Welcome to Episode 53 of From the Front Porch, a collection of conversations on books, small business, and life in the South.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

And today I'm joined by Jana Moore.

Jana is the director of Thomasville on stage and company, and we'll be chatting

about their upcoming production of A Little Princess, why books inspire great plays, and of course,

what we're reading right now. Before we get started, I just wanted to remind everybody that they can

follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Bookshelf Teaville.

And part of the reason it's great to follow us on those social media platforms is if you're a

local, we post a lot about our upcoming events, what's going on in the store, and even if

you're far away, you can kind of get a behind the scenes look at what goes into running an

independent bookstore. So please follow us on

Instagram and Twitter at Bookshelf Teaville. If you are not already, we would love to meet you

over there. And as usual, you can leave your comments and questions about the podcast over on those

platforms. So we hope to see you there. All right, let's go ahead and get started.

Hi, Jana. Hi. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Today we are recording in my bookshelf office

slash closet. So thank you for... Fun and cozy. It is cozy, which is good. It's kind of cold outside,

so it's nice and toasty in here.

Okay, Jana, for those who don't know, first of all, tell me about yourself. Tell me how you came to Thomasville, what brought you here. That kind of thing. Well, I was actually born in Connecticut.

Spent the first nine months of my life up there, so I remember it well. And my parents came

back here. They actually had lived here in the earlier 80s and went up to Connecticut where

my mom's from. And a couple of me and one of my sisters were born up there. And then they came

back here. Okay. Couldn't stay away for long. Right.

...