Year round book fairs?

Yes, Big Noodle Books has them. I searched and both State of Wilderness and State of Quarries are available. The best part of it is you can sign up with your school and earn money for them. If you purchase certain titles during "book fair weeks," more funds go to the school. I can't think of a better way to have a book fair with very minimal work on the school's part. Everything is online and they boast over 300,000 titles and growing and not all books are for kids. Parents can shop for themselves as well. They have categories like crafts & hobbies, adventure, juvenile fiction, sports & recreation. There are plenty of books to browse through.

If your school isn't aware of this site, check it out and recommend that your school be involved as well. Everyone wins - kids, parents, schools. Hope to see you all there. Thanks to Elizabeth Dulemba for the heads up. Mrs. E :)


UPDATE (04/24/2010): This morning I decided to check out all of 4RV's books on the site and all but about five or so are listed with Big Noodle Books. How cool is that? I'm not sure how to get those that aren't listed there but I may have to contact them and find out so that everyone in the company is represented. (Books not found on the site include Just Breeze, Trockle, Bubba and Giganto, Case of the Missing Coach, The Base Stealers Club and of course Midnight Hours and Confessions of a Former Rock Queen.) It's awesome to have almost every book in the company on this website. Thanks Big Noodle Books for carrying the 4RV books. - E :)

State of Quarries Review (and 200th post)

If you all have been following Lori Calabrese's blog, you will have seen her review of State of Quarries today. If not, I encourage you all to stop by her blog and read her fun review of the second book in the series. One of these days, I would like to meet her in person as she really seems to have a handle on how to market herself. I'm looking forward to her book, The Bug that Plaqued the Entire Third Grade, comes out. She comes across as a very phenomenal woman. Praise to you, Lori.


This is my 200th blog posting since starting this blog. How fun for it to be a review of my second book. I should run a small contest but not sure what to do, so if anyone has any ideas of something to do in celebration of the 200th blog posting, let me know.

Lemonade anyone? National lemonade day coming

I subscribe to a newsletter geared for homeschoolers called "clickschooling" but some of the sites she sends us to are pretty cool. I had to share this with you all since it sounds like a fun and interesting way to get your kids involved in the community and make a little bit of money.


Now, you may ask, "What's Lemonade Day?"

It's a real nation-wide event that trains the next generation of entrepreneurs through a fun and experiential activity that teaches kids skills such as:

- Goal Setting
- Developing a Business Plan
- Establishing a Budget
- Seeking Investors
- Providing Customer Service
- Giving Back to the Community

On May 2nd, 2010 in a handful of cities across America (with the exception of the festivities in Durham, North Carolina on May 1st, and the celebration in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 15th), young entrepreneurs of all ages can participate by setting up a lemonade stand and selling lemonade in their community.

Kids pick the time and location of their choice to set up and run their lemonade stand - and they keep what they earn!

And in the spirit of a true business, they are encouraged to open a savings account, pay back investors, and make a further investment in their community by donating a portion of their profits to a charity of their choice.

Of course, kids will need adult supervision, sponsors, investors, employees, and customers!

To help kids get started, Lemonade Day provides registered participants (in the sponsoring cities) with a free how-to "Entrepreneur's Workbook" containing instructions and lesson plans that combine academics and life skills to help students accomplish their goal. Details on how to register are at LemonadeDay.org.

Now, while "Lemonade Day" may not be "officially" celebrated in your city, you can still play the free online games and put what you learn into practice by setting up your own independent lemonade stand on May 2nd - or any time of year!

Check out the Lemonade day link for more information on how to register as well as "official cities" but some fun games as well.






If you homeschool, you may want to subscribe to Diane's Clickschooling newsletter and get daily curriculum ideas. She has it set up so that Monday is math, Tuesday is science, Wednesday is language arts, Thursday is social sciences, Friday is virtual field trip day (I think these are pretty cool), and Saturday is music/art/foreign language day. She had an interesting site for one of the Thursdays and I'm still trying to figure out how to turn one of my clues in book #5 into a historical investigator type activity. I'm working on it but if interested in the "cases" they have available right now, you can check out this website and maybe do some historical invesstigating of your own.

Hope you all participate and that your lemonade is not too sour nor too sweet, but just right - Let's make some lemonade - Mrs. E :)

It's blog tour time

I'm featured on Martha Swirzinski's blog today with an interview by her daughter and a review of State of Wilderness and State of Quarries. Come on over and leave a comment - see you in the postings - E :)

New Phone Number

If you have my old phone number and have not received an email or seen the announcement on my facebook page, please visit my website for an updated phone number. Apparently there was a reactivation error (more like computer glitch) which failed to allow me to activate my phone with the same number today and the only way to have an active phone was to get a new number. If you need to contact me by phone, the number is on the home page and school visits page of my website. Otherwise, you can always contact me by email at eeldering@gmail.com - thanks - E :)

FREE workshop for beginning children's writers

Just announced on Karen Cioffi's blog - a free workshop for beginning writers or just about anyone else who is interested. Here are the details:

Writing for Children – A Beginner's Workshop by Karen Cioffi

To register for this FREE workshop to be held in the password protected room in our MuseitOnline Conference General Forum, go here.

You will need to register by giving yourself a username & password, wait for a confirmation that you have been accepted (in your email), then you can link into our forum (the password for the FREE workshop forum will be issued to all who register a few days before the workshop begins).


Once you're registered send Lea Schizas (email addy museitupeditor@yahoo.ca) the following within the body of an email:

Your name

Your email

Place Karen Cioffi on the subject heading


WORKSHOP INFO:

Do you want to write? Do you want to write for children? Have you written a children's story or other fiction story and aren't sure if it's in good enough shape to submit to agents or publishers? Do you know proper punctuation and formatting? Do you know how to show rather than tell?

While this workshop is geared specifically for new children's writers, it offers the basics of writing in general with additional information for the children's writer. Some of what will be included is:

The different genres of children's writing

Point of View (POV) when writing for children

Basic structure, formatting and timeframe (for all genres)

Basic grammar and punctuation (for all genres)

Different methods of writing (for all genres)

Building a three-dimensional character (for all genres)

Showing vs. Telling (for all genres)

Finding age appropriate words

Resources and tools to help you hone your craft (all genres)

This workshop will provide the basics to get you started in the right direction. You will also have the opportunity to get a critique of up to 250 words of your manuscript or article.

KAREN'S BIO: Karen Cioffi is a published author, writer-for-hire, freelance writer, and reviewer. She is the founder and manager of VBT Writers on the Move (a group of authors utilizing cross-promotion to increase visibility and readership) and on the team at DKV Writing 4 U where you can sign up for her FREE monthly newsletter. You can read more about Karen here.

Handout: (an exercise sheet and an ebook of writing instruction)

Door prize: Two ebooks

Writing, Publishing, and Marketing – You Can Do It
A Writing ebook (a compilation writing articles - untitled right now)

This will be a great workshop to get you started on the road to publication and make you aware of your options. It's also a great place to learn before you think about self-publishing. It will also have some marketing tips and guidance. And, obviously a place to get some of your questions answered.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Author, writer-for-hire, freelance writer, reviewer

Karen's website
Karen's other website
Health Information and Options website


I look forward to seeing you all there since I'm supposed to be helping Karen out with the workshop and I've provided some information for her. Maybe I'll contribute to the ebook doorprize. Anyway, I hope to see some of my readers there and while you're at the MuseitOnline website, why not register for the free conference, which occurs in October, that Lea Schizas and Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Lots of wonderful information to be shared with writers from every walk of life. Hope to see you all at the writing workshop on May 1. Keep on writing and see you in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Tried "Road Trip" yet?

If you've tried the game from the activity booklet, there are some corrections that need to be made. The booklet is available on my website.

If anyone has downloaded the activity booklet and worked the "Road Trip" game and came up with a different route (that works) other than what is listed in the answer key, please feel free to email me (eeldering at gmail dot com) your solution, so I can add all the possible solutions as an updated file. As of today, April 8, 2010, I have about 26 solutions working with the possibility of more. So please drop me an email if you have come up with different routes. (There are four routes possible starting in the middle of the country - Ks or MO and going through Canada a third time to connect MI with ME, albeit a longer trip - lol; there are at least eight routes starting in ME and ending in FL as well as starting in ME and ending in TX). I'm adding new ones as I find them. I will post a completed revised answer sheet soon (on the website with a link to a shared file on box.net) when I feel that I've exhaused the routes.

Here is a suggestion for the map - if you don't want to use the one in the booklet - get a small laminated map that you can use either a dry erase or wet erase marker on and keep track of your route that way. When you are finished and satisfied that you have hit every state only one time on the route (but can enter Canada more than once if need be), then write your answers down and check them in the back. If they don't match, drop me a note and I'll let you know if that is one of the new acceptable routes. I'd love to hear from you all on the routes you come up with for the "Road Trip" game. Mrs. E & the JGDS