What’s Your Story?: Kimberley B. Jones: Writing Changed Me

“What’s Your Story?” is a guest post feature on BCBA’s blog. Indie/Self-Published authors are invited to write about their books, writing journey, creative process, inspiration, rewards and challenges of publishing, etc. They can go in whatever direction they choose. We are excited and grateful for their willingness to share, and we hope you enjoy Kimberley B. Jones’s story. Go here for more WYS? posts.

I’m going to introduce myself as a country girl at heart from a small town called St. George, South Carolina, born and raised. A town to this day that has a school with whites only, white children that do not attend our public schools. I can remember a handful of white teenagers who graduated in my class. This is also a town that had an old Rosenwald School (Blacks only) that my grandmother walked to every morning and walked from in the evening. She also taught there after receiving her degree from Allen University. But I love my town because if it weren’t for the life experiences, I wouldn’t be the proud African American woman I am today. I attended Benedict College and became a proud alumna of a great HBCU, where I received my bachelor’s and then attended Ashford University and received my master’s.

I have been writing Our Friendship Matters for 2 1/2 years. Crazy right? Crazy how long I have been expressing myself in a novel, and in 2020, the same cycle keeps repeating itself.

Let me tell you how I came up with Our Friendship Matters. So, I was in the hospital with my mom, who died of cancer, and I was suffering in ways I thought would never happen. From her sickness and seeing her in pain, I was struggling. I think about her every day, but to be honest, it is still hard without her, but one thing I remembered is her looking up at me and saying, “Keep writing.” At that moment, I did not care about writing. All I cared about was her getting healthy because I genuinely thought God was calling the wrong person home. The death of losing a parent is life-changing.

When I returned to Missouri, I was hurt, mad, and frustrated with everything. Then weeks later, the death of Jemel Roberson surfaced. Another African American man killed by the hands of a police officer. We were again out protesting. Then you saw All Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, and White Lives Matter forming against the Black Lives Matter movement. How does that add up to an African American man dying in the street calling for his mother, an African American woman shot in her home, not knowing she was about to leave this world, and an African American man or woman gunned down because they look like a suspect? Yes, all lives matter, but at some point, you have to come to terms and see that it happens to our community more than any other race.

Writing has changed me in so many ways. I just love that I can express how I feel and what I think the world can see. A lot of people don’t know how to express themselves until they read it. Once they have read it, they can say, “She’s right, I never thought about it that way.” It’s my freedom to express my thoughts. Maybe some people don’t agree with me, but it’s okay because everyone thinks differently with their own opinions and has their own views of life. I accept people for who they are. If I can’t change them, then at least I got my point across, and they heard what I’ve said.

We all come from different backgrounds and have to accept people for who they are. We can’t change how people think of each other, but we can change the world to make it a better place to live, accepting friendship, forgiveness, and love for one another from all different people with different backgrounds. Sometimes we cannot help what we are taught, but we can help teach people to love one another, no matter what color we are.

Our Friendship Matters (Rhetoric Askew, LLC, YA, October 5, 2020, 224 Pages) Pre-order

Kimberley B. Jones is a small country girl from St. George, SC. She is your typical nomad who moves from place to place. Not by choice, but her husband serves in the military. She has a bachelor’s and a master’s in early childhood education. Kimberley is represented by Rhetaskew Publishing. When she is not writing, she is either thinking of another topic or reading. She loves writing. It gives her a chance to escape into another human character and express herself, other than being your typical mother and wife. If you don’t want to be on her bad side, then she needs her white chocolate mocha every morning. Some days, Folgers breakfast blend coffee is okay.

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