Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
A1. Hello everyone! Our names are Marshall and Jessica Jones. We met five years ago under the most unlikely of circumstances. Jessica was a former Wisconsin Department of Corrections employee, and I am someone currently confined in the Wisconsin prison system, sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility for parole. Five years later, we are married, the co-authors of ”The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption”! One couldn’t tell us that God isn’t the master of the impossible, and we boldly profess that truth in our words and in our lives. We are Christians, and that is the foundation which everything we build rests upon. We have three amazing children, Cameron, Falicia, and Jaeson, whom we are incredibly proud of. We are in ministry together, having a FB Group called ”Forged by Fire; Iron Sharpening Iron”, and another page called ”Redgranite Daily Devotions”. We are also involved in criminal justice and prison reform, aiming to raise awareness in our Wisconsin community as to the need for reform and second chance initiatives for those whose rehabilitation has vastly overcome the sentences they have received. We desire to use our platforms to spread a message that anyone is capable of redemption under the right environment, especially by faith in Jesus Christ. From my prison environment, where I have been confined for the last 20 years, I have accomplished a great deal. Currently, I happily received my Associate’s Degree of Arts, and I am working towards my Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies. Jessica hosted our first criminal justice/prison reform event called ”A Night of Reformation”, as she and I continue to pursue reform and reentry resources for system-impacted individuals. We plan to build more of these events in the future, as more people in our communities are coming into awareness that our criminal justice and prison systems are broken and in need of overhaul and repair.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption”?
A2. One of the key challenges we faced when writing our book was the emotional toll it would take reopening old scars. When you have moved on from a very damaged life and you then have to reenter those times and write from that place of mind, it can be incredibly taxing. Being in a medium security prison while writing this story was also another incredible challenge, because I had a cellmate who had no appreciation for the importance of this project, nor for my need for a daily writing schedule. Fortunately for me, the officers on my housing unit saw what I was trying to accomplished and gave me use of the music room in order to type our book. Another key challenge was balance between life, writing, family, and quality. Being all of one means that you neglect other areas of your life. Finding that balance of work and leisure is still something we work on today. Finally, another key challenge was building the finances to afford the publishing cost, because neither of us had five grand lying around. We had to do a little fundraising, but praise God we met our goal.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
A3. Some of the authors that have been huge influences to us in our pursuit are Claude Brown, Paulo Cuehlo, Michael Todd(shout out to ‘Crazy Faith’), T.D. Jakes, Andrew Wommack, John Bevere, my friends Mark Hertzberg and the late Ron McCrea, and my late best friend Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer. All of these authors have lit a fire under my feet and exposed me to the possibilities that exist in fulfilling your dreams. They all showed me that dreaming isn’t enough, but to actually put in the effort to fulfill your purpose in the earth.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
A4. My favorite spot to visit in America has to be Crestline, Ohio. It is a very small town in north-central Ohio. A lot of my family on my mother’s side of the family lives in Ohio, and Crestline is this small town, where everyone knows each other or knows of each other. That town epitomizes peacefulness and it was a breath of fresh air compared to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I was born and raised. It is special to me because no matter whether I was from there or not, I was always viewed as family.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption’?
A5. My wife Jessica gave me the idea to write my life story, believing that my testimony would encourage someone who is broken by life to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to see the power of change. She thought it would be a great way to help people on a wider scale and make people see that they are not alone amid their hardships. Also, Jessica believed that it could also help adults understand youth better, instead of trying to lump them into a category or write them off as incorrigible. She sees that there are gray areas that people never consider that are driving forces behind mentalities and behaviors. Of course, I didn’t see it as a goos idea, because at the time, I saw that I would have to expose my dirty laundry for all the world to see, which would be extremely painful. I only saw the pain involved, but Jess showed me that this was so much bigger than pain, that it would be healing for so many people. Well, she did a great job of convincing me, because we got it done. I have been through a lot personal hell in my life and experienced a great deal of brokenness from it. I made a lot of horrible decisions in my life, and we want to catch someone before they fall into my same situation, staring down a life sentence without parole, wondering how they got there. We also want to show someone who is on the verge of destroying their life that they can rebuild anew and build better than could have ever imagine. We want to show parents that it is not wise to slap labels on their children, but to look deeper, because kids go through a lot more than we could ever acknowledge. Jessica’s life wasn’t easy either, and she has had some hard knocks in her life. We want pain to turn into healing. We also want to show the world that it is time for me to come home. I have changed my life tremendously and have been blessed to become a beacon of hope and change for those in the prison system and those outside of it. I have done over twenty years and officers, civilian staff, and inmates are surprised that I could be in prison for homicide and that I have a life sentence. I live my remorse out in my daily life, as I am terribly sorry for the things I have done in my life that have ultimately placed me here. I mediate disputes, I counsel brothers, I tutor people, I have stopped potential gang wars, I diffused a near-riot, and I have prepared countless brothers to regain their freedom the right way. I have a Technical Diploma, an Associate’s Degree, I’m a Restorative Justice graduate and class speaker, I have participated in numerous criminal justice panel discussion helping educators work with their at-risk youth, and we have ministry pages where we share the Word of God to help people live in a Godly manner. I am a leader in my prison environment, spearheading positive self-change and personal accountability. I am currently a Biblical Studies Bachelor’s Degree student, minoring in psychology, because I want to help people from my Christian worldview. I haven’t had a disciplinary infraction in over 12 years, and I have had countless officers and inmates tell me that I no longer belong in prison. I live with excitement to be a part of the solution, and ”The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption” is yet another tool that helps us to bring solutions.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption’?
A6. It took four months to write ”The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption”, but that was the easy part of it in my opinion. There was an editing process that took place to ready our manuscript, which added poetry themed to parts of the book, the search for pictures, and doing all of this during Covid made everything more difficult. Jessica was instrumental in every part of this process, and she also edited our book and rewrote certain sections to make our book more fluid of a read.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
A7. ”The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption” can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and in most places where books can be purchased online. It has been doing pretty well and there has been a nice demand for our book.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption’?
A8. The process for coming up with our cover was pretty interesting. It was a combination of mine, Jessica, Falicia and Jaeson’s ideas. We wanted the visual of a man who returns home after being consumed in prison. The Bible story of ”The Prodigal Son” was the direct inspiration to the title of our book, because he took his fathers wealth, left home and squandered it all away. From the depths of his brokenness, he remembered how good home actually was, so he set about a course of action to go home and humble himself before his father. His father receives him with an unexplainable love and restores him to his rightful place. I identify with this story because I grew up in church and I happily served church as a kid, but I left church and everything I valued to chase after the street life. Once the streets chewed me up and spit me out,I remembered how good I had it before and I came back to God, seeking His forgiveness and redemption. He gave it to me with wide open arms and my life is changed for the better because He restored me as His .Son The prison cell represents prison for me, but prison is more than just a physical condition. That is the thing we are seeking redemption for. It could be prison, addiction, abuse, poverty, or a host of other circumstances. The road above prison is that road of redemption, that allow anyone who was once consumed by their brokenness to re-emerge triumphant because of God’s love and forgiveness. The light is really a picture of God’s love, but it also leaves a blank canvas for a person to fit their image of redemption there. The graphic artists at Trilogy Publishing did an amazing job on the cover, encompassing everything we hoped to convey.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
A9. I believe excitement comes with what the reader is able to picture. When I can picture what I am writing clearly, I believe that the reader can as well. With ”The Prodigal Son: A Prisoner’s Story of Redemption”, we wanted to take the reader on a guided tour through my life. Our book will take our readers through a plethora of emotions; some anger, some sadness, some relief, but all to keep our reader engaged from start to finish. Tapping into my vulnerability was essential in conveying the highly emotional nature of our book, and we believe through primary source accounting, and poetry providing a healthy back story provided a necessary conduit to keep our readers excitement at a continuous peak. I wanted to write the book as if I was going though everything right in that moment, so people who read would experience how just one mind works under the circumstances highlighted in our book.
Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
A10. My late best friend and mentor, author and Frank Lloyd Wright historian, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, told me something so simple, something I still live by. He said, ”Writers write’ period”. He also said that there is a difference between an author and a writer, and the difference is in the leap of faith of having your work scrutinized and published. Authors never stop writing, but many writers have given up. My first book, a poetry collection called ”A Raven’s Meal”, bombed totally. I didn’t make a hundred dollars in royalties yet, and it has been out since 2019! I actually have a copy of Bruce’s first unpublished manuscript he ever wrote, one that he never sought publication for, but in his career, he has written or edited over 60 books. I also have the very last book he got published, and he took me through the entire process; from manuscript compilation to finished product. He did all of this while battling Parkinson’s! So his testimony showed me that there is no excuse, nor limitation that will keep you from your dreams. Only you can do that.
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