An Interview With Local Author and Artisan Ken Jones

Interviewed by Byron Merritt

Ken Jones is a retired Boeing employee who now lives on the Monterey Peninsula with his wife Anne and their one-eyed deaf cat, Lucky. Since moving to the Monterey Peninsula in 2001, Ken has been active in many art-related groups around the Bay (from photography to fiction writing). He’s now President of both the local chapter of the California Writers Club—the largest nonprofit professional organization of writers in California—and the Padre Trails Camera Club. On top of being an official for these two organizations, he also created and maintains their very impressive Web sites . Ken is an avid spokesperson for the Fiction Writers of the Monterey Peninsula (FWOMP) and is a contributing author in both Monterey Shorts and Monterey Shorts 2. He also had a hand in designing part of the cover art for Monterey Shorts 2 and aided in many of the graphics inside the book. Want to know more about this guy? He’s pretty active for a “retiree”. Well just sit back and enjoy this interview with one of this areas premiere authors, and a writer to watch out for in the near future.

FWOMP: When and where did your writing career start?

Ken Jones: I don’t know if career is the right word, but I first felt the urge to write creatively after my daughter was born in 1972. I’d written academically throughout my undergraduate years, of course, you have to, but that really didn’t lend itself to writing for fun. In the mid-80s I found myself between jobs, as they say, and took a few creative writing classes at Orange Coast College, in Southern California. Whether it was the instructors’ enthusiasm or my own need at the time, or just a pleasant coincidence, I really enjoyed the challenge and the discipline of conveying an idea through the written word. I wrote some pretty awful poetry and a few mediocre short stories, but I took away from the experience a love of the process and desire to improve. Most of my working life was spent in a large aerospace firm where I helped count beans. Gradually, the role of generating written communications within the function fell to me, and although I couldn’t be too creative, at least the experience strengthened my grip on grammar, syntax, and clarity. Since retirement, I’ve enjoyed the time to stretch and hopefully grow a little as a writer in the process. Less than a year after we moved to PG, my wife cut out a blurb in The Herald about a writing group that met in Monterey and needed members. Before the year was out, I belonged to three writing groups, including FWOMP, and was buried in exercises, critiques, and meetings. While each group gave me something important, and I really miss the people in all of them, FWOMP most closely met my goals so I focused there.

FWOMP: You’ve become something of an artisan since coming to the Monterey Peninsula. Can you tell us a bit about the writing and art-related groups you belong to?

KJ: Creativity needs outlets. In retirement, for most people, the constraints on thought that come with any “job” are gone. We can start thinking in different directions, and if there’s any creativity there at all, it will find a way out. Photography, even in the low-key competitions we have in our camera club, Padre Trails, helps develop and sharpen the way we see things. Many judges, when commenting on an exceptional image, will say something like, “Good seeing…” I think this is key to good writing, too. The stories that resonate most for us are those that are most true. And to get in touch with what’s true, you really need to “see” life. In that way, the two activities—writing and photography—are most complementary. My involvement with the California Writers Club has been very satisfying, too. I was part of the group that began our local branch—CWC has over a thousand members and has been around for over a hundred years. Through CWC I’ve been able to meet and learn from, as well as become friends with, many local and nationally known authors. It has expanded my understanding of the writing life beyond what I could have done without it.

FWOMP: You’ve placed quite well in a few local writing contests over the past several years. Can you tell us a bit about those and how you came up with your story ideas?

KJ: You’re speaking of the annual Monterey County Weekly 101-Word Short Story contest. I’ve really enjoyed doing that, and have been printed in each of the four years I’ve entered. Two years ago I took first place, which was a big surprise. I’d driven to the post office the night before the issue announcing the winners was to come out because I knew they dropped them there early. I grabbed a handful and went back to my truck and, in the dome light, saw my story, "Holiday Dinners," on the front page. It’s hard to get a full thought down in 101 words or less, and that’s the real challenge of it. I try to pull from significant events in the community or world at the time, topics that are accessible and clear. I try to boil the topic down to one central thought, and then attempt to express that thought in a 101-word vignette. It’s not easy, but it’s fun.

FWOMP: Do you ever get writers block?

KJ: Oh, sure. The energy ebbs and flows, like everything else. In my case, it doesn’t usually last too long. If I have a problem getting started, I’ll go back over something I’ve written in the past and give it a quick polish—which you can always do. That will generally get the juices flowing again. Going back to the “seeing” concept, I write a monthly column for the newsletter of our local branch of CWC. There’s a deadline, which always helps snap writers block. I wrote a column a few months back on this subject, using my first encounter with my six-month-old grandson and how he really looked at things. The point was, don’t fall into the “been there, done that” trap. Look around and see. Then write.

FWOMP: You used to write nonfiction pieces, and now you’re into fiction. Why the switch over?

KJ: Nonfiction is a natural way to begin to flex your writing muscles. I’m not talking about academic or scholarly pieces, rather personal essays that relate a personal life experience. It’s a more comfortable environment for the beginning writer, the material is well known, and the emotional power is built in. One of my favorite short stories, "Sausage and Beer" by Stephen Minot, relates a day spent with his father visiting an uncle. Powerful stuff. For me, fiction is more challenging in that the world you’re writing in is completely your own creation. Setting may be borrowed, but character, action, plot, conflict, and resolution are your own (if you write science fiction and fantasy, you even have to create the setting.) I get a lot of satisfaction from creating a world where appealing and true characters do interesting and sometimes surprising things. Hopefully, as time goes by, my characters will become more compelling, and my plots and conflicts more exciting and real for the reader.

FWOMP: Can you tell us a bit about how you put story ideas down on paper? Some people just sit down and write, while others do outlines. Do you have a method?

KJ: Not really. Sometimes ideas come fully formed, and when they do, I can just start writing. The catch there is that there is a tendency, for me anyway, to go off on tangents and lose the original idea. Even with fairly complete ideas, I think an outline may be good for most writers. Not a strict Roman numeral type of thing, just major plot and scene points that let you see if each moves the story and doesn’t create a non-essential “loop” that will sap your readers willingness to go on. I usually have at least a plot/scene sequence that I’m constantly referring to, changing, re-changing, etc.

FWOMP: You’ve been focusing on short stories since your entrance into FWOMP. Do you have any plans for a novel?

KJ: Doesn’t everybody? I’m working on a novel-length story now “starring”, if you will, a character from my first Monterey Shorts story. He’s sort of an everyman, and the feedback I’ve received from readers of that first story indicates he’s a likeable sort that people relate to. Good things for a character to be. He’s back in Monterey Shorts 2, so we’ll see if his public is still out there. Writing a novel, I think, really requires a complete outline of scene and plot point, and even though you have time to develop characters and environmentals more fully than in a short story, you still have to really focus on plot movement.

FWOMP: Any other Ken Jones news coming out that we should be aware of?

KJ: I’d like to get my novel on paper. Of course, that’s the point when things really start. FWOMP will be my primary peer review for the piece, and the detailed critique process will help both the story and me as a writer. I don’t think writers can do without honest critique of their work, no matter how successful they are. Nature abhors a vacuum, and if you write in one, sooner or later your readers will start to feel the same way about your work. I’m really looking forward to reader reactions to Monterey Shorts 2. I believe that my two stories reflect significant growth for me as a writer. One deals with the history of the Point Piños Lighthouse, its first keepers, and the circumstances of their lives. History demands respect, and writing a piece of fiction around historic people and events brings an extra measure of responsibility. In terms of structure, plotting, action and research, these two stories are a milestone for me.