Introducing Myself, Happy to Host

Hello! I’m pleased your founder, Bruce Hollingdrake, asked me to join him and The Bookshop Blog and to host such a fine source for those who love and or collect books, own a bookstore, or want to open one. Although I’ve not owned a shop, I have worked in independent bookstores supporting so-called other professions almost half my life. My first memory of the written word is Mother Goose. Sitting on a window seat within a library whose fairy tale architecture enthralled and amazed me, I would take down the same huge volume visit after visit and chant the rhymes to myself. Graduating to Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, and Mary Stewart, rarely was there a time I didn’t have a book in hand. By my early teens, tales inspired by the classic story Rebecca absorbed my imagination, which led to collecting the cheapest paperbacks of mysteries I could find.
Although crime fiction has been my major focus in literature, I’ve certainly delved into the wilds of biography, classics, fiction, non fiction, and the stray “Dummy’s Guide To . . .” In other words, I love books. I love reading. I love reading about reading. I love collecting rarer titles. I love illustrated books. I am the type of person who when in a bookstore of any kind, will recommend a favorite to a stranger. I will rearrange out of order titles. I will face forward a friend’s book. Basically, I revert to bookseller mode.
My first taste of the book trade came in the late 1970s early 1980s in a type of bookstore now extinct. One with new releases, old stock, used stock, and wacky stock of various and sundry subjects. My next foray was much later, as a part time volunteer for a store that consisted mostly of remainders and old stock.
I had to take a ‘test’ for Foul Play, a pair of mystery independent bookshops in Manhattan. The one I managed was in the village, small, with a hidden door where the teeny bathroom resided. I parlayed this position into one at another prestigious crime fiction bookstore when Foul Play closed due to the owner’s death.
And later, ran a book club for collectors at the first known mystery bookstore in existence, Murder Ink, a place where years before I ogled the stock and dreamed of what it would be like to be among all those lovely murders.
Even after physically hand selling mysteries was past, I continued to work within the field producing my own newsletter, Dastardly Deeds, chock full of author interviews, upcoming signings, new releases, and articles on collecting. For a couple of years I had the great fun to run a moderated book club for A&E television’s online website mysteries.com. A shift in programming led to it’s demise.
Which leads me to now, a bunch of years later and eager to continue discussing my favorite subject, books, glorious books.
As host of the bookshop blog, I hope to join the fun and conversation and to perhaps contribute some interesting observations that may aid those who are eager to start their own businesses. And throw in some offbeat looks at the oftimes difficult but always rewarding world of publishing and selling bound literature.