Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Moaning’s for July 7, 2025
I have been very fortunate to have had six previous local history books published by Arcadia Publishing since 2019, and nothing compares to the feeling when the first package of finished books are delivered to my door. All the work, research, time, love, and aggravation in bringing this ‘new baby’ to life, Arcadia will then compensates you by giving you the first five copies that are printed, and don’t mistake my thoughts, this is what you wait for!
Working on these books, takes about 6 to 8 months of my time, when all your time is focused on getting the written work on the page and for me with the lighthouse books, making sure the right lighthouse goes with the correct postcard. And getting the written material correct! Then you wait for roughly 6 months, for Arcadia to go through your written work and give you a copy of a rough draft of what your book will look like. You then go through their draft, answer their questions as to why you might have done, such and such. You look for corrections and no matter how diligent you are in looking for mistakes, there is always some silly ones that need attention. After you have completed that portion, it is sent back to the publisher for another review, and when that is completed you are sent your last correct manuscript, and now it has to be as corrected as it is going to be, because it’s now going to print.
The publication date for ‘Lighthouses of the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States’ is the 29th of July. This is the last of the four lighthouse books I decided to bring to light. It covers as many lighthouses in vintage postcards for the different parts of the United States as has been possible to gather. The states covered in this book are Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the Gulf States (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.)
The lighthouses on the Southern Atlantic coast are built and maintained with their sandy shores that create never ending continual erosion of the soil, and they have different difficulties, such as the years of the Civil War and the hurricanes than you would find on the Pacific coast lights with their high rocky cliffs and earthquakes. In Michigan, we have many pier lights in the water on the Great Lakes, as well as some on sandy beaches, where erosion also takes its toll. My hope is if you are able to get a chance to see with the different area books, how the landscape of the United States can change from coast to coast, and have an effect on the many lighthouses that have guarded the coastal waters in and around this country.
On this ‘wee note’ till next month Monday August 4, 2025.
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Linda Osborne Cynowa 