[MUSIC PLAYING]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Hello, and welcome to Free Speech with CR. I'm your host, Molly Blakemore, and I'm joined by my co-host, Dr. Keith Flamer.

KEITH FLAMER: Hello, Molly. And with us today is the extraordinarily wonderful writer and staff member Jennifer Bailey. A little bit of introduction. Jennifer has been with CR for-- how long, Jennifer? 18.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Well, if we're being real, 25 years.

KEITH FLAMER: You've been here for 25 years. So you must have started when you were two.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Exactly.

KEITH FLAMER: OK, and also, we really want to talk to Jennifer, not just about her career at CR, but also about the work that she's done since she left CR the first time. And now you're back. So I have been so looking forward to our conversation today because you are amazingly interesting. So talk to us a little bit about how you started CR, and at what point, and the things that you see here.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: OK, well, I started actually at CR when I was 19 years old. I really didn't think I was college material. Actually, it was the basketball coach that called me from-- I was at Fortuna High. And she called me, and she said, Jen, I really want you to come play basketball for me. And I said, oh.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So you started as a student?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: I did. I started as a student, yeah, yeah. I was enrolled in English 350 and math 376. And I said, oh, Marla, I'm not smart enough. I can't do the college thing. And she said, just come and just tour the campus, visit with the team. And so I did that, and I ended up enrolling into classes. And actually, I had to work while I was in college, and I went into the admissions office and said, I love to file, and they gave me a job.

KEITH FLAMER: Wait, you like the [INAUDIBLE]? You don't often hear someone aspiring to be a filler, but OK.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: I knew I had to start from the ground-up. Yeah, so I, yeah, just started there in admissions doing filing and answering phones.

KEITH FLAMER: So that's how you started there. And then you were counseling assistant.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, and then actually, I worked part-time in the public relations department and part-time in the admissions department because I needed the medical benefits. And then I went into counseling as an advisor, and went into leadership, and then articulation.

KEITH FLAMER: That's when I first met you, when you were counseling assistant. [INAUDIBLE].

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: Wow.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: But in between there, you also went and finished your degree at Cal Poly Humboldt.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, actually, I got three degrees here at CR, and I went on and got my bachelor's degree in journalism with an emphasis in English. And then Alan Koebner said, you need to go back to school. Keith told me, you need to go back to school and get a master's. And I'm like, oh, I'm not smart enough. I can't do it. And then there I was applying to graduate school and got my master's degree in education with an emphasis in academic advising.

KEITH FLAMER: I have to tell you that when people talk to me about a success story with student at CR, I tell people your story. Why? It's because you started at pre-collegiate courses, and you finally got a master's degree, and you are a celebrated local author. Talk to us about how you got into books, writing books. How many have you read? And I've read two so far. And I really want to talk to you about why you did that.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: That's a really good question. My grandmother told me I had to go to college and get my degrees. Gosh, from a young age, I loved to read, and I loved to write. And I actually didn't learn to read until I was in fourth grade. And once I did, I just took off. I read everything I could get my hands on, and I wrote these stories in my closet, just story, after story, after story. And then I got into high school, and I felt like I couldn't do that anymore.

KEITH FLAMER: Why is that?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: As a young 15-year-old girl, I just wanted to fit the mold. I just wanted to fit in.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And can I ask why you were a closet writer?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: That's a great question.

KEITH FLAMER: And what brought you out of the closet [INAUDIBLE]?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: To write. It's a very vulnerable thing, writing. And I was scared if somebody saw it, they might say to me, oh, my gosh, why are you writing? And so, yeah, that's why I wrote in the closet. And so I went through high school, and I still love to read. I read. And it wasn't until actually my son was born-- he's almost 15 now.

I decided to take Dave Harper's creative writing class. And I'd started this story called Black Five. And I needed help with the middle of it. It was really sagging. And so I took his creative writing course, and I finished it on independent study. And he said, you need to get an editor for this. And I did.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And that was Dave [INAUDIBLE] who taught here?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yes, yes, yes. I absolutely love that man. He really was a great teacher, but a great encourager, again--

KEITH FLAMER: He most certainly was.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, writing is a very vulnerable thing. And he actually had me come back every semester-- he taught English 33, the creative writing-- so I could speak to the students, which was really cool.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Oh, that's wonderful.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, yeah. And then so after Black Five, I went on to write, I think, 12 more books.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Did you find an editor for Black Five?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: I did, Joe Frazier, actually. She was incredible. I hired her to edit my book, and then I pitched it to so many different publishing houses and so many different agents, and I got-- I don't know-- a lot of nos before I got that one yes.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: A common story.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yep, yep. And then that was it.

KEITH FLAMER: What's the topic of Black Five?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: It's a paranormal romance, and it's based in Ferndale, California. And it's about Penelope, who doesn't really know what's really going on. She was raised by her aunt Jo. She knows she's got some special abilities, but she doesn't tell anybody until she finds out that she's approaching a very important birthday, and she figures out she has a security detail that's been following her entire life to protect her from this underworld. So, yes. Go ahead.

KEITH FLAMER: Still talking about that, and I have read a few of your other ones, the ideas for your book-- I've been told that the ideas for books comes from personal experiences or thoughts that you've carried. So where did Black Five come from and the topics of your other books that I believe touch upon--

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Like Standing Sideways.

KEITH FLAMER: Yeah, so where does that originate?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Actually, Black Five came from pieces of my childhood. So it didn't start with the premise of what it came out to be. This is the memory that it started with, and this is a memory from my childhood. We were living on Bunny Street in Santa Maria, California. It was just my mother and I. And we were in the low income housing, and I must have been like two or three years old.

And I remembered the maggots coming out of our carpet, and I remembered what that felt like. This is odd to say. I didn't know what they were. I mean, I was just so little. And I thought, wow, there's this little girl that has these memories. I took that memory and I said, well, what if that wasn't the story?

What if there was a bigger story around it? What's if she really had this life that she really wanted. What does that look like? And so it really started with memories from my childhood that I built a premise around, and the plots. And actually, I was contracted for four books. It was called the Black Blood Chronicles.

KEITH FLAMER: Black Blood [INAUDIBLE].

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, and that's the Black Five series. And the day I wrote the end to the next book in the series, my cousin, Jason, was killed in the Umpqua community college shooting.

KEITH FLAMER: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: That was very awful, yeah. I couldn't move forward with the next book, Crimson Lace. I couldn't. And so I knew the way I process things is I write through them. And I remember I wanted to write about the way I was feeling in hopes that it would help someone else that went through something like that.

And so I'm sitting at 4:00 AM in the morning, and I'm just bawling into my computer. And my husband comes out and he says, honey, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to yourself? And my answer was, I just want to help somebody else. And through that process of writing Standing Sideways-- and I don't say this out of pride or ego. I say this because this wasn't a book I intended to write. It wasn't a book I wanted to write. It was a book I had to write.

That book has been on the number one bestseller list on Amazon. It's been published in multiple languages. And again, it wasn't a book I wanted to write. And to date, Standing Sideways, all of the proceeds for that book go towards the scholarship at the college my colleague set up for Jason.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Here?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, here. They asked me, yes, if they could do that.

KEITH FLAMER: Would you mind telling our viewers what's the premise of that book? What is that book all about?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, my gosh, so it's about Livia Stone. Actually, the book is based in Fortuna, California, and it's about a young woman who's lost her twin brother, and he was her person. He was her go-between between her family, the world. Jasper was his name. And she has to learn to navigate life without him, and what that looks like. So there's topics about addiction, and God, and anchor, and all the stages of grief, and what we do in our grief, and not only what that grief feels like, but what it can look like through the lens of other people. Everyone grieves differently. And addiction obviously is a big part of the book, too.

KEITH FLAMER: Why is that a big part of the book?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: It's a big part of my story as well, yeah. I've been in recovery from alcoholism for, gosh, 5,900 days. So just over 16 years roughly.

KEITH FLAMER: [INAUDIBLE] . That was [INAUDIBLE].

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Thank you. Thank you. And again, writing helped that piece of me. Through the grief, I didn't have to put anything in my body to affect my mind. Writing was writing through it.

KEITH FLAMER: And what a lot of people are not aware of, JB, about you is you try your best to help other people in recovery from addiction as well. Talk to us a little bit about that if you're comfortable.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, absolutely. I think addiction, whether it's drug addiction or alcoholism, can be very lonely, and nobody talks about it. If we have a family member struggling-- I remember I grew up with a drug addict and an alcoholic, so I know I never wanted to have friends over. I was so embarrassed.

KEITH FLAMER: Was this your mother?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yes, yeah, and she's been clean for quite some time now.

KEITH FLAMER: Good for her. Congratulations.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, yeah, it's such a stigmatized disease. And what I like to do in my recovery is I like to take the power out of that loneliness. I can't keep the gift of recovery if I'm not giving it away. And so I'm part of a 12-step program that helps me on a daily basis and allows me to help other people. I've always been very transparent about my recovery, whether it's with my administration, whether it's with students that I see and work with, whether it's with my colleagues because it's not talked about. Nobody talks about it--

KEITH FLAMER: That's true.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: --on the recovery level. I wish more people did.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And it seems like that part of your story, along with the educational part of your story, how you didn't feel smart enough for college, and how people encouraged you, that could work really well with your positions here as an advisor and a counselor, because you can relate to a lot of our students that probably feel that way, whether or it's true. It's not true, obviously. Yeah, so that probably made you a lot more empathetic to our students.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, absolutely. I'll never forget. Since I was in my old office in the forum building, or the [INAUDIBLE]. I just got this thought, you really need to start a recovery program on campus, or recovery meeting. And I would just, oh, I'm so busy. I don't have time. I had time to drink. I have time to recover.

And so it wasn't until I came back after COVID, I was sitting in the cubicles out in the counseling office, and I heard a young man come in and say, I just got out of a halfway living-- he just got out of rehab, and he was living in a recovery home. And he goes, I'm a student here, and I need a meeting. Do you have a meeting on campus? And at that point, we didn't.

KEITH FLAMER: I remember that time.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: I remember that, yeah.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: And now we do.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: And now we do. And now we do. Thursdays at noon. [INAUDIBLE].

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: In the forum building, yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: In the forum building, so far until--

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So far. Yes, until we make the move.

KEITH FLAMER: Until we make them.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Yeah, yeah. So a lot of your books were based in Fortuna, but then a lot of your other books are also in small towns.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yes.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Obviously, it's intentional. But is Humboldt always the inspiration for those towns? You grew up here?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, I did. Oh, wait. Absolutely. I love being from a small town. I mean, my husband's hairdresser is also the mayor of Fortuna, or she was.

KEITH FLAMER: Your husband has a hairdresser?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Well, the person who cuts his hair.

KEITH FLAMER: A barber?

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: You wouldn't know.

KEITH FLAMER: This is a private hairdresser. That's interesting. I can visit to see him again.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: She's officially retired. However, she does keep some of her clients. And she's an incredible woman. And feeling so connected to my hometown, I mean, there's so much story there. Talk about inspiration. I can pick up a conversation just from one line at a coffee shop, and it's like, oh, you want that on your coffee? And I can just build a whole story around it, yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: So is that how you got the story about the Ferndale Enterprise stories? Every time I read it, I would just giggle in my office. It is so wonderfully written.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So tell us what those are.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, gosh. Those started, actually, during COVID. I was just looking for some part-time work. It was when the North Coast Journal bought the Enterprise. Melissa said, hey-- well, I pitched the fiction idea because I was like, I don't know about nonfiction. And she goes, well, write a fiction series. And I'm like, really? Could I do that? And she said, absolutely.

KEITH FLAMER: It's so good.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, so that's really where it all started.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So now you've had two. Tell us about those series.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, my two book series?

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Haven't had two Ferndale series?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, my gosh, I think, let's see, 11.

KEITH FLAMER: That many?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, 11 different series that I've written for the Enterprise, yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: Since COVID.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, yeah. There's tons.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Oh, I only know the most recent two. So I have to go back to the-- [INAUDIBLE].

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: But, yeah, since COVID. So whenever that was. A good reason to get the [INAUDIBLE].

KEITH FLAMER: [INAUDIBLE]. But also I want to say is, and Molly and I have often talked about this, how lucky and grateful that we have you back on staff to write our newsletters. They're just so magical. And the work that you've done has just drawn us so much closer to our community. And I get compliments about you everywhere I go. So yeah, thank you for that. It's phenomenal.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Thank you.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: So yeah, I talk a little bit about how now you're melding both of your loves for CR--

KEITH FLAMER: [INAUDIBLE]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: --and writing. So now what do you do?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yes, so I get to write most all the feature stories that come out of College of the Redwoods. The press releases. I get to put out the athletics newsletter, and the general newsletter, and I get to talk with students, and I get to hear their stories, and what they've overcome to just get through the doors, just through the doors of College of the Redwoods.

They're not even through their classes yet. And these phenomenal humans that we have that are on campus as students, as faculty, as staff, as our administration, and I get to see that deeper side of them. And I don't know if it's because people-- I don't know. People say I'm very approachable, and I can't [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah, it's going to make me sweat.

KEITH FLAMER: [INAUDIBLE]

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: It's cold in here, so. People say you're approachable.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, and so I get that deeper side of people, and I get to write about it. I get to tell these stories.

KEITH FLAMER: You bring what is invisible visible. So I appreciate that. In the little bit of time we have left, I want to transition a little bit to the other business that you have, which I, quite frankly, didn't know until after my son died, and you approached me, and you said, I want to talk to you about something, but you were afraid to talk to me. And I said, this can't be a good beginning to a conversation. And so talk to us a little bit about the other work you do to help people heal.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: The other work that you do in the closet.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yes. I'm really stepping out.

KEITH FLAMER: [INAUDIBLE] because this work is just as important as any other work. And I have learned that about you. So talk to us a little bit about that.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: So as a child, I used to hear things, and see things that nobody else could see. I wrote it off as my imagination. Something scared me. Somethings didn't. And so I remember just getting under my covers at night especially, and just hiding under the covers and saying, OK, God, help me. And again, it didn't really scare me. Sometimes it did.

But I was very confused as a child just about what a reality versus non-reality. And so I just told myself it was my imagination. And so as I got older, I remember this gentleman that used to play cards with me under the table. He was an elderly gentleman. His name was Rainy. And my mom said, honey, that never happened. And he was such a nice man. And he said, tell my wife I love her.

And I didn't know what that meant. I was little. And so as I got older and I turned 19, these visions I was seeing started to come back and I got really scared because they dissipated for a long time. And I think kids, when they grow up in trauma, they have to survive. And so that's what I did. And so I just forced all of this out.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: [INAUDIBLE] yeah.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: And so they started to come back, and I started to drink, and then I started to drink alcoholically. And that stopped. It stopped the visitors I was getting. It stopped all of that. And it wasn't until I got into recovery. And there was so many things in my life that brought me to this moment that attributed to the mediumship and the writer in me.

And so in my addiction, though, I told this counselor, I said, I'm seeing this. I'll going in the grocery store, and there's a woman in front of me, and I will hear a voice that says, tell her I'm sorry. I was her third husband, and I didn't treat her well. Will you tell her I'm sorry? And I am like, uh. So those things started to happen again. And that's what scared me.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: The counselor in recovery said what?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Well, it was just a counselor. She just prescribed me medication. And I knew that wasn't the problem. It wasn't the answer. And so I got sober, and now I see-- through a succession of events that led me to this moment, I started working with Patty Davis at Arcadia. She is incredible. And she said to me, Jen, you know you're a medium.

And I'm like, well, are you sure? But everything started to make sense. I mean, everything. And that fear went away. And I learned to set boundaries with spirit. You can't come to me when I'm at work. I have to work, unless it's something. So, for example, with Keith-- can I share this story? Do you mind?

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: I don't mind at all either. [INAUDIBLE] bring it up. Well, it's because I want you to share the story. I don't know how much time we have left. But the things that you told me helped me through my own grief, not just with my son, but my mother. So please go ahead and tell the story if we have time.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, yeah, so I was working one day. It was in my cubicle down in counseling. And I see Brendan in my mind's eye, and I hear, you need to talk to my dad. And I'm like, Brendan, there is no way that I am going to march up to the president's office and tell him what I do. He goes, you have to.

And it took me probably about two months, and I had gone on a trip to North Carolina with colleagues, and I ended up telling a good friend of mine who traveled with us, Angela, it just came about. And she said, you're a medium? And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a medium. And so anyway. So that happened, and the situation with Brandon had happened, and I had told Angela that, like, I don't want to march up to Keith's office. That's scary.

KEITH FLAMER: [INAUDIBLE]

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: And she goes, OK. And so one day, I think I'm in jury duty-- I don't remember. I was in a meeting or something, and she texted me and says, hey, I told Keith, and I'm like, oh, OK. And so then I emailed him, and I said, well, what did he say? And she goes, he's ready. And I went, OK, all right. So then I sent him an email--

KEITH FLAMER: Which I thought was very strange, but OK.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: I know. And then we met. I was OK with working with those lives who had crossed over. But when Patty challenged me to start working with people who are living, I was like, Patty, no way. I'm OK working with people who are on this side. But when you tell me to give a message to somebody, yeah, it was just-- so that's the other piece of it.

KEITH FLAMER: Beautiful.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: Thank you.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Well, we have to wrap, unfortunately. But where can people find you if they want to look at your books, and/or your mediumship?

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah, so jlynnbaileybooks.com is my website for the book side. And I do write about the dead people as well.

KEITH FLAMER: Dead people. I see dead people. [INAUDIBLE]. I should have waited [INAUDIBLE].

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: That too. And then also I have an Instagram page medium in the Redwoods. So they can find me there.

KEITH FLAMER: Thank you. I so look forward to this conversation, J.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Oh, thank you so much, both, for having.

MOLLY BLAKEMORE: Oh, yes. I like everyone for watching and tuning in.

JENNIFER LYNN BAILEY: Yeah.

KEITH FLAMER: Thank you all.

[MUSIC PLAYING]