The Bookshop On The Corner. Rebecca Raisin

      Later that day, I was finishing an order for a client who collected old comics, when Mary-Rose, a regular, walked in. She worked down the street a way, selling aromatic candles, and beautiful bath products.

      “You literally smell like peaches, Mary-Rose,” I said.

      “I’ve just made a batch of peaches and cream bath bombs. The whole shop smells divine!”

      Mary-Rose made everything from scratch using natural products; often the scent would meld its way down the street, having us scurry up to see what concoction she’d made this time. “I’m still in love with the marshmallow bath bombs. They make my whole house smell gorgeous for days after. You’re an alchemist.”

      Mary-Rose grinned. “That’s what I keep telling Paul, but will he listen? No!”

      Paul was Mary-Rose’s husband, who originally told her it was preposterous opening up a bath shop in Ashford. That she’d go broke before the first week was out. But she hadn’t. It seemed the townsfolk of Ashford adored her products, and what girl didn’t like smelling as if she’d just bathed in a tub of peaches?

      “Paul will work it out eventually, once you’re sunning yourself in Spain, a holiday paid with the profits!”

      “Wouldn’t that be something?” she said longingly before shaking her head. “Must not think of Spain. I’ll get the worst hankering for tapas and I’m not likely to find them around here, unless I get Lil to expressly cater them for me. Now, I’m looking for a book.”

      “What kind of book?” I moved around the counter.

      Mary-Rose scratched her chin. “It’s got a red cover.”

      I tried to keep the grin off my face. “A red cover, right. Do you know the title?”

      “Hmm, no.”

      “The author? Or genre?”

      Mary-Rose crossed her arms, and gazed around the shop. “Well, no…I think it might be classed as romance, but it could also be family saga.”

      It never ceased to amaze me when customers enquired about a book they wanted purely based on the color of the cover. As though there were only a few books in all the world with a red cover, and it was just a matter of narrowing it down.

      “Family saga, well, let’s start there,” I said. “Come down the back, Mary-Rose. I think I have just the book you’re after.”

      I’m sure the books rustled in anticipation, and somehow we found the mysterious red-covered volume Mary-Rose was searching for. That was the inexplicable magic books held over us mere mortals.

      ***

      After a long night at the kitchen table poring over the paperwork for the bookshop, I’d eventually given up, and gone to bed with a regency romance. Debonair heroes were just what the doctor ordered, and I’d ended up finishing the book just as midnight struck.

      I’d fallen into a restless sleep, dreaming about my life and how to make the bookshop a little more successful. Words flashed through my mind, until I plucked a couple from my dream. Book blogging. It couldn’t hurt to start a blog, discussing my love of books, and what the bookshop had in stock. Maybe I’d review books as I read them. Start discussions on the latest trends, including the popularity of the eBook. I knew there were a lot of books being published that were only in digital format, and, being a voracious reader, I didn’t want to miss out purely because they weren’t in paper form. Either way, a daily blog post could only help the bookshop, and who knew what might come of it? Energized, I got up in the pre-dawn darkness and dressed for another day at the bookshop.

      ***

      “Book blogging?” Missy cried. “That’s about the greatest thing I’ve ever heard of! I follow a bunch of lifestyle blogs, and they’re great! I can’t believe we haven’t thought of this before.” Her forehead furrowed. “At any rate, it’s not too late. And, you know, you can have a link to your online store too.”

      I’d been waiting all morning for Missy to arrive to tell her my plans. “Right, well, today The Bookshop on the Corner blog will be born!”

      Missy sipped her coffee and then said, “The possibilities are endless. You can do a monthly book club, or monthly discounts, book bundles, all sorts of things…”

      I inched forward on the high-back chair in the reading room. “Guest authors, interviews, I’m in heaven just considering it.”

      Missy stood, and kissed my cheek. “Let me know when it’s up, sugar, and I’ll send it out to my veritable treasure trove of online friends.”