Yardley native and Pennsbury High School graduate Caroline Palmer recently published her first novel titled Workhorse. It was inspired by her time working in the magazine industry in New York City during the early 2000s, including 10 years as an editor at Vogue.
The novel has been described as "a richly drawn, unsettling and wickedly funny story of envy and ambition set against the glamor and privilege of media and high society in New York City at its height."
From 2014 to 2019, Caroline was the director of editorial, video and social media at Amazon Fashion. Prior to her tenure at Amazon, she spent seven years as the editor of Vogue.com. Her previous work has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times, Life, Seventeen magazine and Vogue.
Workhorse synopsis: At the turn of the millennium, editorial assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. There’s just one problem: She doesn’t have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a “workhorse” surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected “show horses” who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis’s boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system, or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top. In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners — and who are we if we share her desires?
Newtown City Lifestyle caught up with this new author for an interesting behind-the-scenes peek about the process and excitement.
HOW DID LIVING IN BUCKS COUNTY INFLUENCE YOUR CAREER AND POSSIBLY ANY PORTIONS OF YOUR NEW BOOK?
"The main character of the book, Clodagh Harmon, hails from Bucks County and went to the local public schools, which was clearly influenced by my own upbringing. I like that it not only makes her sort of clear-eyed about the world in which she finds herself, but it also gives her a little grit."
HOW MANY DRAFTS DID YOUR BOOK GO THROUGH TO REACH ITS FINAL VERSION?
"The book took about two years from start to finish, plus about half a year of editing. I have three young kids and when I started, I was working full time, so I established a routine where I woke up at 4:15 a.m. and wrote from 4:45-7:45 a.m., which was actually a lot more magical than it sounds. Once I have a conversation about missing shoes or start packing lunches, I find I can't return to writing; it needs a special kind of focus. I also take a nap every day before school pick-up to survive."
WHICH CHARACTER WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING TO WRITE ABOUT? WHY?
"I was really fascinated about the relationship between Davis and her mother, Barbara Lawrence, but all my characters developed as I got to understand them better. I didn't have an outline, and I sort of wrote my way into it. In fact, certain behaviors (and thus plot points) had to be edited as I progressed through the book. There were so many times I would think: Wait, that doesn't make sense. Now that I know this character so well, I know she would never do that."
WHAT DO YOU HOPE READERS TAKE AWAY FROM IT?
"Workhorse started out as a character study. I wanted to see if I could write a relatable, funny female character who was also not a very good person, someone who did bad things and hurt people, but to whom you still feel a strange affinity, and whose actions, maybe, resonated with your own. And while, of course, there are women that behave badly in fiction, I find we generally place them in a context in which their evil-doings are understandable, and often, forgivable. I guess I wanted to challenge the idea that simple ambition is not an accepted excuse for women."
DO YOU PLAN TO WRITE OTHER NOVELS?
"Yes, I'm working on my second book, which is actually entirely based in Philadelphia, and it includes everything from Irish bars to cheerleaders."
FROM WHERE CAN YOUR BOOK BE PURCHASED? AT ANY LOCAL BOOKSTORES?
"I'm passionate about local bookstores, and there's one in Yardley called Commonplace Books on Main Street. In Newtown, please hit up Newtown Bookshop. It's also available at mass retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Target."
The book is also being marketed in the United Kingdom and Australia. Caroline now lives in Montclair, New Jersey. She says the story "also been optioned for television."
"Hilariously observant and insightful, Workhorse is a page-turner about what it means to be in thrall to wealth, beauty and influence, with outrageous sacrifices women must make to succeed."