NBHS Student Publishes Novel
North Babylon High School student Jessica James is the accomplished author of a published novel entitled Running from the Inside Out. Centered around the complexities of the adolescent world, it is about a young boy who lost his parents in a car accident and who is trying to find out exactly what happened. As he seeks to unravel the mystery and find some sort of meaning in his parents’ death, he meets a cross section of people from all walks of life and several different ethnic groups and in the process matures emotionally. This is a book with which adolescents can identify and that is exactly what Jessica intended.
Writing the book was a journey for Jessica. She first conceived of the idea when she was 13 years of age and was coming back in the car with her family from a vacation. She saw a billboard picturing a homeless young girl with a raggedy doll look and thought about how difficult life must be for adolescents with no family. She began writing the novel that day and by the time she got home, she had written the first chapter.
The process of writing and getting the book published took four years but her talent, maturity, perseverance, and determination got the job done. She also had the encouragement of her family and middle school teacher Mrs. Kerri Nocella who was always ready with a red pen. It wasn’t an easy process. Jessica says, “I even had writer’s block for a year, threw the book under the bed, but finally dragged it out and finished it.”
The publishing process took a year but the book is being sold on amazon.com and on the Xlibris web site. Jessica hopes that Barnes and Noble will carry the book soon. Meanwhile she is enjoying being a student at the high school, studying hard in her AP courses, enjoying music, guest lecturing in the schools and public library, and just enjoying her life. Will she write another book? She says maybe but she plans to go to college first and become a Physician’s Assistant. Then she may pick up the pen again.
