Dolly Parton Says She and Co-Author James Patterson Are 'Very Similar': 'We Like to Have a Good Time'

Dolly Parton has long been a fan of author James Patterson — but when he first proposed they work together on a new book, she wasn't exactly all in.

"I thought, 'What? Why do you want to write a book with me? You're doing alright on your own and I'm doing OK,'" Parton, 76, recalls to PEOPLE. "He said, 'No, I think this would be a good thing!' So I thought, 'Well, why not? I'm doing everything else.'"

Flash forward and the country superstar is now preparing for the March release of the fruits of their labor, a book called Run, Rose, Run that they co-wrote and that will serve as her first novel.

Parton, who recently teamed up with Duncan Hines for a line of southern-style cake mixes and frostings, with flavors like banana and coconut, will also release an accompanying album of the same name that will serve as a soundtrack of sorts to the book.

Dolly Parton

The 10-time Grammy winner says that although she's written plenty of hits over the years, the songwriting process this time around was a little bit different.

"It's like writing for a Broadway show or something where you know who the characters are," she says. "It makes it easier to write for them. He would send pages and it would make me think, 'Oh wow, that would make a great song,' when something was said a certain way."

Courtesy of Dolly Parton Dolly Parton and James Patterson

To help, she leaned on Patterson, 74, and the two — who Parton says are "very similar in the fact that we like to have a good time and we don't take the work so serious we can't enjoy it — swapped ideas.

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"I'd get good title ideas from some of the things that he'd write, and then I would write something about that and the situation, and then he would expand on the characters and on more of the story," she says. "He says it was really beneficial to him, and it was beneficial to me, because we'd get together and put all those things together, clean up our mess, and then start again."

Parton has long sung the praises of reading; through her Dolly's Imagination Library, she's mailed more than 150 million free books to children since 1995.

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The singer says that despite decades in the business, she's still having fun — and plans to keep it that way.

"I really wanted to be a star and I had hoped that it would happen. Of course, it's just beyond my wildest dreams, but to say that I have seen most of my dreams come true is saying a lot, and I'm very grateful and thankful for that," she says. "I don't want to do anything that I can't enjoy. I love my work and I want to be happy doing it, and I want people around me to be happy around me, because why not enjoy it?"

Parton's new partnership with Duncan Hines will pay homage to her southern upbringing. It hits grocery stores in March. Fans can also pick up a limited-edition baking collection that includes a collectible tea towel and spatula, plus a letter from Parton.