Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The Heart's Journey Home! (+$25 Amazon GC giveaway!)

Title: The Heart's Journey Home 
Author: Nikki Jackson 
Series: N/A
Pages: 607
Date Published: 2015
Publisher: N/A
Format: Kindle
Genre: Realistic YA
Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:
As if being seventeen isn’t hard enough, Tori Logan faces an especially difficult set of circumstances. Her mother died when she was young, leaving Tori with a father whose idea of parenting seems to include trying to buy her love with expensive toys…and leaving Tori with his live-in girlfriend, Rachael, while he goes off on adventures.

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, even participating in a government program that will train her to become a serial killer profiler—her dream job.

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 teen, and they include coming to grips with some hard—and surprising—truths about both her past and her future.
~A Wordsmith~
Family and friends teased me at the size of my book, more than 700 pages – which sounds like a lot (okay it is a lot but it's a fast read believe me), yet the majority of the teasing has been because they said I write the way I speak, using many words. Admittedly I do talk long; if I'm telling a story it's a long story, if I'm answering a question or weighing in with a comment, that's likely to be long too. And no, we writers don't simply like to hear ourselves talk, I think we flat out love words. We like to speak them as well as write them.

We writers love the way words sound. We love how they roll off our tongues or out of the ink of our pens. We love how they dance and box during engaging conversations. We love how they tweak the imagination painting illustrative pictures we use to convey information and concepts and at times our own weird thoughts. Words provide light and shadow and depth and color. We writers love the emotion that words both evoke and convey – laughter, anger, shock, tears, passion, commitment, patience, love, solidarity, alarm, retrospect, peace. Words can incite a riot and quiet a fussy baby. Words can lead men in the most heinous acts of genocide, or quell a mounting storm bringing peace. Words add flavor and seasoning to our world – both real and imagined. Words.

I've been around for a while (my gray hair can attest to that) and I've seen what words can do. That's why I respect the craft and the responsibility that goes along with it. I'm not a casual writer, I'm a serious writer. With that I recognize I'm responsible for every word I ever publish. I owe it to humanity to pour out good, to do no evil, and I also owe it to humanity to call it out if it's wrong – to point, if not lead, the way to change. All of this is merely me being responsible and true to the craft I love


So what’s the reader’s responsibility? Basically to keep the writer honest. Honest and true to the art. Your job is to kick the writers you know and follow in the seat of their pants if they ever get lazy and start turning out work that’s subpar, less than you know they can produce. Your job is to call trash trash and throw it where it belongs. Your job is to support your favorite writers with encouragement, nice reviews and by continuing to buy their books. In reality, your job is to inspire us. A real writer is writing for the reader. Sure, The Heart’s Journey Home is a story (a series really) that has been rolling around in my head for a while and I just had to get it out, but every sentence and paragraph and chapter I wrote, I wrote with you in mind. I want you to love my teen characters as much as I’ve come to know and love them. I want you to care about what’s bugging them. I want you to feel their joy and anguish and be surprised right along with them when the unexpected happens. I want you to be entertained. I wrote the book for you.

I feel the relationship between the writer and the reader is truly sweet. Making friends with people all over the world, people you’ll likely never meet, but through the written word you make a connection. I’m old enough to be everybody’s mama, I’m Black, female, but through this one book we can be friends. Now that’s special. This is why I write. Sure I want everybody to buy my book, but I want you to enjoy reading it. I want you, wherever you are, to simply get to know me. A wordsmith.
~Try an Excerpt!~
I could really use a belt. Fin thought as he jumped from the porch, bounding over the five steps.  Running down the graveled drive at break-neck speed he cursed the fact he was wearing tennis shoes - that along with the baggy, beltless pants was hemming up his stride.

The sound of shrieks and a male voice yelling at him in a foreign language didn’t help the matter.  Fin tripped over his own size 12 feet, rolled and got up running.  After gathering his wits about him he heard a muffled roar zoom past him followed by a streak of green.  He was unsure of what it was but he was too scared to try to figure it out – he was running now – minus the jeans and a tennis shoe. 

Fin all but dove into his Camaro thankful he’d left the keys in the ignition and not in his pants pocket.  He turned the key and sped down the drive, kicking dirt and gravel in his wake.  In his rear-view mirror he could see the crazy man chasing him with the longest, sharpest sword he’d ever seen.


Making it to the end of the drive, Fin did a complete donut, spun the vehicle around in the right direction and then tore off down the street.  Tori had grabbed his errant shoe and AJ leaned down to scoop up the jeans, then the two of them tore down the drive after Fin.
~Meet Nikki!~ 
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.
 Nikki will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

25 comments:

  1. I enjoyed reading the excerpt and learning more about this book. This book sounds like a very interesting read!

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    1. Hi Ally, it's a great read if I may say so myself. The Kindle version is only $5.99 so the reader will get a lot of bang for their bucks!

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  2. Andra, thanks so much for hosting a stop on my book tour, I look forward to spending the day with you!

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  3. What's your favorite family tradition?

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    1. Mai, hands down it's going to the movies together. My sisters, brother, niece, nephew and his girlfriend will take up half a row in the theatre, buy tons of food and have a great time. Then we go to a restaurant right afterwards and spend the evening critiquing the movie. This is our favorite thing to do together. The last movie we saw together was The Martian

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  4. "... the majority of the teasing has been because they said I write the way I speak, using many words. Admittedly I do talk long; if I'm telling a story it's a long story, if I'm answering a question or weighing in with a comment, that's likely to be long too." That is totally me too. I don't write books (at least not published ones, LOL), but I DO write poetry, plus I sometimes edit books for a living (hard to believe, but it is much easier to edit once the words are on the page, rather than in my head before the words hit the page). Keep up the good work!

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    1. Laney thanks for the encouragement, also it's nice to know I've got a kindred spirit out there! What's your favorite genre to edit? what wouldn't you be interested in editing? I appreciate you editors, my guy did a wonderful job polishing up my novel. Definitely money well spent.

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    2. No favourites, Nikki. I have edited cookbooks, instruction manuals, biographies, autobiographies, non-fiction books, work reports/assignments, CVs (resumes) and cover letters, and pretty well whatever is brought my way. No romances yet, LOL.

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  5. Thanks for the excerpt :) I really enjoyed the 'A Wordsmith' part. You sound passionate about writing and what entails. It felt good to read.

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    1. Thanks Amber, I really love writing. It would be sheer heaven if I could quit my day job and write for a living. That's the dream I'm working my way to.

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  6. Enjoyed the post and the excerpt, sounds like a great read, thanks for sharing!

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  7. Sounds like a great book, put it on my must read list.

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    1. Thanks Teresa, it's a good read for the holidays when you have nothing but time and coffee (or tea)

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  8. Thanks Rita, it is a great read chock full of fun, adventure, twists, turns and reveals. it's great fun!

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  9. I enjoyed the excerpt, thank you!

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  10. Great excerpt, sounds like a book I am going to thoroughly enjoy reading! Thanks for sharing :)

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    1. Thanks Victoria, it's a really fun book and exciting too!

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  11. 700 pages sounds fine to me. If it is a great read the longer the better.

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    1. It's a great read indeed! And there's more going on in the story than meets the eye, a lot that involves the main character that's she's totally unaware of. You'll enjoy it.

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  12. Thanks Andra for being such a great stop along my book tour!

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  13. for the author to have fulfilled a successful writing career from a love of books from a very young age is awesome. Rarely does a child's dream for a career come to fruition. I wish the author much success.

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