Event Season Has Begun

As with previous years, this year is jammed pack with events. There have been a few minor changes this year and hopefully I will keep doing some of them into the upcoming years.



There are really two event seasons for me - March to June and end of August/first part of September through November.

In March, I participated in the SC Association of School Librarians conference which was a good event and I have a feeling that next year will be even better. In May, I participated in the SC Book Festival which was pretty good other than having too many folks in the booth but we have parted ways and it's time to move on to other things. The homeschool conference in June wasn't held this year since USC-Sumter was remodeling the building where the event is usually held so I had no events over the summer to speak of. I had previously done a homeschool event about the middle of August in Charlotte - the Love 2 Learn conference - but didn't get to do that one this year since I was busy with work and have been taking a friend of mine to her doctor's appointments and money was tight.

The first scheduled event this season (the August to November time) is the Sunday in the Park in Mint Hill. This is held the 3rd or 4th Sunday of August every year and is one of the least costly events for me, other than travel time (gas is going back up again - but I have had success covering gas at least at this event). Since this is a day event, I don't have to pay for a hotel as the event is only about 2 or so hours away from home. So, Sunday, August 26, I will be heading to Mint Hill, NC, for the event and I hope my son will go with me to help set up the tent and just man the tables. He said he would go but he's been sleeping a lot during the day and getting up late at night to do whatever so I'm hoping tomorrow he gets on a better sleeping pattern and goes to bed and sleeps during the night so he can get up early Sunday to go with me.

Right after the Sunday in the Park event is Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, Georgia. The last time I did this event was in 2008 and that was when State of Wilderness was first released. Since then, I have had five more state books published and Finally Home plus a few short stories are ebook published. So in 4 years, I think that is pretty good.

Between the beginning of September and beginning of October, I don't have anything planned since the Geofest will be at the SC Council for Social Studies conference the end of September and I can't afford an exhibitor booth for that event ($450 is a bit steep for me right now).

October is a very busy month for me as I have the Georgia Librarian Associations (it's called Georgia COMO - combined SELA (Southeastern Librarian Association), GMSA (Georgia Media Specialists Association) and GLA (Georgia Librarian Association)) conference the 3rd through the 5th. I lucked out on this one as I was fretting how I would come up with the exhibitor booth cost and put the dilemma to the director and he came up with a solution for me - I get to man the SELA booth and display my books to sell at no cost to me. I also have been accepted to do a presentation Friday morning and get to participate in the Author Reception Thursday evening - so my only costs will be hotel and gas and food - and I've booked a suite so I can take inexpensive food to have for my meals (breakfast is at the hotel and I may even purchase Lunch to Go, depending on cost for my evening meals). Everything works out as it should and I think this will be an excellent group to get in with.

I'll return Friday evening and then Saturday, the 6th and the following Saturday, the 13th, I hope to be in a "ghost hunting" course - and get to participate in the field trip to do some ghost hunting.

The weekend of the 19th-20th of October is the Sugarfoot festival and that is here in town, so my expense is table ($25 and already paid) and my time to set up and be out there.

The next one I hope to participate in will be the last weekend of October which is the Georgia Council for Social Studies but again - everything will depend on funding in September and if I can swing the exhibitor's booth cost.

I won't be able to do the SCISA teacher's conference this year since it is in Charleston and the overall cost for me to take that trip, stay overnight in a hotel for a half day conference wouldn't be worth it. I hope next year they will move it to the upstate area - either Anderson or Greenville would be perfect for me.

I also won't be able to do the Savannah Children's Book Festival this year as they have moved it to the same weekend as the YALLFest and the cost would be more than it would be worth it.

I'm going to talk with Sybil about splitting a table at YALLFest and seeing if she can get me a hotel room on the cheap that weekend since she lives in Charleston. I will try it this year and go from there.

I think that pretty much wraps up the Fall Event Season for me. Don't forget for every book purchase you will receive 5 chances for the red, white, and blue afghan and extra chances are only $1 each. For every 25 chances purchased, you get 5 extra chances (so you pay $25, you get 30 chances; you pay $50, you get 60 chances; you pay $75, you get 90 chances; you pay $100, you get 120 chances) - The drawing will still be held the 1st of December with the afghan being mailed out about the 7th of December. See you all in the postings. Reports after the two upcoming events - Ma America

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 :)

Largo-Tibet Elementary School visit

I'm in Savannah for the Savannah Children's book festival this weekend. This morning I had a school visit with seven, yes you read that correctly, seven, third grade classes at Largo-Tibet (thankfully the librarian divided them into 2 groups - 4 classes for the first hour and 3 classes the second hour). I read them my story - Train of Clues - and they had a great time trying to figure out where the train ended up. In the first group, I think a couple of them guessed or got close - I did get them to say a Mountain or that mountain with faces on it. The second group had a bit harder time guessing but they did get close as well. They all were like, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking" when I told them it was Mt. Rushmore. Benjamin took pictures but since I'm at the hotel, I can't upload them to the computer, so they will have to wait until I return home Sunday. Overall, I think the school visit was a success. I hope a good many of the kids show up tomorrow. I actually had one of the students ask me if I would be selling my YA tomorrow and he said he was definitely going to get a copy.

They all loved the fact that my illustrator, Heather, was only 17 and that she wants to work for Disney/Pixar. So maybe we have some future illustrators come out of the group of kids. Heather, you may have been an inspiration without being here -lol. Good job - see you all tomorrow in the postings after the event. Hoping to see lots of kids and lots of sales tomorrow. (I hope that the librarian will add my state books to her library collection although I couldn't sell anything to the school today but did let her know that my books are all available through B&T which is where most schools order their books from so she might check into it at least.)

See you all in the postings - Mrs. E & the JGDS :)

Geography Awareness Week

Today is the official start of GAweek - the theme this year is "adventure in your community." What are you doing around your community to become more aware of the geography around you? Are you exploring? Taking any of the challenges I've posted? Joined any geography type groups?

This week, Ma America & the JGDS will be exploring the geography of other areas, outside of the immediate community. Wednesday, they will be traveling to Charlotte, NC, for GIS day (posting to follow on GIS day on Wednesday). The word is that there will be about 200 to 300 students participating in the activities for GIS Day; we can only hope to have a few of those teachers buy a couple of books and bookworms throughout the day. Thursday, we are heading to Savannah for the Children's Book Festival and there are several other authors Ms. Elysabeth had recommended who will be there, some old acquaintances and some new ones. Ma America will make an appearance at Largo-Tibet Elementary School and will do a reading of her book, Train of Clues, to seven, yes you read the correctly, seven 3rd grade classes. The group will be split into two groups so as not to be overwhelming all at once. If regular work isn't too overwhelming after the school visit, Ma America is hoping to be able to explore Savannah a bit as this will be her third year there and she has yet to do any sightseeing.

So, what adventure is going on in your community for GAweek? How about telling us about some of them here - see you all in the postings - Ma America & the JGDS :)

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 :)

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.

Reading and Writing Celebrations

My friend, Carol Baldwin, has listed a few reading and writing events coming up in the next two months that you don't want to miss. If you are interested, pop over to her blog and check it out.

I have a few to add to the list, which are smaller but probably worth the looksee - next weekend will be the Highlands, NC Celebration of Books festival (this is a first year event, but they are doing a bang up job of advertising and making it known that this event is going on; it is nestled in the mountains of North Carolina and the weather is turning just a bit so shouldn't be too hot up there right now); The SC Geographic Alliance's Geofest in Columbia, SC (geared more towards educators and others who are into the geography aspect of education), a new one in Charleston, SC, this year which has had some good exposure up north in previous years, and of course the Savannah Children's Book Festival in November (this one boasted over 10,000 folks visiting this past November so should be a wonderful turnout this year (hoping the weather is like it was last year)).

Maybe you have a list of festivals in your area that are a book lover's delight. Don't be shy and share with the rest of our readers. You never know who will show up at an event near you - Mrs. E :)

A semi-landmark number

Today my counter shows 3500 even. That is pretty impressive but not quite where I really need to be. I've had this blog almost two years now and should have seen closer to 7500 views in the two years or over 10,000 would be nice. But seeing a number ending in a 500 is nice. I also had 25 hits on my blog on the 18th (just two days ago) as well as some pretty high hits on my website that same day - so not sure if those were from this weekend (hoping it means we will be seeing some orders from that for the first two books at least). I would love to see all that hard work, albeit fun, from Savannah pay off. I am so looking forward to next year's children's book festival. I hope I can find someone to take me with me to afford me some breaks to walk around and visit with folks and eat lunch, et cetera. But that is a year away and anything can happen before then. See you all in the postings - E :)

Correction on name from SCBF dinner table/add-on info

I found Ms. Coffey's business card and her name is actually Sheron; but in an email she said that she does use the name Sheri and as you can see, her last name is Coffey not Coffee or however I had it. She is the author of the Hannah Banana book.

The illustrator we sat with was Michael P. White and he does "The Library Dragon" illustrations.

So coming back up the highway to home, I was flipping through the radio stations until I got close enough to pick up the one I usually listen to - magic 98.6 out of Greenville and now it's two weeks from the official start of the Christmas Season and all they were playing at the time was Christmas music. I wanted to scream. What's up with playing Christmas music this far out from the beginning of the Christmas season? Do they think we want to hear that music for six weeks? Last year with the marching band's theme being Christmas music - Winter Dreams was the actual theme - I was sick of hearing Christmas music by the time the official season started and this year, the radio stations have already started, not to mention the ads for layaway already but you have to love the elves shopping for "Santa but don't get their bonus checks until December" at one of the large appliance stores and the mention of layaway - the head elf loses all control of the others - and they forget they are supposed to be buying for Santa and think only of getting stuff for themselves.

As previously posted, the weekend was wonderful and the area was absolutely gorgeous. I'm hoping next year to be able to spend a little bit of time exploring and seeing the sights. Hopefully I will receive pictures from the school visit this week and will be able to post them and maybe some from the festival too - see you all in the postings - E and the JGDS - :)

Savannah Bound and Returned

There was supposed to be a preposting about heading to Savannah for the weekend but my schedule has been a bit messed up of late. I can't seem to do much of anything in a timely manner like I used to but hopefully that will be straightend out soon.

So I headed to Savannah, Georgia, on Friday, November 13 and have returned home today. It was a very good trip.

I left the house about 6:15 Friday morning to meet up with one of the librarians at a branch library in Savannah to get some info to take to the school I was visiting. I got to the school about 5 minutes later than I was supposed to get there but they were okay with that because I had a mix-up about meeting the librarian as the branch is closed on Fridays and I didn't know I was supposed to knock for them to hear me. I really had a pretty good drive down there, followed my Google printed out map and it was perfect (I'm sure my GPS, had it been working would have taken me a different way to the branch library and the school).

The school visit was awesome. Joseph Martin Elementary School teachers are doing many things right in my book. The kids were great and helpful and very smart. There were about 90 something fourth graders and four teachers, the art teacher came in and the media specialist (I think the media specialist said there was one other adult there, possibly the principal). I started out my presentation with a little background about my stories and asked them if they knew what geography was and one little boy answered with the perfect answer. So it made me feel very proud that the teachers were actually teaching geography to the students. Then we talked about writing some and they all knew characters and setting but struggled with plot, but eventually came around to it.

I left the school and headed to the hotel. Now I've never been Savannah and had I not needed some downtime to rest before dinner, I would have done some more exploring of the area because it is an absolutely beautiful area. Heading to the Hotel on I-95 I saw this sign for "book warehouse" and "uniform outlet" in a factory outlet place coming up. Now you all know me, I love to read and seeing a sign for a book warehouse was something I couldn't pass up too easily. I stopped in to see what they were about and my, my, my you wouldn't believe the kinds of things they have there. Hardbound books for 99cents and $1.99 and other things for 50 cents and fun stuff for less than $3 - VBS packets that had like 12 or 24 projects for $1.99; canvas tote bags (small maybe 6 x 6 or a little bigger) for 50 cents. I picked up some of the canvas bags that had USA flags on them (30 at first) thinking I would send them to the kids in Mr. Hughes' class for participating in NaNo this month. But then an idea struck me Saturday morning, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway I purchased the thirty bags and thirty (30) little book things for keeping track of music and your friends' music and magazines and whatever - favorites a kid might want to keep track of (I think they can put a picture in the front of them). These include little pens and they weren't be 50 cents - a real bargain. I also picked up a couple of Christmas mini totes (I'm talking not much bigger than a business card size, if that) that contained some Christmas note cards, a mini frame, and a pen for like 99 cents. I also bought a mystery novel paperback for 99 cents. I walked out of the store having only spent about $38 total - 30 bags, 30 mini notebook things, 3 Christmas mini totes/cards/frames things, and a novel - lots of stuff for the small price; possibly one more thing but I can't remember right off the top of my head.

I left there and headed to the hotel. I was worried that my cards wouldn't take and that I'd end up spending the night in my car again - not something I would have done. I got to the Hilton Garden Inn by the airport a little before 5 and checked in. Kimberly was behind the desk. She was super nice to me and helped me with a ton of stuff. My fear of cards not going through as a credit card was right. I asked Kimberly if she would possibly take a check, knowing that I would definitely be good for it Monday since that is payday. She didn't even flinch. She said, yes she would take a check. Yay!!!!! So I got checked in and then she asked if I was planning on eating at the hotel for the weekend. She comped me breakfast for both mornings. How super cool is that? (Apparently the breakfast, since they do not have a continental breakfast at this particular hotel, runns about $9.95 for all you want of the oatmeal, grits, paastries, cereal, and then special orders of eggs, french toast, and other things on the menu - cooked to your order. It was great getting up yesterday and having breakfast at the hotel, not that I wouldn't have been okay with stopping at McDonald's or something for breakfast, but this was so much better.) Connie was very sweet in the American Grille (which is the restaurant in the hotel). She brought my french toast to the table, chatted with me, was very pleasant and helpful too.

Friday night I headed to the Live Oak Bull Street Branch Library for the authors' dinner, a low country boil meal that was very awesome. I met up with some folks I knew (Elizabeth Dulemba, illustrator and author of Soap! Soap! Soap!, and Karen Petit, author of the Shandon Ivy League mystery series). I met a couple of other folks but didn't really get a chance to meet up with them on Saturday (it was busy). In the library, there is a room where authors and illustrators get to sign the walls and decorate with their art. I signed under Karen's name because it was a pretty open space there. I wrote my tag line - Where will the adventure take you next? and signed it adding Author of the JGDS 50-state series, and of course dated it. Karen's message had been up since 2007 which was her first time being there. Karen and I sat together for dinner (which was kind of buffet style and we sat wherever we could find a seat) in the "reading room" (this is the room were everyone was signing and drawing). We sat with Sheri Coffey (sorry if it is misspelled, Sheri, as I haven't got your card with me right now, but will correct it if it is incorrect) and her friend (both local authors from Savannah) and an illustrator and his wife and daughter joined our table (I think his name was Michael something - but he drew pictures and labeled things as the "The Library Dragon"). They were cool to chat with. They were from Atlanta.

After dinner I headed back to the hotel. I got back to my room about 9:30 or so and was very tired. I think I was online for about half an hour or forty-five minutes before I shut down and went to bed. I was overtired so didn't sleep well. But I did get up and was ready for the day or so I thought I was.

I headed to the Forsyth Park in Savannah after stopping at Walmart for a couple of items. The Live Oak Libraries Savannah Children's Book Festival is awesome. I am so looking forward to next year's event. I will probably try to get a couple of school visits in next year (going down on Thursday night and spending the weekend down there).

I was running a bit late getting to the park and in the process of setting up, the crowds started almost immediately. I had about 350 bookmarks with me and some stickers and other state stuff that I usually give away as my freebie promotional items. Well the idea struck me on the way to the festival to use the bags and some flag pens (I had those from previous events) as prizes for a little contest I could run. That was the highlight of many folks' day trying to guess the mystery states to win a prize. I signed and gave out over 325 bookmarks (give or take a few either way). The library had also provided the kids with these little "autograph" booklets they had made up - some construction paper covers with several sheets inside, put together with those brass brads. So not only was I signing my bookmarks and handing them out, I was also signing the booklets. I didn't keep track of how many I signed but I know it was a ton of them - lol. At any given moment, it seemed I had about 10 or 20 people (adults and kids) around my table which was great (exposure for me and the company and my illustrator). I had a hard time taking a break. Finally one of the librarians or volunteers came to my table and allowed me to take a bathroom break. I got to talk with a couple of authors on that side of the fountain near where the portapotties were set up - Karen included.

After the festival, I had decided to go back down the highway (opposite direction of the hotel) to the book warehouse and snatch up some more tote bags. I bought every one they had (about 18) and a couple of other things spending about $13 this go round. I wanted to try Perkins' Restaurant for dinner which happened to be right in front of the outlet mall area. So I was heading that way anyway and it just made the voyage better that they were right there together. I ate dinner first and then went to the book warehouse place. Perkins' was great - I had country fried steak (not had in a long time) and for dessert had a Chocolate Chipper Sundae (two good sized chocolate chip cookies on the side of a bowl of ice cream topped with hot fudge sauce and whipped cream and chocolate chips; now this was not a small bowl by any means - it was a cereal bowl or even what some would consider a soup bowl.) I was satisfied when I left there.

Got up this morning about 6:45 (had a wake up call in for 6 this morning but somehow I had put the phone on hold and so nevver got my call - I had placed the phone on the bed since it was on the table on the side I don't sleep on and I knocked it during the night and when I put the handset back on - I must have hit hold or something). So I made it home about 12:15 or so and the drive home was perfect - hardly any traffic, bright and sunny and no problems on any road I was on.

If you all want to visit any place, I recommend Savannah as a must see. Next year, I plan on allowing myself some extra time to explore a bit more and see more of the beautiful area. I also recommend staying at any of the Hilton Hotels (become a Hilton HHonors member and earn points for free nights) because they really know how to treat people. Connie of the American Grille of Hilton Garden Inn Savannah Airport was very personable and Kimberly, she was personable as well, and seemed to bend over backwards to help all the people.

I've been told I will be invited back next year so I'm glad to hear and I'll be staying again at the Hilton Garden Inn Savannah Airport. As soon as I know what date it will be, I plan on making my reservations. See you all in the postings, and if you happen to be in the Savannah area next November, come join the JGDS at the Savannah Children's Book Festival at Forsyth Park in Historic downtown Savannah.