Last Thursday was the fourth edition of the ongoing Marty Monologues series and it was a special Xmas show. The event was hosted by Lit. On Fire Used Books on West Main Street and it was a fun and festive night!

Photos from the show and a tour of Lit. On Fire Used Books are below as well as a new adventure here on MBIP: Book It Forward! This is a chance to get a free book and give one to a friend and get your picture on MBIP while doing so! Details are below!

The Show

Owner of Lit. On Fire, Jessica was working the door up-front and greeting the arriving crowd.

The DJ’s for the evening were my friends, Amber and Joe. They chose the opening and closing songs as well as music before the show and the incidental music in between stories. They burned all the music on this Merry Marty Xmas Mega Mix CD! The music they picked was fantastic and really added a nice layer to the show.

And Amber gets the MVP award for the show because she not only was a DJ, she also made the show shirt which you’ll see soon and she also took all of these photos, because like an idiot I forgot my camera! Thanks for all of your help, Amber!

This is the area where I’m going to be telling the stories from. There’s my music stand for my notes and good luck charms, there’s the TV tray with the stockings to be stuffed and the Marty Monologues bag made by Chelsie Tamms from Lettering Works, who did the artwork and design for the show.

Here’s the people arriving for the show, thanks to all of you who came to the show, I really appreciate the support!

Amber took a shot of the VIP section of the crowd, from left: Chuck, Joe, Danielle and Diane!

And now…it’s showtime!

There’s the Xmas shirt that Amber made and in addition to telling the stories I stuffed three stockings with candy, toys and postcards, magnets and stickers donated by Chelsie from Lettering Works. One of the winners was John Ingles from Smiley Graphix! The show was a lot of fun and it was cool to do it in such an intimate space!

Thanks again to Jessica for hosting the event and to Amber and Joe for the excellent DJ duty and thanks to Amber for making the show shirt and taking all of these photos! Thanks to Chelsie from Lettering Works for the wonderful art and design for the show!

And big thanks to all of you who came to the show, you were a wonderful audience and I really appreciate your support!

I’m hoping to do this again next year and make it an annual event!

The Store

I went back to take some photos of Lit On Fire after the show and here’s the store front on West Main Street, right next to the Costume Trunk. Let’s go in and take a look!

As you can see, this is one well-stocked store!

There’s a wonderful inventory of used and new books in here and there’s a lot of titles that you won’t find online or on Amazon.

And there’s a comfy area in the middle to read and relax.

There’s even more books in the back!

If you’re looking for a last minute unique gift, this is definitely the place to go while you still have time! And you’ll be shopping local, so everyone wins!

In addition to books, Jessica also sells products from local vendors and in this front corner are items from local vender, Jaysen Ryan, who’s business is called, Made with He.ART.

His line includes t-shirts, candles, hats, night lights and all kinds of fun and interesting items. You can read more about him and Made with He.ART on facecrack and Instagram.

Jaysen generously said I could have an item as a holiday gift and you can see what I chose below. And you can also see a new project happening at Lit. On Fire Used Books.

I chose a night light, thanks Jaysen, that was nice of you to give that to me!

And here’s the information on the Book It Forward program happening at Lit. On Fire. I bought a book and if you want it, just be the first one to get to Lit. On Fire, ask for it and it’s your’s for free. But you have to then buy a book for a friend, leave it there and have your friend come in, pick it up and then that person has to buy a book for another friend and on and on it will go until everyone in Peoria has bought each other a book!

I really hope we can make this happen! Jessica is going to take a picture of everyone who picks up a book and then books it forward so the whole project will be documented here on MBIP! Stay tuned to who the first Book It Forward participant is!

And the book I chose to give away is called The Bed Heads by Cody Ashbury, who is a local author. You can read about the book here and follow Cody on Twitter right here.

Lit. On Fire opens up around noon today, so stop by and pick up your free book and then Book It Forward and buy a book for a friend!