Authors of "Blackout" share message for young Black adults: "You can be the center of the love story"
CBSN
Six bestselling Young Adult authors have teamed up to write "Blackout," a new novel celebrating Black love. The book, on sale now, weaves together six stories of love and friendship set against a massive power outage in New York City.
"Blackout" was written by six people. They are Dhonielle Clayton, author of "The Belles," Tiffany D. Jackson, author of "Monday's Not Coming," Nic Stone, author of "Dear Martin," Angie Thomas, author of "The Hate U Give," Ashley Woodfolk, who wrote the "Flyy Girls" series and Nicola Yoon, who wrote "Instructions for Dancing." The six writers joined "CBS This Morning" Wednesday. They gathered in Harlem to discuss collaborating during the pandemic, and the importance of representing young people of color in joyful love stories.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.