My name is Jeffery Dennis Warren Kennedy, but I like to write under JD Kennedy. Don’t ask me why, I can’t say. I just like it. I make my living driving trucks for the Post Office and I write because I get ideas and I can’t let them just die. That would be cruel so I breathe a little life into them, plot them out and then just write them. My audience is any hapless suckers I can coerce into reading them. Pity is the main motivation though I do appreciate the writer’s group. I find it useful.

I stay motivated to write because I know practice makes perfect. Excuses not to write will pile up all day, week, month, year and then decade. That’s no good. I found reading Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art extremely inspiring, and I would suggest it to any writer experiencing the pain of procrastination. It got my fires going which does not make the practice easy, just nonnegotiable. I typically reserve Wednesday evenings after work for three hours and Sunday mornings for four hours to write.These seven hours a week have produced prodigious amounts. This discipline again is non negotiable and I only break it for extreme conditions. Like driving my Mom down east or having a cat die.

I don’t have a grand vision for where or what I want my writing to be. Just to get better and the only way to do that is to read a lot and practice, practice, practice. What’s the best way to Carnegie Hall? Though I do like the theory of beats and using neuroscience to write engaging stories. It works and I would suggest learning a bit about it to any writer, presenter, ideas pitcher or song writer.

As well as short stories I also write songs and have a killer collection of poems called Poems for Outlaw Bikers and Other Working People. It is actually really good, and I would like to run them by some other writers of poetry. I prefer literal poetry and not rant or pity poetry. My tastes also don’t really include poetry that is too arty. Maybe I’m just too working class. Charles Bukowski was one of my favourite poets as is Bob Dylan and Robert Service. The writers I like are legion. Too many to list but here’s a few. Maggie Atwood, Alice Munro big time. Ambrose Bierce. Steven King. Alexandre Dumas. Richard Wagemese, Thomas King. Its a big list.

When I am not writing I am playing bluegrass and country music on banjo and guitar. I am currently developing a tribute act to Stomping Tom Connors, a man who should be, and probably is in the writers hall of fame. I hike, swim and bike around. I have just finished the Writers Group challenge and can now return to a long fiction piece I’m doing that’s very loosely based on my own experiences as a cowboy in the wild world of prohibition era marijuana growing and also am developing a raw idea that may have me writing a 20 year long book describing the aging process and related ideas.

If I could help any writer or artist I would come into their home, see their space for creating, look at their schedule and calendar and if they were to follow my suggestions, I could guarantee massive forward movement. It takes time and perseverance and commitment, but anyone can become a good writer/musician/painter/artist. You just have to walk the walk and when you get stuck…go take a long walk and clear your mind. The muse will come but only to those that actively and consciously evoke it. She just wants to know you’re serious. Otherwise, she has somewhere else to go.

Okay that’s about it and congratulations. You’ve got me to write more about what I do than I ever have. I usually play pretty close to the chest.

Happy Writing and don’t forget, first drafts always suck. The magic is in the polishing.

Cheers