Interview with Jessica Yinka Thomas, author of “How Not to Save the World”

About Jessica Yinka Thomas

Jessica Yinka Thomas is a novelist with a background in toy design and social entrepreneurship. As managing director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, she has authored several award-winning academic articles. Jessica has worked as a designer of interactive educational toys, as the director of a social enterprise business plan competition and as a program manager for a community development nonprofit. How Not to Save the World is her first novel. Jessica’s writing highlights her twin passions for technological innovation and for creating significant social change through entrepreneurial ventures.

Growing up in West Africa and traveling around the world has provided her with a rich background from which to draw in her writing. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband, Jeff Forbes and their son Xavier. Jessica enjoys knitting in the winter and competing in triathlons during the summer. She holds a BS in Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

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The Interview

What inspired you to write your first book?

About 13 years ago I was a burnt out mechanical engineering working at a startup toy company, designing interactive educational toys. I took a 3 month leave and went backpacking across Australia. As an engineer, I wanted to explore the more creative side of my brain and took Julia Cameron’s The Artists Way with me. Reading the book was a transformative process that exposed the writer in me. At the end of the book I wrote “I WILL WRITE A NOVEL.”

What inspires you to write and why?

I’m inspired to write because I see storytelling as a compelling mode to engage people in big ideas. My hope is that everyone who reads my work will think about how they can find their personal path to leaving this world better than the way they found it. I also just love writing. I’ve never had a moment of writer’s block. The page is the one place I can funnel all of the ideas swirling around in my head. With a generous amount of editing, those ideas can be transformed into a story and even a novel, or two or three.

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?

Definitely finding time to write. I wrote How Not to Save the World over the course of 10 years while juggling a day job, grad school, a family, and an attempt at a social life. I had to be very strategic about fitting in my writing. I found that as long as I was consistent, even if I was only writing five or ten minutes a day, I could make progress. I created structure around writing by taking writing classes and then joining writing groups that kept me going during that decade.

I’ll often write on my lap using my laptop on my living room couch or the local library if I’m going to put in several hours. Much of the writing so far for the sequel to How Not to Save the World involves idea generation. The woman who runs my fitness class is probably frustrated that I will often pick up my phone in between sets and make notes about dialogue, character development, settings, etc. She probably thinks I’m texting my friends, but it keeps me distracted during the bicep curls and keeps me writing!

What is your favorite quality about yourself?

My perseverance. The process of writing and publishing my first novel has been quite a challenge! In addition to the 10 years I spent writing How Not to Save the World, I spent another 4 years trying to publish the novel. First, through a small local publisher that went out of business. Then, after finally finding a literary agent, collecting glowing rejection letters from all the big publishing houses. And finally, making a commitment to self-publishing the book. It’s been a long, bumpy road and I’m so glad I hung in there the whole way!

What is your least favorite quality about yourself?

My tendency to flip on the Housewives of some town or another whenever I’m looking for a distraction from writing. Thankfully it only takes a few minutes of watching before I realize I would rather be writing.

What is your favorite quote, by whom and why?

Definitely Marianne Williamson’s quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Because it inspires me to be bold.

About How Not to Save the World

Remi Austin is a fundraiser for the African Peace Collaborative (APC), a conflict resolution nonprofit founded by her late mother. Frustrated by her inability to raise funds and faced with the imminent closure of the APC, Remi turns to a life of crime to keep her nonprofit afloat.

From Sydney, to Tokyo, Geneva and Cape Town, Remi transforms from a fundraiser too shy to speak during staff meetings into a daring international art thief who must stop a war from breaking out and figure out how to save herself from a life behind bars.

With the help of her best friend, a designer and inventor who creates gadget-packed gowns, Remi eludes a dashing insurance agent and a terrifying stalker, all while redistributing the wealth of the world, one work of art at a time.