Teddy Jones
Teddy Jones writes fiction, both short stories and novels. Since 2012, she’s considered creating stories her full-time occupation. Since she gave herself permission to focus on writing, she’s had five novels and a collection of short stories published and collected a couple of prizes along the way. Jackson’s Pond, Texas, a novel, was finalist in the Women Writing the West Willa Award for contemporary fiction in 2014, and one of her short stories won the Faulkner- Wisdom Creative Writing Competition first prize medal in 2015. But she hasn’t always written fiction.
As a high school student, Teddy briefly considered a career as a writer. Teachers had always praised her writing and encouraged her voracious (and indiscriminate) reading. But like most teenagers, she had no real sense of vocation and little notion of “what to be when she grew up.” The contest announcement from Wichita General Hospital School of Nursing posted on a school bulletin board caught her eye. The writer of the winning essay, “What I Can Contribute to My Community As A Professional Nurse,” would receive her first semester of nursing school tuition, room, and board free. An essay—she knew how to do that. Why not enter the contest? Her essay won, and that first semester of nursing school (free of charge) assured her that nursing was something she could be good at. She promised herself that writing could come later. Meanwhile, she’d learn about people.
Fast forward. Years passed. She gained two college degrees in nursing and a Ph.D. in Education, became a teacher of nurses, learned about college administration and academia, was founding Dean of the new School of Nursing at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, did some research, became a Family Nurse Practitioner and learned a lot about people. And she wrote course materials, journal articles, a textbook that won an American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year designation, stacks of reports and grant proposals, and notebooks filled with her observations about people and places. No fiction.
Twenty years in Lubbock, Texas piqued her interest in farm and ranch life. It’s natural- she grew up in a small town, an uncle ranched, cousins farmed. She focused on rural health promotion and secured a spot as a monthly columnist for The Farmer Stockman as part of her
nursing role. That column ran for 13 years until the magazine ceased publication in 2013. When she and her husband decided in 2001 to leave their “real jobs” and begin farming, opportunity presented itself. “If you’re going to write fiction, now’s the time.” She’s been at it ever since.