Toni Chappell prepares for the Saturday, March 29 opening of Fiction, a Novel Bookshop, at 49 Water St. in Wiscasset. All the things that need to happen kept happening at the right time, Chappell said about the process of opening the store. (Tiger Cumming photo)
Fiction, a Novel Bookshop, will open its doors for the first time on Saturday, March 29.
Located at 49 Water St. in the same building as the Sylvan Art Gallery, owner Toni Chappell looks to bring her love of literature to her adopted hometown of Wiscasset after months of preparation.
Starting her professional career as a journalist, Chappell raised her daughters in her home state of Colorado before moving to Wales to focus on creative writing later in life. In Wales, Chappell received her M.A. before receiving her Ph.D. in creative writing from Bath Spa University in England in 2023.
Upon returning to the United States, Chappell felt inexplicably drawn to Maine. After a friend gave her a tour of the Midcoast area in 2023, she decided to make it her new home.
“I’ve always been able to walk into either a house or a town and know whether that was my place or not my place,” said Chappell. “And Midcoast Maine was definitely my place.”
In 2024, when the Water Street location became available, Chappell was urged by a friend to start a bookstore, something she hadn’t necessarily been planning.
“I didn’t come to Maine thinking I’m going to open a bookstore,” said Chappell. “I came to Maine thinking I’d keep writing novels.”
Over time, with encouragement from friends and business owners, the preparation for Fiction’s opening has been very smooth, according to Chappell, with enthusiasm for Fiction speaking to Wiscasset’s desire for a bookstore.
“All the things that needed to happen kept happening at the right time,” said Chappell.
Fiction may not have been part of her plans when she first moved to Maine, but Chappell said that starting a bookstore somewhere was always a possibility.
“I think anybody who writes and reads, it’s kind of always in the back of your mind – ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a bookstore?’” she said.
Chappell believes what makes an independent bookstore special is the reflection of the curator and of the community that their selection provides. Along with the experience of feeling a book physically before purchasing it, this reflection is what makes the independent bookstore experience unique and special.
In Fiction’s case, readers can see Chappell’s passion for history reflected on the shelves, alongside a particularly robust mystery section designed to fit the mood of a vacationer waiting for a lobster roll, as well as other selections targeted toward summer visitors.
“I have gone through and looked at and ordered probably every book with a lobster or an oyster on it!”
Fiction will also have an extensive poetry section, as well as a section devoted to Maine topics and authors, a priority of Chappell’s.
As the community becomes more familiar with Fiction over the coming months and years, Chappell hopes the bookstore will begin to reflect the interest and tastes of its customers organically.
“This initial buy is kind of trying to see what people in Wiscasset want,” said Chappell. “Once we settle into that, I’ll still be bringing in things that I think should be on the table, but I’d like to know more about what the community members want.”
In the long term, Chappell hopes her store can become more than a place people go to buy their reading material. As a writer herself who is currently working on two historical fiction novels, Chappell aims to cultivate a “salon-style” atmosphere where people can mill about and talk about not just what they’re reading, but about what they’re writing as well.
“I really hope it becomes a space where poets and writers want to come and talk about what they do, and talk about their craft,” said Chappell of her store. “I love hearing writers speak about their work.”
Readers can find Chappell behind the register helping customers or in the back room working on her novels while looking out over the Sheepscot River at 49 Water St. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
