The Heart's Journey Home
by Nikki Jackson
GENRE: Young Adult
BLURB:
It’s summer vacation, and all seventeen-year-old Tori Logan
wants to do is hang out with her two best friends, practice her mixed martial
arts and go to FBI spy camp. Summer means freedom (mostly from adults) and Tori
plans to fill every spare moment of her last summer before graduating from High
School with all the fun things she and her best pals can come up with.
Tori,
whose mom died of breast cancer when she was young, has always relied on her
own strength to get by - especially because her Archeologist father tends to
leave her behind with his live-in girlfriend while he gallivants around the
world on digs. Thankfully, Tori can take
care of herself. She knows exactly who she is and what she wants to do with her
life. Her Lakota Sioux grandfather, a former Navy SEAL, trained Tori in
self-defense from a young age. Now, as a teenager, Tori excels at mixed martial
arts and the use of various weapons. During
the summer she will be attending an FBI sponsored Summer Camp which she hopes
will lead to her dream job – becoming an FBI serial killer profiler.
With
her two best friends at her side, Tori believes she can handle anything. And
with summer vacation stretching before them, the trio plans to find plenty of
adventure.
But
while Tori is determined to be independent, life has other plans for this
fierce young woman, and they include coming to grips with some hard - and
surprising - truths about both her past and her future.
EXCERPT:
Kat leaned over to
whisper to Tori, keeping an eye on the back of Guevara’s head.
“I remember seeing a
movie once where a bunch’cha teens went off to what they thought was summer
camp and it was really some kinda alien invasion where they took over
everybody’s mind.”
Tori chuckled quietly.
“I take it you haven’t
had much exposure to the military.”
“My grandparents were
pot smoking, free loving hippies who ran off to Canada when my grandpa got
drafted. My mom was born in a commune
and they named her Karma and her brother, Echo.” Tori muffled a laugh.
“Then what are you
doing here?” Tori asked. Kat leaned even
closer.
“I ran slightly afoul
of the law so to speak and it was either spend a week here or a week cleaning
up trash along the freeway.”
“What did you do,
shoplift?”
“Sorta hacked into a
bank and gave myself a bogus ATM card.”
“How much did you get
before you got busted?”
“About twelve grand.”
“Shut up!” Tori
whispered loudly.
“For real.” Kat
said. “My stupid kid brother found my
stash and the ATM card and decided to make his own withdrawal. An 11 year old kid on a bike pulling 400
bucks out of an ATM just didn’t seem quite right. He got nabbed and ratted me out.”
AUTHOR INTERVIEW:
What
inspired you to write The Heart’s Journey Home?
I attend a church that has a
large teen population. They have their
own space that’s literally the size of a high school gym. I was walking by one Wednesday and the youth
band was just rocking it out. I stopped
and stood in the doorway just taking it in.
The teens were into the band and into each other. Singing, yelling over the music to one
another, some were on the other side of the room tossing a ball around. All in all they were being young people and
loving it. That’s when it hit me – write
a story where the major characters and plot line revolve around a group of
teens. I believe as a writer you find your greatest inspiration right in the
middle of your own life. Just don’t walk by it.
When or
at what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I knew at the age of eight I
wanted to be a writer. I was an avid
reader by then and I discovered through reading that there was a whole
adventurous world out there. There were
countries, unique and strange other kids, and adventures that went beyond my
regular house and regular average life.
I saw and felt and tasted all this ‘moreness’. I experienced the crazy and daring exploits
kids went on and I actually believed I could have something similar for my
life. Imagine that! A poor Black kid could experience more and do
more and have more…it was this journey into the realm of possibilities that had
the strongest effect on me as a little kid.
Books dared me to dream and inspired me to want so much more. I was carried away. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a
writer. I wanted to have the same effect
on others that books had on me – fun and excitement, adventure, encouragement,
hope. The ability to dream for
myself.
What is
the earliest age you remember reading your first book?
That’s easy, I was about eight
years old and as was our habit during the summer my two sisters and I walked to
the nearby public library. They had this
great kid’s section and that’s where I saw it for the first time, a book
series. It took up the whole shelf. The name of the series was The Boxcar
Children. I spent the whole summer
reading the books and taking adventures with those kids. They had me laughing and crying and
scared. They made me daring and they
made me dream. It’s the first book I
remember reading and the first book that had an emotional effect on me. It captured me and it spirited me away with a
bunch of kids who became my heart-felt friends.
I experienced every word I
read. That book series made me want to
be a writer.
What
genre of books do you enjoy reading?
I’m more loyal to what I like
to read than a particular genre though I do go on ‘jags’. While I was writing
The Heart’s Journey Home I was on a young adult jag so I read that genre and
looked at movies from that genre – The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, Divergent, and
The Fault In Our Stars. Though it didn’t
get good reviews the movie After Earth was a movie I actually liked. It starred Will Smith and his son Jaden. Jaden who played Smith’s son in the movie,
had to man up to save both himself and his father after their ship crash lands
on a hostile planet leaving his father seriously injured. I was intrigued by what this kid would have
to do to survive. He showed what a kid
could do. I believe hanging out in the young adult
genre acted as a muse for me while I was making my way through my book. It kept me in the head-space of teens and
their lives - their angst, tragedies, their
triumphs and strengths. Young people are
so deep and driven. There’s a sense of
simplistic integrity about them that I’m sorry to say I don’t see in many
adults. They love deeper than what we
adults believe possible. They’re so
strong, nearly invincible. I’m awed by
young people.
What is
your favorite book?
If I say To Kill A Mockingbird
one more time my two sisters are going to smack me. They know if I talk about it long enough the
DVD’s going in and whoever’s at my dad’s is going to be stuck watching it with
me. But I can’t help it I just love it
- the book and I straight-up love the movie.
Nobody can tell me that the actor Gregory Peck isn’t the real life
Atticus Finch. It’s just a great story
and a great read. If there was one book
out there that I could say I wish I’d written this would be the book. It’s a classic, has been on the reading list
in a number of high schools since forever, it won the author Harper Lee the
Pulitzer Prize and it was made into a movie.
What if anything about this wouldn’t a writer want for themselves? This is a dream come true.
You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your
favorite author and why?
Everyone who knows me would
laugh but it’s Stephen King. I am so not
into scary movies. I’m not going to one even if somebody else is paying and I’m
not sticking around if somebody puts one in the DVD. Between the flying monkeys (the Wizard of Oz)
and The Ring (that chick coming out of that well then the TV set?!) it’s a wrap. What I love about King is his versatility. The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, two
totally non-scary works, both of which I really love. I was shocked when I learned the TV series
Under The Dome is based on King’s novel – Under The Dome. Books, movies, TV, scary stuff, non-scary
stuff and all of it’s good. His scary
stuff is just tore up good I just can’t sit through it. His writing is great. It’s descriptive and tight and it’s a
thriller at the most purest basic level.
There’s a scary movie of his that I did sit through and loved – Storm of
the Century. The premise was just messed
up. This scary looking guy shows up at this little out of the way town, kills a
couple of people in a tore-up way and then takes all the little kids hostage –
of sorts. They’re all knocked out and he
tells the parents and the town that they have to give him one of the kids
(apparently for some reason he can’t just take the kid). Give him one or he’s killing all of them. How in the world were they going to get out
of this dilemma? Were they going to
stand together or every parent for themselves?
In the end they caved as a town and gave into this guy. They pulled lots and gave him one of the
kids. The rest of the movie showed the
devastatingly lasting effect that one choice had on folks in the town (they had
to cover the early deaths and the missing child with a lie). And at the end you
learned what eventually happened to the kid.
What made the move good for me was the interplay between the characters
as they tried to figure out what to do.
Morality and ethics, basic humanity, strength and right were put on a
trial of sorts and the outcome wasn’t pretty.
Human maybe, but messed up none the less. I thought King’s premise was sweet and I’m
still trying to determine what I would’ve done in the end. That’s the formula of a grand story – the
reader still talking about it years later.
If you
could travel back in time here on earth to any place or time. Where would you
go and why?
I’d go back to July 16, 1969
and stow away on Apollo 11. I’d ride
that bird to the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. I’d wait for them to go to sleep then I’d put
on one of those space suits and go outside and walk around on the moon. Imagine that, me on the moon! I’d rake my gloved hand through the dust of
the planet’s floor. I’d do that funny
run and hop. I’d sit on a rock and look
at the earth from the greatest seat in the universe. I’d smile and laugh and laugh and remember it
forever. I think there are some extreme
things that call out to you and I think as a writer I have to challenge myself
to experience at least some of them. How
can I take the reader on a journey I’m afraid to go on myself? How can I expand the reader’s horizon and
challenge them to view themselves and their world outside the box?
When
writing a book do you find that writing comes easy for you or is it a difficult
task?
Writing for me is very easy. It’s like the whole book downloads itself
into my head and I watch it as a movie.
Then I simply write what I see. I
play back certain scenes in my head over and over, sometimes changing them up
to view a slightly different outcome. I
believe we writers have a certain wiring and bent - I’m extremely visual and
I’ve always been a daydreamer of sorts and it comes out in my written
work.
Do you
have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?
No I don’t have any live pets but I do have a little green frog
and a giraffe with a monkey hanging from its leg on my desk at the office. I think we’re rather suited for one
another. I don’t have to chase the frog
around, it never goes hopping off and the giraffe and the monkey have a quaint
understanding so they don’t fight. It’s
a good arrangement for us all.
What is your "to die
for", favorite food/foods to eat?
Coffee. I’m a bit of a
snob though so I don’t drink regular coffee I usually drink caramel
lattes. Panera Bread, Starbucks, Coffee
Beanery, makes no difference, they each have their own tasty version of my
favorite drink.
Do you have any advice for
anyone that would like to be an author?
Commit to the dream. Find a way to write everyday – work on
something, journal, anything just so long as you’re writing. Don’t be deterred by negative views or
comments, believe in the writer you know yourself to be and let that be your guiding
force.
AUTHOR BIO:
Ever since she was young, Nikki Jackson has loved reading and
the way that books allow you to journey on wonderful adventures without ever leaving
the comfort of home. She decided at a young age that she wanted to become a
writer to enable others to experience the magic of books—and The Heart’s
Journey Home is the result.
In addition to writing, Nikki Jackson is a contract worker for
General Motors. She and her husband currently live in the Detroit metropolitan
area.
Links:
The Heart’s Journey Home Blog is currently under construction
and will be online soon.
Giveaway:
$25 Amazon/BN GC
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better
your chances of winning.
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