Once upon a time, there was a seasonal readalong (Fall 2025) that included the book: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst.

Consequently, an intense and heated discussion about tomatoes arose from a post made by @Fantasy here: Spellshop Forum Post

And then after that, it entered into the PB zeitgeist and became immortalized by @Jenniferpagebound’s list: Unofficial Tomato War Side Quest

Well, needless to say, it was an entertaining moment in time in which there was a divide amongst the people. Either Yay or Nay. Tomato or no tomato.

Obviously, I HAD to tell Sarah.

Sarah is from my home state, and she was doing a small tour for her new books coming out The Sea of Charms and The Faraway Inn (which are delightful if you get the chance to read them!)

My book club and I had read both The Spellshop and The Enchanted Greenhouse last year, so we thought it would be super fun to meet her and get our books signed! I had a plan to share with her both the Tomatogate discussion and resulting hullabaloo, as it was good fun and I had a feeling she would get a kick out of it.

I told her about the Pagebound Lore, which she took great delight in, and I asked her where she stood on the issue: With a mischievous gleam in her eye, she smiled and said “You can tell them that I eat Tomatoes like a villain”

So, I hope you enjoy this fun lil tidbit of a story!

Below are some wonderful things Sarah shared during her talk about her writing process and reasons for her series. I feel like these words will speak to many in our PB community and hope that you gain something from it!

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Sarah wanted to write about an escape “because you can’t keep throwing yourself against a brick wall”. She wanted to write a book about healing, and first came up with the idea for Spellshop in March 2020. She ‘“started with a feeling, how the reader would feel, like it was a hug and everything was going to be ok, and you are not alone”.

One of the first things she wrote was “libraries make me happy”. She noted "Kindness is a strength, and connection with others makes you stronger.”

She said about ‘Cosy Fantasy’ that “we are not saving the world, we are saving a heart, and we are saving a soul”. Cosy Fantasy “can be about ordinary people, it can be a breath instead of a gasp”

She spoke about libraries (as the talk was organized by our community library organizations): “Libraries are home”. They connect you with all these stories as a part of your future. Anyone can access any story. “Libraries guard the heart of society”.

Reading and writing are wonderful because “we have the ability to fall in love with something that is never going to exist”.

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Anyway, I hope that this brings a little smile to your face, and a warm spark in your heart. I love how something like a simple post on a forum can bring people together (even in its dividing nature) and that it expands beyond the technical magical coding of a website into the heart of readers and writers alike.

Thank you J&L for creating Pagebound and for the 🫛 🐝 community - you are a special home for many, just like our libraries, and just like our books. ETA: Apparently it's a happy pbbday to PB too! Even more fitting 🥳

pictures of the talk and the conversation for proof hahaha