Both Nakia and Yokairy were born in New York City and raised in the Bronx. Most of their literary inspiration and creativity stems from the experiences associated with growing up in New York City.
Nakia resides in New York City.
Yokairy resides in Homestead, Florida.
Nakia D. Johnson
Throughout my early years, the seeds of my love for language and writing were planted, and with careful tending my abilities slowly began to sprout and unfold.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2000. Armed with a B. S. in Management with a minor in English from Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY, and stars in my eyes, I entered the wonderful world of nine to five working. Quickly, I discovered that my new life as a career woman offered several challenges. One of those challenges was what exactly to do with my free time. In college I had kept myself busy holding offices in extracurricular activities, working a part-time job, participating in social justice activities, and maintaining my GPA. Now, there was work, and nights out with friends and family and...? What else could I do with myself?
Insert my Mom, who’d always thought I should pursue a major associated with writing. One summer day in our kitchen at home, she suggested that two of my friends and I write a story. “Sure, mom,” I quipped. "I’ll have the beginning to you on Monday." Little did she know I was only half joking. This conversation was the impetus for my first manuscript, Jazzy.
Jazzy, then sat untouched, until May of 2002, when during a casual conversation with Yokairy, we discovered yet another of our common interests—writing. Turned out we both had the bare bones of dusty manuscripts crammed in drawers somewhere. “You too? Really?” I asked her, thrilled to find someone who actually got what I was saying, someone who knew the joys and frustrations of fleshing out characters, making them meld, bringing a story together. Joy to the world! I’d found my kindred spirit!
Yokairy and I agreed to complete our respective manuscripts and offered one another support through the dry spells when the words just refused to come and rooted one another on during the fruitful times when chapters came as easy as summer breezes. In October of 2002, my “baby” was complete and I actively began to seek representation.
Since that time, I’ve taken The University of Minnesota’s Split Rock Online Writing Course where I was granted a partial scholarship, participated in The Gotham Writer’s Workshop, where I had several short stories positively reviewed and critiqued, and continued to hone my craft while still attempting to crack the publishing code. Last year I also took a second dose of Gotham, this time an on-line version, where I had the first chapters of my recently completed (July 2007!!) novel, Uptempo, critiqued. I'm happy to say that it was well received.
I repeat, my novel, Uptempo is COMPLETE!
I am currently working on acquring representation for Uptempo (Hello to all those agents pouring over this site!!!) and therefore am querying yet again, as I still have a publishing code to smash! I foresee great things happening in 2007 so please--stay tuned!
I've also been co-authoring with Yokairy a children's book called Wanderlust: Where Seasons Meet & Magic Begins, which Yokairy details below (a synopsis for Wanderlust, as well as our other titles, can also be found by clicking to our "What's on the Horizon" page).
My current short-term goal is to publish Uptempo, continue to cultivate my freelance writing career, prove my abilities, and to continue to evolve--in my writing as well as my life. My long-term goal is the same--publication. (There is hope yet!)
The years have sailed by but the stars in my eyes have not dimmed. In a nutshell, I’m a woman, I’m a writer, I’m a native New Yorker, therefore I don’t quite know how to quit.
In my spare time I enjoy shopping, home decorating, and fueling my creative fire. I've been known to throw a great party and enjoy entertaining and spending time with family and friends.
I am presently employed as a Business Manager/Editor.
Read on for a glimpse into the life of Yokairy…
Yokairy Y. Tavarez
I was born on September 14, 1979, in St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. After being brought home by my parents and my fifteen month-old sister, Dayetsa, to our apartment in the Bronx, I remained there for the next eighteen years.
I attended Catholic school all through Elementary and High School and graduated from the Academy of Mount Saint Ursula in the East Bronx in 1997. In September, I started my first semester at CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan with a major in Legal Studies, and a minor in Creative Writing. The following March, I moved out of my parents apartment and into my own and also changed jobs and began work as a Paralegal with a general practice law office three blocks from where I lived. That October, I started on my first manuscript, A Likely Story. Based loosely on a character very much like myself, I explored the topic of a young Hispanic-American woman struggling with the every-day obstacles of life in present-day New York City.
By early 1999, A Likely Story was inadvertently put on hold and by the time 2000 rolled around, several occurrences began to unfold in my personal life. I became engaged and started to plan my wedding for the following April. I was preparing for my final semester in college and possible relocation as Miami became more and more appealing to us.
On April 21, 2001, I married my long-time boyfriend Ernesto and was ready to move the following month after graduation. By Memorial Day, one week after my last final exam, I said goodbye to my hometown and moved to Miami, Florida. In August, my husband and I found out that not only were we expecting, but I was already seven months along. On December 7th, I gave birth to an 8 lb, 5 oz beauty named Evangeline Jianna.
By May of 2002, Nakia, a kindred spirit and now partner on this crazy literary roller-coaster we've blindly mounted, hinted that she too had begun an attempt at a novel and it was sitting in a pile of dust. With a renewed eagerness to complete it, I started again on A Likely Story, this time finishing it by August with the help and guidance of Nakia. In November, while commencing the search for a representative agent, I began my second manuscript, The Blue Brotherhood, a fictional drama about the New York City Police Department and the bands of corruption and solidarity that exist behind its walls, in and out of the city. By December, I discovered I was expecting again and on June 4, 2003, I gave birth to my son, Ernesto Jor-El, Jr. at 8 lbs, 7.8 oz.
My search for an agent continues still, along with Nakia, who has also been seeking representation for her own completed manuscript, Jazzy.
Still full of ideas, I began my third manuscript in late September of 2004, At Night She Stood, and completed it this past May. By far my favorite and most personal story, this particular tale centers around a single mother in Yonkers, New York, recently divorced, whose daughter is kidnapped and murdered.
In the summer of 2005, I began my fourth manuscript, entitled Glory Lasts Forever. Breaking away from the mainstream norm, this story circles around a high school senior who defies tradition and tackles adversity by becoming the first female in the history of her town to make the varsity football team.
More recently, Nakia and I have embarked upon another journey, one less familiar, yet equally exciting for us. We have begun co-writing a children's book, entitled Wanderlust: Where Seasons Meet & Magic Begins. It's a tale about two young girls living miles apart who meet by fate and discover their shared knowledge of a legendary land of enchantment and mystical creatures. They commence a voyage that takes them out of our world into the one they've been dreaming of all their lives. With this new venture we are undertaking, along with the decision to launch Our Writes of Passage, we are hoping that this will only not open new doors for us insofar as getting our names known and recognized, but in establishing us as novelists, as well.
My greatest passion, besides writing and my children, of course, is actually watching television and movies. I love all sorts of shows and films and live for my scheduled sitcoms and new theater releases. I also enjoy reading and can spend all day curled up with the television on and a good book or two in my lap. My favorite author is John Grisham, my favorite book is To Kill A Mockingbird and I have too many favorite movies to name.
I am currently the Paralegal to a sole practitioner in Homestead, Florida, and have recently started a paralegal firm called, A. Choice Paralegal Services, LLC. I founded this practice under the premise of providing another choice to legal assistance for those who do not wish, or do not have the means to pay extravagant legal fees for simple procedures. For the moment the practice is providing assistance for Uncontested Divorces, Bankruptcy, Credit Repair, Criminal Expunctions and Seals, Real Estate Closings, Immigration, Simple Wills, Legal Document Drafting and Notorial Services.
More personally, writing for me is not only what I feel is a calling, but it's also a way out of what I have been surrounded with my whole life. I've been working since I was fourteen years old, trudging myself along day in and day out to try and create a life for my children that I didn't have growing up in a small apartment in the Bronx. That is one vision I have for what writing might possibly do for me. I truly believe that one day this talent I have convinced myself that I possess will open so many more doors for my family and I that being a working stiff hasn't been able to. And I also hope that some of this passion and fire to write and express myself has been passed on to either one of my children.
Right now, Evie loves to scribble with crayons and E.J. loves to eat the crayons.
I guess you have to start somewhere.
