Marie fell in love with writing in second grade. She still has a number of uncompleted young adult fiction novels she has worked on. And by the time she was 20, she wanted to open a bookstore. Now, Marie, who asked to only be identified by her first name, is seeing that three-decades-long dream realized with the opening of bookstore Scribble, Scrawl & Smirch in downtown Gustine.
“As a child, when I was at Denair Elementary, I won an award for a story I wrote,” Marie said. “That was in the second grade so the writing bug bit me pretty early. And the reading, we used to read books and get pizza, so, of course, I wanted the pizza, and so, you know, I’ve always read and wrote.”
Her independent bookstore opened on July 30 and sells new books, gifts and a small number of used books. In addition to being writing terms, scribble, scrawl and smirch are the names of three dragon mascots which decorate the store…