After graduation from college, he worked as a copywriter for a Chicago advertising agency and later as a janitor, while reading and writing for hours each day.
[3] In 1973, Jones published an animal-fantasy allegory in the dystopian George Orwell mode titled "Brother Dodo's Revenge" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
The stories deal with common themes of mortality and pain, with characters who often find a kind of solace in the rather pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer.
Jones published two other collections of short stories, Cold Snap (1995) and Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine (1999).
[4] His story "Night Train," which originally appeared in the magazine Tin House, was included in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004.
A humorous essay, "Easter Island Noodles Almondine," about a time when Jones worked as a youth for the General Mills plant in Aurora, Illinois, was published in a 2009 issue of Granta focused on Chicago.