Diane Plumley has had numerous ‘careers’ throughout her ancient life, but bookselling remains as the high point. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she worked as cashier and then book buyer/bookseller at a store no longer in existence, (nothing new there) called Lorry’s Book Company. Many moons later, she managed Foul Play, another store, yes, you guessed it, no longer in business. From there she managed a different mystery bookstore for two years and then ran a First Edition Club at Murder Ink, the country’s first crime fiction bookstore, which say it along with me, no longer exists. No, she’s not the Typhoid Mary of the book business. Lorry’s closed many years later, Foul Play closed due to the owner’s demise, and Murder Ink faded into the sunset some after her time served there.
Originally from that paved desolate area called The Garden State, she moved to the Big Apple (also a place with no produce). For 26 years she toiled at various jobs, including the above. Realizing 5 flights of stairs no longer were ‘fun’ she relocated back to New Jersey, on the excuse of helping her aged mother. Now she designs and hand makes vintage illustration jewelry, restores and sells vintage digital illustrations, and happily writes for Bruce Hollingdrake at the bookshopblog.com.