Featured Interview With C. J. Jones
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised and live near Sydney in Australia, I was raised with a love of books and read anything and everything from fiction to non-fiction, including reading the full set of ADULT Encyclopaedia Brittanica before I was ten, by taking a book to bed every night and reading until I fell asleep. Our family went to the library every week to exhange books, and I was annoyed that the maximum borrowing amount was FOUR books only!
I’m an artist, drawing & painting, and a classically trained pianist (that loves boogie most of all), I love animals, especially cats (that I call real live teddy bears), but dont have any pets at this time after my beautiful Buffy is now gone due to kidney failure and I cant bear replacing her.
My favourite things to do are drawings of childrens faces (portraiture), playing piano, playing with cats, riding horses and probably eating cheesecake while reading a good book, or falling asleep reading.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I had a hard time writing stories when I was young. The first time I wrote a story was at school and the teacher told me to “make something up”, and I couldn’t believe it when she explained to me what I had to do. “But that’s LYING!” I protested, “you’re not allowed to do that! You have to write REAL things and not lie!” And I was pretty darned sure my mother would have something to say about that. So, in the end, the teacher compromised and told me I could write a TRUE story, and that I could be a journalist when I grew up.
So, I stuck to that until I was a bit older, and then started writing stories based on “improving” the story I’d just read, or rather, by making things go the way I wanted them to go.
I haven’t published any of my stories, I just like writing them, and reading them, though I have had friends read them and gave me wow points.
I think I could write for soap operas because my stories literally never end, theres always another day…
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love history, so fiction or non fiction, and biographies, and science facts, and historical fiction novels, especially if they’re set in ancient egypt.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is a childrens Christmas Coloring book full of designs that were requested by our kids, and nieces and nephews that I draw for them to color in. They told me what they wanted to color in, and I drew it for them.
From all the designs I made, the kids choose the designs to add to the book and are quite excited that other kids will be able to color them too!
I’m a natural born artist, I draw portraiture and paint in oils.