Half way through 'Christmas at the Secondhand Bookworm' - the third in a series of novels by Emily Jane Bevans

February 02, 2018

THE HALF-WAY MARK

CHRISTMAS AT THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM

I have been enjoying writing BOOK THREE of my bookshop series of novels over the past several weeks. I had a break to edit a film but am keen to get back onto it (as I need a different project) and have been reading through (and chuckling to myself) all that I have written so far.

I think that 'Christmas at the Secondhand Bookworm' is my favourite one, possibly because, being quite solitary myself, the winter months in the bookshop were the most quiet time of the year and in this novel I have covered several events in the bookshop and town when there was heavy snowfall and on one day I literally had one customer! If that sounds boring, believe me, it wasn't, and for Nora it certainly isn't. I actually managed to take photos of the day I seemed to be the only shop open in town and I decided to let my main character Nora experience that.

My view through the bookshop window in 2010
A seriously empty town (with the roads closed because of ice)
© 2010 Emily Jane Bevans

I stood outside the shop (on the right) and snapped these people in the abandoned town.
I had one customer that day!
© 2010 Emily Jane Bevans

Of course, the usual madness and mayhem takes place over the course of a week (each novel in my series covers one week), opening on Monday morning with Nora and her colleague putting up the Christmas decorations. The shop feels like a fridge, Georgina has flu and a variety of Eskimos and human-hybrid snowmen start to arrive requesting books, selling books or making bizarre requests.

Working on Chapter One of 'Christmas at the Secondhand Bookworm
© 2018 Emily Jane Bevans

It seems to be quite rare to have snowfall where I live in December, and my fictional town of 'Castletown' where Nora works, is also situated in the shelter of the south downs. We actually miss most snowfalls down on the south coast due to our location and at the bookshop I would oftentimes see snow on the hills as I drove in, but in the actual town we were snow free.

Well, in this novel there's snow-a-plenty as I draw upon the heavy snow we experienced in April 2010. My employer had flu at the time but insisted I go in and open up which was quite a crazy idea. It was a surreal experience and lots of odd things occurred. They are covered in Chapters five and six where, fortunately for Nora, she has Humphrey to keep her company most of the day.

A sneak peek at Chapter Two
©2018 Emily Jane Bevans

It is great fun planning a novel, especially when drawing upon journals, diaries and notes from working for ten years in a secondhand and antiquarian chain of bookshops. I love to draw upon my own experiences and rework them into fiction and as I read through and recall events I am amazed at some of the things I had forgotten. It's actually good therapy too!

I am up to chapter seven now so passing the midway mark.

The Christmas lights on the large Christmas tree in the square are due to be turned on by the new Duke of Castletown as Nora keeps the Secondhand Bookworm open for late night shopping by candlelight. Of course, there are the usual regular customers about and some new ones too, and in Chapters Twelve and Thirteen, it's Nora's cousin Felix's first day and he's about to find out just what it's like to work in The Secondhand Bookworm. You can find out two in this new series of novels set in an English secondhand bookshop.