Bookshop owner out with new novel ‘Rules for Dating a Bookshop Owner’

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - An author used her real life as inspiration for her debut novel.

S.C. Gray wrote “Rules for Dating a Bookshop Owner” during the pandemic.

“I have wanted to write a book for probably 10 years now,” she said. “Last year, at the beginning of this year, I really wanted to dive in to writing this novel that really was inspired by my life. I own a book shop. It’s also inspired by the relationship between my husband and I. He’s a firefighter now for Wilmington but he was in the military for 10 years. He was deployed to Afghanistan three times.”

Gray said she hopes her book will spark conversations about what members of our military face when they return home from conflict.

“There’s a lot of stuff that I think it’s not being talked about and I wanted a platform and an opportunity for conversations to be started about things that military members deal with after they come home from war,” she said.

The book follows a woman who moves to a new town to and opens a book shop. She meets a medical retiree from the Marine Corps. Gray said they both help one another deal with their past.

“I’m excited because there’s a lot of real life things that go on in the book that I think a lot of people can relate to,” she said. “I think that everybody has something that they’re going through. I think that’s one of the main things about the book. Everyone has their things.”

Although the book is based on her life and relationship, Gray said her husband has not read the novel.

“I joke about it,” she said. “If you read the book, I do my acknowledgments in the beginning of the book so I can explain what people are about to dive into and I joke I think he doesn’t want to read it because he doesn’t want to cry and I know it would probably make him cry.”

Learn more about Gray and the book here. The book is also available for purchase here.

“I just hope people love it,” Gray said. “There’s a little something for everybody in it.”

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