This story is a slice of life set in a local lending library. A place where a cross section of residents from the community frequent the facility, ostensibly to borrow books. However, as we get to know the individual characters, we discover that there are a variety of reasons for their visit - and the frequency of their visits - and borrowing books is just one of them. Readers will meet:
DORIAN the Librarian: the worker with ATTITUDE. She's acerbic, hates her life, hates her job, hates the customers. She's distinctly dowdy, has never been involved in a serious relationship and her favourite reading is romance novels and travelogues.
SALLY the empty-nest housewife: a career homemaker whose husband left her for his secretary. She's scatty, over-enthusiastic, nosey but with a good heart, looking for a purpose in life. With her distinctly 50's look - floral dresses, apron, baskets, artificial flowers, greeting cards, coffee cup, fresh bakes - she is a far-too-frequent visitor to the library.
SHERI a young homeless girl: She's mysterious, she has a secret, she's hiding out, trying to be invisible, although the backpack is a dead give-away. A product of the 'system' she's been shuffled through all of her childhood, she's now running in fear.
GEMMA a troubled teen: she hates home, hates family, hates school, always angry, and she's expressing her dark attitude to life in a distinctly Goth image.
SECONDARY CHARACTERS:
Jeremy Potter: a grumpy older library user, late 50s, pernickety, picky, cantankerous, troublemaker
Aisha: an older refugee, compassionate, a talented artist and ex-gallery manager, now sells at markets
As their stories unfold it becomes clear that our local library is more than just a lending facility, but can become the heart of a community.
Autorentext
An award-winning Songwriter, published Author, and experienced playwright, Maureen O'Brien is in her element when she is surrounded by words.
From a corporate career - where she wrote Business Books, Training Manuals, Training Programs, and finance and business articles for various publications - she jumped ship in her very early 50s to follow her heart into Creative Arts.
As a full time musician she has won multiple songwriting awards, written and produced numerous cabaret shows, written produced and directed some 7 stage musicals.
She's written articles and editorials for industry publications, maintains her own website and blog sites, and scripts, directs and produces music and story videos for her various online channels.
Her first novel was published in hard copy in 2020 - it was not an experience she wished to repeat. She now focuses on self-publishing Ebooks and may eventually wander into the Audio-book sector in due course.