Plan ahead!

First, an event coming very soon - The Roald Dahl day. This is September 13 and you can find activities and other info here.

Two events coming in October. First, Eric Carle, author of "The Hungry Catepillar" day, October 8. Check out the info here.

And something closer to my heart, National Day on Writing, October 20. For more info, tips, and flyers, click here.

So mark your calendars and plan on participating in one or all events. Mrs. E :)

Mint Hill Art (or Sunday Afternoon) in the Park

Through an accidental finding from another author's website, I found this little outdoor activity. I will be participating this coming Sunday with a table set up with activities for the kids and chances to win puzzles and flag pens. If you are in the Charlotte, NC, area or even close to Mint Hill, stop by between 1 and 6 p.m. and visit with the many artists who will be there. I will hopefully be sharing a tent space with Joyce and Jim Lavene. Hope to see you all there - E :)

AnAuthor World Conference

What can I say, this was awesome. I met Carol Baldwin who has a curriculum for teachers to teach students to write short stories, and this was perfect since I'm working with Mr. Hughes and his sixth grade class during their writing time. I did purchase her book but after going through it, it looks like I may need to purchase another copy so that he can have a copy and I can have one and hopefully this will be some guidelines to help the students write the best stories they can this year.

Vonda Skelton was the keynote and she was awesome as well, even though she did get a bit emotional when talking about her sister and something that just dawned her while she was speaking.

I sat in Pam's morning class about writing articles or stories for magazines. That was very informative too. I don't have much time to write articles or stories for magazines but it could be something to fall back on.

I met some really cool people and gave my books to a retired school teacher in Atlanta area who is going to put them in the hands of the right people - lol. See contacts and getting in the right hands is everything - right place, right time.

If any of you are in the area, I suggest you follow the link (please click on title to be taken to the website for AnAuthor World) and keep checking back for updated events occurring with these folks. Talk was in November they are doing an illustrator's conference with the possibility of having Melinda Long there. I met her at the SCWW conference a couple of years ago. I hope I get a chance to catch up with her then. Fingers crossed.

Overall, this was an awesome, awesome, day. Check back for more updates - E :)

SC Welcome Center event

The Welcome Center was steady busy at times and then slow at times. I think Lynda did well because she was going out to meet the folks with the dogs and giving them dog biscuits. I found it more difficult to give away my freebies but I did get my bookmarks in the hands of a few good folks. And to you all, I thank you for stopping by. I hope you will keep me in mind and had fun taking my quiz and winning a puzzle. See you all in the postings - E :)

Book Masons weblog - check it out

Yvonne Mason, from the ning social group Book Masons, has started a weblog - featuring all the authors who have joined the ning group. Click on the link to check out all my info in one spot. I'm impressed with her doing such a wonderful job of featuring authors. Check out all the wonderful books and authors she has listed on her site - E :)

Love to Learn Homeschool Info and Conference

I had a pretty decent time at the above conference. I would have liked to have seen more sales but such is life. I think making contact and seeing how people were reacting to the books and all is helpful. I may need to make my study guides longer because they seem to pale against others I've seen out there. I just don't know how to do that yet. I think having more books out next year will be helpful and so my goal is to be ready next year. I hope to see lots of new faces next year also. I think the crowd was a lot less than expected for several reasons but maybe next year will see double or triple folks.

While I was away this weekend, not having internet access, I topped 3000 hits on my blog - so a milestone was met and I missed it - lol - Next one 3500; so I am on my way - see you all in the postings - E :)

Followers, readers, et cetera?

Looking at my stats, I have 25 followers on this blog, three email subscribers and only 30 members on my newsletter forum. I'm open to suggestions to get more readers/email subscribers here and more interested in my newsletter. I haven't really done a formal newsletter of late because of there not being much news going on.

I hope you all are anticipating new books in the series as they come out. If not, what can I do to make the blog more interesting and keep you coming back and referring this blog and my website to your friends? The series is geared for fourth through sixth graders but everyone who has read the first two books has enjoyed them. I have several folks begging me for the next one.

Please comment here or send me an email (eeldering@gmail.com) with any suggestions on how to get more traffic to my blog and to my website as well as interested in the newsletter. I appreciate all you readers and followers. Please bring some more in. - Mrs. E :)

JGDS newsletter of sorts

This is a busy month for the JGDS and me personally. I've fallen behind on my newsletter but figured I would do an update here and hopefully folks will see what's going on.


August is one of those crazy months and now that we are getting back into the swing of band camp and other activities, things are even crazier.

The JGDS will be making several appearances over the next few weeks so hopefully, we will be recognized soon.

August 8th - Love to Learn Homeschool Info & Resource conference, Charlotte NC, from 8:30 to 5. This will hopefully be my break and allow me to get my foot in the door. I don't feel I have enough books and teacher's guides going but I can't afford more, so I'll have to hope I sell out and am taking orders which would be a good thing. The flip side would be not to sell anything but I have hopes, so we should sell something at least.

August 8th - 4RV will be at the Eastern Oklahoma Author Festival in Tahlequah, OK. So if you are in the area, stop by and visit with Vivian and other 4RV authors who will be present. My books will be there but I won't be able to sign them - sorry guys.

August 14 - Katie Hines (4RV author), Lynda Lippman-Lockhart and I will be at the SC Welcome Center in Fairplay (I-85 northbound coming in from Georgia) from 1:30 to 4:30 promoting all books. The theme this month for the welcome center is "Cool it in South Carolina" and so we are adding a twist to that by saying - "Cool it with a good book in South Carolina". So if you are interested in having some books to browse through, stop by and see what 4RV has to offer.

August 15 - John Jeter (another author) will be at the SC Welcome Center promoting his books, again from 1:30 to 4:30. Stop by to see what he has to offer.

August 15 - I will be attending the AnAuthor World mini conference in Greenville, SC. This is more for fun for me but also hopefully an in to doing some guest speaker spots too. I know one of the coordinators of this program.

September 5-6 - Charlotte Literary Festival, Charlotte, NC - 12 noon to 6 p.m. both days. This is being held at the Charlotte Convention Center. 4RV will have a booth and hopefully Katie Hines (Guardian) and Rich Aaron (Would A Kangaraffe Make you Laffe?) will be able to make appearances and help out in the booth over the weekend. More on this as details are revealed to me.


My August calendar really looks full because of Sisters in Crime meeting, SCWW writers group meetings, school registration, school starting and doctors' appointments, along with eye appointments for new glasses for everyone. Of course with school starting comes band stuff, so my weekends from the middle of September to the end of October will be full, either with competitions or appearances.

4RV News: We have had several titles released in the last couple of months. Check out the website for more details to see what is availble. Vivian has closed submissions for children's books until sometime next year but is still looking for other genres. If interested, check out the website for the submission guidelines.


State of Reservations is supposed to be in the process of being edited but apparently the edits have been lost in the mail and so I don't have the second set yet. As soon as they come to me, I will work on getting them completed and back to the editors for one more edit (I think that is the process). I don't know where Aidana is on the illustrations for that so not sure when State of Reservations will be released. Will keep you all posted on that.

If you haven't had a chance to check out my website, take a gander. I've added all the state activity booklets for you to print to keep the kids occupied. You can print several of the states or just the state you are from. That is up to you. I also have added a buy button on the front page to order State of Wilderness and State of Quarries. Let me know what you think of the website.


And last but not least, we have a title for state #4. I liked my choice of State of Heights (elusive and not really giving anything away), but Vivian didn't like that and neither did Aidana, so they decided it would be titled ------ State of Altitude (I'm afraid too many will know from the title alone and not pick the book up to read it, but that is my opinion). I know what the cover illustrations will be and can't wait to see the cover. I think Aidana has her "models" ready and is ready to do the cover.

That is the update of what is going on with us - see you all in the postings - enjoy - Mrs. E and the JGDS - E :)