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One Winchester woman is on a mission to bring books to the masses.

Kayla Linkous, a Pike County native, is a social work supervisor for New Vista by trade, but her passion is for the written word.

“Books are a big part of my life,” said Linkous. “My mom is a big reader and a writer. We spent every Saturday in the public library.”

That family passion continued when her son Jhonen was born four years ago and is part of the reason why she founded Novel Designs Co., an online shop and bookseller.

She got her start in the literary field working with Usborne Books three years ago.

“I originally got into literacy as a form of employment. I was a consultant for a publishing company that sold children’s books,” Linkous said.

The duties of her position entailed setting up a booth at vendor shows or community events, and discussing different books with parents in attendance.

During the events, Linkous noticed something: people were looking for certain types of books.

“I started to see patterns in things such as the challenges within school systems and stuff like that for having certain books removed from shelves,” she said.

Linkous said she felt inspired to do something as she watched the list of banned books grow in different school districts and public libraries.

“I decided to expand from children’s books to books for all ages and to focus in on stories that are continuing to be marginalized and access to them being restricted. Ultimately, I wanted to help get those voices out into the community,” Linkous said.

And to get those voices out into the community, Linkous has a vision of bringing them to the public instead of vice versa.

“I thought, ‘Why not do something mobile that I can take out into the community instead of having a specific location like a shop or a library?’ Sometimes people don’t always have the time to make it to those places, but if you are mobile and can go to where the people are, then that will increase the visibility of those books,” Linkous said.

Even with a noble goal, Linkous has had some setbacks in trying to make her dream a reality.

An earlier crowdfunding campaign to purchase the shop’s inventory failed to reach its fundraising mark.

“It’s a niche area for bookshops. It is just not some people’s thing, and it is hard to get support for stuff like that. You have to find the right audience that will pick it up and help,” Linkous said.

In the meantime, Linkous has not been deterred and has added books to her inventory as she comes across them.

She wants her inventory to be comprised of mainly used books so that customers will not have to pay full price.

Linkous is also continuously revising what she wants to be in said inventory.

“I am focusing on trying to create a list of books I want to keep on hand so I can start collecting multiple copies of those,” she said.

Once she has a good inventory, Linkous plans to bring a pop-up shop to various local markets and events.

While she plans and raises funds for her future mobile bookshop, Linkous is focusing on the creative side of Novel Designs Co.

“I also do literacy-inspired custom designs for shirts, bookmarks and keychains; just fun little novelty things,” Linkous said.

Taking inspiration from the world around her, Linkous focuses on crafting things that she would want to wear or could not find in stores.

To learn more about Novel Designs Co. or donate books for the mobile shop, visit www.noveldesignsco.square.site online.