Jeffery Mason champions handwritten storytelling at SIBF

At a book club evening, Mason, author of the Hear Your Story guided-journalling series, sat before a rapt audience and urged them to ask questions, write answers, and reconnect with the people they think they already know.

A son’s search for his father

Mason’s first book, Dad, I Want to Hear Your Story, was born from loss. “I never intended to write a book,” he admitted. “My father was going through Alzheimer’s in 2019, and I just wanted to know him as a boy, a teenager, a man in love, heartbroken, successful, and struggling. So one night, I wrote all these questions in a spiral-bound notebook. However, it was too late”.

By the time Mason was ready to ask, his father could no longer answer. “He was already too far gone. So I talked to my mom, my uncles, my aunts, and his friends. And the more I knew about my dad, the more I saw how we were alike.”

Those pages of questions were copied, shared, and eventually self-published. “People started asking, ‘Do you have a mom book? A grandmother book?’” Mason said. “Little by little, that spiral notebook turned into a series.”

Today, the Hear Your Story books span titles for parents, grandparents, couples, even pet owners — available in languages from Spanish and French to Greek and Polish.

From technology to tenderness

For much of his life, Mason worked in technology and telecommunications, a far cry from the handwritten intimacy of his current work. “I had jobs I liked, but nothing like the passion I have for this,” he said. “It’s funny, I used to build systems to connect people digitally. Now I’m helping them connect emotionally.”

When Mason speaks of creativity, it’s with the reverence of a man who discovered it late but never takes it for granted. “I’m 62 now,” he says. “I started this in my late fifties. I always liked creating things, but I was of that generation where parents said, ‘Get a real job. Don’t be a starving artist.’”

But now that he is a father, he is encouraging his daughters to take any path they want.

Interestingly, Mason doesn’t believe in writer’s block. “Doctors don’t get blocked. Taxi drivers don’t get blocked. They just do their job. So as a writer, I write. Some days what I write is rubbish. But I still write. The editor’s job is to come in later and do the vacuuming.”

Guided prompts, global voices

What makes Mason’s journals powerful is their gentle structure of pages of guided prompts that invite reflection without intimidation. “A blank page can be terrifying,” he said. “The prompts are like paint-by-numbers. You can write a sentence or a paragraph. There’s no right way.”

Mason insists his name doesn’t appear on the covers for a reason. “Because it’s not my story. I just hand you the pen”.

And despite the rise of digital journalling, Mason remains loyal to pen and paper. “There’s something sacred about handwriting,” he says. “I have recipe cards from my grandmother. When I cook with them, it feels like she’s there with me. That’s what I want for others, that sense of presence.”