Mystery Lovers Bookshop Turns 20 on Halloween

Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pennsylvania celebrates twenty years as Western Pennsylvania’s center for crime and mystery fiction on Sunday, October 31, 2010.

It was on Halloween 1990 that Mary Alice Gorman, former Executive Director of The Allegheny County Center for Victims and Richard Goldman, a Mellon Bank executive, opened the Pittsburgh area’s first mystery specialty book store.

In the intervening twenty years the store has grown to be the third largest in the country; host to the largest one-day festival of mystery in the country, now in its sixteenth year; sponsor of seven book clubs and a web destination for thousands of shoppers from Maine to California. The store also pioneered its unique Coffee & Crime author breakfasts that have brought hundreds of authors to Oakmont over the past sixteen years.

It was for the store’s continuing commitment to mystery authors through its programs and events, website and newsletter that the Mystery Writers of America recognized Mystery Lovers Bookshop with the 2010 Raven Award—the Edgar award for bookstores.

Among the best selling authors the award winning store has hosted are P.D. James, Anne Perry, Robert B. Parker, Scott Turow, Sara Paretsky, Rita Mae Brown, Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, Jo Nesbo, and hundreds of other authors from all over the US, UK, France, Sweden, Central America, South America and Canada-----just check out the bathroom!

It is a measure of the store’s success that when it opened in 1990 there was but a single Borders in the Pittsburgh area and Amazon was still just the name of a river. Mystery Lovers Bookshop opened the first area café in a bookstore in 1992. Now, there are over twenty large chain stores, many of the independents are no longer with us and more books are sold in non-bookstore mass marketers than in bookstores.

In 2010 Mystery Lovers is the 3rd largest store in the country and one of Western PA’s real entrepreneurial success stories.

Not only will Halloween---October 31, 2010 mark the 20th Anniversary for this locally owned independent business but they will also celebrate the National recognition by the Mystery Writers of America for their outstanding achievements and leadership contributions to the mystery genre with the Raven Award—the book store Edgar. Open Halloween Sunday from noon to 6 the celebration will include Pittsburgh mystery writers, treats, 10 cent book sale and many surprises.

While hundreds of other independent bookstores have been forced to close, this locally owned business continues to attract dozens of authors and readers each year to special events and to their May Festival of Mystery, now in its 16th year. www.mysterylovers.com is a cutting edge online store that brings new customers each day from all over the US and often beyond.

Mary Alice and Richard are available for an interview and hope you will share our story with your friends and readers too. Email them via the contact form on their website.

An added note: Be sure to check their website (or visit the store if you're in the area) this Friday, the 13th!

Let's Try This Again

by Joyce

I had another blog post mostly written, but when I went to finish it last night, I decided I hated it. It was about how writing is like Advent, with all the waiting and hoping, and it was a bunch of crap. Here's what it said: 

"No one panic. I'm not going to get all religious on you.

Well, maybe a little.

For anyone who's not a good Catholic girl like myself (stop laughing!), Advent is the four weeks before Christmas where Christians anticipate the birth of Jesus. It's a period of reflection and waiting. Of pondering new beginnings. A period of hope.

I was sitting in church the other day and it struck me that writing is a lot like Advent. Although we spend most of our time working on our current projects, we also spend an awful lot of time waiting. We wait for responses to queries. We wait for word on our requested manuscripts. We wait for the latest edits. We wait for...  Well, you get the picture.

We also do a lot of reflection. Man, that last chapter really sucked. Wow, did I really write that sentence? That was pretty damned good! Some of us do a lot of praying, too. Please, please, please, let that agent love my manuscript! Please let the advance be enough to buy the new car. (Hey, miracles can happen.)"

See what I mean? So, now I don't have anything to write about. Which makes me wonder. Is it possible to run out of words? Run out of things to write? I have no problem coming up with ideas for stories and books. But real life or blog posts? The well may be dry.

Sure I could write about Harlequin's lame-brain idea to suck newbie writers of their life savings. Or Tiger Woods. Or numerous other things I see in the news. It's all been done. Done to death, I might add.

I could write about writing (like my abandoned blog post) but that's been covered, too. And much more eloquently than I could ever do. So, now you're stuck with this rambling mess. Heh.

So, I pose this question to my fellow Working Stiffs and any other bloggers out there. What do you do when you run out of things to say? Or am I the only one this happens to?

On another note, I want to give a big CONGRATULATIONS to our good friends at MYSTERY LOVERS BOOKSHOP, winners of the 2010 Raven Award. Congratulations Mary Alice and Richard!

Pennwriters Conference Recap

By Paula Matter

Knowing Annette would probably post about the conference, I hesitated at first in doing this. But, I had such great photos, I couldn't resist.

The reason I have great photos is because I had my husband's digital camera. To me, it's just another camera. After several people exclaimed what a good camera it was, I admit I became nervous. And paranoid. I didn't let that sucker out of my sight.

I wanted to use his camera 'cause I could easily (!) upload photos for today's post. I ended up taking fifty-seven photos with this wonderful little camera. And, no, I won't be posting all of them.

I arrived about 3:45 on Friday and immediately ran into a few of my favorite people: Annette in the hallway; then David Wilson, Terry Friedman, and Lucienne Diver in the bar. Colleen Lindsay soon joined us and much laughter ensued.

Lucienne Diver


Colleen Lindsay

Lisa Scottoline was the Friday night keynote and she was fabulous! My only complaint was when I woke up Saturday morning, the Patty Duke show theme song was running through my head. Lisa had led us in a sing-a-long the night before. She had us in the palm of her hand, she was that good.

Timons Esaias as the Saturday lunch keynote was brilliant. One piece of advice from him: Instead of facing a blank page, at the very top of that page type: "This is no longer a blank page." I laughed, then saw how helpful that could be.

Timons Esaias

Our bookseller for the weekend was the phenomenal Mary Alice Gorman, owner of the Mystery Lover's Bookshop.

Buyers and browsers at the bookseller tables

Author and really nice guy Brian Butko

Standing is Susan Meier

Denise Myers, Nancy Schiller, Jamie Saloff

VP Carol Silvis and Nancy Schiller

Annette at 4:30 PM Saturday

Still looking good!

All in all, a truly great weekend. Annette and her volunteer staff did a fantastic job.

Oh, I did have one problem and that happened on Saturday. I read the back of the program book and saw my name listed. Apparently, I was the keeper of Annette's sanity. Can anyone who knows me see the irony in that?