Murder As You Like It

Annamaria on Monday

Independent bookstores are the lifeblood of mid-list writers like me.  They are our best hope for having our work put into the hands of new readers.  They were an endangered species in the USA for at least a decade and a half, but now - like the American bald eagle - independent bookstores are making a comeback.

One of my absolute favorites is the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop in central Pennsylvania.  The proprietor, Deb Beamer is a knowledgeable and ultra-enthusiastic mystery lover and a very savvy business woman.  Every other year she runs a small but, from a writer's point of view, very successful conference.  I have had the privilege and pleasure to be invited twice - the second time this past weekend.

Getting to the event in Mechanicsburg more or less on time on Saturday meant taking a very early train from Penn Station.

Here is what I saw along the way, when I wasn't deeply into polishing up my work-in-progress.

From the train: sunrise over central New Jersey

The skyline of Philadelphia.  Forget the WC Fields jokes.  It's one of the best
small cities in the country.

Summer wildflowers were everywhere along the tracks

And lovely views of the beautiful Pennsylvania farm country.
This convinced me that I want to watch the film, The Witness again.

For reasons never explained the train was delayed for half an hour in Lancaster

The delay meant that I was late for the start of author speed-dating, the first event.  I had to hit the ground running when I arrived.

Photo: Bill Peschel

My panel was called Author Appearance Weirdness, in which we discussed strange and funny things that have happened to us at book signings.  I stuck to ones that would make people laugh.

The crowd at Murder As You Like It is much smaller than at larger conferences and minuscule compared to extravaganzas like Bouchercon, but the fan to author ratio is very favorable and the book buyers very enthusiastic.  The atmosphere is warm and relaxed.

I had seen the sunrise that morning.  The train was passing through almost the exact spot on the way home when New Jersey (my native state) treated me to a lovely sunset.  

A Burg and a Polis

Annamaria on Monday

I’ve been on the move.

A week ago in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania:

This historic village is where, during the American Civil war, the Confederate Army made its northernmost incursion—a two-day event.  Charming and well loved by its inhabitants, it is now also the home of the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop, run by the remarkable Debbie Beamer.  Debbie is passionate about the genre she sells and imaginative about the way she promotes her business and the authors who are lucky enough to visit her.

On this recent trip, I learned about other businesses run by women in the town, and as an entrepreneur myself, I am impressed by their attitude of mutual support and their success at pooling their talents.  In addition to the bookstore, Mechanicsburg has a tea parlor, a spice and herb store and garden, and a flower shop.  The women who run these four separate enterprises have found synergies among their businesses that benefit them all.  Last week, I was the beneficiary of three of them.

 

Once a year, Susanna Reppert, owner of The Rosemary House, herb and spice shope and garden, arranges for an author to present at a themed tea party. This year I had the privilege of being that writer on Sunday the 12^th at a ‘Traveling to Africa Tea.”  Susanna did all the organizing and coordinating.

 

Debbie and some of her helpers scheduled a book signing in the early afternoon.  

Folks showed up in Susanna’s beautiful garden, where the tables were covered with lovely African cloths.  Debbie sold books at one.  I signed at another.  Susanna's son—Cedar—dressed in his safari outfit, escorted the guests to us.

Susanna’s sister Nancy runs the tearoom next door and is skilled and imaginative to a nth degree.  Here is her menu for my event:

The servers were dressed in African print dresses.  Here are tables they decorated:

And some of the dishes:

The menu says, "Keep a Watchful Eye Out for the Zebra?"

And, "Do You See the Cheetah? Brownie"

A word about the Scottish scones—they were like delicious clouds.  Nancy could give lessons to all the lesser-talented bakers who made all the (a thousand by now) scones I have ever eaten.

Delighted, I spent the night with Susanna and her family.  And the next morning, on a drive to the train station in Harrisburg, I got to talk the book biz with Debbie—informative, funny conversation—with a great deal of mutual agreement.

On Monday evening, I made a cameo appearance in my New York apartment and headed out the next morning to JFK and a flight to Minneapolis.

Minneapolis, Minnesota:

—where Stan and I have a ton of work to do on the anthology of short crime fiction Sunshine Noir.  We have been editing up a storm.  We have made great progress, despite the occasional tiff over the definition of an independent clause.

And there has also been some of this each afternoon.  Yum.

And to delight you all, here is something we saw on the PBS News Hour, while we were sipping some of that nice bubbly.