and after I’d counted the revenue, she would then go through and recount everything I just did “just in case.” It was… a low point.
Q: You're written eight (WOW. Eight.) novels. Has it gotten easier?
A: It has not and I think that’s a good thing. What I’ve begrudgingly begun to understand about myself creatively is that my next book should always be a little bit past my fingertips – both with craft and subject. If I’m scared/excited and more than a little uncomfortable as I wade in, then I’m in the right place so that what I make will continue to be authentic.
Q: Anything I didn't ask you that you wish I had?
A: I could teach WITH EASE a 3-day intensive workshop on Why The Great British Bake Off is the best show on television.
You may find Liza Palmer in Twitter @lizapalmer and on Instagram @lizapalmer
Awesome! I've added this to my TBR!
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