Greetings from Ocean Shores, Washington!
It wasn’t pretty, but I made it to Ocean Shores. I arrived at 2am local time–twenty-four hours after my alarm clock had gone off in Massachusetts–tired but relieved to have made it in time (by six hours) for the Beachcomber Fun Fair.
The fair is an annual event, two-thousand visitors strong, in which the community of Ocean Shores celebrates living on the beach. There are seminars on ocean topics and booths at which beachcombers and environmental groups show their wares. I attended in 2005 while researching TRACKING TRASH, and fair organizers invited me back this year to introduce the book to a community who would surely embrace it.
I arrived at the fair as bright-eyed as I could manage on five hours sleep … only to find that my books had not arrived. That’s right, no books. I was very brave. I set out the lone copy of TRACKING TRASH I had brought with me, a stack of TRACKING TRASH bookmarkers, and I set my computer to display my school visit slide presentation on auto loop. Vendors I had met during my 2005 visit donated interesting things to display on my table, and the kind folks from the Ocean Shores Interpretive Center, who had assembled an impressive collection of ocean and nature-themed books to sell at the fair, posted a sign that said they were taking TRACKING TRASH orders.
It turns out that fifty copies of TRACKING TRASH were sitting in a UPS center seventy miles from the fair … and UPS doesn’t deliver on Saturdays. Luckily, the people of Ocean Shores are a rare and generous breed. Mr. Walter Weed, a volunteer at the Ocean Shores Interpretive Center and the man who selects all the books for the fair book sale, was determined that I would have books to sign. He and his wife Ilone drove 140 miles round trip on Saturday morning just to collect them. I am still astounded by their generosity. By 1pm, my table was stacked high with fifty copies of TRACKING TRASH. And by the close of the fair yesterday there were only four copies left. Walter asked me to sign those so he could sell them at the Interpretive Center bookshop. Rare and generous people, I tell you. Rare and generous.
Here are other people and moments I won’t forget:
A man named Russ showed up at my table early on Saturday, when there were no books to sell. I had met Russ in 2005 and was glad to see him again … because a photo of him appears in the book. I put my copy of the book in his hands and asked him to look at the bottom of page three. He was tickled!
Rob and Kelli, who kept returning to my table in anticipation of the books’ arrival, and who, in the end, bought the very first public copy I ever signed. Thank you Rob and Kelli!
I signed a book for Ellen, who returned to my table a short time later to tell me it was “just wonderful!” Apparently she had sat in a quiet corner of the fair and read the entire thing. As she left the fair later in the day, she strolled by again, this time to introduce her husband Peter. “My homework tonight is to read your book,” he told me with a smile. “She insists.” The next morning they were back. Peter took his turn praising TRACKING TRASH, and then he politely pointed out a typographical error (I knew about it), a grammatical error (I missed it), and a small clarification that he would suggest for the next printing (thank you, Peter). See what I mean about rare and generous?
I was totally unprepared for my urges to give the book away. Seriously. There were several children who came by the table throughout the weekend to thumb through the book. They chatted with me and were so very thoughtful and interesting. I wanted to tuck a copy into their hands and say, “Take this! Read it later and write to me … tell me what you think!”
And then there was the moment Dr. Ebbesmeyer, the oceanographer whose passion for his work was the inspiration for TRACKING TRASH, came over to tell me how proud he was of the book, and how proud his parents would have been to see it. “You did a good job,” he said. “A real good job.” And with those words the three-year odyssey that was the creation of my first book for children was wonderfully and beautifully complete.
Now what? Bringing the book to kids, of course. Stay tuned …