[3][4] Jones was an avid reader from an early age and has cited numerous literary influences, including Charles Dickens,[3] Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Jack London, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Ursula K. Le Guin.
In a joint essay, The Road to a First Novel, Jones and editor Betsy Mitchell described the editing process that followed the arrival of the manuscript in the publisher's slush pile.
[3] Following the completion of this trilogy, dubbed The Book of Words, Jones wrote a standalone fantasy novel, The Barbed Coil (1997).
[3][1] She has since written the Sword of Shadows series of fantasy novels,[3][1] set in a different area of the same world as The Book of Words,[3] though considerably grimmer in tone.
[1] In addition to writing fantasy novels, Jones has also written science fiction short stories on various subjects, including the internet and virtual reality, though she has never tried to get any of them published.