Followers?

I've just checked and only two persons have been added since posting my little "contest", so I think I'll extend this until the end of the year and do my drawing in January. Come on teachers, homeschoolers, and anyone who likes geography - follow the blog or even sign up for the email notifications to be kept abreast of what is going on with the squad and new title releases. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Come find out what "The Perfect Gift" is all about

Come visit me on Donna McDine's Golden Pathway blog and see what the perfect gift is, just in time for the holiday giving season - hope to see you all there - Mrs. E :)

Savannah Children's Book festival

I'm a little late posting this but overall the day was fun. I talked to a lot of people, sold a few books and had a good contact, although I wish I had gotten more contact information from him so that I could followup on his statement. Mr. Bob bought a copy of Train of Clues to take to school, stating that he was a 5th grade teacher (yay!! because the series are perfect for that grade) and that he was on the committee that buys books for the classes and library, not sure if it is district wide or just his school. Anyway, he said they had a meeting last week and that he was definitely going to make sure my books made their way into the school. So, hopefully that will be coming soon. I'm sure it is a process to go through to get books approved for classroom use and to have in the library and all, but this could be a little break that I need to get started.

I'm glad Benjamin went me this year as having him sitting at the table allowed me more freedom to walk around and see some acquaintances and friends and make a few new ones on the way.

I saw some signage I would like to have - Meet the Author, book signing type things but that will have to wait until I get some decent orders and the series starts taking off or until next spring when I start all over again with the homeschool conferences and other events I plan on attending.

Here are a few pictures from the event - enjoy - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E & the JGDS :)


This is my table setup from the front side showing my map. The map is getting a bit used since I am hanging it on all my table displays wherever I go; I'll have to replace it with a new map soon - lol (thank goodness for Dollar Tree - yep, that map came from Dollar Tree with my wording added to it).




This is the "freebie" banner I ordered from vistaprint (my cost came out to about $10 for shipping and the plastic grommets that are self adhesed to the banner - not bad for a "freebie") Eventually the banner and map will be together as a meet the author type banner on a stand -






A friend of a friend (a new friend to me) took this one while I was away from the table of Benjamin - as you can see there was a bit of a crowd there while I was gone.


Overall it was a good day and hopefully Mr. Bob will come through with a nice order for the first five books for the school/district/libraries. See you in the postings - Mrs. E & the JGDS :)

Fifth book - State of Heights - released

In honor of the fifth book being released, I'm going to conduct a little contest. Between now and the end of the month, my goal is reach 100 followers on the blog. Winner will win a copy of "Train of Clues" and a USA map puzzle along with a few other goodies. I only need 62 more followers, so tell your friends. Don't forget to sign up for email notifications too so that you can keep abreast of the upcoming releases and all things to do with the JGDS series. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E & the JGDS - :)

Savannah bound

This weekend is the Savannah Children's book festival in Savannah, Ga. Last year was my first year to attend this gathering and I only had two copies of books going down with me (although I did find out about two weeks after that I had more copies in my car which I could have sold at the time) and sold both of them and would have sold more had I had the five copies I found later. This year I'm going down with proof copies of State of Successes and State of Heights along with about 12 copies of State of Reservations, four copies of State of Wilderness and only two copies of State of Quarries. I also have two copies each of "Train of Clues" and of the Passport booklet. I've been having dreams that several teachers have stopped by and ordered "class copies" (that's at least 10 of each title, but some have been more), and hope this means that the weekend proves to be better than last year's events. If you are a teacher out there, you are always welcome to check out my website for all the specials I'm running. I'm offering a 10% discount on multi-copy orders of one title (at least 10 copies must be ordered to receive the discount) and I've got a special deal on the first three books in the series when ordered together along with a deal for ordering the remaining 47 books in the series with the 47th book being published about this time in 2019.

I am also hoping that my books do really take off that by the time my son graduates in 2013 I can quit working full-time and start traveling. I'd love to do several weeks a month of just visiting schools and traveling to all the states.

If you are in the Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida area and would like a fun place to be, come visit all the authors and illustrators at the Savannah Children's Book Festival this Saturday from 10 to 4. There are all kinds of activities for the kids and I'm sure there is a little something for everyone's interests.

State of Heights proof copy ordered

State of Heights was proof copy ordered today so hopefully that will be released next week for purchase. This is the fifth book in the series. So far this year, State of Reservations, State of Successes and State of Heights have (will be) released along with Train of Clues (the story that started it all) and my Passport Across America (a supplement to keep track of the books in the series or to use for a traveling companion). Next year, we will release State of Nature, State of Acceleration, and State of Imagination between January and June and two others later in the year (as of yet they are untitled, although a tentative title for book #10 is State of Production, but that will be after I finish tweaking the clues and run it by my friend who usually comes up with my titles; this particular title is because Benjamin got to hear the clues and thought some of them were pretty cool and State of Production was descriptive of the state in more ways than one). I do have a cover for State of Nature, which will be released in January. Did I mention that Benjamin actually picked which clues would be on the cover and came up with the title for this one? I think Heather does a great job blending the items so they look like they belong together as can be seen on State of Heights with the tunnel going into the mountain and the bridge looking like it comes off the mountain. Mind you they are totally not in the same region of the state but they look like they could be found together from her cover. You can check out all the information on all books available now on my website. All orders placed from the website will be autographed copies except for the Passport Across America as this is not really a story, just an activity booklet to supplement the series.