Good news! Looks like business is picking up on the coast with two weeks of sunny weather. I had a call for more copies of Crossings: McCullough’s Coastal Bridges from a book store in Florence. And when I was making my calls the last couple of days for my trip covering Tillamook up through Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula, I got some new venues wanting books as well as some I had picked up when I was there last February that needed more. This is a good change.

Again I am late getting my blog written. Yesterday, I just tried to cram too much into one day. I met with Bob Serra, the publisher of Crossings, over some new things to promote Crossings and I had a new project to discuss with him. Then I just had to check out the “yarn bombing” of Florence’s Old Town during this Rhododendron Days celebration. This is new and just happened the other night. Sort of a flash-bombing with yarn! Changes afoot here too.  I’ve included some photos.

Bench turned into piano with carefully placed crocheted segments of yarn. Fabulous example of yarn bombing.

Lamp posts, sign posts, and even trees were decorated with yarn. They are all along Bay Street and should be up for at least a month.

As soon as I got home I hit the phone and finished the calls and preparation for my trip north. You know how it is, you have to make many calls to get few takers. I was doing fine working through my lists, until I called the Astoria Column. The call went through just fine, but when I sent the PR material plus a photo of the book via e-mail, it popped back immediately. So I checked to make sure I had no typos and tried again, and back it came. So I called back, and we agreed that I would Fax it. I tried once, and it didn’t go through. I tried again and no luck. I normally have no problem sending e-mails or faxes. So I put a question mark by the Column and went on to other venues. When I tried again later, the results were the same Very weird. I will stop by the Astoria Column, when I’m in Astoria and hope for better luck.

Then I got everything I needed ready: more PR sheets run off and stapled, more business cards run off and popped apart, and more invoices run off and numbered. Then I prepared all the invoices I knew I needed and made photocopies for myself. Then I made a list of every place I would be stopping with the contacts name and how many books they needed. Then I did another list breaking them into days. Then I had to figure out if I knew how to find each one and for those new ones, I ran off Google maps. In between all that, I had lunch and dinner and another trip into town to the bank for spending money, get gassed up, and to pick up some audio books for the trip at the library.

Next week, I’ll write about my trip north. It won’t be new territory this time, but there will be some new venues that either were closed last February or told me to stop by in May when “business picks up.”

This is pretty much what you’ve come to expect from my blog, which has been chronicling my adventures with promoting Crossings. Well, next week, I’ll be doing blog #52 and that will mark one year. And that will be the last of just chronicling the book. A year is enough. However, I will continue the blog, but it will cover more.

As an editor/staff writer at Oregon Coast magazine for 21 years and one who helped update the Mile by Mile Guide to the entire 363 miles of the coast most of those years, I learned a great deal and still remember much of it. So I’m going to be covering great places, events, etc to see and do that you might not find in most guides to the coast. These would be “what the locals know and may not want everyone else to know.”

For example, in Tillamook most people know about the Tillamook Cheese Factory and their free self-guided tours and their wonderful ice cream, but do you know about Blue Heron French Cheese Company. It’s a smaller operation, has wines as well as other-than-cheddar types of cheeses (Brie to die for), and has a petting area out back with various farm animals. I will try to stop by on this trip and no doubt, I’ll probably end up buying some Brie. Another great place in Tillamook is the Latimer Quilt & Textile Center. It is a place to learn about quilting and textiles with its displays, tours, and demonstrations and for the more serious–a place to take classes. It has become an absolute mecca for quilters in the Northwest.

On blog #53, I’ll be doing some of the lesser-known things to see and do in Astoria—one of my favorite places on the coast. Did you know it is the oldest city this side of the Rockies with a history that dates back to when Thomas Jefferson was president? It’s a fascinating place—especially for history buffs.

I will still be promoting my book and keep you updated, but I have new projects that I will also let you in on. Before this year is over, actually by fall, I hope to have a second book out regarding the Oregon Coast McCullough bridges. This will be a guide to all 12 bridges with interesting facts and some new info I’ve gleaned since writing Crossings. It will be smaller, less expensive, and very handy for those “hard-core bridge aficionados” as well as to the less hard-core. Along with guides to the lighthouses and coastal hiking trails, it should rank right up there among the most popular guides.

And a second project will be putting this past year’s blog together in book form. Several people have suggested that I do that, since it has good info for anyone wanting to promote their book. I won’t include every single blog, but a selected 25 or 30 that I feel will be most helpful. It will also have photos added to the blogs that did not have them.

There you have it. With change afoot, life is exciting!

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Crossings: McCullough’s Coastal Bridges can be yours for $24.95 plus $4.99 shipping. Order from Pacific Publishing at http://www.connectflorence.com or pacpub@oregonfast.net. It is also available on the coast in bookstores, museums, and gift shops; in Eugene at the airport, the historical museum, and several bookstores; in Portland at Powell’s and the Oregon Historical Society; in Made in Oregon stores throughout the state; and more and more bookstores, libraries, and museums in western Oregon.

Upcoming

June 1–14, various times, Portland Metro area––TV half hour with Dr. Veronica Esagui on the Author’s Forum program on Channel 23 (Comcast/Xfinity cable service) in Oregon City and West Linn. For the rest of the Metro area it can be seen on Channel 11 (Comcast/Xfinity) and Channel 22  (Frontier FiOS). All three are Community Access Network channels. It is also accessible online at http://veronicaesagui.net/authorsforum-index.html.

September or October, Oregon City––When the historic Arch Bridge designed by McCullough reopens in Oregon City (date not set yet), I have been asked to be part of the festivities and give my PowerPoint presentation at the Museum of the Oregon Territory.