Author Barrie Mahoney Reading & Signing His New Book 'Journeys and Jigsaws' Book 1 From Teacher to Drag Queen

It's our first LGBT Author event in shop and it would be great if some people showed up and I know you all know the people who know the people!

Event Details:
Author Barrie Mahoney Reading & Signing His New Book
'Journeys and Jigsaws' Book 1 From Teacher to Drag Queen

Venue: Unicorn Tree Books, 35- 40 Central Market, Sincil Street, Lincoln. LN5 7ET
Time & Date: Friday 30th October. 12noon - 2PM.

Background:
The novel is focused on a small primary school in a rural area and explores the issues faced by gay professionals in such rural communities and the prejudices and obstacles that they need to overcome to fulfill their jobs. The book deals with serious issues, but it is very amusing and readers have commented that they "laughed out loud" and the book is available from Gardners.


Barrie was born in Holbeach and later attended Spalding Grammar School. He later worked as a primary school inspector in England and Wales and inspected many schools in Lincolnshire.


Barrie was delighted to be interviewed about his book on the Judy Theobald morning show on BBC Radio Lincolnshire and is also pleased that the Lincolnshire Free Press is reviewing his book in an article in their next edition.

Unicorn Tree Books - Lincolns Niche Market Book Specialists & Lincoln's year round LGBT Book & Dvd Stockists are proud to host this event and hope this may be the first of more LGBT Author & Book events to come!

For more info Contact: Melanie Carroll. Email: unicorntreebooks@aol.com Tel: 01522 525557

Ok guys I know this is not for all of you but it is a community event and it would be really really nice if we can be friendly and supportive and really try to make this a fun and full event, just like with the wonderful Sue Hampton Author Event.
and if any of you know of any authors or themes then come on and let us know.
Looking forward to seeing some of you on Friday and feel free to bring a caramel latte with you (for me!), especially as it'shalf term and none of the minions are on the job this week!

The New Look Unicorn Tree Books & Al's Arts

These pictures are in no particular order - sorry I will probably try to re-arrange them at a later date to give you a walk through but for now they are like the tidying of the shop... a work in progress!

You are lucky to have them as what with snow and antibiotics and extracted teeth and exposed jawbone it was all I could do to show up let alone anything else this week! See what a devoted bookshopboss I really am!

The Main Entrance to Unicorn Tree Books, including Unicorn Tree Christian Books & Church Supplies & Al's Arts & Crafts.

The Main Entrance inside looking straight on and through!

A close up of what you see when you look up after entering the main entrance - some very nice and unusual jigsaws! and all at such good prices as well!

The Main Aisle as you come in through the Sincil Street Doors - ie what you see when you first walk in!! A spinner of Small Art activities, A stand of DVD & CD's and then 5 bays of books - an entrance- and then another 4 bays of books ( but you cant see them in this picture!)



The Main doorway in from Sincil Street looking from our main entrance into Unicorn Tree Books - We really are not hard to find once one comes into the Market itself.

The Children's Activity Books form an integral part of the entrance and advertise both the Christian and General Nature of the Shop to everyone in a friendly way!

Just as you get through the door we are utilising all the available space and have used the back of the card/book display unit to make a Prayer Card/Bookmark/Postcard/Card display area. (watching blue peter really has paid off in the long run!). The Cash desk is just opposite it and this unit can be seen from the other Shop entrance as well.

And just inside the stall we advertise the nature of one of the sections we have worked so hard on and battled so hard for! Look how good we are we still use the required wording but we have centred the main use - yes we are indeed proud of being a Christian bookshop as well as a general bookshop, and yes we are happy to sell religious books across a breadth of studies and theologies, that's because we are ecumenically and community minded!

Just inside the door and turning Left - reached by going past the till point and Childrens Section... Our nice display of Seasonal Cards, Bookmarks, postcards and a few prayer cards...

and then of course is the new Christian Books & Church Supplies Department. (this pic was taken from further back standing just at the start of the General Department in the ladies fiction and Saga section.

The new till point/Cash Desk area- yes we actaully now have a desk to stand and serve behind and it makes a good display point for seasonal items, stationery and Audio Books!

Looking out from behind the till point, actaully more by the computer side than the till side, you look down past the sticker stand, into Non-fiction, MBS, Biography and 'white books', War & Historical fact and fiction, Westerns, Sci-fi, Horror, LGBT and at the far end Crime & Thrillers.

Oh and the round mirror is so we can see into Als Arts from the behind the till point!


The side entrance to Unicorn Tree books is past Paranormal Romance Fiction & puzzle books, you then look in and see Als Arts Beads, glues etc as they lead into the new cut through section to Als Arts. You are also looking at the reserve bookcase section of the till point the entrance to which is guarded by a doorway made of Bin Number stickers amongst other things - as these deplete they will be replaced by the christian posters we are hoping to order soon, with their doorway flick flack stand!.

The General Section of the bookshop - just as you come in the main entrance. Basically Ladies & Saga, looking down to Crime and Thrillers, with a smattering of Jigsaws above! And if you look Left coming in through the Main Entrance you will now see the start of our new and improved and expanded Christian Books & Church Supplies section - with its new lead through into Al's Arts & Crafts via the Childrens section!

and this is what you see around the corner and looking into Als Arts from the Christian Books and Childrens section walk through! ( and somedays you will see bookshopboss's motherminion sitting there making cards as that's where her table and chair are - she is Mrs Al by the way - it was her stall before it was my department!)

Al's Arts from outside looking through the new entrance point made to give Als Arts more space! See the nice Slat Board that they gained from as well! Its the reverse side to the Display Slats in the Christian Gifts Section! Nothing wasted and all space utilised!

The new wall for Als Arts was made from left over unit sides from the Religious section - again nothing wasted just judiciously reused and re-homed. It looks very good and much neater than it used to - a colourful display of craft and scrapbooker stickers and embellishements!


Looking at the Side entrance view of the shop and Als Arts from the far aisle.

Back to the Crafts Looking down from the main bookshop to the far corner of the Als Arts. Lots of fun Glitters, papers, punches and pencils!

Then standing in the corner we just looked at and looking up and out we have lots of papers, cards, scissors, glues, paint brushes, tools and other such things!

Looking at Crafts from over by what used to be the religious bookstall - remember when it was it's own seperate unit we were not allowed to call it a Christian Bookshop - Council and Diversity rules! of course now its not seperate but joined into the main there isn't really a reason to stop it being known as the Christian Books and Church Supplies department! Just as Als Arts is now often referred to as the Crafts Department!

Looks nice though - lots of decoupage, cards, inks, embellishements and books on all sorts of Arts and Crafts - in fact the range of Art and Watercolour technique books is pretty good and worth a look, let alone the actaul crafts and beading books!

Als Arts as seen standing in the walk through from the main bookshop! Lots of lovely stamps, art sets, paints and other things.


Looking from the Side entrance down the aisle of Unicorn Tree Books - the keen eyed will notice there were very few changes to this section at all!


The walk through from Als Arts into the Main Bookshop and Till Point area, and the side entrance through into Childrens and Christian Books.


Looking through from Als Arts into the Childrens section and the Beginnings of the Christian Books section.

Down the end of the Christian section is the Church Supplies Corner! - Communion Wafers, Incense, Lectionaries etc.

Candles - Altar, Sanctuary, Baptismal, Votive and Decorative Clerical Shirts, Bibles, some Childrens toys, jigsaws and lots more! We are not wasting space here!

A better view of the Church Supplies and Candles section - we are calling it utilitarian working chic for now! We are also calling it slightly empty as we didn't want to do a top up order till the shifting was done!


On one of the Central Gondola's in Christian Books you will find Christian Greeting Cards for all occassions!


And on the wall seperating Christian from Crafts you will find a combination bookcase and slatboard display being used to show a selection of Christian themed Gifts, bible cases, jewellery and more!


The Gift section is right next to the Bibles - so we can put the Bible cases right next to the Bibles! along with the Communion & confirmation gifts, religious Jigsaws, frames and Baptism Gifts.

So There we go theres a whistle stop look at the physical changes we have wrought on the shop/stall in the last 3 weeks - though it still ahs some tidying to be done and a little tweaking we think and hope it works really well. It seems more spacious that it did and we have certainly expanded the religious section significantly and will continue to do so - what you didnt see in any pictures is the three bays outside just past the childrens activity section and spinner - this at the minute is sale stock of oks stuff and overstocks we found lurking when we rejigged the stall - however once these are gone then at least 2 of those bays are likely to be given over to Christian Books and goods! So more to come - and the beauty of this is that that is the main aisle - one of the most traversed thoroughfares in the market - what a witness hey!

Well ok it is really really late - the only reason you got all this is because my tooth (or lack thereof! therefore wound!) is aching and I can't sleep anyway! but as its Saturday tomorrow and I have to get the bus to work in the icy cold I am now saying come by and see it in person! and don't forget the caramel latte when you do!

See you in the Bookshop tomorrow guys - or of course you can always buy from our affiliate site - and we will count that as a visit!

We are rejigging!

Yep yep - the pictures you see below this post are not now how we look in some part and by the end of the month will not be how we look at all!
yes indeed it's true we are having a major overhaul and face lift - and yes no more would be comics out there with the 'well boss you need' it comments!
So anyway as you can well imagine the place is a bit of a mess as we move all the old stuff out and the new stuff in, rearrange units and change till points and displays, but by the end of the month it will be fantastic!
So far we have relocated all the New Fiction onto nice new units, and a tidy amount of the Secondhand fiction has also been rehomed as well.
We have the sale to end all sales going on at the minute as we have seriously culled both the secondhand fiction and the New Fiction and pulled out anything over 18 months old - these are now for sale at 10 secondhand for £5.00 or 5 New for £5.00.
Whicever way you look at it that's some fantastic bargains going on there. The authors include Dan Brown, Arthur C Clarke, Audrey Howard and other top authors. Honest this is not dross just overstock we needed to shift to make room for the new units and stock!
So anyway Religious books are moving from their 'stand alone and cannot be grown' section in unit 3 over to the main bookstall - this way there is room for expansion - in fact there will be an extra 5 bays worth of space to expand into and some nice gift units and slat wall space as well - This will also put the Christian Books in a much more prominent thoroughfare than they are currently on - and the reason for this??
Because we are not ashamed!
In fact we are not ashamed of anything we do, including our LGBT section which has also been relocated in the move and this is now in a more prominent section as well - situated in the middle gondola of the main Fiction section rather than hidden in the corner!
we are not ashamed and we will not act as if we are - we will not apologise for our beliefs, for our friends or for our outreach!
That said we would like to announce that we are now also stocking Jewish Prayer Books and the Forms of Prayer, and we welcome all our friends from the Lincoln Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews to come by, it was good to meet you and be involved in a very small way with the 'meditation of Advent and Chanukah'. Thank you.
Ok now also whilst I have your attention, Palm Crosses, Paschal Candles and the rest of the Lent/Easter paraphanalia are on order and in some cases even in stock! so NOW IS THE TIME to let me know exactly how many of what you want putting by!!
Pass the word around please - Lent Books are in and orders are being taken for Palms and Candles.
Thank you!
Ohh we counted how many jigsaw designs we had when we had to move them all for the new units! (These went fantastically well at Christmas and are still going well now, probably as we are one of the few places in Lincoln that does them, and we do them all year round and at very good prices as well!)
Anyway that would be just over the 100 mark! These span the gamault from 1500 piece puzzles down to the 8 piece childrens puzzles, with the most number being in the 500 piece range and then followed by the economy priced 1000 piece puzzles, though my favourites are the ones with the Gold and Silver highlighting - particularly the Indian Maid and Fawn one - just lovely! and then also the Shaped Fish & Dolphin Puzzle. Lots of different brands as well, Gibson Games, Jumbo, King, Paul Lamond Puzzles, Falcon, Heye, Classic Deluxe, Ravensburger and a few more as well!
Then there were the Paint By Numbers, both large, standard and small, and 2 different manufacturers styles in those as well. It certainly makes for colourful on top of the new units.
So anyway when the refit and rejig is done and about ten minutes after I stop doing my own victory jig all over the worklorn minions (who actaully have been working! and I have to admit may have some hidden architectural or interior design skills that have a lot to do with making best use of the tardis like propensity of the strange space in a Unicorn Tree domain! Thanks M1 & M2) then I will get out my camera and take new snappy snappies for you all who cannot come in and see it for yourselves.
See you in the shop soon - I am the one with 2 coffee's on the go at the minute as one just doesn't do it in a refit situation.