SCASL Conference

If you happen to be a school librarian and will be attending the SCASL conference next week (March 14 - 16, 2012), stop by booth 25 and visit the SC Author Connection (Elysabeth Eldering/Ma America, author of Finally Home and the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series; Sybil Nelson/Leslie Dubois, author of the middle grade level Priscilla the Great series and several YA novels; Sarah Renee, author of the middle grade level Saderia series).

Elysabeth will be doing a presentation on how to shelf faction, in particular the JGDS series, for the librarians on Thursday at 3:15.

Stop by and see what we have to offer. See you all there - E :)

January Giveaways in exchange for reviews

I was going to post this on LibraryThing but it wouldn't let me post, so I'm going to post as a blog on both my blogs. I will start taking requests January 2. I hope that all the librarians and teachers out there will take advantage of this.


JANUARY GIVEAWAY POST
I have six titles in my state series available for review as well as three other titles available. I will offer 100 copies of each title in exchange for reviews.

The state series is geared for 3rd through 5th grade level, would make a great supplement to a US History social studies curriculum or an individual state social studies. Each book comes with its own study guide which supplements the book and should not be used without first reading the book or it makes no sense. The books are written like a handheld game that gives the kids clues (facts and trivia) about a state and the readers and characters have to guess the state being described. Each book is one state and all the clues will pertain to that specific state. There are bonus clues highlighting one of five US territories (Washington DC, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and US Samoan Islands) as well as discussion questions. The study guide takes some of the clues in the book and turns them into deeper discussion questions or research projects, either a science project or map/math skills project or social studies project or ELA project, and then there are bonus things like secret message puzzles (state motto is the secret message), a craft idea (based on clues but not in every study guide - only as the clues are fitting), and a trivia game that is designed to show that the students or child read the book.

Titles available are State of Wilderness (ID), State of Quarries (AR), State of Reservations (OK), State of Successes (SC), State of Heights (CO), and State of Nature (WY). I will send a PDF file to the 100 persons requesting any of the titles available. You can request more than one.

My other titles include Finally Home (a YA paranormal mystery), The Proposal (an April Fools Day Story, a humorous romance ebook), and The Tulip Kiss (a paranormal romance). Available in January will be Bride-and-Seek (a paranormal romance ebook) and Butterfly Halves (a YA fantasy ebook). Again, I will take 100 requests for the three titles available in exchange for reviews. Please email me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com with the "free books in exchange for reviews" in the subject line. In the body of the email, please list the titles you are requesting or all titles if you would like all nine available right now.

This promotion will be valid for the month of January only. Once the 100 requests per title have been met, no other requests will be taken. I will also have available the next two short stories (hopefully) by the end of the month and if you request those ("Bride-and-Seek" and "Butterfly Halves") and they are not available at the time of the request, as soon as they are available, I will send you the file - Ma America & the JGDS

Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal mystery ebook
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal mystery ebook (coming in Janaury)
"Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy ebook (coming in January)
Elysabeth's other blog
Elysabeth's non-JGDS writing website

Ma America, The Travelin' Maven
Author of the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series and "Train of Clues" (a mystery destination story and predecessor to the JGDS, state series)
Where will the adventure take you next?
JGDS blog
JGDS website

Savannah Children's Book Festival

The day started a bit rough with being woke up by either a TV or radio at about 5:30 but once that got taken care of the rest of the day was gorgeous. Many kids at the book festival today; I probably handed out 250 bookmarks today - so yay me. I did sell four state books (I think I sold three of Successes and 1 of Wilderness), one of my YA paranormal mystery and 42 bookworms - yes I started with 59 and ended with 17 - totally was so worth making up those bookmarks. I had started with 72 Wednesday morning and in just three days - sold almost out. I took Benjamin out for supper and we went to the movies tonight (I saw Happy Feet Two; Benjamin saw In Time) and afterwards stopped by Walmart to pick up some more yarn - couldn't find the colors I had used for winter previously, so that will be changed and I wasn't really liking what I had started with for spring so got something different for spring. I'll post those changes when I've made some new bookworms. All in all, a good weekend - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

State stories suspended until 2012

I will not be publishing any more state stories in 2011. I have been behind and have decided to catch up on some loose end projects (Finally Home, my YA paranormal mystery and fixing "Train of Clues" and republishing it as it has not been available pretty much since April of this year) before moving forward with more state stories. There will still be updates as to where the JGDS will be in the next five months. For now, the next book slated to come out will be State of Acceleration in January of 2012.

Hopefully my readers are following my website as well for updates, and will continue reading this blog for updates on events. Thanks for all your wonderful support - Ma America & the JGDS