Heart Music Rhythm Soul
Heart Music Rhythm Soul is a book series written by Adam Farouk. Set in Ithaca NY, where lie the hallowed halls of Ivy League behemoth Cornell University, it tells the story of international freshman Jay Ferris, an awkward, neurotic, mostly-lovable mess who might just be the next Mozart. Dealing with culture shock, painfully strict family expectations, and a history of psychological trauma, Jay through his craft builds himself a new home in the United States, all the while forging friendships, warming hearts, and assembling perhaps the most unlikely band of student-performer-spies ever known to academia, if not the world.
Characters:
STUDENTS
Jia Lian "Jay" Ferris is the story's protagonist. He has high-functioning Asperger's Syndrome, suffers from mania, and is the sole grandson and thus potential inheritor of a billionaire magnate based in Hong Kong, China. Jay is generally well-meaning, but is socially ambivalent and lacks a consistent moral compass. His attempts to connect with others at first almost invariably fail. At the same time, he has skills in other areas that are beyond merely capable; in some cases they are flat-out virtuosic. His savant-like musical abilities are unparalleled, he ballroom-dances like a pro, and he has a penchant for surveillance gadgetry. His deep pocket, coming from immense family wealth, affords his procuring all manner of exotic instrumentation.
Katherine Blake aka "Kat" is the story's deuteragonist. From a blue collar family, she is supporting herself through college, working a number of odd jobs to keep herself afloat, the most consistent and conspicuous of which is delivering sandwiches to various university buildings around central campus. She's therefore well known among the campus community, specifically by the university staff and faculty, many of whose secrets filter through Kat's ears as she scooters along her lunchtime route. Kat has Type 2 Bipolar Disorder. When life stressors grow in her second year, she begins to experience "episodes" that threaten her academic career. She's a stickler for honesty, and is a dynamite vocalist.
Grace DeMong is Jay's third cousin, also attending Cornell. She's an iconoclastic, black-sheep, hotel major, who spends more time than she should performing in plays put on by the Center for Theater Arts. She has a love of Shakespeare, she's feisty and plucky, and begins the story as a mentor to Jay. They are drawn to each other as they share a similar sense of adventure and devil-may-care attitude. They soon develop a firm chemistry that, bucking tradition, convention, and general "ew" factor, seems to want to evolve into something more.
Simon Young is Jay's best friend. He's Asian American, athletic, a talented singer, loyal to a fault, and organized. He's studying government and economics, set to walk the sensible path laid out for him by his parents. Jay and he are very much an odd couple; in many ways the Caucasian-looking international student is far more "Chinese" than Simon is. Simon struggles with secrets, from his sexual orientation to his family's various indiscretions; he reckons with whether to hide or reveal every day.
Nathan Voorhees is one of the story's antagonists. An international student from Durban, South Africa, Nathan is shrewd and ambitious, an impressive performer and a capable musician. He created, and makes every decision for, the new "it" a cappella group on campus known as "Schaden Feud," based on to-the-decimal data projections and to-the-minute focus tests, a method to which he ascribes the fact that the group now single-handedly dominates the campus scene. He's in league with all manner of bad egg, all of whom are looking to make the university curriculum at large more controlled and more closed off from critical-thought.
FACULTY AND STAFF
Christina Reyes is the former head of Cornell's music library. She has retreated back to Ithaca after a failed-start in the entertainment business in Los Angeles, during which she became intimately involved with a political crook with nefarious designs. Christina is dark, cutthroat, and determined to succeed at all costs. She has a habit of finding protégés; both Grace and Kat were once apprentices of hers. There is both a bitterness and a brittleness about Christina; as the story opens, she is a wildcard, at least, until she meets Jay Ferris.
Yannick is Christina's number two. Haggard and overworked, when Jay is accepted as a new employee of the music library, Yannick must teach him the ropes.
Edward Macklemore is Cornell University's affable outgoing President. He is serving is final two years at the university. He knows Jay's grandfather well, and there have been talks of the "Wen" family (Jay's mother's family) making a sizable donation to some aspect of his presidential legacy based on their friendship.
Dominick Weiss is one of the story's antagonists. He is a mid-level administrator who fancies himself more. He is lining chess pieces as the story opens, and is doing his best to ally himself to people and institutions of power within the university's sphere.
Benjamin Talbot Jr. is the Provost at Howard University. A man of ambition, he is a possible next-in-line for Cornell's presidency. He hopes that by ingratiating himself to some of the many prestigious school societies, he will guarantee his place at the head of this academic institution.
Alfred "Fred" Schilling is the university Dean of Students. He is close friends with Jay's father, who has asked him to keep an eye on his son. Schilling is savvy and understands the dynamic between Jay's father, who expects Jay to study business or economics, and Jay, whose interest and talents lie elsewhere. He is a subtle mentor for Jay, quietly reminding the young man that his decisions are his to make.
Ballard Mullin is a famous composer, known by all as the "celebrity composition professor" of the Cornell Music Department. He takes a shine to Jay after inadvertently hearing one of his impressive compositions.
HONG KONG
Lilliane Ferris is Jay's mother. Highly strung, she is verbally abusive to her husband, Jonathan, and similarly so to her only son, Jay. She is the oldest daughter, and oldest child, of Wen Zhao Shang, the billionaire family patriarch. Unlike the rest of her siblings, she did not attend Cornell because, she was not accepted. This has been the source of the very large chip she has on her shoulder.
Jonathan Ferris is Jay's father. A soft-spoken Englishman, there's a quiet desperation that has been building up in him since he married Lilliane, when, at the time, he was reminded by her family that he was "not Chinese" and never would be and, for that, there would be "consequences." For his part, he speaks word-perfect Mandarin, just with a thick English accent; no doubt there will be "consequences" for that too.
Wen Zao Shang is the billionaire patriarch who is the father of Lilliane and the grandfather of Jay. He believes all races are either evil, lazy, or duplicitous, except for the Chinese (aside, of course, from a handful of old friends who he considers exceptions, for example, Ed Macklemore). He is horrified that, were he to follow tradition, his sole inheritor (Jay) would be, in his view, a "gwai lo" (westerner) who barely speaks any Mandarin; he hopes a solution to this problem will be found.
Plot Summary:
Full plot summaries will be available post-release!
Synopsis:
A villainous secret society’s plans to infiltrate the world’s college campuses are thrown into chaos by the arrival of international freshman Jay Ferris, an awkward, neurotic, mostly-lovable mess who might just be the next Mozart. Dealing with culture shock, painfully strict family expectations, and a history of psychological trauma, Jay through his craft builds himself a new home in the United States, all the while forging friendships, warming hearts, and assembling perhaps the most unlikely group of student-performer-spies ever known to academia, if not the world.
Heart Music Rhythm Soul is a delightful romp through the life and trials of your typical collegiate secret operative, struggling to find their place in the messy, over-caffeinated world of student organizations, relationships, occasional academics, and, of course, a cappella. Lots and lots of a cappella.
Project Sample Work:
Coming Soon!