Review Fix Exclusive: Nikki Roddy Interview

“A young writer lady living in San Francisco,” as it says on her website, Nikki Roddy has recently come up with her first book, “Take Me with You,” which is supposed to be a goodbye gift for a best friend if you are moving away or simply graduating from high school. What makes the book unique is that it can be as personal as you want it to be.

“Basically, it is meant to be a gift that you fill out and give to your friend going away to college. It’s full of your inside jokes and memories together,” said Roddy. “There are sideboards about funny classes different colleges have, a friend’s report card and many other areas for you to make a list of things your friend should bring or not bring to college, or write about stuff you both liked.”

The idea for the book roots in Roddy’s personal experience, as she moved with her parents to Asia where they traveled for work. That was also where she got her first writing job in a magazine in Malaysia.

When leaving to Asia, Roddy did not know that she will make a career out of writing; she was a person who had to part with her friends for quite a long time and therefore, she wanted them to have a piece of her, something they would keep forever, full of memories of the best moments of their friendship. This is exactly what “Take Me with You” is expected to be for, let us say, two girls graduating from high school.

“It is almost like filling up a yearbook, with all the pictures and memories we put into it,” Roddy explained. “I have never seen a book like that before.”

Living in San Francisco, Roddy did not want to create a book specifically for teenagers from her area. “Take Me with You” is an artwork that can be applied to everyone because it is very broad and very personal.

Indeed, wouldn’t you love to buy a book that you can continue writing yourself and then give it to someone special?

Roddy said, “It is a book that you can completely personalize, so it is about what you want to get across to your friend, about injecting your personality. I tried to make it something that guides you, but at the same time, it is what you make of it. There should not be any worry that the book does not apply to someone because the readers are the ones who make it personal for them and their friends.”

Beginning with such a unique idea for a book, Roddy plans to go on writing. There are no definite plans yet, but the young author confessed that she would like to leave a trace in the history of literature.

“I hope that I would write something that people would really enjoy,” Roddy said. Books that had a great impact on me are those that bring out strong emotions. For example, I cried at the end of “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy and at the end of “Before I Fall” by Lauren Oliver. When you can relate to the characters and care about them, this is what makes a book a really good read. And if this is something I, as a reader, appreciate a lot, then this is what I want to put into my creative work for other people.”