To celebrate the launch of Jade Chang’s new novel, What a Time to Be Alive, Jade and frequent collaborator Ann Friedman discuss one of their favorite topics… How to Write a Book! Together, Jade Chang and Ann Friedman (Big Friendship) are The Midwives of Invention (www.midwivesofinvention.com). They lead popular idea development workshops and retreats, and on 10/8 they will talk about the unexpected overlaps between writing fiction and non-fiction, their own writing processes, and their current projects.

A little more about What a Time to Be Alive:

“What a Time to Be Alive is a sly, sexy work of art. Jade Chang has captured the true essence of Los Angeles, in all of its motley, messy beauty, with humor and heart. This is a novel that you will devour, and share with your friends, and soon want to devour again.” — Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness and The Turner House

A deeply moving and often hilarious novel following a woman who becomes an internet folk hero in the most unexpected way, catapulting her into fame and influence just as she’s finally beginning to reckon with her complicated past

Lola Treasure Gold can’t figure out her life. She’s broke, unemployed, and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worse—unspeakably worse—one of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a Very Viral Video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru.

With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celi—still alive, thank god—Lola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she can’t seem to find hers: she’s grieving; she’s accused of using the notoriety of her friend’s death to fuel her rise; and she’s full of questions about the fate of her mother, who came to America pregnant, fleeing China’s one-child policy, got deported when Lola was eight, and now has totally disappeared.

Driven by an exuberant, searching spirit, Jade Chang’s kaleidoscopic new novel is a deep examination of the ways we commodify belief, the power and precarity of fame, and the delicious terror of being truly seen. What a Time to Be Alive asks if we can look honestly at the world and still love it; the answer is a brilliant, resounding yes.