Calendars Add Air of Mystery to Libraries

The Orange County Public Library received a small windfall last week.

Profits from the 1994 Men of Mystery calendar, a project designed by a group of Orange County female mystery writers to raise money for financially beleaguered public libraries, have been used to purchase 43 mystery books. The $500 worth of books will be distributed to the county’s 28 branch libraries.

Garden Grove mystery writer Patricia McFall, who served as the calendar’s editor and publisher, said several hundred more dollars will go toward the purchase of mystery books for the Los Angeles County Public Library.

The 13-month calendar featured black-and-white photos of Jerome Doolittle, Earl Emerson, Parnell Hall, Gar Anthony Haywood, Jeremiah Healy, Sam Llewellyn, Peter McCabe, Grant Michaels, Robert Randisi, Peter Robinson, Alan Russell, Jesse Sublett and Stephen White.

The idea for the calendar was dreamed up at the Left Coast Crime mystery conference in Anaheim in 1993. Besides McFall, other key financial backers included Noreen Ayres and Maxine O’Callaghan, both of Mission Viejo, Jean Femling of Costa Mesa, Debra Mitsch of Mystery Ink in Laguna Beach, mystery fan Donna Fuller of Costa Mesa, Cheryl Pruett of the Orange County Public Library, and Kevin Moore of the Anaheim Public Library.

McFall is pleased with the profits generated by the calendar, which sold in bookstores for $10 to $15.

“We were selling these calendars for not very much money, so we did OK,” she said, adding that the calendar’s backers earned back their portion of the approximately $5,000 printing and mailing costs.

More than $2,500 for city and county Friends of the Library groups was also generated by an auction of mystery-related collectibles at the Left Coast Crime conference last year, which included an appearance by the Men of Mystery. And, McFall said, an unspecified amount of money was made from calendar sales by various Friends groups, which received the calendars at cost.

But beyond providing funds to buy books for the libraries, McFall said, a secondary goal in producing the calendar was to draw attention to the “desperate (financial) situation libraries are in.”

McFall, like her calendar colleagues, feels strongly about the role of public libraries. As she tells audiences whenever she speaks:

“The library should be the last building left standing in a democracy. . . . Personal accounts of authors such as James Baldwin indicate that they never would have become writers if they had not had all those free books to read.”

Plans are being made for a calendar sequel with a twist: It will feature the Women of Mystery. McFall said the new calendar will be produced by the staff of the Left Coast Crime conference to be held in Seattle in early 1997.

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Book Signings. Isabel Allende (“Paula”) will read and sign at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Santa Ana Public Library, 26 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana. . . . Colin Dexter (“The Daughters of Cain”) will sign at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange. Also at Book Carnival: Dick Lochte (“The Neon Smile”) and Timothy Hallinan (“The Bone Polisher”) will sign at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Richard Barre (“The Innocents”) will sign at 1 p.m. Sunday. . . . Mike Blake (“Baseball’s Bad Hops and Lucky Bounces”) will sign from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Brentano’s in South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa. He’ll also sign and speak from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Barnes & Noble in MainPlace/Santa Ana. . . . Ken Grimwood (“Replay,” “Into the Deep”) will sign from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Aladdin Books, 122 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton. . . . David Debin (“Murder Live at Five”) will sign at noon Sunday at Coffee, Tea & Mystery, 13232 Springdale St., Westminster.

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Poetry Readings. Bart Edelman will read and sign at 7 p.m. today at Barnes & Noble at MainPlace/Santa Ana. . . . Roger Angle and Maurya Simon will read at the PEN Orange County meeting at 8 p.m. Friday at the Bear Street Cafe in Crystal Court, 3000 Bear St., Costa Mesa. . . . Carol Kent Ireland and Don Fanning will perform their poetry at the Laguna Poets meeting at 8 p.m. Friday at Upchurch-Brown Booksellers, 384 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach. Admission: $3.

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Round Table. Betty Comden (“Off Stage”), William Eisner (“The Evigne Letters”), Lucinda Irwin Smith (“Women Who Write”) and Mike Blake (“Baseball’s Bad Hops and Lucky Bounces”) will discuss their books at the Round Table West literary luncheon at noon Thursday at the Balboa Bay Club, 1221 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. Cost: $35. For reservations, call (213) 256-7977.

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Writers’ Conference. Poetry, fiction, screenwriting and playwriting will be discussed at the annual writers’ conference at Chapman University on Saturday.

The daylong conference will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Argyros Forum on campus, 3333 N. Glassell St., Orange.

Among the 13 scheduled session leaders are: Martin Benson on regional theater productions, Douglas Stefen Borghi on writing and producing for television, Jay Gummerman on writing literary fiction, Ed Humes on the nonfiction novel, Alejandro Morales on cultural diversity in fiction, Tim Powers on writing science fiction and fantasy, Lisa Rafel on poetry and Susan Paterno on “watchdog” journalism.

Preregistration is $50; registration at the door is $60. For registration information, call (714) 997-6812.

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Crime Sisters. Libraries and technology will be discussed at the Orange County chapter of Sisters in Crime meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday in the community room of the Irvine Market Place, 4255 Campus Drive, Irvine.