BOOKWORMS AND VILLAINS

 This month I started writing (and bringing together various notes and already written passages) book eleven in my bookshop series of novels set in The Secondhand Bookworm.  Book eleven is called: Winterland at The Secondhand Bookworm.  I hope to make the story available soon (as I hope to be able to work on it when possible during my recreation time!) I have to say it's nice being immersed in a fictional winter during this heatwave. Winterland follows on from Strange Things (book 10), set two months later and during a very heavy snowstorm. The Castletown Winterland Festival is underway which includes The Prosecco Festival and The Festival of Hours, the latter taking place in the museum. Nora is working in her bookshop and enjoying the festivities. But things get scary with the arrival of the Duke of Cole's cousin, Sir Robert Knightley. A plot unfolds and thickens based around a cursed book that has been in the Duke's family for centuries. The book is being displayed in T...

 STRANGE THINGS AT THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM BOOK 10 IN THE BOOKSHOP SERIES NOW AVAILABLE On a normal Monday morning (as normal as it gets in eccentric Castletown) Nora Jolly arrives to work at The Secondhand Bookworm - a rambling old shop with three floors and an attic room stuffed to capacity with books, upon books, upon books, and more books, with a winding staircase spiralling upwards and branching off into numerous rooms, a kitchen and a yard, a ghost under the flagstones, and with shelves, windowsills, nooks and crannies boasting over 27,000 used, some new and many antiquarian tomes - only to be faced with her greatest bookworm ordeal yet!  Erik Lodbrok, an enormous man with Norse blood, a body like Thor the god of Thunder and a frown that scares everyone, especially newcomer Wimsey (an Emo into Screamo), has arrived with a claim upon The Secondhand Bookworm. A ridiculous clause in the sale of the shop six years earlier to Georgina Pickering, Nora's friend and boss, has ma...

I have almost finished writing book 10 in The Secondhand Bookworm series of novels set in an English bookshop. This book is called 'Strange Things at The Secondhand Bookworm'. It has been such fun to write, with strange and weird things occurring in the shop, the arrival of Erik Lodbrok, calls to an abandoned lunatic asylum, government lab and other unusual places, with anything and everything happening in a crazy week of madness, romance, rivalry and fun at the south coast of England's most eccentric bookshop. Slugs, blocked drains, Screamo, stalkers, wicked rumours, the Duke of Cole returning home early (much to Nora's delight), a huge Viking determined to take over The Secondhand Bookworm, a roller derby, Nora's matchmaking, murder hornets and screaming in the walls, an MI5 Agent investigating the bizarre happenings, customers, regulars, new characters, and books, lots and lots of books (plus much more) in this 10th novel in The Secondhand Bookworm series. Coming...

  LOCKDOWN AT THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM IS HERE I have finally released book 9 in The Secondhand Bookworm series - Lockdown at The Secondhand Bookworm - currently only available on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited, but paperback coming soon! It only took me three years to finish! But book 10 is well underway and coming soon. Lockdown at The Secondhand Bookworm can be read as a stand alone novel, but is best enjoyed as part of the series, set in an eccentric bookshop on the south coast of England in the fictional town of Castletown in the fictional southern county of Cole. Fiction loosely based on my 10 years managing a bookshop in West Sussex - lots of fun, bookselling related day-to-day happenings, romantic comedy, drama and all things books. Here is the blurb: It's Lockdown at The Secondhand Bookworm, a winding rickety old bookshop with three floors, endless rooms, hallways, shelves, cases, stairs, attic, kitchen and yard bursting at the seams with books upon books upon books, an...

  The Secondhand Bookworm series - April 2023 Kindle sales so far for The Secondhand Bookworm series of novels this month have been rising with 18 books sold on Kindle and over 1000 pages read with Kindle Unlimited, too. April 2023 has been a really fun month for The Secondhand Bookworm series of novels. All profits from sales go to Mary's Dowry Productions, my co-shared film apostolate, which is wonderful because this month we bought a simple brown peasant farmer's apron for use in our film presentation of Saint Dymphna, filmed at the bluebell woods in Clapham, West Sussex. We produced biographical films about little known English Saints and Martyrs as well as interesting and inspiring historical figures, especially women and popular Saints from around the world. While I write the series of novels for my own enjoyment, for work colleagues at the real bookshop I ran for ten years (I left in 2012 to do film media full-time) and for my sister, they are available for friends, fami...

LOCKDOWN AT THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM I was pleased to finish my manuscript for book 9 in my series of novels this week: Lockdown at The Secondhand Bookworm - which is currently being proof-read ready for publishing. I had a lovely time immersing myself in Nora's world which saw her and her bookshop collages go into Lockdown for six months and deal with the world of bookselling during a pandemic. I kept the story light-hearted and amusing, interesting and pleasant, with various scenarios and developments in the stories and the series. The book will be available soon - meanwhile, I have started work on book 10 - Strange Things at The Secondhand Bookworm. All of my books are available to read on Kindle through Amazon. I have made them available in paperback, too. While my audience is my bookshop colleagues and friends, I have made them available for anyone interested to enjoy too. Look for Emily Jane Bevans in books, or The Secondhand Bookworm for the series - available worldwide.

 Why I chose the name Nora in 2008 The Secondhand Bookworm series of books is a run of fictional novels set in a Secondhand and antiquarian bookshop on the South coast of England. The fictional setting is Castletown, a lovely historic place with a ruined castle (books one and two) and a rebuilt castle/estate as home to the Duke of Cole (book 3 onwards). The county of Cole is a fictional county on the south coast of England. The main protagonist is Nora Jolly. The books follow Nora as she journey's through her bookselling, bookshop managing, book buying, book customer adventures in the rickety old building comprising of three floors and rooms and rooms full of books upon books upon books. And more books! I started the series in 2008 for my bookshop colleagues, based upon our experiences running three second hand bookshops at that time. I started work at the bookshop in 2002 and left in 2012 with a wealth of experience and memories. Originally I compiled stories of hilarious and not-...