Posted April 24, 2008 -- When the star characters of a novel boast their own popular Myspace pages, there's no doubt who the audience is aimed at -- teens. In the case of the new novel "Hotlanta" (Point, $8.99), the first in a trilogy, the focus, for a change, is on African-American girls, who authors Denene Millner and Mitzi Miller bet will latch onto their books like the latest iPod.
The paperback novel follows Sydney and Lauren Duke (shown above), twin stepdaughters to a self-made millionaire. Their extravangant lifestyles in Atlanta seem perfect. But when their estranged father shows up, their lives are turned upside down. Soon they're connected to a murder, and what they thought was true becomes a haze of gossip and lies. And that's just in the first novel.
Approached by Alloy Entertainment (creators of CW's "Gossip Girl) to develop spicy tales for a young Black audience, Millner and Miller jumped at the opportunity. BET.com caught up with the dynamic duo to find out how it all went down.
BET.com: Why was this trilogy important?
Denene: We thought it was important because we know Black teen girls read. There wasn't a lot of books that spoke to their experience. We wanted to give them something appropriate for that audience to read and spoke to them in a real way. Teens are left to read adult material that isn't appropriate because there isn't a lot out there. If that's all you have offered to you is Gossip Girl and Riding Dirty, then what options do you have. It is what it is. We're hoping with the success. People will recognzi the huge void that is there. That's why BET's "College Hill" is so successful, because isn't it fun when there are characters you can identify with?
BET.com: What kind of research did it entail?
Mitzi: Walking up my block in Washington Heights. Looking out my window at the bus stop when the kids get out. Watching TV. It wasn't hard. Teens are like little grown folks now. They have too much access. You have to be smart about it and talk about issues that really matter to them.
Denene: I have a 15 year old son. At the time when we started, my 16-year-old neice was living with us too. Between the two of them, and them allowing me to sit in on conference calls with their friends, that was helpful. We had some real life insight.
BET.com: What did you learn about today's youth?
Denene: When you live up close and personal with somebody and they're your child, you don't realize how grown they really are, and how their lives are different when they aren't in front of adults or a parent. It's interesing to see how doggone smart the two of them are. How much more they actually know than I thought they knew, seeing how they respond to questions in front of their fiends versus you. They're not as innocent as you think they are. It's eye-opening to get a glimpse into that world.
NEXT: Can their books compete with, say, Zane?