Bringing Murderers, Martians & Mummies to South Carolina

Aliens & Alibis Books in Columbia, South Carolina, is the joint venture of mother-and-son team Deb Andolino and Gary McCammon. The store, which opened on May 1, 2005, specializes in mystery, fantasy, and science fiction books, both new and used.

According to McCammon, he and Andolino decided to open the store when they both realized they "weren't getting a lot out of our jobs." Self-proclaimed "bookaholics," McGammon was working in retail, and Andolino, in the health insurance field.

The two rented a 2500-square-foot carpeted store in a strip mall behind one of the large local indoor malls. The strip mall was largely abandoned by retailers, and many of the buildings had been taken over by Blue Cross/Blue Shield for office space. The hundred or so employees of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, "our captive audience," McCammon joked, are entitled to a 10 percent store discount.

McCammon described some of the idiosyncrasies of the space on his Aliens and Alibis blog http://aabsc.blogspot.com/: "Our location is an ex-clothing store, which evidently at one point was two separate sections. One of the previous tenants modified the location by putting up 2 x 4-and-drywall partitions, creating changing rooms in the central area. They must have had plenty of access to wallpaper remnants as well, since I counted eight different types of wallpaper they used, from a fairly reasonable "world map" design to a "cobblestone wall" design for the back room.... a very peculiar design sense, to put it mildly."

Mother-and-son store cats Serena above, and Bertie below.

Photos and descriptions of Aliens & Alibis' other mother-and-son team -- bookstore cats Serena and Bertie -- have a prominent place on the blog.

Andolino is the store's mystery expert and McCammon handles the science fiction and fantasy. "We only carry a few books outside of our areas of expertise," McCammon told BTW. "We will special order a book if a customer requests it, and we'd like to continue to expand our inventory and have a small separate section called 'Now for something completely different.' We also have true crime and books such as Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (by Mary Roach Norton)."

"Book Sense has been wonderful for us," said Andolino. "We look forward to the new boxes during the month. We also look forward to the Bookselling This Week e-mails to give us information about what's new.

"Our membership in ABA and being able to be a part of Book Sense are valuable tools for us: We use Atlas Paper Company for our bags and LIBIRIS as our store insurance company -- both recommended by ABA."

Andolino continued, "I have just returned from SEBA and took advantage of the class on co-op that was offered prior to the trade show. I think I finally understand it. Unfortunately, Gary had to stay back to mind the store and feed the cats."

McCammon told BTW that he plans to continue chronicling the store's activities on his blog and to include book reviews. An online newsletter will also include special events and reviews. But for now, anything other than the day-to-day running of the store and reading as many books as possible, must take a back seat. --Nomi Schwartz