CCSF Professor Completes Seven City Books
By Cassie Ordonio/Staff writer
Carol A. Jenson, a part-time business instructor at City College has completed her seventh book to add to her collection: Images of America Series.
“The latest book that went into the press is ‘Lake Tahoe Through Time’ written for Fonthill Media with offices in Concord, MA and Oxford, UK.” she said.
Jenson is a eastern Contra Costa County native who’s always been fascinated about local history since the early 1960’s. She’s very passionate about “saving the historic property from vandal and ignominy.”
For 15 years she’s been writing local history. In fact, each book she wrote are from her home towns: Brentwood, Bryon Hot Springs, East Contra Costa County, the California Delta, Lake Tahoe’s West Shore, and Maritime Contra Costa County. Each book took six months to publish.
Her inspiration for history came from Robert Chandler, a Historian Emeritus for Wells Fargo Bank with a Ph.D at UC Riverside.
“Dr. Chandler said to me, ‘Carol, nothing counts until you write it down.’ I took his words to heart. You can collect ephemera, admire artifacts, read history, listen to people’s stories but it is just personal amusement. Nothing counts until you write it down.”
For her education, Ms. Jenson received a Bachelors in art history at UC Santa Barbara in 1974 and graduated with M.B.A honors at UC Los Angeles in 1976.
Currently, she works as a director at a Real Estate Education Center, instructor at City College and Small Business Development Center at Cabrillo College, instructor at Liberty Adult School, Brentwood, principal at Carol Jensen & Associates, U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Copenhagen, Denmark, and author.
With such a busy schedule, one must wonder how she can squeeze in time for writing her books.
“There are only 24 hours in a day,” she said. “You manage your time based on your priories in life using a preferred time management tool like: Time System (previously Time Design). It is ‘old school’ binder, paper, and pen.”
Most of the books Jenson wrote are historical visual stories that describe the history of a community through images and captions.
She admitted Bryon Hot Springs was her favorite and her biggest accomplishment.
“It required serious digging, primary sources, and tenacity to find true, factual information under a lot of incorrect rural and urban myth.”
Though Bryon Hot Springs was her favorite, California Delta ended
up being her best seller.
Jenson has worked with four publishers: Arcadia Publishing Company, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, which is one of the largest publisher of local history books in the U.S., Fonthill Media, Oxford, UK, Cengage Publishing, and Local history newsletters and journals.
Out of all the publishers she’s worked with Cengage Publish Co. was her favorite. “They have a great academic reputation and are highly professional.”
Jenson’s books are paperback and are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
She has one advice to give to aspiring writers trying to get published. “Good luck, be tenacious, and never miss a deadline.”
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