Guys Read

And that is what my series seems to be geared toward so I'm hoping that the Guys Read blog will help promote the series on their site. If you are interested in finding a wonderful list of books for boys, check them out and recommend books you feel boys would like to read, hopefully you will recommend my series if you enjoy it and see that it could be on a list for boys to read. Thanks - see you all in the postings - hope you have a wonderful new year (starts in 32 hours) - Mrs. E :)

Merry Christmas to all

So Ms. Elysabeth and the JGDS took a much needed trip to visit parents in the Lenoir-Boone, NC area. The prediction was for snow Saturday (Christmas day) and Sunday and maybe even some on Monday. I had already planned on not heading home until Monday, so I'm good. We did an early Christmas eve service at my dad's church, starting about 7 p.m. and then had to take Ms. Jane home and stopped at a "Coffee House" for something to eat (it was about 10 o'clock when we had dinner or breakfast for supper kind of thing since I had French toast, mother had a waffle and father had loaded hash browns). The temperature was droppinng a good bit by time we got to the house. We did gifts this morning about 8is and so sometime between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. it started snowing - so we have a white Christmas day at least. It has been about 23 years since I've actually seen snow on Christmas day. So my once every blue moon white Christmas is happening now. Of course I forgot my camera as I wanted to take pictures of the family and the snow - maybe another time.

Wishing you all a wonderful, day and hope all you receive exactly what you wanted Santa to bring you - Mrs. E :)

New Geographic Alliances (to me at least) and Book Updates

Okay, I know I should have been working but when you come across some interesting postings in your yahoo forums (one from elementary-lesson-share, which is cross posted on abc-usa) and you get to finding some new sources for the series, you just can't help playing around and exploring.

One of the postings on the forum that came in the daily digest listing of all the postings was for a "toolbox for teaching geography" by the North Carolina Geographic Alliance. I explored, signed up for membership, which of course led to another road - the National Geographic EdNet, which led to exploring states around me for ohter geographic alliances and lo and behold, Georgia did a Geofest this past April (hoping it is about the same time next year and that they allow vendors to come participate) that is similar to the South Carolina's Alliance Geofest. So now I have three states in my driving range (South Carolina held in Columbia about 2 hours from where I live, North Carolina looks to have workshops up near where my folks live and if that is the case, I have a place to stay and that is only about 3 hours from where I live, a bit further to Boone though; and Georgia's Geofest, held in Athens but could possibly be held in different locations and this is about 3 hours from here) to participate as a vendor - exposure, exposure, exposure. It only takes one really good link to get the ball rolling.

An update on State of Heights - it had been released earlier this month but while I was reading through it trying to come up with some questions for the study guide last week or the week before, I found some problems in the words - like when Heather had copy and pasted from the original document, some things got double wording or some lines got a little messed up. I took it off the market, had her fix those few things I noticed and ordered a second proof copy and found a place where I had made a parenthentical to her that got in the book - ooops - nothing bad but it wasn't part of the story, so will be ordering a third proof copy Wednesday and hopefully when I return from my parents' for the Christmas holiday will be able to really officially release State of Heights to the public. This is really book 5 in the series, so anyone who has the first three in the series and needs book 4 or 5, let me know. We are on schedule, otherwise, so far to release the next 5 books within the next year (the plan is 5 a year so that by November of 2019 book 50th will be released along with a supplement to check to make sure you have all the books in the series which will include the silly law and the bonus clue along with which territory the bonus clue was for).

Also, State of Wilderness will go out of publication with 4RV Publishing June of 2011, but will be re-released as a second edition, with a new cover and new illustrations to fit the books that Heather is illustrating. Hopefully, there won't be much lag time between it going out of publication with 4RV and me having it available to the public again. State of Quarries will be re-released in April or May of 2012 and State of Reservations will be re-released in June of 2013. These will all be in addition to the five new titles coming out each of those years. As it is right now, the 2011 schedule is as follows: State of Nature (#6) is slated for February; State of Acceleration (#7) is slated for April, State of Wilderness (#1) to be rereleased in June, State of Imagination (#8) is slated for about July, State of ?? (#9 - as of yet is untilted as I haven't completely put all the clues in place) to be released in September and State of Production (#10) to be released in November.

Also, check the website for updates on upcoming events. My Calendar is starting to look full as I have something scheduled almost every month so far. I also have added some info on school/class/homeschool co-ops purchasing large quantities of any title and as soon as I figure out what direction to go with a "unit study" I plan to have that available to schools and/or teachers and/or homeschooling co-ops or parents. This is something that will pull the supplemental study guide a step further and will combine the creative writing side of things with the geography and mystery of the states. I will keep you posted on this.

Hope you all have a blessed holiday no matter what you are celebrating and that your new year is blessedly wonderful and that all your goals come true. Mrs. E :)

Aerial Views of the World

Thanks to Five J's Homeschooling blog for the link to this amazing view. There were actually a couple of pictures of some places in the United States and so I thought I would give you all a bird's eye view of what a couple of places look like.

This is Denver, Colorado

Of course, when I get to doing Colorado, you all know Denver will show up in the book since it is the capital of the state. Of course, this view won't be part of the book but it is interesting to see how the town looks from the sky.




This is the freeways in Los Angeles and not surprising there are many interesting highways.

I don't think I would ever want to drive in the area since I would be confused which road I should be on, but I guess if you live in the area and grow up in the area that you would get used to this.





Now this is one of my favorite shots, even though it isn't even in the United States - looks like a bunch of sand castles - It is the ruins in a town in Egypt but pretty cool looking -

- I really like this even though I'm not a beach person. I much prefer the mountains. This just has a unique appearance to me.


For more views of different cities and areas, click here. A virtual global visit.