ALIDA — Alida's Mari Lemieux wrote her first book when she was only eight years old.
Now she is 16, and she and her family decided it was time to publish The Sock Momster – a children's book she wrote when she was a kid herself.
"I wrote the book initially when I was really young. My dad always used to tell us bedtime stories, and they were really extravagant and fun. And I just decided one day that I wanted to write my own," Lemieux shared in the interview with the Mercury.
"I didn't think I was going to publish it or anything. I just wrote it. It's called The Sock Momster. And it's about a little sock monster that comes and takes your socks. My mom did use to get mad at me and my siblings for wearing mismatched socks. That's how that came. And I don't remember a whole lot about writing it, but we just decided to publish it this year."
Lemieux's book sat for years. She looked at it now and then, thinking it was "cute". Its time came this year. Lemieux made a couple of smaller changes to the book, and then with the help of her parents, the piece got published, which gave it a new life.
"It feels really cool [reading through it now] because I forgot about it that I even wrote it for a really long time. Then when I got it, it was really cool to read," Lemieux said.
Lemieux's cousin Ashley Vercammen works in a company that helped her publish.
"She just asked us if we still had it because mom told her about it one day. And we're like, yeah; and she's like, 'Well, do you want to publish it and see what happens?' And so we're like, 'Sure.' So we just ended up publishing it, and it was fairly easy to do," Lemieux shared.
The company also arranged for the illustrations, and Lemieux got to see the final product when it was printed.
"It was really cool [to see the book]. I was very excited about it because that was the first time I got to see any of the illustrations or anything," said Lemieux.
They received the first copy about three to four months ago, made some changes, and about two months ago the family received the final product.
Lemieux has been selling The Sock Momster for some time now, and she said sales have been pretty good.
"We sold almost 40 books now. I have some books in the restaurant in town, some in the store. And I sell them online on two separate websites, too," Lemieux said.
Her first children's book turned out nice, and Lemieux has an interest in English class.
"I like to mess around and write. My favourite subject in school is English, and I do well in it," Lemieux said. "And James Patterson [is my favourite writer]."
However, so far she hasn't got to any other bigger writing projects.
The Sock Momster is available online through Amazon.ca and through HomeSteadTeaching.ca, as well as in person in Alida through the Lemieux family.
They also plan to have copies available at a few libraries in the southeast including Oxbow, Carlyle and Alameda.
While she originally never planned to publish, Lemieux said the experience was indeed interesting and she encourages other young people to also bring their projects to fruition.
"Just go for it. Because even if not a lot of people buy it, at least you put it out there and there's always a chance that at least one person is going to want it," Lemieux said.
