When I was a teenager and working part-time, there was a Classics bookstore at a nearby shopping mall, and that was where I headed on payday. My meager paycheque wouldn’t have gone far in a travel agency, but in a bookstore, it took me anywhere I wanted to go. I checked out the bestsellers before heading to the mystery section. On the top of my list were books by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot was my favorite) and the Peanuts series by Charles Schultz. I still have those books, now slightly yellowed, packed in a box. Back then, I thought working in a bookstore would be a dream come true.

Many years later, I did manage to get a job in a bookstore, and it really was heaven. I was encouraged to talk to customers about my favorite books who then returned the favor by telling me about some of their favorites. I shelved books in alphabetical order by the author’s name, and artfully arranged tables with the latest and bestselling hard cover books. I helped students find autobiographies for book reports, made recommendations to parents who wanted books for their child who was learning to read and to parents whose teenagers couldn’t find enough books to read.  I helped customers find romance novels, self-help books, books turned into movies, graphic novels, winners of the Giller Prize, Nobel Prize winners, and books they couldn’t remember the name of by authors they couldn’t remember the name of but it won a prize.

Now that I am a published author, I understand and appreciate what bookstores and their staff do for both authors and readers.  On Saturday, May 2, 2015, I get to relive my dream job as authors across Canada show their support for independent bookstores by being volunteer booksellers for a day.

To find out which bookstores are taking part, go to http://www.authorsforindies.com. Click on the link for your province to locate your city or town.  Each store will have a list of authors who will be volunteering. I will be at Brome Lake Books in Knowlton along with Isabelle Laflèche. Later that afternoon, I will be at Babar en Ville in Westmount along with Raquel Rivera, Anne Renaud, Michelle Franklin, and Carol-Ann Hoyte.

Come out and say hello. We love the opportunity to come out from behind our laptops to meet our readers.

My Schedule for May 2, 2015

Brome Lake Books: 11a.m. to 1p.m.

Babar en Ville: 3p.m. to 5p.m.