Authors Interviewing Characters: Sarah Monzon interviews librarian Hayley Holt

HEARTS IN CIRCULATION

Can a rundown bookmobile be the vehicle that brings two unlikely hearts together?

Little Creek’s bookmobile is more of a death trap on wheels than a vehicle of literary delights, and circulation librarian Hayley Holt is afraid it’s going to careen down a mountainside with her in it. Yet she sees it as a way to serve her community and be worthy of the liver transplant that saved her life as a child. However, her fears come true when the bookmobile breaks down and a rockslide traps her in the small hollow of Turkey Grove.

Reclusive mechanic Levi Redding lives in tiny Turkey Grove to get away from people. He can handle getting the bookmobile running again, but the endless chatter and unsettling touches from the vibrant librarian leave him overstimulated. When forced proximity leads to a misunderstanding, a note of apology begins an epistolary friendship, proving that sometimes the happiest of endings aren’t contained within the bindings of a book.

“I can always count on Sarah Monzon for romance that makes me swoon and inspiring stories that keep me fully engaged.”–BETHANY TURNER, author of Cole and Laila Are Just Friends: A Love Story

Sarah Monzon pens a charming contemporary rom-com for fans of books about books, the forced-proximity and grumpy-sunshine tropes, and pen-pal romances. Fans of Melissa Ferguson and Pepper Basham will find this no-spice, heartwarming love story magnetic.

Sarah Monzon interviews librarian Hayley Holt

Sarah and Hayley stand in the parking lot of the Little Creek Library beside the bookmobile that is celebrating its one-year-in-operation anniversary. 

Sarah: I just want to start off by saying thank you for taking the time to visit with me today and share a bit about the bookmobile and how it’s impacted the community over the last year.

Hayley: Of course! Don’t tell Mayor Breckenbridge I admitted this, but Cletus has been a blessing to a lot of families in the hills and hollers.

Sarah’s brows furrow in confusion: Cletus?

Hayley pats the bookmobile’s side: Cletus is the bookmobile. Sorry, I probably should’ve said that to begin with.

Sarah: You, uh, named a bookmobile Cletus? How, um, how did you come up with that name?

Hayley leans in like she’s sharing a secret: If you’d seen him before my cousin Tai gave him a makeover, then you wouldn’t have to ask. Martha, the children’s librarian here in Little Creek, informed me the name Cletus actually means “illustrious” in Greek. Of course, I then reminded her we’re in southeastern Tennessee and in Appalachia, Cletus has it’s on cultural roots—and not the Greek kind. 

Sarah: I see. Clears throat. Can you tell us about the first time you and Cletus drove a route for the library? His maiden voyage, so to speak.

Hayley: I was fairly nervous starting off on that first trip. Tai had worked wonders and Cletus no longer resembled a deathtrap on wheels, but I had an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach right from the beginning. And boy howdy how right I ended up being. Although, everything turned out more than all right in the end.

Sarah: What happened?

Hayley: We’d gotten quite a bit of rain the night before and the weather had made the side of the mountain unstable. A rockslide ended up stranding me in the tiny little holler of Turkey Grove where I had to wait for over two weeks for the Department of Transportation to clear and repair the road. The town’s grumpy and reclusive mechanic ended up letting me stay with him, which was a bit rocky to begin with because our personalities are such opposites, but we came to understand each other and eventually even fell in love. 

Sarah: Wow, that’s…incredibly.

Hayley: Yeah, it really was.

Sarah: So, would you say Cletus was the driving force of your love life? The vehicle to your happily ever after?

Hayley groans: Those puns are awful.

Sarah grins, unrepentant: Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. But back to the topic at hand. How did the residents of Turkey Grove react to the bookmobile?

 Hayley: They were so excited about the mobile library. A few already accessed the library’s digital content, but one little girl had never even stepped foot in a library before. Can you believe that? She ended up checking out Charlotte’s Web to read to her two pet pigs, Fancy and Jolene.

Sarah: Like the country songs?

Hayley: I was horrified to think so as well at first. But one of the pigs wears a tutu, and I was informed in no uncertain terms that she was obviously named after Fancy Nancy. 

Sarah: And Jolene?

Hayley: Fancy’s husband.

Sarah stares blankly, trying to make sense of this information. 

Hayley: Anna Leigh, she’s the girl who owns the pigs—sweet girl, a real hoot-and-a-half—said she thought they were sisters and by time she realized they were actually married pigs, it was too late to change Jolene’s name and give her an “extra stencil crisis.”

Sarah blinks, wondering how they’d gotten themselves down this rabbit hole: And what about the mechanic you stayed with. Is he a big reader as well? Does he support the idea of a bookmobile coming to his little corner of the woods?

Hayley: Oh, Levi is a huge reader. He prefers fictional people to real-life people and calls books his friends. Her cheeks pinken. He’s also really good at creating romantic scavenger hunts with book quotes. 

Sarah: From the smitten look on your face, I’d say that may have had something to do with falling in love with him.

Hayley: What girl wouldn’t swoon from love notes within the pages of books?

Sarah: Certainly not a library.

Hayley: To answer the second part of your question, though, he was always very supportive. Although that may have had more to do with me than the library, one can’t be certain. Cletus had broken down, so Levi towed him to his shop in Turkey Grove. Even though Levi’s not a fan of people or crowds or a lot of noise, he allowed the townspeople to come to his shop every day to browse books and learn more about all the library has to offer. 

Sarah: I’m going to assume that not every route you’ve driven with Cletus over the last year has been as eventful as the first.

Hayley lets out a breath of relieved laughter: Thankfully not. Levi makes sure everything under Cletus’ hood is in tiptop shape, and we haven’t had any other instances since. Everyone is always so happy when we pull up to one of our stops, and it’s really nice to know that I’m helping to bring library services to those who didn’t have access before. 

Sarah: Here’s hoping many more years to come. 

BUY HEARTS IN CIRCULATION HERE

—

HOLT Medallion and Selah Award–winner, and Christy  and Carol Award finalist, Sarah Monzon is a stay-at-home  mom who makes up imaginary friends to have adult  conversations with (otherwise known as writing novels).  As a navy chaplain’s wife, she resides wherever the  military happens to station her family and enjoys exploring  the beauty of the world around her. Learn more at  SarahMonzonWrites.com. 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing