First look with Kathleen Dixon.

Washington Island, Wisconsin -

A Wisconsin Commercial Ports Association annual meeting was held here Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, with representatives of many of Wisconsin's ports, governmental agencies and professionals who design and build port structures, including dredging.

The conference ended at noon, Friday, and when I went to the Island Ferry Office I learned that my anticipated book shipment of three pallets had arrived late the previous afternoon.   Our crew had put the books in the steel storage building.   Because one pallet held just four cartons, I placed those boxes on my truck.  On the way home I decided to stop first at Kathleen Dixon's IslandTime bookshop, next to Red Cup Coffee and the Post Office.

There, in front of her store, we opened up one of the boxes.  This was the first time either of us had a chance to see the finished product.  I had expectations and knew what it should look like.  Kathleen had   taken a number of advance orders from customers, but she hadn't seen any of the material, other than my description of its contents.   She hailed Cooper Henkel, who was sitting nearby on the Red Cup porch, to take several photos.

Small book shops are important for the sale of books of regional interest, I've found, and although I've developed a website that will now permit direct sales by credit card, many local readers and island visitors enjoy browsing and picking up books with a local flavor where they can thumb the cover and scan pages.  Right now, for a few days at least, Kathleen's shop will be the only store handling the book.  When I have more time, in the coming week, this book will become be available at other outlets, including mainland book shops.

Next Saturday, September 21, I'll have a signing party at the Ferry Terminal lobby, from 2:30 to 5:00 pm.

I should mention that Kathleen is a valuable member of the Island Literary Festival Committee.   She has been a participant with the Key West Literary Festival for many years, and she knows how such an event can be successfully run.  Her knowledge of writers - local, statewide and national - is tremendous.  Naturally, I'm pleased that she mentions my name to her customers.  Many people I've met aboard the Karfi this past summer received book information from Kathleen, along with her recommendation.

So, after several hours Friday spent fulfilling my own backlogged list of customer orders, I have, more or less, two pallets of about 1400 books remaining to be sold.  I expect this to be a long-term process, over several years, maybe.  But we're off to a great start, and I'm looking forward to receiving reader book orders and comments.

  -  Dick Purinton         [For book and order information go to:    www.RichardPurinton.com]