Today we’d like to introduce you to Cortland Jones.
Hi Cortland, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
From childhood, I always had a passion to draw since age five when I began drawing from comic books. In 5th grade, I had a poem published in my elementary school newspaper. By my senior year in high school, I was drawing a comic strip for my high school newspaper while also writing poetry. I continued writing poetry in college and by my senior year, I knew I wanted to write and illustrate children’s books.
In 2014, I released the first of now 6 published books with two of them being books written for children. It was when I published my first book Out of the Darkness: A Journey into the Marvelous Light I realized how much writing had been part of my journey into adulthood as my passion for art, drawing, and cartoon illustration.
For the past 30 years, I have served as an art educator ending my career teaching creative writing to middle school students. I currently partner with the Howard County Arts Council in Ellicott City, Maryland facilitating workshops for youth involving storytelling and cartoon comic art. Now retired, I continue my pursuit of producing children’s books seeing my life come full circle from my time as a child and who I aspired to become leaving college.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was not a smooth road for me, but wisdom has helped me to see how even the most painful parts of my journey have served to aid me in arriving at where I am today and being at peace with the trauma encountered along the way.
As a child, I was the victim and survivor of child molestation. My parents divorced when I was a child and my father abandoned me declaring he was not my father to my mother. Mentally and emotionally I struggled with low self-esteem and was extremely shy, but drawing and writing became ways for me to cope in a healthy way with my reality.
As an adult, marriage revealed to me where my childhood trauma was interfering with my ability to cope in a healthy way with conflict, and experienced separation and divorce as a result. Divorce triggered my trauma from childhood.
Now faced with the reality of beginning life anew after divorce I made it my ambition to get to the Better Place beyond where I was currently, at that time in 2005, and that’s when I began writing my manuscript for my first published book Out of the Darkness.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
CJones ENTERPRISES was launched as a sole proprietorship in August 2014 after my first book, Out of the Darkness, was published in February 2014. My vision is Empowering Others by His Grace and the mission of my business brand is to inspire, influence, and impact others in a way that helps them transcend, live, thrive, and triumph.
One element of my business includes an empowerment coaching service for youth and adults servicing aspiring authors, aspiring entrepreneurs, teacher mentoring, co-parent coaching, and personal and spiritual growth coaching for individuals seeking to experience movement and momentum where they once felt stagnant or stuck to their desired Better Place.
My most sought-after coaching programs are my aspiring author and spiritual growth coaching services.
I have currently aided 5 clients in becoming published authors since 2014 and three others have launched businesses.
I also offer grant writing services acquiring $55, 000.00 in grant funding since 2014.
I am most proud of seeing how my business brand has evolved and expanded to include brand ambassadors who support my work as an entrepreneur willing to wear apparel from my faith collection of faith affirmations sponsored by my publishing company JayMedia Publishing.
To contact or connect with me you can email me at info@cortlandjones.com or visit my website at www.cortlandjones.com.
My Instagram account is @cortlandjones check me out!
All of my books are available on Amazon or the JayMedia Marketplace at www.jaymediamarketplace.net.
Books Published by Cortland Jones:
Out of the Darkness: A Journey into the Marvelous Light
Apples of Grace: 31 Days of Inspiration for the Educator
Adventures in Outer Space with Captain Yolk (children’s book)
Light & Salt: 21 Days of Fulfillment Walking by Faith
Red Yellow Green: Insights on Dating for Teens PARENT EDITION
HERO: A Boy Whose Dreams Inspired Triumph (children’s book /FALL 2022 release)
What matters most to you? Why?
My faith relationship with God through Jesus Christ matters most to me because despite my past pain, trauma, and recent past failures as an adult, I have seen God’s love for me keep me steady, keep. me going, and keep me uplifted when it was easy to give up and quit.
When I look at who I’ve become despite what has happened I am grateful for the success and prosperity God has blessed me and helped me to achieve in my lifetime. It’s what makes me feel inspired to share His grace with others in the work that I do and motivates me to say, ‘Because He is I am.’
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cortlandjones.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cortlandjones/
- Other: https://jaymediamarketplace.net/collections
Image Credits
Chiara E. Dolce, Mikea Turner, Alaina Miller, & Ronald Simmons
