Author Interview: Bailey J. Thompson

I am excited to introduce my readers to a new, young Canadian writer named Bailey J. Thompson.  She has just released her first novel Yellow Socks & Blood Spots and is stopping by here today for an interview.


Please introduce yourself Bailey.

 19-Year-Old. Author. Photographer. Dreamer.

Tell us what Yellow Socks and Blood Spots is all about.

 Yellow Socks and Blood Spots tells the story of a 17-year-old girl named Isabelle with a tough decision to make.

Abortion is a difficult topic.  What made you want to write about it?

 I was just noticing that there aren't as many books out there as I think there need to be. Women go through the decision-making and the procedure every single day, but their literary support is limited.

Why were you originally going to publish it under a pen name?

 Two reasons. I wasn't sure how people would react to the book, particularily because of the intensity of the topic and the content of the book, and I feared that it would hurt my reputation as an emerging author. Secondly, I run a children's book publishing company, Gerbil Meets Mouse Publishing and I worried that a child might search my name, looking for one of my children's picture books and instead find Yellow Socks and Blood Spots.

You mentioned that you run a children's book publishing company, Gerbil Meets Mouse Publishing.  Tell us about it.  

It all started with a little victorian dollhouse my parents got me as a child. I would spend my childhood dreaming that I would become small enough to fit in and live in this little dollhouse. One day, when I was in high school, I was going through the basement storage room with my pet gerbil, Mocha who happened to love to sit on my shoulder or in my pocket. When I noticed the dollhouse, it suddenly dawned on me that Mocha could live out my childhood dream. Being the writer I am, that was only the beginning of many hours of story writing. But as I got started, I realized that I wanted my story to be different and that I wanted it to be illustrated with actual photographs of the gerbils on a green screen. Four years later, and a whole series of books ready for publication, I found myself wondering why I would just hand over my masterpiece to a publisher. One Saturday, I caught myself asking my father, "so, what do you think it takes to start a publishing company." He responded, "I don't think you can just start a publishing company." That was enough motivation.

Have you run into any challenges writing novels and running your own publishing company at such a young age?

 Reality. The believer in me wants to quit my day job and just run with my dreams, but the realistic part of me knows that success is hard to come by in this industry. Other than that, I think that my age is working for my advantage.  A lot of people are inspired by the fact that I am a 19-year-old running a publishing company, with a novel out.  It makes the daunting task of "promoting yourself" simpler.

What does the future look like for you?

Hopefully bright!!! I plan to focus on Gerbil Meets Mouse Publishing while working on my second (and third) novel.
Thank you for stopping by on your blog tour Bailey.  I wish you great success with this novel and the future.

You can purchase Bailey's novel here:

Chapters/Indigo
Amazon Canada
Amazon US 
The Book Depository


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