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| Biography |
 I was born in a little town in Monmouth to parents to whom education was paramount. And while I can’t remember at what age I started reading, I also can’t remember not ever being NOT able to read. What I do remember is that I loved it. I read everywhere--in the car, at basketball games, at football games, at parties, even during church. Where ever I went I had a book with me. There was nothing more fun to me than being able to read in peace. We readers know that non-readers think that we must be bored if we’re reading. They insist on disturbing us. I’m a fairly even tempered person, but if you want to make me mad, interrupt me while I’m reading. GRRRRR! Even now I keep a book in the car. You never know when you can get in five or ten minutes of good reading in. (I try not to read while sitting at red lights, but sometimes the book is too good to put down!)My love of writing came later in life. I was at least nine or ten, maybe even eleven. My mother gave me a manual typewriter on Christmas. To this day it is the only Christmas present I remember. I must have gotten a doll or game in all those Christmases, but the only present I can remember is my beige and black manual typewriter. That Christmas day I immediately set up a table in the middle of the living room and began typing a story. I wrote all through my childhood. I would discover in high school, after a short stint on the school paper, that I much preferred writing fiction over non fiction. I arrived at college ready to be an English major--ready to write my heart out. My very first class, Advanced Shakespeare, was taught by the professor who was also my counselor. After the very first paper he told me in harsh, brutal terms I was an awful writer. I didn’t take another English class until the last semester of my senior year, confining all my writing to the term papers and research projects required by my new major, psychology. I don’t even remember reading for pleasure during those years. Luckily my love for reading and writing were strong, and after college I returned, first to reading everything. After my first child was born I decided to take a writing class. It was the first English class I had taken for more than ten years. My love for writing returned with a vengeance and I haven’t quit writing yet. People ask if I will write books for older kids, or young ones. Right now I can’t really think of why I would leave behind writing about the middle school years. I love writing for young teens. It is such a hectic, wonderful, turbulent time in life. Full of promise and full of misery. A time to laugh while crying. Traci L. Jones grew up in Denver, Colorado in the very same house in which she now lives with her husband, Tony and their four kids, Desiree, Andrew, Isaiah and Brooke. She is the daughter of former Senator Regis F. Groff and Ada L. Brooks Groff. She is the sister of Senator Peter C. Groff, the sister in law of Reverend Regina C. Groff, and the aunt of Malachi C. and Moriah C. Groff. |