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"We're talking about America first," Jackson tells Billboard.com, "but I think we're going all over. I think I'm going to go back to Australia, back to Africa, obviously go to Asia, go to Europe for sure."

Jackson says fans can expect something "big -- it's always been big" and that some ideas may come from a tour she was planning to support 2006's "20 Y.O." before her new label, Island, suggested she instead return to the studio to make another album. "I'll probably tweak things from the last stage and stuff I had prepared for everyone," Jackson says. "It'll be an uptempo, upbeat show. I would love to perform every single I've had, but that's a pretty long show. I don't want people to be bored to tears."

Jackson adds that seven years after her last tour, she's anxious to get back on the boards. "I have missed it, and it means a great deal to me," she says. "When I'm creating music or singing the music (in the studio), I think about the stage performance. I think about the tour. The idea starts that early on for me. And I love being able to see the sea of faces, to have that connection, to feel that love. That's exciting for me."

Some time during the tour Jackson also hopes to roll out a book about her weight issues that she's co-writing with her nutritionist, David Allen. A title and publication details are expected to be announced soon, but Jackson says the idea for the book was inspired by her fans.

"Everybody asks me -- men, women -- how did I do it?" she says. "Even young people will come up to me and they have an issue with their weight and they're very concerned. So it's basically my journey; it's not just this sterile, weight loss and how to do it book, but my journey even from when I was a kid ... being an emotional eater. It takes you through those moments in my life up 'til now and what worked for me. And hopefully within that, if it doesn't work for them, maybe they'll find something that does work for them and a nice place for them to be content with who they are."

Jackson says she hopes to have the book out by "the latter part of this year. That's what we're pushing for."