Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Jackson.
Hi Crystal, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a former licensed mental health therapist. I worked primarily with addiction and then later with families and children as a counselor. Although I had long sought this career and worked full-time while obtaining my Master’s degree in it, I had always wanted to be a writer. Yet, I had been assured by teachers, mentors, adults, and peers that a creative career was not possible and could only ever be a hobby. After leaving my job as a therapist and filing for divorce, I relocated to Madison, Georgia, and found a part-time administrative job to pay the bills. I began writing again. What started out as a potential for a short story became 4 romance novels. The essays I published for my own personal enjoyment began a full-time career as a freelance writer.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has never been smooth. It has been right though. That makes a difference. I didn’t plan to leave my job as a counselor only a few years into it. I didn’t expect to be a divorced single parent of two autistic children. Yet, every single challenge pushed me toward the career–and life–I had always wanted. Getting a divorce was the push I needed to start writing about my experiences–sharing thoughts and feelings I had long withheld. Getting laid off from my administrative job gave me the time I needed to actually focus on getting my writing career off the ground. The year I lost my job, I was getting paid less than $200/month for my writing online. I needed to cover a significant difference so while I grew my audience, I donated plasma twice a week, participated in paid university and market research, took part-time online jobs on social media, and got very good with a budget. By the end of the year, I was making enough with my writing alone to let go of the side hustles and work solely as a writer. My writing career gives me the flexibility I need as a single parent of two young children. I work while they’re in school, and my schedule is flexible enough to allow me to take time off as needed for sick days or doctor’s appointments.
In 2019, it became obvious that something had changed with my health. It’s also the year I began to recognize that both of my children had signs of autism spectrum disorder. In 2020, both of my children were diagnosed as ASD with low support needs. I was also diagnosed with PMDD, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder. It’s a chronic illness that mirrors bipolar disorder but is tied to my menstrual cycle. In the last few years, I’ve learned to parent two neurodivergent children, and I’ve also managed to figure out how to single parent and write around a chronic illness that comes around once a month, like clockwork. With antidepressants, I no longer struggle with the suicide ideation that is a featured symptom of PMDD. I do experience some cyclical depression and anxiety but have learned to listen to my body and rearrange my schedule accordingly during those weeks.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I started writing personal essays online–primarily about relationships and mental health. I have been featured on Medium, Thought Catalog, Elite Daily, YourTango, Mamamia, Elephant Journal, and other online publications. I draw on my knowledge and experience as a former therapist to write about these topics, as well as my own personal experience.
I have also written a series of small-town romances set in Madison, Georgia, the town that became my home after my divorce. The Heart of Madison series includes the slow-burn romance of Left on Main, the enemies-to-lovers romance of Right on Walton, the friends-to-lovers story in Deep in the Heart of Madison, and the final suspense-filled conclusion of Waiting for the Girl Next Door. Left on Main was published by Sands Press in 2019, and the rest followed.
I’ve also self-published three volumes of poetry illustrated by writer and artist Christina Nicole. This began as a pandemic project when schools shut down, and I found it hard to work on my manuscript with both children at home. I began gathering previously written poetry and writing new poetry, which has been published as My Words Are Whiskey, Letters to Lost Lovers, and A Solitary Witch Brews Self-Love.
I’m most proud of taking a short vision and turning it into an entire series. I never planned for it to be more than one or two books, but it grew at its own pace. I wrote four books in a year after being laid off on my job. I don’t think I’ll ever be that productive or creative again, but I’m so proud that I did it. I never gave up. I sat through hours of plasma donation and research studies and whatever it took to pay the bills to get my writing career off the ground so that I have a schedule that lets me be a full-time writer as well as a full-time mom, and I’m so grateful.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
When I was a little girl, my dad built me and my two sisters an epic treehouse. It was the best treehouse in our neighborhood. It was built around three trees, and it had three floors–one for each of us– with ladders in between. I’m the middle sister so I got the second floor, and it became my whole world for a few years. All my friends played there. We wrote all over it–silly things like the names of our crushes and what we thought our lives might be like. We had so many adventures in it. My parents had grown up in the area so we had the kind of neighborhood where they knew everyone, and we were able to go anywhere. We’d be gone for hours and come home for meal times. If I wasn’t in the treehouse, I was exploring the woods nearby, sneaking up to a “haunted house” in the woods with my friends, or going over to my grandmother’s house to raid her cherry or apple trees for a quick snack. The treehouse was my home base, and it’s easily one of my favorite memories of childhood.
Pricing:
- All the books in the Heart of Madison series are $17.99 for paperback. It’s also available as an e-book. Left on Main is available on Audible.
- All the poetry books are $11.99 for paperback. All are listed on Kindle Unlimited. The latest poetry edition also has a hardcover option available.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.crystaljacksonwriter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystaljackson.writer
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crystaljackson.writer
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cjacksonwriter
- Other: https://linktr.ee/crystaljackson
