Meet Jeffrey Marshall | Writer and novelist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeffrey Marshall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeffrey, why did you pursue a creative career?
I realized when I graduated from college that I didn’t want to pursue a “conventional” career like law, which many of my classmates were doing. I enjoyed writing and had received enough praise and recognition that I thought I would make a go of it, but not in literature per se – that seemed too speculative. Journalism was making a huge splash – this was the 1970s with stories like Watergate in full flower – and that seemed the right path for me, to make a living as a writer and doing public good (hopefully) as well.

When I finished my journalism career, which included extensive free-lancing as well as chief editor spots at two national business magazines, I was ready to pursue writing fiction. I’d already toyed with a couple of unfinished thrillers years earlier, but now I felt I had the time to spend crafting plots and characters and letting what creative writing talents I have come to the fore. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past decade.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’d concentrate here on my work as a novelist, not on my 35-year journalism career, most of that spent in New York and New Jersey. Those were good years, where I transitioned from general newspapers to a specialization in business and finance that involved constant learning.

When I took up novel writing, I came to realize that the world of agents and publishing contracts wasn’t really an option. Getting into those rarified circles with no background in fiction and at a relatively advanced age wasn’t going to happen, and rejection letters – or no response – from a slew of agents proved disappointing, to say the least. That left self-publishing, something anyone who has written a book can pursue. But self-publishing is easy in the sense that you can easily get the book into print – but the challenge is getting sales. And it’s a formidable challenge, and you have to sort through a myriad of outfits at various price points claiming to help you break through.

My three novels are quite different, but have a common standard – concise, evocative writing, something honed by my many years of feature writing. I like to create “page-turners,” where the reader is intrigued and compelled to jump to the next chapter. That doesn’t set me apart from the best-selling authors – that’s what they do – but those characteristics are part and parcel of my fiction.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

The Phoenix area has so many assets, many shaped by the mild (okay, often hot) climate: hiking, golf, tennis, professional sports. The food scene in Scottsdale alone is intimidating – new restaurants are being added every week, it seems; it’s hard to single any out. But the downtown Scottsdale scene is rife with great restaurants and watering holes, as well as sophisticated places for breakfast or lunch. And there are concerts of every kind: pop, classical, jazz. The Musical Instrument Museum is a must, not only for intimate concerts but for a world-class collection of instruments from around the world. You can even play some of them! The Heard Museum is a great place to see native American art, and Scottsdale’s Museum of the West has a terrific collection of western memorabilia.

Outside the Valley, I’d take a visitor to the Grand Canyon (for obvious reasons), Flagstaff and Sedona, as well as southern Arizona, places like Tucson, Bisbee and Tombstone. And Jerome and Cottonwood, and maybe Lake Havasu. It’s a big state, and an itinerary would require being on the move a great deal.  Arizona has a fine highway system, as well as lots of unpaved roads that take drivers into wilderness areas where there is plenty of solitude.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It’s hard to single out a book, certainly – I was an avid reader in my younger years. Certainly some of the classic 20th Century American writers inspired me – authors like Fitzgerald and Hemingway, with “The Great Gatsby” and “The Sun Also Rises” driving my interest in literature and writing. I was also a huge fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

If I were to pick out one person to dedicate a shoutout, it would be a professor I had in the master’s in journalisim program at Northwestern. John Bartlow Martin was a famous writer for Life magazine and a member of the Kennedy administration whose focus was on good narrative writing. In one of his classes, he asked the class to craft a short story with a strong narrative voice. My entry, about a prison escapee, clearly caught his attention, and it was the one story he read to the class. While I didn’t get to hone that voice much in my journalism career, the belief that I had that narrative voice spurred me to try my hand at writing novels.

Website: https://jmarshbks.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marshwj49/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-marshall-7554547b/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jeffrey63712424

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.marshall.9883/

Image Credits
Patrick O’Brien (first photo holding books and standing on steel bridge)