MYSTERY FLORIDA started as the shared whim of a few men on Longboat Key who had three things in common:  a love for tales of mystery and suspense, reverence for John D. Macdonald and The Liars Club, and all were devout customers of Lido Key indie bookseller, Circle Books.  From that combination, a conference was developed.   It would bring authors, fans and aspiring writers together in a forum that would explore technical structure, muse and craft.  Circle Books would arrange an on-site sales kiosk.  Writers would be honored for their talent.  And any profits would go to support the literary programs of two independent libraries, Longboat Library and Tingley Memorial Library.

What that year’s small hotel failed to mention was that it was in a pre-demolition stage, and all that remained of its entry sign on U.S. 41 was an empty support pole.  Tim Dorsey - always a glass-half-full kinda guy - declared that the mystery of 2005 was finding the hotel.  In an empty executive suite, Tim led a contingent of six writers who spoke freely that year with an audience of 25-30.  The libraries were surprised and delighted to receive modest but heartfelt checks, a Board of Directors was elected to make it official, and a mystery conference was born on the Gulf Coast.

Seven years later, MYSTERY FLORIDA 2011 will welcome back some of the original “demolition” writers, and greet others that are new to the conference.  The conference is now a 2-day affair, and for the first time, it will also offer a 2-day Writers Clinic, under the direction of celebrated author and mentor, Les Standiford.  The Circle Books kiosk has grown into a full-service onsite portable bookseller.  Technical panels will feature forensics experts, “special capacities” agents from the FBI, literary agents, editors, and publishing executives.   A Page-to-Stage-and-Screen forum is offered through our partnership with the Sarasota Film & Entertainment Office.   Over its relatively short lifetime, MYSTERY FLORIDA has also supported the launch of a competitive upstart genre publisher, Oceanview Publishing, and fostered the careers and publication deals for new writers H. Terrell Griffin and Ward Larsen.  And it’s easy now to find the hotel, the 4-star Hyatt Regency Sarasota, where the downtown hub disappears into the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

But some things blissfully remain the same.  We’re driven by the interests and needs of our audience. These great writers of mystery and suspense are and will always be our force and focus.  The spirit of John D. Macdonald still lives, both in the legacy of the genre and in the meaning of the conference.

And two small libraries are very happy and grateful to receive those heartfelt annual checks which, to everyone’s credit, have grown decidedly larger.