The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind: First ever Jackson Ford interview

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford caused much excitement and expletives when published last year – being hailed as “Alias meets X-Men in a grimly LA setting” by Maria Lewis, a “madcap adventure” that speeds along at “breakneck pace” by the Guardian and “furious, frenetic, fun, and ‘f*ck you’’ by Robert Brockway.

Until now, the author Jackson Ford has been hiding under a mysterious closed pseudonym… But today, in a (***fanfare***) SCIFINOW WORLD EXCLUSIVE, we proudly present the first ever interview with Jackson Ford.

So Jackson, let’s address the elephant in the room . . . Your real name’s not Jackson is it? You’ve been hiding behind a secret identity all this time. Who are you REALLY?

Nope, my real name is definitely not Jackson. It’s Rob Boffard. I’m a journalist turned science fiction author from South Africa, and after publishing books under my own name for a while, I decided that I wanted to write something a little bit different.

Writing in a different genre works best when you have a pseudonym – it helps separate your work. That meant I needed a new identity, and I decided to come up with a name that I thought was cool as hell. Oh, you don’t think the name Jackson Ford is cool? Whatever, it’s awesome, shut up.

So you’ve written this book, The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind. What exactly is it about? Beyond, you know, the obvious.

Well, you guessed it – the book is about a girl who could move sh*t with her mind. Her name is Teagan Frost. She works for the government in Los Angeles as a spy, using her ability to go on infiltration missions and break-ins – even though she’d much rather be kicking back with a beer, and planning the restaurant she’s totally going to own one day. Then a body turns up, murdered in a way only she could have pulled off. She’s got 24 hours to clear her name . . .

How would you describe the book in five words? GO!

F*ck, dude, I don’t know, I’m not good at these these things. Let’s see. Superpowered wannabe chef breaks stuff. No, that’s crap. Let me try again. Psychokinetic hellbitch on wild adventure. I like that one. And yes, hellbitch is one word. Actually, you know what? Given how much wild stuff happens in the book, let’s just go with SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T.

And so… here’s the big question. Is the book autobiographical? Is the reason that you’ve had a secret identify all this time because you yourself are a genetic experiment who can move sh*t with your own mind, working as a secret agent for the government? IS IT?

Yes, absolutely. I figured the best way to hide my true identity was to write a book about a fictional character totally based on my life. That is absolutely what happened, and you are incredibly smart for figuring it out. I bow before your superior wisdom. Now if you would do me a favour and look into this little red light please . . .

Okay, but are you at least a little bit like Teagan in some ways?

Let’s just say we’d get along. We both love cooking, and rap music, but I think that’s where the similarities end. She’s a lot more impulsive than I am, and hardly ever thinks anything through. Perhaps more importantly, Teagan believes in people. She believes they are inherently good, and worth helping. Me . . . not so much.

How comes it’s set in LA, when you’re from South Africa and live in Vancouver?

I’ve bounced around the world a lot, living not just in South Africa and Vancouver but in London as well, and I’ve spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. Even though I’ve never lived there, I know the city really well. When I was first putting together this story, I knew the setting was just as important as the characters – it had to become its own character, in a way. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that LA was the perfect playground for Teagan.

Everybody who doesn’t live there, and even some people who do, think it is all about the film industry and acting. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s an amazing food scene, incredible culture, huge depth and history. Also a sh*t-ton of traffic. I wanted to have Teagan get tangled up in some of the parts in LA that most people don’t see.

Do you think telekinesis, or psychokinesis as you refer to it in the book, could really be possible?

Hey, you’re the one who came to the conclusion that this book is autobiographical, and that I have telekinetic powers. What do you think? Honestly though, I don’t know. Right now, I don’t believe it’s possible. But we are advancing insanely fast as a species, and there are whole areas of science that we haven’t explored yet.

If you could move sh*t with your mind, what crazy pranks would you play on people?

Oh God, so many. Zippers would be pulled down. Phones placed on tables would move just as someone is about to pick them up. Every shoelace in the world would be tied together. Hell, if someone really pissed me off, I’d probably just stand outside their house and make all the doors open and close at random. Depending on my range, I might even go and park outside the White House, and have every cheeseburger Donald Trump tries to eat jump up and smack in the face. Repeatedly.

Crap. I shouldn’t have said that. Now I really am going to need you to look into this little red light, please.

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind is available now, and its sequel, Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air, will be released in July 2020.

Find Rob Boffard, aka Jackson Ford, on Twitter and Instagram as @realjacksonford, and at https://www.robboffard.com/