BY KAREN BOSSICK

Ketchum homeowner Alli Frank and her friend Asha Youmans launched a book writing career with “Tiny Imperfections,” a book that explored what it would be like if a Black woman became director of admissions to an elite private school, the fate of white students’ in her hands.

Now, five years later, they’re back with their fourth novel—“Boss Lady”--the story of a hard-working self-deprecating Black Puerto Rican woman who is fighting for her dreams.

The co-authors will discuss the book and sign copies at the Sun Valley Community Library on Monday, Aug. 12. The program begins at 6 p.m. on the Library’s Donaldson Robb Family Lawn, weather permitting. To reserve a space, email https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/12114253.

The novel follows Toni Arroyo, a promising inventor and budding entrepreneur who struggles to feed her twins with her job at San Francisco International Airport. Things seem like they might be going her way when she meets the grandson of a frequent passenger.

She pitches her idea for a skincare line on a Sharp Tank-esque reality show only to run up against her recently resurfaced, self-aggrandizing not-quite ex-husband

Frank said the idea came two years ago while they were writing their second book “Never Meant to Meet You,” about the unlikely friendship between a Black Baptist self-appointed fixer of other people’s problems and her Jewish neighbor who had just experienced the sudden death of her husband.

The two leaned on their experiences as educators and Frank’s experience as a Jewish woman and Youmans’ experience as a Black woman in their first three books, which included The Better Half,” about a sassy, irreverent Black woman who wonders if a white man who hasn’t lived the Black experience can be a good father of her child. They relied on extended Puerto Rican family members and Puerto Rican friends to provide them with a flavor for the culture and color of Puerto Rico.

Since Frank and Youmans live in different cities, the two do what they call “writing leapfrog,” said Frank. Frank writes three to five chapters and sends them to Youmans, who fleshes out the characters, creating emotional depth.

“The two of us make one good writer,” said Frank.

Their writing strategy hasn’t changed much over four novels.

“One of us is the fretter, the other the cheerleader.  One of us is the big picture plotter, one of us is the devil in the details.  One of us is a fighter, one of us is a listener. One of us is Black, one of us is White.  One of us is Baptist, one of us is Jewish… What has grown is our faith in our partnership.  We have stopped asking ourselves Can we really do this? and have just accepted that writing books is a hard, hard journey whether you are on your first or fifth one, but we can do it, so stop complaining and get back to work!

Though “Boss Lady” is a comedy romance perfect for beach blanket fare, Frank and Youmans hope people will take away a message of “Don’t stop. Keep going.”

“Everything you want is on the other side of hard.”