An Interview With James M. Jackson

by Grace Topping

 

Niki Unbound

Devastating intel. No one left to trust. A government that wants her erased. But walking away isn’t in Niki’s DNA. All her working life, she’s disappeared into false lives to keep her country safe. Now that country has cut her loose—no sponsor, no support, no return. Then she learns of an imminent decapitation strike designed to seize the presidency—and no way to stop it without re-entering a world where hundreds of armed felons know her face. Knowing it's her or no one, Niki builds her team: four generations of family and friends with skills no one expected. The Justice Department's vast web is pulling threads—and each one leads to the team. Subpoenas land. Laptops seized. Questions sharpen. The people who volunteered to stop the coup are the ones now suffering. Can Niki stop the traitors and shield those who helped her—or will saving her country cost her everyone, including herself?        www.jamesmjackson.com

 

 

Author James M. Jackson spent a career as an actuary, dealing with math, statistics, and money theory. But after reading his latest political thriller, Niki Unbound, I’ve begun to wonder if Jim was an actuary by day and something else entirely by night. Read Niki Unbound and see what you think. But be warned. It’s a page-turner that will have you looking at your cell phone and computer differently afterwards. 

 

 

Welcome, Jim. 

 

Thanks so much for having me today, Grace.

 

From your previous books in this trilogy, readers recognize that Niki is an undercover name for Ashley Pendergast Prescott. In Niki Unbound, why did you identify her frequently throughout the book using both names?

Names can be complicated, can’t they? That’s especially true if you’ve lived more than a decade of your life bouncing between much of your “real” self as Ashley and your undercover life as Niki.

Consider an author who has written under a pseudonym. Most people know them by their pen name; friends know them by their real name; and really good friends know them by a nickname. That’s the same with Ashley/Niki, but it’s more complicated because some of her friends (Seamus McCree and his son) were around when the Niki persona came into existence and fondly use that as a nickname for her (and that’s passed on to other members of the family).

 

Ashley reminds herself to shift into her Niki mindset. How different is Ashley from her alter ego, Niki? 

 

Over the years, despite Ashley wanting to be unaffected by her undercover life, the two personas have blurred. That’s not surprising. Psychologists and philosophers before them have long understood that our actions (or those we actively visualize) will eventually change our thoughts and emotions. That’s the psychology behind the common expression to “fake it until you make it.” It’s an issue she actively experiences and tries to fight against by naming the Niki role before immersing herself in it.

 

With three female primary/support characters (Niki/Ashley, Lisa, and Cindy), what was the greatest challenge, if any, you faced writing female characters?

 

I’ve been writing female characters for years, so that isn’t a huge challenge. However, in reading an early draft, I realized Lisa sounded like another version of Niki. I revisited Lisa’s past (hacker extraordinaire, the kind of person who commands a room) and reviewed every scene she was in to make sure that personality shone.

 

You write that Lisa Latoya was the youngest brevetted general since the Civil War. What is a brevetted general?

 

A brevet is a commission that gives a military officer a higher nominal rank than their actual rank so they can act as though they had the higher rank. Consider it a promotion on paper and in practice, but not in fact. If you don’t want to learn more about brevetted generals, skip to the next question, ’cause I’m about to explain in detail.

 

The Army has one of the most rigid pecking orders you can imagine. Not only are there various ranks, but the date an individual obtains that rank determines which of two officers of the same rank is superior. That works fine until there is a crisis. During the Civil War, the crisis was that the Army expanded so quickly they needed high-level officers to command armies, but they didn’t want to lock in those ranks because they believed the Army’s size was only temporary. For example, George Armstrong Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 as a second lieutenant in the regular army. By age 23, he was a brevetted Brigadier General and ended the war as a brevetted Major General (two stars). After the war, he lost those brevetted promotions and resumed life in the regular army as a captain (and died a lieutenant colonel).

 

In Lisa’s case, the Army needed someone at the rank of Brigadier General to run the “Red Team” group of hackers tasked with trying to break into electronic systems before the enemy finds the weak links. But since Lisa had not spent the required time-in-service to be that rank, they used the brevet system. Lisa’s promotion is a fictional invention because, as I understand it, Congress changed the law in 1922 to prohibit brevetted promotions.

 

Tom decides not to become part of the team, saying that Niki and Seamus’s plans go against his core beliefs. Because of his beliefs, shouldn’t Seamus and Niki be concerned that Tom might turn them in?

 

Tom was a partner with Lisa and Patrick McCree right after college and has the same hacker mentality as they do. He’s just gone 100% legit. But he surmises how Lisa plans to use a botnet (see below); he doesn’t know it or witness it. No reason for him to squeal, and even if he did, he couldn’t prove anything, so they aren’t worried.

 

You write very realistically about computers and communications technology. It almost makes me want to resort to smoke signals to ensure confidentiality. Is the technological capability you include in this book real, or is some of it your creation?

 

The electronic sleuthing capabilities the characters use are real. Their applications are fictional. Your mother may have told you something similar to what mine told me seventy years ago: if you don’t want someone to know, don’t do it. In today’s wired world, it’s excellent advice. And smoke signals won’t work; someone’s camera will catch them and AI will interpret them in short order.

 

What is a botnet? And what is a Hail Mary anonymous call?

 

A botnet is a network of internet-connected devices infected with malware that allows a bot-herder (aka cybercriminal) to control them remotely. The owners of the devices are usually unaware. Botnets are often used for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks where the bot-herder overwhelms a computer, network, or server with traffic, spam, and phishing campaigns, etc.

 

In this story, they are used to create the equivalent of a supercomputer, distributing massive work over an extensive network of “captured” devices.

 

“Hail Mary,” when it doesn’t mean a traditional Christian prayer, refers to a last-ditch, desperate effort. In football, it’s often a 60-yard pass into the end-zone with the hope that one of the good guys will come down with it. In the novel, it’s making phone calls hoping someone will believe them about the decapitation event before it’s too late.

 

You have a surprising twist at the end. Did you plan it all along, or did you decide on it as you pantsed along?

 

A funny thing happened as I was creating the first draft. I realized my subconscious had all along been plotting the Niki Undercover Thriller series as a trilogy. I’d spread the breadcrumbs, sown the seeds, pick your metaphor—they all pointed to the resolution resulting in the twist you refer to. 

 

That’s one advantage of being a pantser: my intuition works way ahead of my fingers on the keyboard. The disadvantage is that you don’t know until suddenly you do know.

 

The details in Niki Unbound were so involved I just shook my head in wonder as to how you kept it all straight. Was this book more of a challenge for you than your others?

 

The most challenging part for me was knowing the story’s ending before I wrote it. I’ve never experienced that before, and I felt a lot of pressure to do it justice. I shouldn’t have worried so much because by the time I wrote the ending, my pantsing self came through with a few tweaks that made the story even stronger.

The details arrive after the first draft, and I attempt to ensure everything holds together. In read-throughs, I keep track of Chekhov’s gun rule: you must use every item shown in a story later, and its corollary that every item used later in the story must be foreshadowed. I despise deus ex machina and try to avoid any hint of it in my stories.

 

In addition to your writing, you spend a lot of time editing things like anthologies and teaching writing classes. Is there one among them that you enjoy more than the others?

 

I enjoy helping other people. I’ve found the best way I can do that is through teaching with a personal touch, where students have homework, and I can provide personalized feedback.

 

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned since you started writing?

 

I can’t do it alone. It takes a community, of which Writers Who Kill plays a central role.

 

So with the conclusion of the Niki trilogy, what’s next?

 

That is the question. For the next few weeks, I’ll apply my energy and time to marketing, family visits, and teaching an online class on story structure. By then, I’ll have a focus. I have a nonfiction book for writers that I would like to complete, and I have the stirrings for two novels. The best way to keep in touch with my plans is to join my Readers Group Newsletter (and get a free story or three).

 

Thank you, Jim. I look forward to whatever project you take on next.

 

 

Grace Topping is the author of the Laura Bishop Mystery Series.