St. Emmelia Homeschool Conference

It's finally here. Hard to believe that it is the end of March but it is. The kids and I are heading to Bolivar, PA for the St. Emmelia Homeschool Conference this weekend. Daughter will be doing her music workshop geared for a group of 7&8 year olds Saturday morning and I'll be doing my "Writing Roads" workshop Friday afternoon for kids ages 9 to 12 as well as a new one I'll be adding to the list of my workshops for school visits (provided it goes well) called "Draw and Tell" which is geared for the 5&6 year olds. I hope to take lots of pictures to share.

Tomorrow, Friday, April 1, I will be hosted on Karen Cioffi's blog with a delightful interview. Stop by and see what kind of questions Ms. Karen asked me. I'll drop in during the day as I can since I'll be on the road heading to Bolivar for the conference. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :) & the JGDS

Pop over and visit

I forgot to put this up earlier due to some unforeseen circumstances, but please come visit me over at Jenny Turner's blog and find out what all is coming up for the series. Mrs. E :)

Southeast Homeschool Convention

After leaving the school, I headed to the part of Greenville where I knew the convention was to grab a bite to eat. Got to the convention center and had to park across the street (thank goodness, not up the road like a lot of folks were having to do). I went to my post, which was the A-C registration area. Met the lady I was kind of relieving who just happens to be from the town right next to me. Met her cousin who lives in the area. Was registering or answering one ladies questions and handed her some bookmarks and she recognized me from the SC Book Festival last year, stating she had purchased a book from me at the book festival and had wondered if I had more books published. She was glad to see that I had and that the series is continuing.

I enjoyed talking to folks and finding out that the convention will be in the same area next year, March 22 - 24 - yay!! I hope to be able to save up enough money to participate next year. I really would have done well if I had had a booth. So after my shift was over, I got to walk around the vendor hall for a bit (huge place and totally couldn't take in everything in the short time I was in there - needed three days to walk through the whole place - lol). I figured I would just kind of start down the middle and make my way one side or other. The first booth I kind of stopped at was a science booth - I just know that the whole system includes all the kits necessary for the experiments - it was pretty cool. I walked down past a couple more booths and there was an artistic guy there - a whole system on teaching art to kids from kindergarten up - pretty cool to talk to him for a few minutes since my oldest son is artistically inclined.

Leaving the artist's booth, I decided to go to the left. At the corner of the next aisle was Janice Campbell. The reason this is important is that someone had come to the registration area where I was working and had asked if we knew which was her booth; they had been in her workshop that morning and were wanting to check out her goods. We struck up a conversation. She asked for my bookmark. She asked if I had a persona for when I do my book signings and events. I told her I did not. We chatted some more and I told her I had this idea to do a unit study or studies for the books and she referred me to Amanda Bennett's booth. I left Janice's booth and headed to find Amanda's booth but she wasn't there so I didn't get to talk to her. As I was turning to figure out where I was going next, almost diagonally across from Amanda's booth was a tie dyed clothing booth & homeschool psych (husband and wife). She was rearranging the booth so that the husband's books would be more prominent Saturday. So I stopped by and chatted. The husband is self-publishing his books as well and she is doing the tie dye as an extra. Anyway, after a bit of conversation and telling them how I ended up over on this side of the vendor hall and that Janice had asked if I had a persona, an idea came out, from Dr. Tim - lol.

I didn't get to spend much time in the vendor hall but the few contacts I made were worth it. I will be unveiling a new persona for me in May, so stay tuned for that.

Overall, this was a very successful day because I made a few great contacts. Looking forward to hopefully being a vendor next year for the convention. E :)

Read Across America success!

So I dropped the kids off at school, came back and showered and dressed and then stopped by friend's work to pick up a check so I could get gas and some breakfast before getting to the school. I got there and was guided to the class I was to read to, a 6th grade group, very small but from what I understand is that they are not a regular class - but a class where they get the extra help as needed in all their subjects. There were 8 students in the class. I was given the book "Through The Cracks" and when I had looked this up online to see what I was going to be reading, I found two different books on amazon.com. I did the sneak preview of the one I could and thought surely this wasn't the book I was reading to 6th graders. The other one states it is for ages 4 to 8 and so I didn't think that would be the one to be read to 6th graders either. So I didn't know which book I was reading. Thank goodness it was the second one. It's about how kids slip through the cracks because they are bored or not excited about being in school and kind of just get by as best they can. Very awesome reading.

I went back to the library for refreshments and told the librarian I would like to read again if they had any open spots. Sure enough someone had not been able to show up, so I got to read to a 7th grade class. They didn't have a book in the class to read, so I got to read Train of Clues and the kids loved it. They were guessing all kinds of places - the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Wall, - all places on the east coast. When we finally got to the reveal, they were all like, "I knew that." or "That's what I was thinking." I had a great time.

This was definitely a success in that there were 42 volunteers from the community and authors participating this year. This is the second year they have done the Read Across America program. I think it's great that they came up with that many folks willing to participate. I was found through SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators) because I'm listed on the speaker's bureau, so yay! my membership paid off. I also told Ms. Jennifer I would like to do it again next year if I'm not already booked somewhere else.

I love programs like this and to see so many folks coming together to do something good, just warms the cockles of my heart. Pics to come later - E :)

Dacusville and Great Homsechool Convention

Today, I'm heading to Dacusville Middle School for the "Read Across America" program. I'll be reading to 6th graders. I'm excited.

From the school, I'll head to Greenville to the Great Homeschool Convention to do some volunteer work. I have bookmarks and order forms so hopefully I can put them in the hands of the right people and garner some orders. I really could use a decent set of orders on books since it seems like forever since I've sold any (well I did just sell six copies last month at the Geofest but I'd love to see 10 to 20 come through). I will take pictures and post later - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Two and a half days left

Remember the 10% off sale only lasts until Tuesday night. So make sure you order copies of the first five books by then. Receive all five with study guides on CDs for only $62 which includes shipping. All books will be signed to one child, many children or the family as per your directions. Email me with subject line SPECIAL BLOG DEAL to eeldering@gmail.com or paypal me with instructions of who to sign the books to and where to send them at eeldering@gmail.com - Mrs. E :)

Special deal on first five books

The first 15 people who respond to this blog posting will receive a 10% discount on the total retail price of the first five books in the JGDS series with accompanying study guides. This is a total retail price of $65.00 for $58.50 plus shipping ($3.50). Email me at eeldering@gmail.com with subject line of SPECIAL BLOG DEAL or you can paypal the total amount $62.00 to eeldering@gmail with SPECIAL BLOG DEAL (don't forget to indicate to whom to make the books and where to send them in the notes section). This deal is good through 11:59 PM EST 03/15/2011 (The Ides of March) and open to US residents only.

Pronounce it again? Say it again please?

So we had to go to a final round after the double jeopardy round as there was a 3-way tie - the Bank of Anderson, the M&Ms (the table I was on) and the Spell Doctors (a physician group for the hospital in town). We all had 23 points after the double jeopardy round (the round where all points are doubled). Round robin type of giving the words - one team spells the word, if correct, they have to spell another word. If they miss it, the next team has to spell it and so on - Anyway - we went about rhree times around with all three groups missing the same words, et cetera. We tied for second with the Spell Doctors. We did give the bank a "run for their money" - lol. I'll post some pictures later - We had tons of fun and we've all been asked to participate on the same table again next year - so I'll be there - E :)

May I have the origin of the word, please?

Yep, it's the local library's annual spelling bee. I'll be participating in the Starburst Spelling Bee once again. This year, I'll be at the same Friends of the Library table, the M&M's (we had the fun table last year because we could eat our decorations - lol) but with a group of folks representative of the library. Saturday night, I'll be getting all spiffed up and heading to the 10th Annual Starburst Spelling Bee. Let's hope the library group with me as an addition do well. I'll post pictures.

Do you love your librarian?

Last week at our Sisters in Crime (SinC) meeting, we had a librarian from Pickens County Library come give us a little insight on getting books in the library and some other fun stuff. I passed my bookmarks out as I didn't have any in January and everyone else was passing theirs out then. I stayed a little after the meeting and talked with Jennifer about doing some programs at the library, et cetera. I also gave a copy of State of Successes to the librarian to put in her branch. Sunday evening, while I was just sitting here working and minding my own business, an email came across my desk with the subject line - DACUSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL INVITATION - I was thinking it was something from the teachers.net forum so wasn't going to read it right away. I decided to take a break and read a few emails that had come in. The invitation was actually to me to participate in the Read Across America program at Dacusville Middle School. Woohooo, I think librarian Jennifer spread the word for me - lol. Thank you, Ms. Jennifer. I responded and sent a copy of my sell sheet and the order form for teachers and students, so hopefully I'll get some orders from the school. I'll also pass out bookmarks to the students that morning and leave them with the media specialist (from whom the invitation actually came).



I'll be at Dacusville Middle School on March 18, either at 9 or 10 in the morning. I'll leave the school, grab a bite to eat on my way to Greenville for the Southeast Homeschool Convention/Conference where I'll be volunteering for the afternoon (this is an event I wanted to participate in as a vendor so much but just didn't have the funds to do so, but I'm hoping that next year this group will return and I'll be able to be there as a vendor - buy some books, help send the JGDS to conferences - lol). I may not be able to sell my books that day but I'll be passing out my bookmarks with order forms attached so that I'll get some notice - I hope.

I have a busy few months ahead but it's all good. Promotion is key, especially with such a large project. Be on the lookout for updates and pictures of the events. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :) & the JGDS