Christmas at the Secondhand Bookworm - planning, plotting and having fun with story arcs.
CHRISTMAS AT THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM
Book Three of a hilarious, feel-good series of novels set in an English secondhand and antiquarian bookshop - by Emily Jane Bevans
I have been enjoying writing the third book in my amusing, feel-good series of novels set in an English bookshop, especially over the festive season and New Year. I always prefer to design my covers before I start or at the beginning of my writing because having a visual image and the completed cover is a great incentive and inspiration as well as an encouragement to write and finish the book, although sometimes it can make me impatient as I am keen to have it completed!
Book One and Book Two in my series were already written almost ten years ago and privately printed for my work colleagues as Christmas presents. I needed to refresh, rewrite and update them for publication in paperback and kindle (more for my own satisfaction) so now I find myself starting almost afresh. I had planned Book Three and already written the first chapter in 2011 or so but found myself concentrating full-time on Mary's Dowry Productions, a Catholic film production apostolate that I co-founded with my sister in 2007. It was due to my work with Mary's Dowry Productions that I decided to leave working at the bookshop after 10 years, take a small part-time job and focus my time and energies on our films about the lives of the Saints and English Martyrs.
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| The Shrine of Saint Philip Howard, Arundel, West Sussex The inspiration for our Catholic film production apostolate Mary's Dowry Productions |
As well as writing and design (I studied Media and Interior Design) I love film production, film directing, film editing and costume work as well as my Catholic Faith and the Catholic history and heritage of England. Working in Arundel full-time meant that I was able to pop into the Cathedral every morning and evening before and after work and it was there that I developed a love for Saint Philip Howard, the Earl of Arundel and an English Martyr, whose tomb is located in the Cathedral. I would spend time in the Blessed Sacrament chapel and then always walk over to Saint Philip Howard's tomb. I was there alone both morning and evening practically 90% of the time so I feel like Saint Philip Howard is a personal friend and brother especially in my Catholic life. I even started to write a book about Saint Philip Howard's life in a story form as a way to share it with my non-interested work colleagues but was finally guided to found a film apostolate with my sister as a means of sharing the lives of our English Martyrs. Film and writing is a powerful tool for evangelization in our culture today, which is why I am a stickler for assuring that my novels are good clean fun and oftentimes include a small hint of the Faith (as in my Bookworm series) or are aimed at a Catholic reader (as in my Villains series)
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| Walking from Mass into town and my old place of work - the secondhand bookshop |
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| Part of the children's books room - the door leads to the private staff toilet |
Christmases in the bookshop were always interesting. There were numerous events in the town that brought a variety of customers. We were also freezing with the thin windows and pretty useless storage heaters that only managed to keep a standard level of heating for the well-being of the books. Back in my day, my colleagues and I would enjoy decorating the window and ceilings of the front room for Christmas and filling the window display with Christmas books (amazingly popular) or themed antiquarian tomes, but that tradition seems to have stopped now that everyone from my era has finally left. Christmas in a bookshop in an old Tudor building certainly has an atmosphere of its own and a lot of memories. As I write 'Christmas at the Secondhand Bookworm' I shall be continuing subtle story arcs, bringing in the eccentric regulars, saying goodbye to a couple of characters and reworking a lot of chaos and amusing situations that really happened throughout the years I was there. I have planned the chapters and chapter titles and am keen to get writing soon and look forward to releasing this third book in my bookworm series of novels. More soon!
'The Secondhand Bookworm'
'Nora and the Secondhand Bookworm'
and
'House of Villains'
are all available to download now on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and to order in paperback through AMAZON
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