The Making of Spells, the Prequel – Part II

We pick up where we left off in our first installation of the Spells story…

The planning ended; the wedding happened. At home and happy with her new hubby, Josh, and their puppy, Barney, Jill found herself with a lot more time on her hands and a growing interest in reviving the idea of bringing an 826-inspired writing center to Philadelphia.

Barney, Spells's resident pooch

She knew she couldn’t do it alone, but Sarah’s life in NYC had become (rightly) busier and fuller as she balanced work at 826NYC and a busy social life in Manhattan.  What to do?

It hit Jill slowly that, thanks to a lifetime of living in “small-town, big-city” Philly, and being a generally nice person, she had lots of friends. Actually, she realized, she had lots of creative and talented friends who share a commitment to the city and its kids. So she put out a call to some of them to meet on the coldest, coldest night in January. From different points around town, the four made their way to Chinatown’s Lee How Fook. Best Chinese food in town, btw.

Huddled over a huge bowl of chicken corn chowder (followed by yummy salt baked squid, a Lee How Fook specialty), the four friends – Jill, Caroline, Sacha and Jared – began to plan. As the soup warmed them all, the ideas quickly heated up. They would do it, they decided. They’d take the roots of Jill’s and Sarah’s original idea, but make it better! Bigger! Cooler! And so the work began…