We are book lovers. I am, and I assume you are too, if you’re here reading the blog of a novelist. 😉 We have all dreamed of walking into a room like the library in Beauty and the Beast, right? The idea of all those books in one place . . . it’s bliss. Pure and unmitigated.

But I am a book lover. And my collection regularly outpaces my shelves. Which means I frequently have random stacks of novels in front of the orderly ones. And on the tops of shelves. And occasionally even beside the shelves, if I’m really in need of a new bookcase. I figure I can’t possibly be the only with this problem . . . which led me to wonder what would happen if someone was so bad about it that they’d managed to turn the heaven that is a library into something far different. Something intimidating and chaotic and overwhelming.

This is the library at Kensey Manor in A Name Unknown.

Peter, the hero, is a lover of books. A writer of books. But he comes from a family with a bit of a, er, problem with collecting them, let’s say. His grandfather began the impressive collection, but ran out of shelf space. His father continued it, only adding to the issue without ever resolving it. And Peter . . . Peter has a remarkable ability to untidy something in thirty seconds flat, so don’t expect him to bring order from the bookish chaos.

Yet he needs order enough from the books to find a few specific tomes among them. Which is where Rosemary comes in.

Now, Rosemary isn’t really a librarian, she’s just posing as one. She doesn’t usually even like libraries all that much. So when she sees the chaos . . . she may have been sent running had she not been there for ulterior motives.

I loved the idea of taking something book lovers like us ought to adore, and making it something to dread. Of watching, over the course of the story, this room go from what they call “the cave” into a beautiful chamber that it’s a delight to spend time in. I loved having Rosemary, who isn’t a die-hard book fan, be the one to effect this change, and through doing so, come to love the place.

I loved making the library another character who had to undergo a transformation.

I hope you all are looking forward to meeting this library as much as I’m looking forward to introducing you to it!