I surprised Bob Serra, my publisher at Pacific Publishing, by arriving at our meeting on February 19 with a bottle of bubbly (sparkling cider) and three crystal wine glasses. He could tell it wasn’t gonna be just any ol’ meeting. Each item on the agenda required drinking a toast. Patick Looney, his assistant, joined us. Sometimes it’s just fun to do the unexpected.

We drank to Crossings. We crossed the 2,000 mark last week and now we’re at 2,009. And that’s with no distributor and not on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. My bridge books are sold through independent bookstores, regional museums, tourist hotspots, Pacific Publishing, and me. I continue to be surprised that the sales of Crossings have kept up with those of The Crossings Guide. I had assumed that they would drop off. This past weekend was a good example. I sold 14 of the Guides and 16 of Crossings. (In last week’s post I put 29 books sold and actually it was 30. Math was never my strong point.)

Bob and I toasted each item on the agenda. And Patrick took the photo.

We drank to The Crossings Guide. I gave Bob the go-ahead to order 1,000 more copies of the Guides since we are down to about 130 copies. It was only last January that we received 1,000 copies of our first edition. I don’t want to get below 100 and it will be five weeks or so before the new books will be here. I have two corrections to make, so this will be a second edition.

* First correction. I assumed that the Wilson River Bridge had undergone the restoration and cathodic protection because of an ODOT report that stated that nine bridges completed the process. They counted the McCullough Memorial Bridge over Coos Bay because it was half done. I didn’t. I figured the ninth bridge was the Wilson River Bridge. About a month ago I saw an ODOT report and figured it out, and then verified it with an email to my contact at ODOT. Never assume anything!

* Second correction. I thought I knew about the turnoff for Rocky Creek Bridge. You don’t turn off at Rocky Creek Wayside like I thought and then immediately turn south on Otter Crest Loop. You take the Otter Crest Loop turnoff right from the highway. I was sure I had taken it from the wayside, but apparently not. When I’m really sure of something, I don’t always check it out. Hmm! This “sure thing” was wrong!

Both mistakes make me feel so stupid. The good news is that they are the only mistakes I’ve found in The Crossings Guide, and no one has brought any others to my attention. So if any of you out there see anything else incorrect let me know ASAP. Patrick will be putting in the changes this week. And within the next week or so, we’ll be placing the order for the new edition.

We drank to Around Florence. On Monday of this week, I got word that the publication date will be July 14. That means that books will arrive about then. So I will plan “launch” activities for the following weekend and the next couple of weeks. I had hoped and actually expected it to be around May 1. That way the books would’ve been here for the Rhody Festival. That was the whole idea behind such a short turn-around time in getting this book ready. Oh well!! July is good.

Although Around Florence is being published by Arcadia Press, not Pacific Publishing, I had hired Parick to do a lot of the scanning and formatting of each of the 183 photos. He also collected them into chapters and had them ready to send as needed. And all of the work was done at the Pacific Publishing office with Bob’s okay. So Pacific Publishing did have some involvement.

We drank to Colorful Animals I Have Known. I had discussed this book with Bob last year and mentioned recently that I was working on it again. At this meeting, I asked him officially to be the publisher. I updated him on what I had done so far, and we had some preliminary discussions.

So the fun continues!