Welcome
The writer must blog. The writer must tweet. The writer must become a social mediator.
Sorry … not this writer. My plan is to write and publish books that obsess me. So, here you will discover the bare-bone essentials of my writing life: a short bio, a snapshot of my books, links to buy them, a form for you to email your thoughts to me. (I promise to respond to you.)
For readers in a hurry, all you really need to know can be found on this page.
My first novel, Fire Eyes, was a finalist for the W.H. Smith First Novel Award. A second novel, Healing the Dead, was translated into German as Todliche Ahnungen. This was followed by The Good Lie, another psychological thriller, now recorded as a talking book. A fourth novel, Exit from America, will be published in 2013. I’m currently working on a series of related novels narrated from the point-of-view of a crime reporter. In the off-hours I’m working on some non-fiction meditation guides, grouped under the banner of White Light Meditation.
Given the difficult times confronting traditional book publishing, the new books will be released as e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks by CatchwordPublishing.com, an “indie imprint” I launched specifically to publish my own work while the publishing industry adapts to the digital realm.
For twenty-two years I worked at the University of Victoria where I taught fiction and journalism and coordinated the Professional Writing Cooperative Education Program—which I co-founded. From time to time I also freelanced as a business writer and journalist. In the fall of 2010 I left the university so that I could turn my pre-occupation with writing into a full-blown obsession.
Following my birth in Montreal, my family moved around North America from Ontario to New York City to McComb, Mississippi to Cape May, New Jersey. I finally landed on my feet on Vancouver Island—where I live to this day next to the Salish Sea in the city of Victoria.
Here are a few excerpts from a few reviews of my books:
FIRE EYES:
"Fire Eyes is a taut psychological thriller with literary overtones, a very contemporary terrorist romance."
—Globe and Mail
"To put it simply, there is some very good writing here."
—Alberta Report
HEALING THE DEAD:
"The author is not afraid to take a hard look at the darker side of human nature, at the source of fear and violence, and to explore their repercussions with unflinching honesty."
—Monday Magazine
D.F. Bailey writes with "unusual power ... and obvious talent." He is "becoming a player in the international arena."
—Quill & Quire Magazine
"You start reading Healing the Dead with a gasp and never get a proper chance to exhale."
—Globe and Mail
THE GOOD LIE:
"Bailey knows how to employ atmosphere, characters and mood to steadily build a story. And the story he so carefully constructs is a good one."
—What's on Winnipeg
"Bailey has crafted a tale that not only looks at a universal theme but places it in a very West Coast context, making this one story that local readers are going to love."
—Boulevard Magazine
"Bailey's masterstroke is in creating a situation for his protagonist that is so believable the reader cannot help but feel complicit in the guilt and anguish of it all. With compelling, measured prose, he stakes out precious territory in a genre - located somewhere between thriller and psychodrama - that he makes completely his own."
—Quill & Quire Magazine
