Series on Hold

I've decided that the series will be on hold until I find a publisher and can get back on track. Right now, the goal is to pay off Heather and terminate any further work with her (my choice and my doing since I can't afford to pay her with the loss of my job). I've got a possible publisher but nothing will be determined until the end of the year or first of next year. I will continue promoting Ma America and the JGDS series but won't be selling any books for now. All of you who have been entered in the drawing for the red, white and blue afghan, the drawing will still occur the first part of December. Tickets will be available through Thanksgiving, so if you are interested in getting your chances in the drawing, please email me at eeldering(@)gmail(dot)com with how many you would and I'll send you info how to pay for them. Tickets are 2 for $1. You have just under two months to make sure your name goes in the drawing. Nothing else to report here. I will keep you all posted when the series gets reborn. Signing off for now - Ma America - :)

Train of Clues Audio Book

"Train of Clues", my second place winning story and the predecessor to the state series is now available as an audio book through audible.com. It should go live with amazon.com and iTunes.com by the end of the week. Francene is my narrator for this story as she will be the narrator for the state stories and hopefully I'll find a sponsor soon so we can get the state stories back on track. I'm waiting on a cover from Heather for State of Wilderness so that I can go live with that as an audiobook, hopefully by the end of the month. (Singing the Heinz Ketchup jingle here - Anticipation, it's making me waiting.) - Check out the three books available as audiobooks and listen to the samples and let me know what you think of my narrators - Ma America :)

Desperate Sale

This weekend only, I will sell copies of State of Wilderness, Successes, Heights and Nature for $7.50 each; regular price has been reduced to $8.50 on both amazon and createspace but direct sale will be $1 off each title.  Need to sell 20 copies total with payments made directly to paypal.  For more information, please email me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com with subject "Desperate Sale".  If you are interested in obtaining your signed copies, please contact Elysabeth Eldering before midnight Sunday.  - See you all in the postings - Ma America - :)

Train of Clues Free Days

Mark your calendars - July 11 and July 12 will be free days for "Train of Clues".  I've decided to remove all books from Nook and Smashwords, not that "Train of Clues" was actually on either of those, and do some free promotional days for everything.  "Train of Clues" will go free again in August but I'll post and let you all know when.  Next Thursday and Friday, "Train of Clues" will be your first chance to download for free. 

For those of  you who don't remember, "Train of Clues" is my first ever story, first entered contest and a second place winning story, which actually was sent to an editor with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for her opinion on a direction to turn this into a series with each state being the mystery.  "Train of Clues" is a birthdary party, scavanger hunt on a party train to a mystery destination.  The idea to make each state the mystery came after winning second place. 

I am currently looking for a sponsor or sponsors for the state series so I can get that going again but right now, the series will remain on hold until I can get Heather caught up and be able to pay for future books.  If anyone knows of someone who would like to be a financial sponsor for the series, please pass my contact information, which can be found on the JGDS website home page.  I'm available any time to talk to anyone who has the finances to back a series like this.  I've got a couple of feelers out and will do some followup time next week but I also know that gaining a sponsor takes time, although I've been thinking of this the better part of 3 or 4 years now.  Putting this out in the universe and hoping a response comes in quickly.  Hope you all enjoy your free download of "Train of Clues" next week.  - See you all in the postings - Ma America :)

One Week ACX Update

State of Successes has been live ffor one week now and the only download has been the one I used one of my credits to get my own book.  I know Francene has told everyone and she has folks who are teachers and anxious to hear the book, but so far no one else has purchased a copy from audible.com, amazon.com or itunes.  See you all in the postings - Ma America

State of Successes is Available on audible.com

State of Successes has gone live on audible.com and will be available on itunes and amazon.com within the next few days, according to the email I have just received saying that it is available.

If you are not a member of audible.com and become a member and make State of Successes or Finally Home, which also went live today, one of your first three purchases, I get a small bonus.  Remember I'm doing a royalty share on paying the producer for the books, so the more sales the better we both benefit.  State of Successes is retailing for $4.86 or 1 credit (you earn credits by becoming a member and every month you pay your membership fee, you will get that credit.  When I first signed up, membership was $7.49/month for the first three months and then goes up to $14.99 thereafter.) 

Within the next couple of weeks or so, or at least by the end of July, I will be sending Francene the manuscript for State of Wilderness to start working on producing.  From this experience, I look for that one to go live by the end of August or first part of September, depending on when I get the manuscript to her and what her schedule is like. 

Looking forward to hearing what others have to say about the audio books. See you all in the postings - Ma America (aka Mrs. E :) ) -

State of Successes audio

I finally got the cover from Heather and have uploaded it to ACX.  I did the finally approval of the audio book this morning.  I've posted the sample file on the sidebar here.  Unfortunately, Francene, my narrator, doesn't have a website, so I guess if you have any comments, you will have to leave them here and I will pass them on to her.  Here is the cover for the audio book:

I think it is pretty  cool to have the logo on the side because of the squareness of the cover.  It looks, as Heather stated, like a stamp.  Hopefully the audio files will be live within the next few days.  The audio book will be available on amazon.com, audible.com and itunes.  See you all in the postings - Ma America :)

Really, Call Me Slack

Wow, it's been 2 months since I've posted anything on this blog.  I'm surprised blogger hasn't shut it down for being inactive.

Some updates are definitely warranted by now. 

AUDIO BOOK UPDATE:  I found a narrator for the state series and State of Successes is all but  finalized.  The only thing holding me back right now is the cover.  I got the first cover from Heather (same cover as the printed cover but has to be changed to fit the standards for audible.com's preferences - now has to be squared like it will go on  a CD package) and noticed she didn't have the JGDS logo on it and that is really the key to the covers.  So I'm waiting for her to get that completed so I can upload it and sign off on the audio file to publish it.  Francene did a great job reading the game part and making it sound like the game - I hope that once the audio is released and with some other things going on that I can get back to the series and start putting more books out.  State of Wilderness will probably be contracted in June, with State of Heights in August and then State of Nature in late September/early October.  As soon as State of Quarries and State of Reservations are republished, then they will go up as audio books as well.

Republishing the books is a matter of funds right now.  That brings me to my next item.  Looking for a sponsor for the books.  Who, you ask, would be a  perfect sponsor for the series?  National Geographic Kids, of course.  I tried to call them this morning to get the ball rolling but the office is closed for the holiday (most everyone else is closed just Monday but the folks in DC seem to take the holiday to include the Friday before - lol).  Anyway, if things work out as planned with them as a sponsor, I should be back to getting books in the series published.  My campaign with indiegogo didn't work out at all as no funds were raised and that is sad since the series really does have merit and should be in schools. 

Speaking of schools, I was doing laundry the other day and met a teacher who is teaching 4th and 5th grade science now but just had surgery on his knee so wasn't at work but lucky for me we started chatting.  Next year he is teaching 3rd grade.  We talked about my books and I gave him a copy of State of Heights which he plans on making sure he uses the books in the fall.  I hope he contacts me for more books and possible school visits, et cetera.  Slowly but surely I am making my way to the schools, one teacher at a time, and if I get my sponsorship from Nat Geo Kids or headquarters, that will catapult me to the desired effect I want.   I'm not looking to get rich but to have the books in the schools and being used to supplement the curriculum, means I get my name out there.

TRAVEL AND TOURISM WEEK:  To show how slack I've been, I didn't even post about travel and tourism week which was this month.  I participated this year again and found it interesting that Amos had left and I didn't even know it until I had called near the beginning of the month (perhaps even the end of April) to talk to him and find out about scheduling some time to be at the welcome center.  Ma America was officially released during that visit (new costume and new look for myself).  I didn't get any pictures of her due to my camera battery dying, but I did get a few pictures of the tables of others who were participating that day.  You all will be seeing Ma America from the next event.

HIGH COUNTRY FESTIVAL OF THE BOOK:  June 22 is the High Country Festival of the book in Boone, NC.  This works out  for me as my parents lives in Lenoir and Boone is about 35 miles from them, so I don't have to pay hotel cost or food as my parents will feed me  -  lol.  The festival is being held at Watagua High School, so if you are in the area June 22, stop by and visit with Ma America. 

LOVE TO LEARN HOMESCHOOL CONFERENCE:  I didn't get to participate in this event last year because of lack of funds but this year, it is being held in a new place, Valdes, NC, which I found out  from my dad and  looking at the maps is only about 9 miles from my parents.  August 3 I'll be in Valdes, NC for the Love to Learn conference.  I'm looking forward to a new crowd of folks.  I will have to make sure my father announces to his church folks because I know there are some people who do homeschool in the church family and they could come to the conference if they are looking for new products et cetera. 

I'll post more as soon as I know what direction the sponsorship goes and as we get closer to events coming up.  See you all in the postings - Ma America, aka Mrs. E :)

Anderson County Library Spelling Bee

Tonight is the annual spelling bee, and once again I've been asked to participate.  We are hoping to take first place which has eluded us the past couple of years by a very slim margin.  If not, I guess we will have to be happy with second place.  One of these days, it would be nice to be the top dogs - lol.  See you all in the postings - E :)