As mentioned in my previous post, I spent National Bookshop Day writing in the window of Eltham Bookshop. This window, to be exact…
Though I was only in there for a little over an hour, I had a lot of fun and even managed to get some work done. When I wasn’t scribbling away in my notebook or sipping takeaway coffee contemplatively (I only started drinking coffee this year and I think it’s destroying me), I was talking to whomever happened to stop by.
Mostly this was bookshop customers with questions about the process of writing and publishing – something I greatly enjoy discussing at length, even after the light in the listener’s eyes has long gone out.
But I also got to speak with illustrator Celia Bridle, who was manning (personing?) the bookshop window just before me, as well as author Nicola Connelly, who was launching her debut picture book My Dad is a Bear the next day at Eltham Library.
And this is what’s great about National Bookshop Day, as well the bookshop in general. The community it fosters. The work it inspires. The encouragement it provides. My sincerest thanks to storeowner Meera and the staff at Eltham Bookshop for the opportunity.
If you didn’t get the chance to visit a bookshop on National Bookshop Day, don’t let that stop you from still heading into your local store and showing your support. In the meantime, I’ll be putting together my pitch for “Writer Under Wraps”, a writers’ festival reality event that rips off Regurgitator’s Band in a Bubble concept ten years after the fact.
I’m only half-joking.
Steven Lochran 