Jenna Martinez, owner of The Magic of Books Bookstore, announced that, “with a heavy heart,” she was closing the bookstore on June 22, saying its last day was Aug. 1. Now, two local authors are taking on the bookstore with plenty of support backing them.

Ashley Greathouse and Madison Jacobs, both Seymour residents, are now the proud owners of The Magic of Books Bookstore, 115 W. Second St. Both authors met through Martinez, who introduced them.

Through this, they were able to bond in a way that people outside of their circles wouldn’t normally be able to.

“There’s so much that happens behind the scenes that readers don’t quite know about, but another author would totally understand […] and we just hit it off,” Greathouse said.

Greathouse is a psychological horror author that has lived in Jackson County for most of her life. Outside of the bookstore, she works as a home health aide and caregiver. While this is a huge passion of hers, depending on how the bookstore goes, she may eventually leave that career to focus her attention on the business.

“I just fell in love with Jackson County and never moved away from it,” Greathouse said.

Back in 2018, Greathouse and Martinez met online through a contest — Martinez winning one of Greathouse’s audio books. From there, they realized they were both Seymour-based, and their relationship grew into a friendship.

Jacobs is a dark romance author and Seymour native. She graduated from Ivy Tech Community College with a business degree and works her day job as a system specialist.

For Jacobs, she was a regular of the café that was connected to the bookstore — 1852 Café — and met Martinez there. While Jacobs was writing, she found guidance through Martinez, helping Jacobs as her beta reader.

When Greathouse heard about the bookstore saying goodbye for good, she panicked.

“This has been a safe haven — not just for me, but for the community,” Greathouse said.

Jacobs recognized that she wanted to help not only the community, because there aren’t places like the bookstore around the area, but Martinez herself.

“I really wanted to help Jenna not lose her dream, but also expand on it,” Jacobs said.

To help these authors take ownership, they started a GoFundMe — an online crowdfunding and fundraising platform — with a goal of $15,000. Although they have not met this goal yet, they went ahead and bought the bookstore.

While the authors have purchased the store, they still have Martinez behind the scenes, closely intertwined with the business as a “silent partner,” Greathouse said.

The reason behind Martinez stepping away from the business came down to her life changing trajectory.

“It’s an exciting chapter for her (Martinez) and for us,” Greathouse said.

The future of the bookstore is looking bright, the owners brimming with ideas to make the store even better than before. They are aiming to create a “literary lounge,” Jacobs said, putting a unique spin on the bookstore. As authors themselves, there is a different perspective and level to what the store means to them.

“It (the bookstore) is more than sentimental to us,” Greathouse said.

One part the authors are most excited about is the children’s section, which they are planning to add mushroom stools to and a small television playing educational and literary-based programming like Reading Rainbow.

After taking ownership, Jacobs was pleasantly surprised by how many people came in daily and thanked them for keeping the business running.

“If they love it this much now, wait until you see what we do,” Jacobs said.

One of the businesses that The Magic of Books Bookstore has been close to is 1852 Café, owned by Jason and Stacy Harmon, which closed the curtains July 31 for similar reasons. Both businesses have been around since 2020, and while the location is officially closed for business, the name is still alive.

Jason expressed wanting to keep the name, just in case they wanted to bring it back, possibly in the form of a food truck.

“I’m glad I could make so many people happy,” Harmon said.

Four years ago, the café was opened to fill a need — making gluten-free options that tasted good. Since their daughter has celiac disease, and the closest café at the time for gluten free options was in Franklin, they decided to make a spot right in Seymour.

When it came down to it, Harmon said the stress was too much for him to bear and over time, he knew that they would eventually have to shut the café down. As a small business owner, he said you never leave the stress at work — it always follows you home.

“If you’re in a bad mood, the food you make will taste bitter,” he said.

Everything was building up to their abrupt closing, but what sparked the timing was a mechanical issue with their fridge.

The Harmons left behind their supplies — coffee, teas, flavors and more — for the authors’ use to start up their own café within the bookstore, owned by the bookstore. Along with the supplies, he hopes the 1852 Café name can leave behind the message that gluten-free doesn’t mean bland.

“Anything can be gluten-free,” Harmon said.

As the new owners of The Magic of Books Bookstore, Greathouse and Jacobs want to hear from their customers especially. Any ideas, preferences and advice that people have, they encourage. The best way to reach them is by the bookstore’s Facebook page.

“We would absolutely love to hear from the community,” Jacobs said. “As much as this is our vision, we want the community to have so much say — we want this to be their place.”