birth_date: 0001-12-11 00:00:00
avg_rating: 3.93
name: Jill  Jones & Jill LaForge Jones
about: I'm a curious soul with a vagabond spirit, raised by a loving family with a dad heading a geological oil exploration crew in the mid-twentieth century. We roamed like gypsies throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana in search of cracks in the earth's surface that promised black gold. That upbringing instilled in me a love of travel, adventure, and a curiosity about the history and culture of the people of the places where we lived.After graduating the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Journalism, with a specialty in fiction writing, I spent two years in Europe, an experience that broadened my horizons and opened my young eyes to a wider world than I had ever imagined.Since those early days, I have lived in many houses, including a 45- I'm a curious soul with a vagabond spirit, raised by a loving family with a dad heading a geological oil exploration crew in the mid-twentieth century. We roamed like gypsies throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana in search of cracks in the earth's surface that promised black gold. That upbringing instilled in me a love of travel, adventure, and a curiosity about the history and culture of the people of the places where we lived.After graduating the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Journalism, with a specialty in fiction writing, I spent two years in Europe, an experience that broadened my horizons and opened my young eyes to a wider world than I had ever imagined.Since those early days, I have lived in many houses, including a 45-foot sailboat; I have traveled to many places, made many friends in faraway countries as well as my own, and written books set in places I found fascinating and intriguing. As you read my books, please know that the research for each was in-depth, and the locale is authentic.For nearly 25 years, I lived in western North Carolina, in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. I served for 10 years as the director of a local history museum and 12 years as the Director of Marketing &amp; Communications for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. In my work, I traveled and met fascinating people in this region and learned about the unique history and culture of western North Carolina. This experience spurred me to write a different kind of story: Freedom's Edge, an American Trilogy. It is historical fiction about the early immigrants to the South who arrived in America before there was a country called America. Western North Carolina and the Appalachian mountains were among the earliest of the country's frontiers, and my story is an imagining of what the lives early settlers were like, set in the context of the French and Indian War, Cherokee Wars, and the War for American Independence. Because of its length, I have divided the story into three parts: Escaping Yesterday, Surviving the Now, and Fighting for Tomorrow.I am married with three adult children, seven grandchildren and a cat, and now reside in Little Rock, Arkansas. ...more