Meet 17 Local Authors At Brewster Book Store Event

 BREWSTER – The folks at Brewster Book Store are asking readers a question: What’s better than meeting and greeting a local author who has written a book?

 Their answer: On this Thursday evening, July 30, visitors can come to the Brewster Book Store and meet not just one author, but 17 Cape Cod writers who have authored a wide variety of books.

 The 44-year-old bookstore on Thursday (or this Friday if the weather doesn’t cooperate) is hosting a free event it is calling “Rising Tides: Local Author Book Bash” between 5:30 and 7 p.m. 

 The shop’s staff will seat all those writers on tables behind the 2648 Main St. store in what they call the shop’s “secret garden.” The area features a low wall dividing a courtyard that offers ample plantings as well as sitting room. 

 There, authors can chat with visitors as well as sell and sign copies of their books, which include fiction, non-fiction and memoirs. The store will also offer their guests complimentary “bubbles and nibbles,” a.k.a. seltzer and snack food, at an event they describe as a chance to “meet and support the authors in our community.”

 The 17 authors signed up, a few of whom call Brewster home, are, in alphabetical order, Mike Bernard, Caroline Shannon Davenport, Carol Davison, Laura Eldridge, David Grady, Laura Kelley, Judy Lannon, Bruce and Sharon MacDonald, Jane Marks, David Martin, Amy Whorf McGuiggan, Linda Preston, Amanda Reilly, Peg Reynolds, Lee Roscoe, John Simms and Anna Vatuone.

 Attendance is free, but the store is requesting that those planning to come RSVP at www.brewsterbookstore.com/events.

 Brook Gideon, the Brewster Book Store’s marketing coordinator, said the Book Bash is essentially an expansion of a longstanding tradition of authors meeting the public in and collaborating with book shops.

 “In any bookstore you always have authors coming in, and they always want to do events,” Gideon said. “They always have to market themselves. It’s hard. They print their own books. They spend their own money.”

 Gideon said that self-marketing becomes even harder during the summer months, with so many other options on the crowded Cape. A bigger attention-getting concept seemed like a good idea both to the store and the writers. 

 “So we decided, all right, let’s do one big event, and we did the Rising Tide, because a rising tide lifts all boats,” she said. “One big event will highlight everybody that’s local, and we’ll give them a chance to show off all their wonderful novels…and some are non-fiction.”

 Such an event also helps keep the store itself in the spotlight, Gideon acknowledged.

 “Independent bookstores are very community-driven, as opposed to the big bookstores. We do a lot with the communities,” Gideon said. 

 For example, the morning Gideon was speaking last week the Brewster Book Store, owned since 2021 by Jessica MacKenzie Devin and Sue O’Malley, was hosting a couple dozen young readers and their parents for a weekly Wednesday morning “Kids Create” gathering. 

 The store and its staff also work with the Lower Cape Outreach Council’s Santa Stop Book Drive and the bi-annual Nauset Interfaith Association MLK Action Team Book Drive. 

 Independent book stores are also competing with online sellers. Gideon said there are reasons to shop local, and the store has many loyal customers. 

 “We can’t compete on prices,” she said. “But small book stores can offer individuality. We can recommend books. What are you reading? We can tell you what we’re reading. We offer book clubs. We do things at night. We do events like this. [Writers] can throw their books up on Amazon, and how are they going to get seen? And that doesn’t really get around to their friends and neighbors in their community. It’s just a book online.”

 Upcoming events at the Brewster Book Store include a conversation with former Boston TV News Co-Anchor Liz Walker, also a pastor, who will speak with the Rev. Dan Smith of the Cotuit Federated Church on Wednesday, Aug.12, at 5:30 p.m. Walker has written a new book, “No One Left Alone: How Community Helps Us Heal.” The event will also be held in the secret garden.