Artist’s Corner
August 14, 2018
The Artist’s Corner is a new weekly feature of the Addiction/Recovery eBulletin. We send our participants forty questions and ask them to choose twenty they would like to answer. It includes a short profile and a link to their website. We hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Addiction/Recovery eBulletin or its staff.
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PROFILE
Steve Jones grew up on the wind-swept island of Anglesey, North Wales and graduated, in Chemistry, at North London University. His first foray into writing was as a contributor to the Hamburg-based digital design magazine, ‘Page.’ In the mid-90s he published his first book, a guide to troubleshooting the Apple Macintosh (International Thomson Publishing).
His first play, Cracked Eggs was staged at the Finborough Theatre in Earls Court, London. He later co-produced Cracked Eggs as a short film featuring Jared Harris (King George VI in ‘The Crown’), which screened at the Austin, Boston Underground, LA Shorts, and London Independent film festivals. His subsequent plays, Baloopa’s Journey and Hero & Zero, were awarded arts council grants in England, Austria, and Lithuania. Steve is the co-author of ‘Smile Now, Cry Later,’ an addiction/recovery memoir about the life of Freddy Negrete published by Seven Stories Press, New York in August, 2016. He also contributes a regular monthly column to the ‘Keys to Recovery’ newspaper entitled ‘The Hope Interviews.’
Steve Jones – Writer
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Q. What is your preferred form of artistic expression?
A. Literary Fiction, both in terms of reading and writing.
Q. Do you prefer living by the ocean, lake, river, mountaintop or penthouse?
A. Ocean, in an ideal world.
Q. What is your biggest or littlest pet peeve?
A. Biggest: the endless press number and voice recognition options before you get to speak—possibly—with an actual human being.
Q. Who was your biggest influence throughout your life?
A. R.S. Thomas (Welsh poet), Van Gough, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and James Joyce
Q. What is your current hobby?
A. Extremely amateur photography using a smartphone/pad. I post to @stevejonespics on Instagram.
Q. What prominent fe/male figure would you most like to date?
A. I’d love to meet Joni Mitchell. I’ve loved her music ever since a friend lent me “Court and Spark at school.
Q. If you were giving a dinner party for your 3 favorite authors, living or dead, who would they be? (you can choose 4 if you think one might too drunk or too stoned to attend.)
A. Tolstoy, James Joyce, and Jack Kerouac.
Q. What is your favorite: TV/cable/digital series?
A. Fargo
Q. What is your favorite: Non-fiction book genre?
A. Music journalism/biography focused around the 70’s/80’s eras.
Q. What is your favorite: Museum?
A. British Museum, London
Q. What is your favorite: Band/composer/musical artist?
A. Steely Dan
Q. What is your favorite: Broadway musical/play?
A. I had a second row seat to “August: Osage County” on Broadway of years ago. It’s a very intense, gripping piece.
Q. What is your favorite: Psychology or school of thought as related to psychology?
A. Jungian. I read ‘Man and his Symbols’ when I was 19 and it left a great impression on me.
Q. What is your favorite: Cuisine?
A. Middle Eastern
Q. What is your favorite: Restaurant?
A. Katamama restaurant, on coast of Phuket. It’s set in this beautiful cove and if you catch at the right time, in the evening, it’s the perfect view.
Q. What is your favorite: City?
A. No contest: New York
Q. What is your favorite album of all time?
A. Royal Scam by Steely Dan. Kid Charlemagne, Haitian Divorce, Caves of Altamira. The Royal Scam—I must have played these songs thousands of times since buying the album as a teenager.
Q. Who is your favorite novelist?
A. Tolstoy. Not necessarily for his style—I prefer a more lyrical writing style—but for his multi-dimensional insights into human nature.
Q. What books are you reading now?
A. The Bascombe Novels by Richard Ford, Ravelstein by Saul Bellow and Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London.
Q. Would you like to share a favorite quote?
A. “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” Lao Tzu—Tao Te Ching
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Addiction/Recovery eBulletin or its staff.
