As much as it pains me to admit it, I am still trying to recover from the biggest mistake I ever made.  Book-wise that is.  This was a mistake in judgment pure and simple.  My intentions were good but… we already know about that road to hell.  It all began in the 1990s when I was teaching several week-long Elderhostel classes each summer on the history of Oysterville.  My students — all adults who were probably, on average, ten years older than I was then, loved the classes and were interested in EVERYthing about Oysterville, oysters, and anything else related to our Peninsula.  They were eager for information but didn’t have the time to do deep research or get a full-sized book on any of the subjects they were curious about.  They just wanted some “down-and-dirty” basic information.

So… I conceived the idea of doing an ABC series — ABCs, in this case, standing for basic information, not for a cutesy children’s nursery book.  I began with C is for Cranberries, The A-B-Cs of Cranberries on the Long Beach Peninsula.  It was illustrated by my friend Gordon Schoewe and chock-full of factual information about the local cranberry industry — with as much quirky information thrown in as I could muster. (L … is for laws:  Two pieces of legislation have been written specifically for cranberries  FEDERAL-  Cranberries are considered an obligate wetlands plant and are, therefore, given congressional exemption for production on wetlands.  STATE – Growers on the Long Beach Peninsula may take sand from the beach to be used for sanding the bogs, a process which must be done when creating a new bog and every three or four years thereafter.)

I followed that up with I is for Indians, The A-B-Cs of the Chinook People in the lower Columbia River region. illustrated by Pat Fagerland.  Both she and I worked with the Chinook tribe to make sure we “got it right” and I’m pleased to say that the book is carried at the Chinook Tribal Office and Museum in Bay Center.  (C… is for Chinook: Chinook [chi – nook’] n.  Contrary to current usage, the ch in Chinook is given the hard ch pronunciation as in chin.  Only when used to mean a type of wind is the ch given the soft sound.)

P is for Papa Train, The A-B-Cs of the Long Beach Peninsula’s Narrow Gauge Railroad 1889-1930.) was illustrated by Scott Fagerland, then a 6th grader at Hilltop School in Ilwaco and is given credit on the back cover as an athlete, a musician and an artist. (G… is for gandy dancer — a laborer in a railroad section gang.)

O is for Oysterville, The A-B-Cs of Shoalwater Bay’s Oldest Community.  (H is for… hotels.  During Court Week there was dances twice a week.  Court didn’t last over a week at the outside.  Both hotels would be full and anybody who had rooms to spare would have a chance to rent them ot, too.  People who was workimg in oysters would stay at the hotels, the year around.  In them days, why people who come to the beach on holidays, they would usually bring their tent and stay for three months at Ocean Park and LongBeach.— A 1947 reminiscence by Dewitt Stoner Oysterville Resident 1884-1955.)

And maybe my favorite is K is for Kidnapping the County Seat, the A-B-Cs of Early Government in Pacific County, WA illustrated by Pat Fagerland with historical research by Larry Weathers.  (B is for… before.  Beginnings: Oregon Territory, 1848; Pacific County, 1851; Washington Territory – 1853; Washington State – 1889.)

No matter how much explaining I have done over the last twenty-five years, booksellers continue to place these books in the young children’s section.  Parents and grandparents take one look and realize that they would not be of interest to a three- or four-year-old, but it seldom occurs to them that adults — especially visitors or those new to the area — might find them highly informative and a quick way to get a historic overview of our area.

I will be selling them at the Book Fair on Saturday along with others of my 17 books that are currently in print.  Hope to see you then!

When it comes to writing, I’ve probably made more than my share of mistakes over the years.  Since my focus is history. errors “come with the territory” you might say, since new information constantly surfaces putting what once seemed definitive in a completely new light.  So I’m not talking those kinds of mistakes here.  No.  I’m talking mistakes in judgement — like the decision to write a series of books on basic facts about our Peninsula and present them in an ABC format.  It simply never occurred to me that people (including booksellers) would assume that they were children’s books.

They showed up in the children’s section of most bookstores, even though I had carefully explained to the booksellers that these were books for adults.  One look at the contents and the way in which the information is presented should have been enough…  But, no.  And even if they were placed with adult books, buyers by-passed them thinking they were mis-shelved.  “Whatever were you thinking?” you may ask.

Well… it was this way.  For a dozen or so years, I taught Elderhostel classes during the summer at the United Methodist Camp in Ocean Park.  My classes were on Historic Oysterville, but the students always had great interest in the entire area and asked a lot of great questions.  The information was readily available in many books and journals in the libraries and bookstores and museum archives, but the students didn’t really have time (or money) to invest in “real” research.  They wanted something basic — a simplified presentation of the nuts and bolts of our local history.  The ABCs  (as in basics) you might say.  And as I soon learned… a big mistake, at least marketing-wise.

Granted, some of the bookx did sell well enough to go out of print.  D is for Discovery — the A-B-Cs of the Lewis & Clark Expedition’s Winter on the Pacific Coast 1805 – 1806  and O is for Oysters: The A-B-Cs of Oystering on Willapa Bay both sold out —  the first during the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, and the second largely due to its availability at Oysterville Sea Farms during Dan Driscoll’s early years of ownership there.

I’m a little foggy about a few of the others — Perhaps O is for Oysterville: The A-B-Cs of the Peninsula’s Oldest Community and I is for Indians: The A-B-Cs of the Chinook People in the lower Columbia River Region also went out of print and were reprinted.  In the days when Nyel was my Business Manager, he handled those decisions and I just spent my time researching and writing and finding great illustrators.  Suffice it to say, that I have a goodly supply of most of the “Mrs. Stevens’ A-B-Cs left.

And, if still you doubt, thumb through a copy of any of “Mrs. Stevens’ A-B-Cs” and look at the information presented with its attendant vocabulary and concepts and you will understand that they are adult-oriented, though great to be used with children as a teaching/discussion tool. If I had an Air B’n’B or a summer cottage for family, I’d have every one of those ABC books available for visitor browsing.  You can’t beat them for a quick overview of facts and quirky information about this area that we love!