West Nodaway grad writes book

Korbin Jones

Korbin Jones has been writing short stories since he was a child and now he can rejoice because his first book has been published.

“I’ve always known myself to write,” West Nodaway graduate Korbin Jones said. “I always find short stories I wrote when I was little, but I think it really took off in eighth grade. I wrote a short story based on a Greek myth for one of my teachers and she really liked it.”

Jones went to school at West Nodaway R-I, graduating from the Burlington Junction school in 2013 and is now a student at Northwest Missouri State University. He said that the first chapter of his book, Electus, was written by accident.

“Around here, creative writing isn’t really encouraged, but I just wrote little things, mostly short stories,” Jones said. “I didn’t do anything major until I went to Upward Bound at Northwest. In 2012, I took a creative writing class and I had to write a first chapter for a book. That’s where the first chapter for this book came from.”

Through 2012, he continued to write a few chapters for the book, but he wasn’t completely engaged. But during the summer of 2013, Jones spent two months non-stop working on the rest of the book.

“When I wrote Electus, I was still discovering my author’s voice,” Jones said. “This book is set in an alternate universe in medieval times so it’s very much archaic sounding. For a while, I thought that was my voice and I didn’t really write anything for two years after I finished the book.”

While he was writing Electus, Jones was trying to figure out his writing style and after talking with some friends and family, he finally discovered it.

“I love writing, but I wanted to know what other people thought of my style,” Jones said. “Some of my friends read it and encouraged me to continue. One of my friends, Kim, read the first five chapters of my book and told me I had to finish it. She’s one of the main reasons why I finished the book. It’s really easy to stop writing, but she kept me going.”

The book is about a boy living in an alternate universe and there is a goddess there that everyone worships. The goddess gives everyone powers from birth and he’s able to manipulate the elements. The boy, who just turned 18, is an orphan because his parents died and he accidentally burned his house down so he was exiled to a forest to live with the monsters.

Just like any other author, Jones likes to discover what kind of genre his books fit into and he believes he’s found the right genre.

“I’m definitely in young adult literature just because it reaches people that are younger and definitely people who are much older,” Jones said. “Books like the Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Twilight are enjoyed by people way outside of the young adult range and people within the range. I think the genre has that reach that I really enjoy. Also, my book is fantasy and I enjoy fantasy because it’s a lot of world building and I get to decide what works and what doesn’t.”

After finishing the book, Jones spent the next several months having people review it while searching for publishers.

“I was sending it around to people getting reviews, checking for errors and that went on for two years,” Jones said. “For about a year, I was researching publication and the steps toward publication. I was reading about how it’s very political. It’s a business and I’m very much a supporter of artistic integrity and sticking to it. I decided to research independent publishing.”

He decided on using a program called CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon.

“They help you independently publish music, books, anything like that,” Jones said. “Once I did that, I looked at the cost because they have artistic teams and people who put books together professionally.”

During a class in college, Jones learned how to make a book so he decided to design most of the book himself and put it together. After putting it together, he used CreateSpace and said it’s basically print on demand.

Jones spent several years trying to get his book published and his dream finally came true. He thinks that creative writing is a great opportunity for young people and thinks that there should be more opportunities for creative writing.

“Creative writing helps me work through my issues,” Jones said. “We need to develop a safe environment for young authors to grow. It’s important to promote writing.”