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Pittsburgh author co-wrote novel during the pandemic, over Zoom, with a celebrity an ocean away

Book cover with woman's face underwater next to author headshot of white woman with curly brown hair and red lipstick
Headshot by Helen Verchuko
Pittsburgh native Ellen Goodlett is co-author of the new novel Everything We Never Knew.

A woman in her late 20s seemingly has it all: a successful career in real estate, close friends and a spouse who adores her. But on the eve of her 30th birthday, the boundary between her mind and other people’s minds seems to dissolve. She can feel other people's feelings. She can remember their memories.

That's the premise of a new novel, "Everything We Never Knew," by two co-authors. One is celebrity dancer Julianne Hough from ABC’s "Dancing with the Stars." The other is Pittsburgh native Ellen Goodlett. She’s a fiction writer who grew up in Highland Park and Upper St. Clair, but now lives in Lisbon, Portugal.

Goodlett spoke with WESA's Susan Scott Peterson about writing, dancing, and universalizing and fictionalizing Hough's personal story.

"Everything We Never Knew" comes out Aug. 13 from Sourcebooks Landmark.

Susan Scott Peterson is an audio producer and writer whose journalism, radio and literary work have appeared with Vox Media, New Hampshire Public Radio, Allegheny Front, The Texas Observer and The Rumpus.