Tavares Marquez Jones was born in Swainsboro, Georgia on March 30, 1986, the first child of Lillie Jones, the second son of Willie Dawson. His siblings are Gerrie Brown, Sherree Brown, Talonda Brown, Clarence Williams, Shankeil Tarver, Sheniza Dawson, and Shekenia Dawson. His father was a pastor and entrepreneur, his mother a housekeeper at a nursing home, then an assembly worker in both an environmental technology and energy conservation plant and a poultry factory. He lived in Swainsboro through high school, graduated in 2004, and received a full football scholarship to Middle Tennessee State University. After enjoying a wonderful first three years both in the classroom and on the field, he fractured a bone in his right foot in a game towards the end of his senior season. Because of injury, he was unable to perform to the best of his ability in front of scouts. Therefore, his draft stock plummeted. He went from being projected as a mid-to-late round pick in the NFL Draft to not getting picked up at all. For about two or three years, he worked a few jobs here and there, an assembly worker at a Nissan plant, maintenance man at a nursing home, replenishment associate at JC Penney, before wholeheartedly rediscovering a passion he had kept secret from everyone – including his very own mother – WRITING. He finds writing very refreshing, inspirational, and exciting.

Synopsis: Twenty-year-old Michelle Tucker finds herself devastated when an obsession for dating the wrong type of man claims her freedom and relationship with her four-year-old. Filled with heartrending betrayal, devastation, adversity and more, Crushed Love follows Michelle through a gauntlet of sacrifice and redemption as she struggles to find herself and piece back together her life.


Get to Know Tavares:
1.     At what age did you start writing?
I started writing at age four.

2.   What was the first thing you wrote?
The first thing I wrote was actually a message in the form of a drawing. When I was four, there was this girl who stayed next door that I liked. So I drew this stick-figure picture of a boy and a girl holding hands with a question mark off to the right. However, it didn’t work out as I had planned because she took the piece of paper, wadded it up, and threw it in the trash.

3.   What led you back to writing after placing it on the backburner for so long to focus solely on your love for football?
After my time was up on the field, I was hurt by a lot of people I thought loved me. I was looking for someone to vent to after my then-girlfriend walked out on our three-year relationship a month before I was going to propose. As I was sitting on the floor leaning against the wall next to my bed crying, wondering how could she do something like that after how special I had always treated her, God put it on my heart to get up, walk over to my laptop, and start writing. Writing slowly but surely carried me through heartbreak and my feeling the lowest I had ever felt.

4.   In your bio I read you have five sisters, what type of affect does that have on your writing, being that most readers are women?
I think being around them so much molded me into being a bit more emotional than most men, while at the same time giving me firsthand knowledge on when to be sensitive and when to be assertive, and in turn, it shows in my writing.

5.    Tell me a little about your debut novel, Crushed Love?
Crushed Love is an urban novel written from a woman’s perspective. It’s about a young single mother who allows her obsession for dating a bad boy to destroy the relationship she has with her four-year-old son. I wrote this novel because there are so many men who don’t understand what a woman goes through after sacrificing so much to be with a man and still wound up having her heart broken. I think it will enlighten men to be a little more sensitive to and appreciative for the countless sacrifices women make, while at the same time, enlightening women to be a bit more mindful about the type of men they trust to be around their children.

6.   When and where will Crushed Love be available?
The eBook will be available July 15, 2012 for Kindle, Nook, and iPad. The paperback will be available August 15, 2012 at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, Indigo, Amazon, Better World Books, and everywhere else books are sold.

7.    Where can readers find more about you, your debut novel, and your writing plans for the future?
They can find more about me on my website tavaresmjones.com, artofficialmedia.com, and my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages.

Web Links:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tavares-Jones/190079654434609
http://www.twitter.com/tavaresmjones
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tavares-jones/4a/460/11b
http://www.tavaresmjones.com
tavaresmarquezjones@gmail.com.