(Editor’s Note: I apologize. Since this issue of The Standard is so late in going live, this event was held this last weekend. Hopefully Ken Fermoyle can report on it in the next Standard issue. I’m sure it went very well indeed, as always.) As if the location wasn’t enough, Left Coast Crime 2004 organizers report that the February 19-22 event in Monterey, CA will feature Walter Mosley and Sharan Newman as Guests of Honor. Toastmistress will be Gillian Roberts (Judy Greber) and Fan Guests of Honor will be Bryan Barrett and Thom Walls. All this insures that LCC 2004 will once again be the year’s premier West Coast convention for mystery authors and dedicated fans. We attended the LCC 2003 event in Pasadena, CA and were mightily impressed. Robert Crais was Guest of Honor and did his usual fine job as a speaker. Walter Mosley is a great choice to follow the popular Crais. I’ve heard him speak a number of times in recent years and can confirm that his talks are as provocative and insightful as his writing. Mosley’s best-known book, Devil in a Blue Dress, introduced Easy Rawlins. One of his latest, Fear Itself, brings Rawlins back and in more trouble than ever. Sharan Newman specializes in historical mysteries. Her Catherine Levendeur Medieval Mystery Series now consists of eight books, with release of the latest, Outcast Dove, on November 5, 2003. The 14th event in the LCC series will be held at the Double Tree Hotel in Monterey, CA, setting of some of John Steinbeck’s most famous novels and not far from the John Steinbeck Library in Salinas. Monterey itself, of course, offers Fisherman’s Wharf, a greatly sanitized and commercial Cannery Row with its colorful John Steinbeck Plaza, the famous Aquarium and capping it all, the gorgeous Monterey Bay. Special events available to registrants include a wide variety of: panels, goodies and programs. Among them will be the Opening Reception at the Monterey Aquarium; Noir Film Night with Eddie Muller, Award and Guest of Honor special Luncheon, Continental Breakfast Daily, Bookbag and free books, the Dealers Book Room (where you can find great books) and the opportunity to meet fans, writers, editors, agents, publishers in fantastic Monterey, one of the most beautiful sites in America. And, there’s more. There will be several special publications available only to registered participants: Program book; book of original short stories written for LCC by guests of honor Walter Mosley, Sharan Newman, Judy Greber (Gillian Roberts) and Richard Lupoff; Bibliography of attending authors; and pocket program. Nearly 250 mystery authors had already registered to attend as this article was written (11/03). Mystery Organizations that will be represented at LCC 2004 include: Black Raven Press (Chris Aldrich) Deadly Alibi Press Ltd. (Margo Power) Deadly Serious Press (Kate Derie) Friends of Chester Himes Friends of Mystery (Jay Margulies) Jen’s Book Exchange (Jenifer Nightingale) Little Bear Productions (Rochelle R. Bernet) Mystery Place Online (Stephanie Shea) Mystery Readers International (Janet Rudolph) Poisoned Pen (Barbara Peters) Sisters in Crime  St. Martin’s Minotaur (John Cunningham) The Double Tree Hotel is sold out. Here are some other possibilities: The San Carlos Days Inn is walking distance (8-10 minutes) from the convention center. Rates range from $89-$129, depending on the room type. Phone 1-800-227-6332. Casa Munras Garden Hotel (least expensive, short walk or drive to the convention center); phone number is 1-800-222-2446 from CA and 1-800-222-2558 anywhere else in the US. Hotel Pacific is around the corner from the Doubletree, a gem and pricey. Wonderful suites. Phone 1-800-554-5542. Reference number is 6996 or Left Coast Crime. Reservations should be made early for the “gourmet” hotel, as rooms go real fast at this time of the year. The Monterey Hotel at 406 Alvarado St. Phone 1-831-375-3184. Room rates are at special group rate of $115 plus tax. Rooms are on a first hotel registration basis and are limited in number. Please note that this hotel is located in a restored building from 1906 and is not recommended for persons with disabilities. To register on-line or to find out more about Left Coast Crime 2004, go to: http://www.lcc2004.com/

One of the most pernicious knids in the last several hundred years of bookselling has been odoriferous books. As all booksellers know, most books stink, but some of them go so far as to smell. It breaks the heart to tear into a lovely milk crate of potentially mortgage- paying volumes only to discover that they have been stored in the back of a disused lavatory along with the owners’ collection of rare molds & spores. There are many makeshift methods to drive odors out of books, from a dose of sunlight to a good strong coating of Febreze®. But they may work or not work or even damage the invalided book. So, if you have recently unearthed a nice fat modern first whose mindless half-wit of an owner had a fondness for pellet burning wood stoves and you would like it made more socially acceptable in a reasonable amount of time, I suggest you try my exclusively made Book Deodorizer*. It is made from harmless chemically neutral highly absorbent granules, (with the recent addition of real cedar scent!*) and when put in an air tight container with the convalescent tome it is guaranteed to absorb odor molecules. Length of time necessary for the abrogation of the odor is dictated by the severity of the stench. Available in either the original clay based or the new biodegradable corn cob-based. There is no risk as each bottle is guaranteed. Hundreds of bottles have been sold over the years with no refunds…as yet. *We have tried including NO smellum in the product, however since the odor remains in the granules, it gives the distinct impression that nothing is happening; besides cedar is nice and repells bibliovores. *see: http://www.bookdeodorizer.com J. Godsey 14 Pleasant St. Methuen, MA 01844 Selling books since 1980 Publisher of Sic, the Book Humor magazine Distributors of “Book Deodorizer” http://www.bookdeodorizer.com

By: Robin Gutterman robin@titlesdirect.com Database URLs: http://www.MyOwnBookshop.com and http://www.BookTrakker.com  TitlesDirect.com, Inc., the parent company of MyOwnBookshop.com and the developer of BookTrakker Pro, is pleased to report a number of site changes and recent developments. In the forefront is an announcement concerning SmartSearch, new technology that produces accurate booksearch results. Introducing SmartSearch Technology TitlesDirect.com has developed new search technology for producing accurate search results. The first implementation of this new technology, coined SmartSearch, is in use on MyOwnBookshop.com’s website and supersedes Advanced Search. In a recent statement, Robin Gutterman of TitlesDirect.com, Inc., commented, “The accuracy percentages using SmartSearch have far surpassed our original goals. We are confident that SmartSearch provides the most accurate Internet booksearch results to date, opening new dimensions for discerning customers and book collectors. SmartSearch produces highly accurate results even using data previously considered unusable, commonly referred to as “dirty data” by those in the trade. The full scope of its accuracy will become more readily apparent over time as dealers reupload their inventories and refinements are made. This is new technology; we are on new ground. Time will tell how far we can go with it; however, we have a good head start on further refinements.” MyOwnBookshop.com In other news, MyOwnBookshop.com recently began a new initiative to improve the bottom line for booksellers, streamline book orders, and increase overall site activity. Three significant changes form the base of this altered selling model: the abolishment of fees and commissions on direct orders to dealers; onsite posting of complete bookseller contact information to increase direct orders to dealers; and a new and simple flat fee structure on credit card orders processed by the website. Fees and commissions on direct-to-dealer orders have been eliminated and website shoppers can view full contact information, as provided, anytime by clicking on Buy From Bookseller. Booksellers lacking their own bookselling websites can take advantage of this opportunity by selling direct to their customers using the MyOwnBookshop.com website. MyOwnBookshop.com is encouraging booksellers to include their own email addresses, telephone numbers, FAX numbers, and their business website URLs in their onsite contact information. A simplified fee structure for credit card orders processed by the website became effective November 1, 2003. Briefly stated, the new fee structure, which replaces separate commission and credit card fees, is a flat 16% on site-processed payment with a limit of $50 per order. Chargeback fees on credit card orders processed by MyOwnBookshop.com will not be charged to the bookseller. These cost-cutting measures, coupled with the existing policy of no application and monthly fees, are being implemented to provide an improved and more lucrative selling ground for booksellers. BookTrakker Pro Automated Internet Bookselling and Inventory Management Software BookTrakker has entered the late-alpha testing stage for its automated Internet bookselling and inventory management software upgrade, BookTrakker Pro Version 3.0. A number of key features and enhancements will debut in this major upgrade to the software, including a quantity field and a speedy shortcut for multiple sales. In order to provide more value-added services for the book trade, the company is pursuing development of additional software tools for booksellers and collectors. With ISBN Lookup becoming a critical issue for many online booksellers, a stand-alone ISBN Lookup Tool is at the top of the list. The ISBN Lookup Tool would integrate seamlessly with BookTrakker Pro V3.0, as well as 2.0 and 2.1 and can also be used as a stand-alone tool by users of other database programs. About MyOwnBookshop.com MyOwnBookshop.com is an online marketplace for used and rare books, ephemera, and other unique or unusual items discovered by dealers, and caters to booksellers, collectors and the book buying public. The website is owned and operated by TitlesDirect.com, Inc. About BookTrakker Pro BookTrakker Pro Software provides automated Internet bookselling and inventory management software for online booksellers, used and rare book dealers and book collectors. BookTrakker offers a no-hassle 30-day Free Trial of the full version of BookTrakker Pro, which provides advanced inventory, wants and contact management and custom catalog creation.

What’s most interesting in the case is what impact it may have on other authors, particularly those in the crime and sci-fi categories. If Activision wins, will this mean game creators can steal characters and ideas from novels with impunity? The film and TV industries traditionally have paid good money for rights to use authors’ works, never mind that the final product often bears little resemblance to the written version. “Since news [of the suit] broke, we have received literally hundreds of posts and emails,” reported the webmaster for Crais’ website, robertcrais.com “…To those of you who sent letters of support and good wishes, we extend our deepest thanks and gratitude.” Crais has long been known for his careful stewardship of the Elvis and Joe characters, the whole Cole series, in fact. Despite lucrative film and TV offers, he has steadfastly refused to sell rights to his Cole novels or their main characters. He pointed this out in the following statement on his suit against Activision. ”To quote a character from The Monkey’s Raincoat, where it all began: ‘He accepts the duty of protecting what is his.’ ”To that end, I have engaged Bruce Van Dalsem and Henry Gradstein of Gradstein, Luskin & Van Dalsem to help in the effort. Requests from journalists are forwarded to them. Legally, I can make no comment upon the case so long as we have a pending action. I look forward to sharing my views with the jury.” Crais ended his comments with a bow to the fans who registered support in e-mails and on his website Forum: ”Thanks for your good wishes and support.” Here is how Activision describes the game. “The streets of Los Angeles are being overrun with criminal scum and it’s going to take a renegade ex-cop like you to clean them out for good. As Nick Kang, your brutal reputation and lethal skills have landed you a nasty job: heading up an undercover task force to stop the Chinese and Russian gangs from turning the City of Angels into their hellish playground. Across hundreds of square miles of L.A., you’ve got to drive, fight and blast your way through a branching storyline comprised of a massive array of unpredictable missions, using stealth techniques, martial arts moves, and an ask-questions-later arsenal. Looks like the hardcore streets of L.A. just met their match.” Here is the comment of a journalist who covers the video game beat. True Crime taken to true court L.A. crime author Robert Crais sues Activision over Nick Kang character Activision saw its drive to publish True Crime: The Streets of LA hit a pothole today as crime author Robert Crais reportedly announced that he is taking legal action to stop the game’s November 4 release. ”Crais filed suit in Los Angeles US District Court and is currently seeking an injunction to prevent Activision from shipping the game. The suit also seeks undisclosed monetary damages and “destruction of all infringing works.” What’s Crais’ beef? The writer claims that Nick Kang, the grizzled ex-cop antihero of True Crime, is a rip-off of Elvis Cole, the grizzled ex-cop antihero of nine Crais novels, including L.A. Requiem and Free Fall. “‘True Crime is substantially similar to the Elvis Cole novels,’ states the suit, which accuses Activision of copying “protectable expressions.” (Those who’ve read Crais’ novels and seen footage of True Crime will notice Kang and Cole also share an affinity for mirrored sunglasses and beating criminals senseless.) “E-mails to Crais were not returned and Activision representatives wouldn’t comment on the matter except to say it expected the game to ship as scheduled. “Developed by Luxoflux, True Crime LA is one of Activision’s most heavily promoted Q4 releases. The title’s combination of Grand Theft Auto-like shooting and driving with martial arts-influenced hand-to-hand combat has generated significant interest among gamers.” – by Tor Thorsen, GameSpot [POSTED: 10/17/03 11:10 AM (Actually, ol’ Tor doesn’t seem all that familiar with the Crais mysteries. It’s Joe Pike who wears mirrored sunglasses and is the more physical one of the partners.) Does Crais have a legitimate beef in this case? Not having seen the game yet, I can’t speculate. The fact that people who have seen it and spotted the parallels does suggest that there is at least some smoke hovering over the situation. Is there fire there, too? Stay tuned; we’ll update you on this suit next issue.

By: Jim Arner jarnersr@wyomerc.com As TomFolio.com, the web-site owned/operated by ABookCoOp, enters the fourth year of operation, we wish to announce several recent enhancements to the site. Sticky Pages – TomFolio members can use the site as a virtual private web-based bookstore. You can provide the customer with a search form that searches only your listings on the TomFolio site. Very useful for those dealers who do not operate their own private websites. Auto-Category Display – No longer does a TomFolio dealer have to create a list of categories to be displayed on their dealer page. This is now done automatically. Every category that the dealer uses is now displayed at the bottom of the dealer page. Clicking on any category opens up a list of sub-categories; click on any of these brings up a complete listing of all books, for that dealer, in the particular sub-category. Specialty Category/Sub-Category List – Even though the full cat/sub-cat list is now automatically displayed, a TomFolio member can still create a list of specialties to be displayed on the dealer page. This works in much the same way as the previously, dealer-definable cat/sub-cat display feature. Specialty Author List – TomFolio members can now add links, on their dealer page, to specific authors. Clicking on any author link opens up a complete listing of all books, for that dealer, for the particular author. New features, coming soon: Multiple Categories – In the near future, the TomFolio uploads will allow a dealer to place a book into multiple categories, not just the single selection currently available. Want Lists – Customers will be able to create want lists and receive email notifications whenever new items are added to the TomFolio website. Personal Web-Site Pages – TomFolio will soon be able to host individual domain names. Dealers can operate their own private websites, with their own domain name, through the TomFolio service.

By: Ann Brebner & Paul Anderson marketing@booksandcollectibles.com.au Books & Collectibles offers all the normal book listing services available on the internet: searching via Bookfinder, Addall and BuyUsed; seamless search facilities via your web site; secure ordering; free database for listing; and promotions. Books & Collectibles also offers to its dealers the ability to on-sell all the 3 million books listed on our site. It works like this: On your home page, Books & Collectibles will supply links to your stock with search and secure order facilities. If a customer or one of your staff searches your home page for a title and it can’t be supplied from your stock then the search continues on and searches all of the 3 million books listed on Books & Collectibles and, if found, the title is displayed with your margin added onto the price. Your customer can then order this book and you will get an email order for it. Here you can elect to order it yourself directly from the dealer who stocks the book, requesting the usual dealer discount and drop shipping etc. or, if you have a large number of these orders, you can process the order through Books & Collectibles where we can bill you once each month for all your orders (saving you the problem of tracking many cc transactions to many dealers). We have collectibles now listed on our site. We are still working out the best ways to display the listings, but we are accepting new dealers. We are giving dealers who list their books with us under yearly listing free collectibles listings while we build up our collectibles customer base. Any questions, please email to: admin@booksandcollectibles.com.au.

It is a year since ChooseBooks.com made its official launch. It has been an exciting, busy year. During our first year we needed to concentrate on adding features to the site and encouraging booksellers to list their inventory so customers would find items when they search. We now have over 1,000 booksellers and 7 million items in inventory. As we enter our second year, we can concentrate more of our resources on increasing orders and bringing new customers to http://www.choosebooks.com One of our several new marketing directions is exploring joint ventures with companies that serve our targeted markets. In October we entered into our first joint venture agreement with Booksforever.com. Gaylord Bros., a company that has served the library and archival community since 1896, established Booksforever.com in 2003. Their goal is to meet the needs of book collectors and archivists for products to repair, protect and preserve books. Since Booksforever and ChooseBooks are non-competitive and since we both target the book collector and archivist communities, we have agreed to promote each other’s services in relevant marketing. Kate Lindemann Marketing, ChooseBooks.com Choosebooks.com – the first book site with a Buyer Rewards program for those who register. http://www.choosebooks.com

By: Lisa Martin lisa@gbmbooks.com  www.gbmbooks.com After much debate, we have decided on the fee structure for GBM. The new fee structure took effect on January 1, 2004. We will be offering secure credit card ordering via the GBM Direct program. Listing fees will be commission based: No charge to upload inventory. Commissions based on sales figures as follows: During a calendar month the first $25.00 in sales are commission free. From $25.01 to $500.00 is 10% of the sales total (for $500.00 sales our commission will be $48.00). For sales total in a month over $500.00 our commission would be 5% (for $1000 sales total our commission would be $73.00). Some of the other services we will be offering may have additional fees. Details are available at the website. www.gbmbooks.com Click on the “Dealer’s Application” link, which gives you the details. Questions and Comments: memberservices@gbmbooks.com

Table of Contents Call for Replacement Cancelled!! New editor on the way New Orleans Mysteries Are Music to My Ears! Trussell’s Books and Book Collecting Site, and EcletiCity Penny selling The New Three Rs: Readin’, Ritin’ & Rote Biblio-cookbooks Book Cover Designs From A Century Ago Inspire A New Line of Personalized Bookplates Using online-offerings by antiquarian booksellers in the library Addiction or? Sort, Throw, Save, Publish? Family Ephemera Bookselling – Past And Present, On and Off Line Nevermore – How it Started The Return of AB Bookman The Supreme Court Upholds the Children’s Internet Protection Act Neither a Collector Nor a Saver Be Global Book Town, and Ken’s Book Rack Ephemeral Assays-Paper Rooseveltiana Reading and collecting Science Fiction Books in the GDR – A personal view Book Review: Prelude To Tragedy – Vietnam: 1960-65 Palm Leaf Books BookExpo America Draws Excellent Crowds in L.A., Wows Your IOBA Reporter Bar codes in the Used-Book Business Printer’s Row- Always An Adventure! Cooperstown NY Antiquarian Book Fair, June 28th Gold Rush Book Fair, held May 17, 2003 San Diego 15th Annual Open Air Book Fair The Classiest Book Fair in the Midwest So you want to be a bookseller? Midwest Bookhunter’s Spring Book Fair IOBA Q & A Column Book Seminars and Book Towns 2003 DIY Book Festival Open To Independent Publishers, Authors Enjoy Cable-Free Net Access With Wi-Fi Mobile Technology Proposed Reference Book Workshop, Fall 2003 Bibliology, and other smaller book databases 2003 Macavity Award Nominees Named Deanna Ramsey : Hosting & Site Design for Booksellers Early Registrants Get Perks at Left Coast Crime 2004 Book review: Judgement by Wade Hunter Book review: Department Thirty by David Kent ChooseBooks.com has been busy adding new services this summer BiblioDirect has a new look! A Last Minute Rant From The Editor (no editor’s notes this issue)

I’m most happy to report that Ken Fermoyle will be working with me through the remainder of 2003 and will be taking my place as editor of The IOBA Standard in 2004. Ken has worked with me on the last several issues and has done a wonderful job. He’s enthusiastic, dedicated, smart and very, very talented. He has tons of experience in editing and writing, and lots of contacts in the book and writing worlds. I’m absolutely positive Ken will produce an excellent magazine that just keeps on improving, changing and growing in value to its readers and to IOBA (note we’ve changed to ‘magazine’ instead of ‘newsletter’ due to the size of this publication). Ken will also have the help of his wife, Liz, who is an excellent photographer and who has provided us with many of the great photos that have been in Ken’s articles. Terry Gibbs, an IOBA member with an extensive background in editing and publishing, also, will be acting as proofreader and assistant to Ken-thank you, Terry! Now, a bit about Ken and his background: “Ken Fermoyle has been a writer, editor and journalist for 54 years. His credits include more than 2,500 articles published in magazines ranging from Playboy and PC World to McCalls, MacWeek and Motor Life. He was auto editor of Popular Science, editor of Petersen’s Wheels Afield and QX Connection, wrote the syndicated Ken’s Korner column on computers from 1997 to 2002. “A voracious reader since childhood, he wrote his first book reviews while sports editor of a large Michigan weekly paper in 1948. “I was also a reporter, feature writer and proofreader,” Ken reports, “but when I learned the book reviewer got to keep books reviewed, I took that on, too.” His book reviews have since appeared in newspapers, including The Detroit News and Los Angeles Times Book Review, various magazines, and book newsletters. He has edited and produced several non-fiction books; currently he and his colleague Tran Ngoc Chau are completing work on Hawks, Doves & The Dragon, a memoir of Chau’s involvement in Vietnam from the 1940s to 1975.” I’ve enjoyed very much being editor of The Standard, and I hope you’ll all be as supportive of Ken as you have been of me-it has meant a lot, believe me. I thank you all. See you once more in November! Shirley Bryant, Editor

The upbeat tempo of Jazz, Zydeco, R&B and Cajun music, punctuated by mournful wails of the Blues, echoes through the streets of the Big Easy. The sounds might be slightly muted Uptown and in the Garden District but blare at full volume in the French Quarter. And the music seeps into the pages of mysteries by James Lee Burke, Julie Smith, Tony Dunbar, Sandra Brown and Tami Hoag, among others. Photos by: Liz Fermoyle New Orleans boasts a storied literary history. William Faulkner wrote his first book in a French Quarter room that now serves as the Faulkner House bookstore. Truman Capote, Lillian Hellman and Elmore Leonard were born there. Anne Rice lives in the city’s Garden District today. Suzanne Brockman’s Into The Night and Stella Cameron’s romantic thrillers (French Quarter, The Best Revenge) are recent novels penned by Crescent City authors. Going back much further, there was The Poets of ‘Les Cenelles’. In 1845, a volume of 85 poems was published by a group of 17 men, all of them New Orleans free men of color (Les Cenelles: Choix de Poesies Indigenes). All were cultured, educated men (a number of them educated in France) and members of a different Creole society than the white Creole society that produced such other early New Orleans authors as George Gayarre (1805-1895) and Grace King 1851-1932). “The authors,” one scholar has written, “were not great poets, but they must have been cultivated men who took delight in writing and who hoped that some day one of their number would achieve in verse the fame that Dumas was then winning in novel and drama.” They did not, for the greater part, write about their native state but chose their themes from the French Romanticists and the classics. But I digress; my focus is the mystery genre, and in that category the Big Easy serves as a favorite setting for authors from Leonard and James Lee Burke to Julie Smith, Tami Hoag, Tony Dunbar and Sandra Brown, among others. Robert Crais hails from just up the road in Baton Rouge but he arranged for Elvis Cole to visit N’Awlins and to meet his ladylove, Lucy Chenier, there. The city even has a Mystery Street in the area called Mid-City, a 20-minute bus ride from the French Quarter, as reported in the Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1996. And just as the strains of traditional jazz, Cajun and Zydeco music fill the streets of the French Quarter so does music permeate many of the mystery novels set in New Orleans. Proof? Check these titles: Burke’s Black Cherry Blues, Dixie City Jam, Cadillac Jukebox; Julie Smith’s The Axeman’s Jazz, Jazz Funeral, House of Blues, New Orleans Beat, plus her latest,Mean Woman Blues. Ace Atkins burst on the scene in 1998 with his critically acclaimed novel, Crossroad Blues, followed byLeavin’ Trunk Blues in 2001. Both feature Nick Travers, an ex-New Orleans Saint football player turned Blues historian at Tulane University. Nick lives in a battered 1920’s warehouse and plays harmonica at JoJo’s Blues Bar in the French Quarter when he’s not investigating the strange disappearance of a college professor colleague or embroiled in some other music-related mystery. The missing professor was searching for previously unknown records by fabled bluesman Robert Johnson in Mississippi’s Delta country when he dropped out of sight. Crossroad Blues offers more than just a murder mystery set in New Orleans and the Delta. It is almost literally a primer on blues history, especially as Robert Johnson is concerned. It could almost serve as the text for a Blues 101 course! Music first stirred my interest in New Orleans. Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven records from the 1920s captivated me as a teenager during World War II. Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, Freddie Keppard, Johnny and Baby Dodds, Fate Marable, Jelly-Roll Morton, Earl Bostic and Lil Hardin Armstrong were in my pantheon of musical gods. Most of the Swing Era big bands paled by comparison. (In an interesting sidelight on Lil Hardin Armstrong, the famed music critic John Hammond wrote this: “One of the most lovable people that ever existed in music was Hardin Armstrong, Louis’s wife and protector during those rough early days in Chicago. In the early days when the first talking Mickey Mouse cartoons came out, Minnie Mouse used to play the piano, and I was always certain her style was copied directly from Lil’s.”) A voracious reader from early childhood, I devoured books on New Orleans. The tale of Storyville, with its brothels, wide-open lifestyle and, above all, its statues as the incubator of many jazz greats, fascinated me. I learned about the famous funeral bands and how they switched from dirges going to the cemetery to lively jazz on the way back. “When the Saints Come Marching In” became my favorite song, with “Frankie & Johnny” and “St. James Infirmary Blues” close behind. It was books, the Dave Robicheaux mysteries especially, that rekindled my interest in New Orleans later in life. James Lee Burke painted verbal pictures so vivid you could almost smell the coffee and beignets at Café Du Mond, taste the famous Po’boy sandwiches and hear the sounds of the surrounding bayous – not to mention the faint wail of two-beat jazz or Cajun music that always seemed to lurk in the background. I also discovered Julie Smith’s books. They really honed in on the French Quarter. The Axeman’s Jazz, second in the Skip Langdon series set in New Orleans, enthralled me. Music permeates this book about a serial killer with chutzpah. He tells the public that homes with jazz music will be spared in his murder spree, as he imitates the modus operandi of a legendary killer from the past. The later Langdon books continued to capture the ambiance of the Vieux Carre as few others have done. (Ms. Smith also turned me on to Ace Atkins’ Nick Travers books, for which I am most grateful.) Several years ago my wife and I made our first pilgrimage to the Big Easy. We were entranced! We woke up every morning eager to roam the byways of the French Quarter. (We stayed in the Quarter House, on Rue Chartres just off Canal, and I recommend it highly.) We enjoyed the heady mix of fabulous food and music, the ever-hanging cast of colorful characters, and the seductive architecture with its signature lacy ironwork and discreetly veiled courtyards. On later trips we rode the St. Charles streetcar to the end of the line and back, explored Magazine Street, the Warehouse District and the eclectic New Orleans Art Museum. Nor did I forget the mystery novels that lured me to the city. We sampled beignets at the Café Du Mond, perhaps at one of the same tables Dave Robicheaux and his partner Helen Soileau might have shared on a trip into the City. We listened to trad jazz from the house band and its Louis Armstrong sound-alike singer. We scarfed Po’boy sandwiches at some of the same spots Dave and Clete Purcell may have frequented in their NOPD days and muffulettas from the deservedly famous Central Grocery at 915 Decatur St. I tried, with fair success, to locate some of the places mentioned in the novels of Julie Smith and Sandra Brown. Some could be pinpointed with reasonable certainty. It was easy to picture the six-foot-tall Skip Langdon, ex-debutant-turned-NOPD-detective stalking the New Orleans Prince of Darkness Earl Jacomine through some of the arcade-shaded streets of the Quarter as she did in Julie Smith’s The Kindness of Strangers and Crescent City Kill. I didn’t locate Ms Smith’s former home on that trip but will certainly do so when we visit New Orleans again in the fall of 2003. Who could resist such a pilgrimage after hearing the author describe her former residence? “I live in a three story townhouse in New Orleans built in 1830. It is so old — everything breaks and plaster peels and yes, there is a ghost. The cat hates it. But the ghost smells wonderful! It smells like jasmine. I have never interviewed these ghosts. But the Psychic Network filmed an infomercial in our home…. They had many psychics here at the time.” Ms Smith now lives in “a funk loft on the boundary of the French Quarter and the Marigny.” The Faubourg Marigny, which locals simply call “The Marigny,” is the neighborhood immediately adjacent to the French Quarter across tree-shaded Esplanade Avenue. (We stayed in that area, at the Jean Lafitte House, 613 Esplanade Avenue, on our 2002 visit to New Orleans. Ms Smith has been kind enough to invite us to “come visit us for a drink” on our next visit.) We took a boat trip out into the bayous in search of James Lee Burke country. I imagined that a man and young girl casting lures in a slough as we passed several hundred yards away might be Dave Robicheaux and his adopted daughter Alafair. We passed a bait shop with the smoke of barbeque hanging in the still air and boats for rent tethered to a nearby dock. It looked exactly like my minds-eye picture of Dave’s place. Even out there in the swamp backwaters, the music followed us. It came from the fish camps and occasional cafes or juke joints perched on the bayou banks. Back in the Vieux Carre, we visited every bookstore in the area. One was Crescent City Books, just kitty-corner from the Quarter House on Rue Chartres. It surprised me to learn that the store had only a couple of James Lee Burke books. “We can’t keep ’em in stock,” the clerk told me. “They just jump off the shelves.” Other bookstore owners echoed his words. My favorite bookstore is Kaboom Books, great name for a great store. Located at 915 Barracks St., it’s owned by John Dillmman and his wife Dee. John, a former construction worker who still keeps his hand in by fixing up stores and homes in the area, has been in the used book business for 20 years. He’s not only a very knowledgeable bookman but friendly and generous to a fault in sharing his know-how with regular and drop-in customers. I’ve spent several hours enjoying chats with him on our trips to New Orleans in the past three years. On later trips we explored bookstores outside the Quarter, including a couple of nice ones on Magazine Street. One I missed until I began researching this article is the Maple Street Bookstorehttp://www.maplestreetbookshop.com. Established in the mid-1960s, it’s the oldest independent bookstore in New Orleans. Located uptown on (surprise!) Maple Street, just a short walk from the Cherokee stop on the St. Charles streetcar line, the store occupies a charming old house. Overflowing bookshelves fill six rooms and a comfortable back room tempts visitors to sit, relax and read. The store often hosts signings and is staffed by genuine bibliophiles, as I learned when I called to ask for information about local mystery writers. I spoke with Becky Batchelor and Carol Antosiak, both cordial and well-informed ladies. They mentioned several local writers, including Tony Dunbar and Christine (Chris) Wiltz, and offered to relay a message to Ms Wiltz. Sure enough, I got a friendly e-mail from Chris just two days later. She informed me that hardcover and paperback copies of her Neal Rafferty mysteries are no longer in print. (I did find many used copies listed, several dozen athttp://www.choosebooks.com and more at http://www.abebooks.com. They are offered in print-on-demand form from iUniverse. Titles in the Rafferty series include The Killing Circle, 1981; A Diamond Before You Die, 1987; The Emerald Lizard, 1991; and Glass House, 1994. Chris’ latest book, The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld, recounts the life of Norma Wallace, a famous operator of a New Orleans bordello from the 1920s to the 1960s. This one is available in both hardcover and paperback. I haven’t acquired one of Chris’ books yet (on order from the Internet) but I did find, and read in one sitting, a copy of Tony Dunbar’sShelter From The Storm, one of the Tubby Dubonnet mystery series. Tubby is a slightly indolent, sometimes corner-cutting New Orleans lawyer who is essentially a decent guy. This very well-plotted novel pits him against a trio of bank robbers led by the murderous Willie LaRue, or “Rue” as he likes to be called. The action takes place during a deluge that floods the city, including the French Quarter, complicating matters considerably. As for music, this passage appears on page 2 of my paperback edition as Rue arrives at the New Orleans airport. “LaRue carried a dull burgundy overnight bag in his left hand. That was the entire luggage he needed. Everything else was supposed to be in the van, unless Monk and his hillbilly partner from Mississippi had forgotten to bring it. New Orleans music seeped out of the intercom. At the moment it was Fats Domino [a New Orleans native] singing ‘I am the Sheik of Araby. Your love belongs to me.’ The chipper music did not add any bounce to Rue’s step. His was a rigid composure that wouldn’t crack.” Music references pop up regularly in this and other books by Dunbar. I thoroughly enjoyed Shelter From The Storm and look forward to reading more in the Tubby Dubonnet series. Another interesting source of books I discovered while researching this article is Britton Trice, owner of the Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, famous as Ann Rice’s neighborhood bookstore. Britton actually wears two hats since he also heads B.E.Trice Publishing, a small press operation that started after Doubleday stopped publishing The Plantation Cookbook –the Junior League of New Orleans cookbook “The bean counters at Doubleday thought a couple thousand copies wasn’t good enough and let it go out of print,” Trice reports gleefully. “I begged the Junior League until they let me pick up the rights, and I published it in 1992. Since then, I’ve reprinted it three times, 17,000 copies so far.” Trice says one of his biggest thrills since he began publishing books instead of just selling them was his limited edition of Cormac McCarthy’s Cities of the Plain. “It was exciting. He’s known as a recluse because he doesn’t sign much, I flew out to El Paso to meet see him and have him sign the books and, true to his word, the meeting was short and sweet.” It paid dividends, however.Cities of the Plain was one of Trice’s most successful editions, selling 50 deluxe copies and 300 numbered copies. Most of his editions sell half those numbers. More recently he published Michael Connelly’s Lost Light and Robert Crais’ The Last Detective in slipcased signed limited editions. We plan to report more on Trice’s bookstore-cum-publishing operation as part of a series on small press publishers, that begins in this issue. We planned to meet at BookExpo-America as this was written and I hope to visit his New Orleans store this fall. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m in need of some R&R after this long session at the keyboard. I believe I’ll put on a CD of blues and Dixieland tunes, pour a cup of coffee (Louisiana-style chicory blend, of course) and settle down with a good book. Let’s see, will it be Ace Atkins’ Crossroad Blues, Tony Dunbar’s City of Beads, or Julie Smith’s second Talba Wallis mystery, Louisiana Hotshot. Tough choices!

I’ve been invited to talk a little about my website, Books and Book Collecting, which you may be familiar with. It’s probably mostly used by people searching for out-of-print books… there’s a collection of search engines and a hodge-podge of information about, as you might expect, books and book collecting. The site has been up on the net since September of 1996, and so is a relative old-timer. It dates back to a time when there was no Google, no eBay, and online book searchers were using Interloc and BiblioFind— names which have somewhat faded from memory. The internet wasn’t as popular then, and people didn’t seem to be as familiar with searching as they are today. I’d been a book collector for most of my life, but as I started to put together a set of “tools” to locate the books I was looking for, I began to learn more and more about both books and collecting. I became more professional, learned about edition identification, dust-jacket condition, and book club editions. I discovered news groups and mail lists, search engines and techniques, the details of book sizes and specialized vocabulary, more and more. I’d just been starting up my web site, Trussel’s EcletiCity, to publish my various interests, and so it seemed natural to put up my “tool box” for book collecting, so that others could use it too. Well, of course, the more successful I got at collecting — using these tools — the more excited I got about the Books and Book Collecting site, and so I spent a lot of time working on it and making it more and more useful… and I hope that it still is. But now, to some extent, times have changed, and users and search engines have gotten more sophisticated, the web grew, on-line book-dealing turned the used-book industry upside-down, and, somehow, Books and Book Collecting is still around. A few years back I made a little search engine, BookSeek, to index the online book catalogs that weren’t listed with ABE or the “biggies,” but now there doesn’t seem to be as much meaning in it. For a number of years SetMaker has filled a little niche, helping people finish off sets with missing volumes, but now I have trouble keeping up the energy to maintain it… Trussel’s EclectiCity is my hobby, and takes up most of my free time. There are so many nooks and crannies, and my interest moves from one section to another, but undoubtedly the largest single theme is literature, with sites on Lafcadio Hearn, Howard Fast, Georges Simenon’s Maigret, Prehistoric Fiction, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Og, Son of Fire… My guiding philosophy has been to provide detailed information in small areas, and I’ve had a love of bibliography for almost as long as my love of books. One of my collecting areas isHoward Fast, and I created a website focusing on his works. I used my “toolbox” to locate long out-of-print magazines with stories and articles which had never been reprinted, and created a site which provided access to “new” stories – stories which wouldn’t be easily found in a library… Bibliographies formed the center for many of my other literary sites. I found other collections around the house, stamps for one, and I thought, “Why hide them in a closet, when I can display them to the world?” And so my stamp pages were born. My students’ prize-winning speeches became another page, my interest in Ukiyo-e another… I kept discovering areas of my life that were no longer in the foreground, but which had consumed enough of my energy to result in something to show… and so, more pages. The site has grown very large, and this past year the page that has captured my interest most is Inspector Maigret – perhaps because this year is the Simenon birth centennial year. But one of my all-time favorites is Og, Son of Fire. Og is an offshoot of my Prehistoric Fiction page, and it was originally almost impossible for me to locate any copies of any of the volumes of this “classic” prehistoric boy series. But as I did, and was able to dig deeper and deeper, locating the original Boys’ Life magazines in which the volumes had first been serialized, well… another page was born. I could go on and on with this, but a picture is, in fact worth a thousand words in this case, and so I simply suggest you visit EclectiCity for yourself, and share some of my world. Thanks for stopping by. By: Steve Trussell steve@trussel.com Editor’s Note: Steve is too modest. His Books and Book Collecting site is almost the ‘bible’ of book sites-always has been and I suspect always will be. #collecting