I MET THE GIRL OF MY DREAMS AT THE CHESTER COUNTY BOOK AND MUSIC COMPANY.

Sure she’s not much to look at. But neither is Susan Boyle. And who am I to judge a book by its hairy-lipped cover?

Her name is Jo Drabyak, and she’s a character in my new book. She’s chatty, funny, and bubbly – a total charmer. But that didn’t stop me from putting a bullet in the back of her head. When we find her body in Chapter 3, she’s wearing that very dress. Well, maybe not that exact one. The one in the picture came from Goodwill.

And if you’re the astute mystery reader/puzzle solver I think you are, by now you’ve figured out that Jo Drabyak is really Joe Drabyak, bookseller extraordinaire, and all around-great sport.

When I met Joe three years ago he was on a roll. Authors were happily including him as characters in their books. His goal is to become the South Park Kenny of popular crime fiction, popping up dead in one book, and returning unharmed in the next. I jumped at the chance to be Author #6 to incorporate Joe in a book.

I asked if there were any restrictions. Absolutely none, he said. I knew that I was going to murder a bunch of house-flipping cop wives in the next book, so I figured that was all the permission I needed to turn Joe into Jo.

“What’s your wife’s name?” I asked him.

“Reggie,” he said.

Jackpot! You can’t make this stuff up.

So now Detective Reggie Drabyak and his lovely wife Jo are two of the stars of Flipping Out. And because he really is a bookseller extraordinaire, Joe said if I visited the store, he’d show up in character. I did. And as you can see, so did he… she.

I cropped the photo, so you could how well the eye shadow and the lip gloss playfully compliment the face fuzz. (Joe’s wife Reggie did an artful job with the make up. Believe me, Joe is not nearly that pretty in real life.) Sorry to crop the rest of the shot, which is dominated by thick hairy legs stuffed into a pair of black pantyhose.

Oh, hell, just click if you want to see it.

What does it take for an author to get this kind of support from a much-loved bookseller, who also happens to be President of NAIBA, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association?

According to Joe, all it takes is for him to really love your books.

But it doesn’t hurt if you put a bullet in his brain.

So — tell me, who’s your favorite bookseller? And why? (Bonus points if they ever showed up in drag.)

Marshall posted on April 27, 2009 11:27 PM