PRO CONNECT
Kelly Jackson is a ‘Jill of all Trades and a Mistress of None,’ making her highly qualified to write on any subject. She has owned three small businesses, worked as an executive secretary, assisted the daughter of a late President of the United States and a media guru who ran two successful campaigns for another President…one being a democrat and the other a republican. Her politics lean left.
Kelly has also been a writer, blogger, comedienne, radio talk-show host, artist and videographer. Kelly and her sister, Sally, are two middle-aged sisters living in Honolulu, Hawaii after moving to paradise from Austin, TX.
Ms. Jackson is a sixty-five-year-old, certified yoga instructor who has written a yoga instructional tome entitled, Yoga For Smokers, Drinkers, Meat Eaters and Non-Believers. She owned and operated a yoga studio in Austin, Texas called, “Yoga for Normals."
She has been divorced a time or three, which gives her deep insight into emotionally unavailable men. This subject could be a book in itself.
Ms. Jackson calls herself a ‘cowgirl without portfolio,’ with a love of riding at every opportunity. Watching high profile golf (in person) and fishing are two activities that put a smile on her face and ridicule from her boomer women friends. She regularly tithes to Heifer International, The Wounded Warriors Program and the USO.
She is looking for a successful, creative, well-traveled, handsome man…oops, never mind, this is her bio not her journal.
“It’s one of those rare books that ends too soon, which will leave its audience primed for more series
installments. A fast mystery that benefits from the author’s comedic tilt.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Debut novelist Jackson tells the story of a world-weary Texan woman at a yoga ashram in this comic thriller.
Forty-year-old Wendy Tate’s third marriage is on the rocks. Her husband recently had an affair with a younger co-worker, and her own psychiatrist proves useless for anything other than comic relief. Deciding to distract herself by getting a certificate in yoga instruction, the Texas-raised Wendy leaves her home in Boston for an ashram outside Louisville, Kentucky. “An ashram is a place where I can go to change my life,” she explains to her skeptical mother. “Then I’ll come back to Texas and open a little studio and make my living as a yoga teacher.” However, Wendy’s initial impressions of the place aren’t great: the dormitories are in a converted roadside motel; the staff and students are odd, both in appearance and in personality; and the swami who serves as the community’s guru is a nonsensical old man. As Wendy sniffs at the meager food and sneaks cigarettes, meat, and booze between classes, she begins to question her decision to come to the ashram at all—until she discovers an undercover FBI agent on the property who’s investigating whether the yogi retreat is actually a cult. The agent needs a partner, and Wendy may be the only student who’s cynical enough to help him take the ashram down. Jackson writes in a sharp, easy-flowing prose that manages to capture the sardonic voice of her protagonist: “The day was lovely, the sun was shining, she was in the beautiful state of Kentucky, and Wendy already wanted to kill someone.” The plot moves at a quick clip, and the tone is light enough that even the narrative’s most unusual aspects feel believable. Some of the plot twists are rather easy to anticipate, and readers may be somewhat disappointed by the unsurprising ending, but on the whole, the reading experience is enjoyable, compelling, and leisurely. It’s one of those rare books that ends too soon, which will leave its audience primed for more series installments.
A fast mystery that benefits from the author’s comedic tilt.
Pub Date: July 29, 2013
Page count: 122pp
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2017
Day job
Executive Secretary, Office Momager, Girl Friday
Favorite author
Nora Ephron, David Sedaris
Favorite book
Heartburn, Me Talk Pretty One Day
Favorite word
rascacielos, which means skyscraper in Spanish. I just like the sound of it.
Hometown
Gawd-Ugliest Part of West Texas
Unexpected skill or talent
making faces and fake accents
A TEXAN GOES TO NIRVANA: Best Up & Coming, Old, As-of-Yet Discovered Author, 2017
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