A southern veteran’s journey to publication

Published 3:37 pm Saturday, August 2, 2025

In a beautiful home, surrounded by love, wood shavings, and his thoughts, Colonel Jon D. Marsh spends his days crafting. Sometimes it is a clever bookshelf. Other times, it is a story. At 78, Marsh has played enough roles to star in a one-man show: Air Force Sergeant and air traffic controller, photojournalist, real estate agent, building codes inspector, and now a reluctant retiree, woodsmith, recurring student, and published author.

After years of writing reports and articles, Marsh has moved exclusively into fiction, drawing inspiration from authors like John D. MacDonald. “I am sick of facts,” he said. “I’ll research facts so I can fictionalize events. Fiction is a good way to escape.” His wife, Lissa, encouraged him to take writing classes at Georgia Southwestern State University. After writing a couple of character studies, he handed them to a friend, who stopped reading halfway since there was no action. Irritated but motivated, Marsh channeled that frustration into his next piece.

“I sat down, and it starts off in the midst of a bank robbery with a guy yelling ‘halt,’” Marsh said. “He’s just shot two people – they’re bleeding out. The entire situation lasts 47 minutes. I try to keep it moving so fast that if you put your feet down, you’ll trip.”

“47 Minutes,” published in 2023 by Christian Faith Publishing, marked a turning point. It was not his first book – Marsh wrote one back in 1972 – but it was the first one that stuck. Set in Amery, a fictional town inspired by Americus and surrounding towns, each chapter tracks the same few minutes from different perspectives.

The writing went well, but publishing came with challenges. After sending the manuscript to Christian Faith Publishing, “They wrote back and said, ‘Oh my gosh, no. You’ve got dirty words,’” Marsh laughed. “Cleaning it up was probably the most difficult chore in writing that I’ve had.” But Marsh was grateful for the experience, as the process was “a very profound learning experience” and taught him how to write emotion without leaning on shock.

Since then, Marsh has gravitated toward shorter fiction. “People aren’t buying thick books anymore,” he said. “They don’t have the mindset to sit and read leisurely.”

His latest book, “Tripped,” published by Palmetto Publishing in 2024, is a collection of three short stories – “Cops,” “Robbers,” and an England-based plot born of too many BBC dramas. Marsh figured if British authors can write about American characters like Jack Reacher, why can’t he write a British protagonist? “By osmosis, I’ve got a lot of British idioms and their points of view,” Marsh said. “I don’t know if I did an acceptable job with that. But it was fun to try.”

Many of Marsh’s stories begin with a small spark from real life: a friend collecting dollar bills with stars on the serial number, or the breath of a sleeping cat. “One morning, the cat was close to Lissa’s nose,” Marsh recalled. “Her little puffs of breath woke Lissa. And Lissa said, ‘The little puffs of breath woke me up.’ I couldn’t help it. I went to my laptop and started writing. That’s the first line. I didn’t know where I was going, but that’s what got the story out the door.”

Marsh’s work has also appeared in the online literary magazine The Fictional Café, and more recently in Blue Fire, GSW’s 2025 literary journal, which published his story in the form of a “wholesome prison blues” song.

When asked how it feels to publish his work, Marsh was humble. “Pride is usually preached as a sin,” he said, “But I have to admit I was proud. When I work hard at something, I get a form of satisfaction at stepping back and observing it. I see the flaws, of course, but I see what I consider successes and wonder wherefrom they came. I truly love surprising myself.”

He is now leaning into Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. “It’s cheap. It’s easy. You can go to the library at home in your pajamas, buy a book, and never have to go outdoors,” he said. “I’m thinking that’s where readership is headed, and it’s a new world to me.”

To new writers, Marsh offers this: “Everything that makes you smile, frown, all of those things are subject matter. Put it in a drawer. Come back six weeks from now. Your best editor is going to be yourself, later.”

For Colonel Marsh, it all starts with a spark of imagination and a willingness to follow it. “Writing is feelings, emotion, and heart,” he said. “A lot of times, mundane things can be put into an interesting context. Who knows? Someday you might interview some weird old man that makes weird things out of wood.”