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The Magic of Bookstores
Finding Craig Johnson and Michael Connelly
Author signing for new book, date below … authors gathering at conference with new books, list of titles follows … author announcing she/he has completed the next crime novel, release date is …
Dave’s desk may have looked like chaos, but he kept a firm grip on critical dates and locations for us to meet the authors of the books he treasured. My side of this was often to read “first books” by promising authors and let him know whose work looked like it would become valued. But it was Dave who said things like “We’ve got to be in Manchester, Vermont, to ask Michael Connelly to sign these copies, on the second Saturday of the month.” Yes, sir!
Most author events are hosted at “new bookstores” — places that sell brand-new books. After all, they are the ones keeping an eye on the next great new title and getting their promotions ready.
Kingdom Books became an exception. As we did with Donald Westlake, we hosted events for authors whose careers reached back decades, as well as for relatively less-known authors like Dave Zeltserman, who continues to craft some of the darkest and strangest crossover work, melding crime with the supernatural.
