Christian Bookmobile Novels

Copyright 2013 Sidney W. Frost

Many years ago, while a student at the University of Texas, my friend Rollo Newsom helped me get a job as a bookmobile driver at the Austin Public Library. Although I was assigned to work with several librarians, one of my favorites, Jean Siedo, was a lot like Liz in Where Love Once Lived. Or, should I say Liz is a lot like Jean? Both did more for the patrons than a librarian was expected to do.

I started writing a novel about my experiences on the bookmobile in the style of Suds in Your Eye by Mary Lasswell, but quickly learned I didn't know how.

Much later, after a number of writing classes, I started writing Where Love Once Lived. It was to be a Christian novel along the lines of Jan Karon's Mitford Series. I saw a chance to use the bookmobile to make the locale in my book smaller, like the fictional town of Mitford, and more manageable than Austin, Texas. As it turned out, one third of the scenes take place on the bookmobile.

In The Vengeance Squad, Liz, the bookmobile librarian in Where Love Once Lived is now the director of library services. When Chris and Tex's van is damaged by gunfire in El Paso, Liz offers them the use of Brian's bookmobile for a trip to Galveston. It is wheelchair ready for Tex and has an Internet connection for Chris.

You'll have to read the book to find out why, but the bookmobile sits unused in a parking lot in Galveston while Chris and Tex are in jail. Liz travels by bus to Galveston to bail them out. When they learn the killers are in Houston, Chris tries to get Liz to fly home, but she insists on going with them. So the bookmobile is back in action, with Liz aboard. Luckily it's not damaged this time.

In Love Lives On, though, the bookmobile is nearly destroyed. I can't tell you how without spoiling the story for you.

In The Vengeance Squad Goes to England, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the bookmobile. It would be too expensive to ship it to London to help Liz, Chris, and Tex track down an international thief. However, I see on the Internet that bookmobiles are more popular in England than in the states. So, we should be able to find one to use while there.

At the end of Love Lives On, Karen and Brian talk about moving to Sun City in Georgetown, Texas and taking the bookmobile with them.

Let me know what you think about this use of bookmobiles.