BOOKWORMS AND VILLAINS

As of July 2020, I'm now having fun writing Book 8 in my series of novels set in an English bookshop and based upon my ten years running a used and antiquarian book shop - Valentine's Day at The Secondhand Bookworm, which sees Nora Jolly, her friends, family, co-workers, regular customers and new faces spending Valentine's Week in Castletown. There are lots of themes in this story, including the many festivities that occur about the historic town during the week. Most especially, a blast from the past returns to Nora's life in the form of Braxton Parker-Hodge who now runs The Otter Shop down Market Street and is still obsessed with Nora. Nora's brother Milton comes to the forefront as he spends the week outside The Secondhand Bookworm in his cupid costume selling tickets to The Jolly Theatre in Little Cove. And, although the Duke of Cole spends most of the week in Myanmar, he's back on Thursday in time to whisk Nora up to the castle for the spectacular Valentine...

Book 7 in The Secondhand Bookworm series of novels is NOW available worldwide in paperback, kindle and FREE with Kindle Unlimited from Amazon. Our delightful protagonist Nora Jolly is hosting a Book Club over six weeks in the front room of The Secondhand Bookworm, a winding three story shop filled to the brim with thousands upon thousands of used and antiquarian books. Eleven people have signed up for the club, including five of Nora’s work colleagues - the grim and frowning Roger, the exuberant newly employed Amy, the sarcastic older Betty (who’s on the lookout for romance), the bemused and eager Felix, and Nora’s sister-in-law Cara (who has hurt her back lifting books and is on a strict regime of the most bizarre stretches).  There are also three of The Secondhand Bookworm’s most eccentric customers - Spencer Brown, who avidly collects occult books and resides in a Gothic house with a tower at the top of the hill, Crossword-Lady, with her outrageous culinary skills, her obsessio...

I am delighted to have finished BOOK 7 in The Secondhand Bookworm series of novels which is called 'Book Club at The Secondhand Bookworm' and which is presently with my friend and proof reader, Anne. She has kindly been looking over all of my novels and weeding out the last of any spelling mistakes or errors that have been lurking in the manuscripts. I am pleased to share that all novels in Kindle format are now fully corrected and finalized. I am up to Christmas in paperback (paperback manuscripts are a little more time consuming) and will have the paperback editions all fresh and updated soon. I was given the sad news last year that one of my regulars, Oliver, who we affectionately referred to as Drunk-Boy in the shops and in my novels, died from an accident at Arundel train station. I shall keep writing Oliver in my novels because he was an interesting and often amusing character and I shall remember Oliver fondly. I am dedicating my next book to his memory, which is set dur...

This week I have produced several short Book Trailers for my novels in The Secondhand Bookworm series. This first one is for Book 1 - The Secondhand Bookworm. Book Trailers are great for a quick visual encounter with your book. Book Trailer for the first in a series of novels set in a used and antiquarian bookshop in a little Sussex town, based on 10 years of book selling, guaranteed to raise a few chuckles. In this feel-good debut novel (book 1 of 6 available so far - Jan 2020) readers will enjoy entering the world of secondhand book-selling in a quaint eccentric town on the south coast of England.   UK Amazon link Nora works in ‘The Secondhand Bookworm’ – a cosy, winding, labyrinth of a shop with room, upon room, upon room of used and antiquarian books. The week starts normally enough, with a visit from the notorious Ravens (two infamous ladies who leave a deluge of carrier bags behind the counter and argue in whispers), a man who changes his fashion with his li...

BOOK CLUB AT THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM BOOK 7 IN THE SERIES This week I shall be working on book 7 in my bookshop series of novels - BOOK CLUB AT THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM - which continues on from Black Friday. Nora and the Duke of Cole are now dating, the book club takes place in the front room of The Secondhand Bookworm in Castletown on Thursday evenings over seven weeks, and of course, mishaps and bookworm chaos ensues. For this novel I have tried a different format which will be a one off, letting the story unfold over seven weeks instead of six days. It's been interesting covering Christmas and the New Year in one novel and focusing on twelve specific characters for the Book Club, where I have been able to develop some particular customers who have featured through the series: CROSSWORD-LADY (who insists that Nora is actually the actress Gina McKee) SPENCER BROWN (whom Nora is convinced turns into a vampire bat) AMY (a new member of staff) MISS RAVEN (the daughter...

This week I'd like to share the book 'Christmas at The Secondhand Bookworm' which is the third in a series of six novels published so far on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and in paperback. It makes for a lovely uplifting and enjoyable read over Christmas as we spend the week leading up to the Christmas celebrations in The Secondhand Bookworm, a three floored rambling labyrinth of a shop crammed full of books upon books upon books! Christmas at The Secondhand Bookworm is a delightful Christmas read, part of a growing series with familiar characters you'll grow to like and customers you'll love to dislike but can;t help like with all their eccentricities and crazy bookshop antics. In this book, Nora Jolly meets the Duke of Cole (a future regular) who has moved into his newly renovated castle and is out taking a secret stroll around Castletown which has been deluged by snow. A visit to The Secondhand Bookworm introduces him to Nora and a friendship grows o...

Today (Friday 20th December 2019) my sister had her eye test in Specsavers so afterwards we walked down to Badgers Books, a secondhand bookshop in Worthing just off of Montegue Street. I was interested in buying some cheap old books for mixed media collage canvases that I have been doing lately. I am now not immune to the smell of used books having not worked in a bookshop since 2012. I had become immune to it after ten years running a secondhand bookshop in Arundel (and Worthing and Chichester) but no, it was strong and familiar again like when I first started in my bookshop in 2002... Badgers Books is smaller than the bookshop I worked in and the one that features in my series of novels 'The Secondhand Bookworm'. It was easy to navigate and my sister said she loved the mess, with books piled up everywhere. I have to admit it would have driven me crazy, I like books really neat on shelves and none on the floor, but it was fun to have a look about. Being low on the ...