We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful MARIE JONES. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with MARIE below.

MARIE, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope that my legacy will be one of sharing stories and information that educated, empowered, enlightened, and entertained people. I hope that my body of work will continue to teach and inspire others, open their minds, and expand their visions of themselves and the world they live in. Words have power and my legacy is to use them as powerfully as I can so that they long outlast my physical life on Earth.

MARIE, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As a child, I wanted to be a jockey, astronaut, teacher, scientist, cop, and probably ten other things, but realized there was one way I could be all those things and more – and it was something I was already doing naturally. Writing. I began writing at a very early age, wrote my first book at the age of five, about life on Mars, and began getting published and paid for my writing in my teens. This was back in the days of typewriters and researching via the card catalog at the library.

In my 20s, I began writing screenplays and as my 30s rolled in, I had already published tons of short stories, features, articles, reviews, and one non-fiction book. Throughout the next three decades, I wrote five novels, ten screenplays, and just turned in my 30th non-fiction book. I also began recently writing novellas and editing other people’s books.

My work is my legacy and reflects who I am and what I want to say to the world. My non-fiction runs the gamut from paranormal to science to self-help to metaphysics to natural health to investigative journalism. My true love is fiction and I was born to tell stories, so I plan to take a sabbatical in 2023 and 2024 to focus on fiction, but will also be building my business as a writer with many streams of writing-related income including editing, ghost writing, and product creation. I never realized I was an entrepreneur until someone pointed it out to me, so that will be my next focus – building up other types of content related to my books.

I am proud of my body of work and my incredible work ethic. I seem to have a real talent for writing in all arenas – novels, screenplays, non-fiction, short stories, articles, etc. Most writers are told do specialize but that is just not me. I write what I want and I am constantly upping my skill game. My brand is a creator of worlds with words, whether telling a story or sharing research and information. Words have power, incredible power, to shape and influence the world and that is what I love most about what i do.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivots are a part of any business, including writing. I have had to pivot numerous times, whether because an opportunity was presented to me or because I was ready for a big change. My biggest pivots came when I had my son and raised him alone, and more recently, when I turned a certain age and felt compelled to completely revamp and restructure my life. I am in the process of that pivot now and I am both terrified to leave the old behind, and excited to see what the new brings.

Life is about pivots. Staying the same is staying stuck and never expanding or growing beyond the comfort zone. I hope to find a way to use my writing to help others pivot and do it joyfully and successfully, especially women who are now empty nesters or feeling a huge call to become who they were always meant to be.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn throughout my career was to stop trusting others. When I began signing contracts for books and selling screenplays, I did not really trust my own gut instinct or listen to my intuition and I got screwed over by a lot of people. I was way too trusting of them and their opinions for what I should do and be. If I could have figured this out a lot earlier, it would have saved me a lot of money, regret, and time, but at least now I know to always trust myself and my own gut. I know best what is right for me, and I always have. For anyone doing anything in business or in life, trust yourself. Listen to your gut and your intuition. You know best what is right for you so look within for guidance, not outside of yourself. Sure, you can get some validation and work with people who have proven to be trustworthy, but you are your one and only source of success. I often remind myself that i am my one and only client, so I must follow my path, and not follow the market or what others are doing. I can learn from them, but they have their own paths to walk.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mariedjones.com/wordpress/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marie.d.jones/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marie.d.jones/