We were lucky to catch up with John Jensvold recently and have shared our conversation below.

John, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve been writing fiction professionally since my first short story was published by Alligator Juniper in 2009. Alligator Juniper is a remarkable, award-winning literary journal produced by Prescott College in Arizona. It combines the work of established authors, emerging authors and students, along with a field of gifted artists. It is a beautifully crafted journal, and I was lucky to begin there.

When I set out on the path to creating engaging fiction, I had lots of ideas, but was woefully short in my understanding of the commercial market. Fortunately, I found generous editors who were supportive of my work and who freely offered advice, assessments and priceless recommendations. The lesson was to absorb critiques rather than flinch reflexively. If you want to write, the ego has to go. You might strike gold on one day and turn to shit on the next. Most do. The only fatal poison is to believe it will someday be easier. Honesty is the rule that will not be compromised.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I made a transition to novels from short stories in 2018. It just seemed like the next rung on the ladder after publishing short stories almost every year for a long time. The acclaimed novels on the shelves in my home office seemed to be smirking at me, daring me to go long form. I had a fair idea of the vastly different demands of constructing a 100,000-word novel versus a 6,000-word story. Still, I also had this nagging yearning to explore characters on a far more serious level. The first rational obstacle is to willingly commit a year or more of your life to a solitary venture that very well may end in embarrassment, or worse, utter humiliation. There are points in life, mercifully, where you no longer care and the walls around you dissolve, if only for a while.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Author Jim Harrison once said that if you want to be a writer you have to write every day. What I believe he meant by that is this: It’s your choice whether or not to embrace endless curiosity about the world. That’s not a casual decision. It’s far easier to not think too hard about things alongside your path. I decided to try to decipher the things around me, regardless of where the search might lead or the inevitable (and uncomfortable) personal questions that may demand an answer. I write every day.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For me, as a writer, I had to find my own voice hidden underneath many other accomplished authors that I sought to emulate. You read excellent fiction and the cadence and word choices and phrasing kind of embed themselves somewhere in the brain. They trickle out from time to time, and you become prideful until you recognize they were birthed elsewhere. There comes a point in the process where your own voice takes over and your head doesn’t appropriate someone else’s morsels of truth. For a long while I couldn’t see it happening, but now, looking back, it’s laid bare.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.authorjohnjensvold.com