Creating the Inner Circle
By Courtney Parker
As a writer, one of the greatest compliments you can receive is when someone (especially a celebrity) comes to you with interest in you writing their book. I met Evelyn a little over a year ago, and although our initial conversation was about the potential of a non-fiction, memoir-style book, the thought of working on something with her was intriguing. Half-way through that initial conversation I realized that non-fiction wasn’t something we should pursue. Evelyn’s character was far too feisty for that, and if we were really going to knock the socks off the world with a book, we’d have to do it with a juicy novel.
Evelyn shared with me some stories about her past relationship with her ex, a veteran NBA ball player, as well as some stories about her friends who also dated or were married to other professional athletes. The stories were both shocking and a bit sad because there was an underlined reality that was far too familiar to me. Personally I too had, in the past, dated an athlete, and although my relationship didn’t span over the course of ten years, like Evelyn’s had, my experience like so many other women didn’t end very well. My motivation for writing Inner Circle was to once and for all clear up any misconceptions about dating an athlete. To show the reality (both the good and the bad) of what it’s like being the wife or living your life with a professional athlete—knowing full on that all that glitters isn’t golden.
The shell of the Wives Association was primarily complete prior to me meeting Evelyn. My Aunt Yolanda Taylor and I had begun a book called The Association with a similar premise. When Evelyn and I collaborated, I took my book and coupled it with various situations and stories from her collection of journals and created the Wives Association. One year later, Inner Circle was birthed and now, here we are.
Writing with a celebrity is always an interesting experience. Depending on the talent, and their creativity and ability to help, a ghost writer such as myself is either in for real treat or an agonizing journey. For the most part, Evelyn was a delight to work with. It’s always a joy when the talent kind of leaves you alone to do what you do best which is exactly what Evelyn did. Evelyn trusted me with the truth of some really intimate moments in her life as well as the truth of the words from her journals and for that I am grateful. My hope is that Inner Circle is a positive reflection of both fact and fiction and that fans that know my work will be pleased with the results.
