We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Natalie Jacobsen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Natalie below.

Natalie, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

I grew up in a one-hundred year-old farmhouse in rural Oregon, but never felt isolated: my parents encouraged travel and community through reading, exploring, and family activities that enriched the lives of my sister and I. Every week we made a pilgrimage to the local library to pick up armloads of books that challenged our reading comprehension and introduced us to new cultures, people and places. My dad was an international cargo pilot, and a fun game we always had was looking at a map and tracing his route, then looking up facts about the country or city in an encyclopedia. When able and older, we were pushed to travel, never held back. Reflecting on my childhood, I was very fortunate to have parents who were both knowledgeable and curious about the world, and who weren’t afraid to send their children out of the state — even country — to broaden their own minds through critical experiences that later inspired my writing and career in humanitarian relief.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been a writer all of my life. It’s taken me decades to shake my introverted tendencies; before then, writing was my favorite way to communicate and express myself. Though I struggled socializing at school, I thrived in creating my own worlds, researching, and creating characters to explore emotions and scenarios that I couldn’t live out myself. From a young age, I was writing fantasy and historical fiction; my teachers noticed, and I was nominated to attend an exclusive creative writing program at St. Andrews University in Scotland, which encouraged me as a budding writer.

Separately, my call to activism started when I was eight and saw Hurricane Mitch ram Central America on TV. I was devastated at the idea that children couldn’t go to school or check out books from their library. When I asked how I could help, my mom said “speak up.” I gave a speech to my school, and inspired my classmates to donate enough to fill up a bus.

In college, I combined my interests in writing and activism by exploring a journalism and film studies degree at the University of Oregon. It was there I met my would-be husband and fellow duck, Max. Since graduating, I have pursued telling stories that inspire action and change. As a journalist, I investigated VA Governor and State Police, animal shelters, and the rise of white supremacy. She reports on education, travel and lifestyle, LGBTQ+ and human rights, and more.

For years I lived and studied in Japan, focusing on being behind a camera lens and capturing stories that move the soul and share history. From television to music studios, Hokkaido to Kyoto, Tokyo back alleys to Okinawa beaches, the years spent in Japan pushed me creatively. Those years spent in Japan would inspire my very first novel.

One of my passions is modern storytelling through the lens of folklore from the past. In a weekly episode series, “Folklore Friday,” hosted on my social media channels, I share about Japanese folklore and lessons we can impart today. My debut novel, GHOST TRAIN, is a historical fiction that transports the reader to 19th Century Kyoto, when Japan was undergoing Westernization and rapid change after the shogun were overthrown, and Emperor Meiji ascended the throne. At its heart is a ghost story that analyzes how legends are born.

Today, I specialize in marketing in government and nonprofit, honing strategies to generate impact through thoughtful and inspiring communications. My transition from journalism to activism materialized while residing in Charlottesville, VA, and seeing the communities not just in need of a voice, but an advocate. In my spare time, I speaks on panels, lead a women’s empowerment group, Chair the Authors Group at the National Press Club, volunteer at local Washington, DC charities, and with campaigns to help elect future leaders, and teach about Japanese culture at public libraries and schools. I also now work for an aviation-based humanitarian charity that transports goods to communities struck by disasters on airline partners all around the world — bringing together all of my passions in one perfect role.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When I first finished writing the book, that was an immense feeling of relief. I thought it couldn’t get better than that. Then, I got the phone call from the publisher, and that became the key moment in my life in which everything changed. I was truly on cloud nine, and didn’t know if I’d ever experience such euphoria again. Then, the night of my book launch, I saw w room full of friends and family supporting me while I answered questions about my work, signed books, and celebrated my accomplishment. But none of those compared to the messages I received from readers who fell in love with my book and characters, and felt seen and heard through my work. That is completely incomparable, and has been my favorite and most rewarding aspect of being a writer.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I first started writing GHOST TRAIN in 2010 while I was still a student at the University of Oregon. What I thought was a great idea for a folklore novel based on true historical events ran into my first hurdle: a professor, who said that this novel I’d started writing was “okay, but [needed] another approach.” In true stubborn form, I set aside the entire project, certain that if it wasn’t already perfect, then I had failed.

But instead, I spent years in Japan. I met people who imparted family stories, I developed my language skills, absorbed cultural mannerisms and learned deeper parts of Japanese history. I came away with a clearer vision of the novel; and in 2020, during the pandemic, I picked it back up again, and approached it from a new angle.

In just six months, I had a novel that was 390,000 words long. An average book has 100,000 words. I spent another year editing it, and then querying. I faced over one hundred rejections, before finding a publishing firm — run by a Japanese-American family — who wanted to publish GHOST TRAIN. The book came out a year later, and fourteen years after I first started writing it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://najacobsen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalieannaj/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliejacobsen/

Image Credits

Anna Gibbs Photography