National Council for Geographic Education conference

(originally posted 05/12/2010): I have a goal. I would love nothing more than to see my books used in schools to supplement a social studies curriculum across the nation. I found the NCGE website through a local geographic alliance (South Carolina Geographic Alliance) website which will be a vendor at one of the homeschool conferences where I will also be a vendor in June.

After exploring the NCGE site and finding out the conference is in Savannah this year (a drive of about 5 hours from where I live), I thought that being an exhibitor would be an awesome thing for me. That is until I saw the postings for the exhibitor's fees today. As you can see, having a "premium" booth space at the conference is $1000 and the next level is $850 which is just a table top "booth" - you get a table and two chairs and a wastebasket and little else, no signage but do get listed in the program.

So, what, may you ask, is the goal?

My goal is to sell 200 copies of the first four books between now and the end of July in order to pay for the conference (booth space plus hotel and travel). That sounds like a lot but it really isn't. So won't all of you, my faithful readers help me achieve my goal?

State of Wilderness, now available
State of Quarries, now available
State of Reservations, coming May 2010 - I've been told by the end of this month for sure
State of Altitude, coming June 2010 - I've also been told this should be out almost immediately after State of Reservations is released

If you are interested in signed copies, please email me at eeldering@gmail.com for instructions on where to send funds. Mrs. E & the JGDS :)



Update 05/16/2010: I had an event at the Fairplay Welcome Center yesterday and have made my first sale toward this challenge. Only 799 to go. I have decided that I may just go static table top (not be there physically and save towards next year's conference in Oregon. So, whatever I need to just cover the table top display and have them monitor my info, may work this year since I'll be in Savannah in November and it would be a rather expensive fall for me to make two trips to Savannah that close together. I've also added a freebie for any orders placed between now and the middle of July (all info has to be sent to them by the end of July so allowing myself a couple of weeks to make sure that I have everything together and ready to go). Your choice of a flag pin kit or a basket weaving kit (which is one of the activities that will be in the #5's study guide). For the basket kit, please indicate color - blue, orange (dark or light), yellow, pink, or green. Remember when placing your order to indicate who to make the books out to so I can sign and send them on. Thanks for your support to this endeavor. Mrs. E :)

Are you an inside the four walls markerter?

Come visit me on Dana Donovan's blog today and found out some ideas for thinking outside the box - other places to market your books.

Dana was a guest on my other blog a little over a week ago. He talked about giving away books to help boost sales.

As you can see we have a variety of ideas for marketing. So drop over and leave a comment - looking forward to hearing some of your ideas for thinking outside the box.

Remember I still have a challenge for myself to sell at least 200 copies of each of the first four titles (State of Wilderness, State of Quarries, State of Reservations (which will be going to print hopefully this week), and State of Altitude (which will be going to print in the next couple of weeks or hopefully will be available by the second week of June)) to help me get to the NCGE conference the end of September. I may have to go the static display route (just having stuff on a table being monitored by the NCGE staff this year and hope that next year I can maybe make it to the one in Portland, Oregon, but getting to Oregon is going to take steady sales between now and the next six months of the upcoming four books (State of Successes and State of Nature will be available during those months). So help me get to places that really would be great marketing places. Place your order from my website and receive a free gift - either a make your own flag pin or a weave your own basket kit. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E and the JGDS

JGDS newsletter January-February 2010

Wow. I just looked at my previous updates for newsletters and have not done any since the first part of August 2009. Updates are definitely needed.

I found a cool site that lists homeschool conferences for Canada, Guam, and every state in the United States. I found four more in the four states closest to me, within a five-hour driving distance of me, in addition to the Love 2 Learn one in Charlotte. I will be an exhibitor at four, maybe a fifth (still awaiting updates as to when it actually will take place, where and an exhibitor application) this summer with a presenting workshop at each one ("Writing Roads" a combination of writing and geography games for the kids). See my Blog Tour page on the sidebar for the listed events.

If anyone is interested in finding homeschool conferences in their area to either attend or exhibit at, here is the link for you to check out. Eventually, I'd like to attend conferences in every state but until I have some funding (either a sponsor or the books are supporting me), then traveling to more than a few states on the east coast is going to have to wait a while. I think these will be a good thing this year. Will definitely keep you posted how things go this summer.

JGDS SERIES NEWS: State of Reservations is slated to be released February or March 2010; since Aidana has had the flu and her son has the piggy flu, I hope by the end of March this will be released. State of Altitude is slated to be released in April or May of this year; again, hopefully by the 1st week of June so I can have four titles to carry with me to the homeschool conferences. And we have a title for #5 - State of Secession which is about halfway completed (struggling to get it done due to work situations that have taken over me but I do promise to have it done soon). It is slated to be released August (if I remember correctly), which would be nice to have that book available for the conference in August. Book #6 is titled State of Nature and my son has picked the items to be on the cover which will be pretty cool looking (I think and if Aidana and Vivian agree). Book #7 is pending approval for a title, so will wait to let you all know what the title will be with that.

In December I wrote to the Jeopardy!(R) folks asking them to sponsor my series. So far I haven't heard anything back yet, so I can only hope that the old adage "No news is good news" is true for this. As soon as I know something on this end, I will update my fans and readers.

4RV PUBLISHING NEWS: Lots of new titles have been published since August. Check out the latest on the website. 4RV will be represented at the SC Book Festival this weekend (February 27-28) with all present titles available. 4RV was invited to participate at a 12-state library conference in Oklahoma in April and we gathered enough funds to participate there; this is very exciting for us as all books published up to this time will be available to the librarians attending. We will also be at the Heartland New Day Bookfest in April and then at the the OWFI conference the last part of April/first of May. Poor Vivian will be worn out by the end of the first week of May.

That is about all I have to cover for now. Looking forward to some new adventures this year.

Remember that the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series is an adventure that you never know where you will end up. Keep reading. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E & the JGDS :)

SIBA in SC

SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) was in South Carolina this weekend. This is an opportunity for independent book sellers to find new books for their stores. They are a wonderful bunch of people as they support new authors a lot. The idea is for authors, publishers, and other groups to get recognized and gain the support of the indies around the south. I volunteered at the Sisters in Crime/Southeastern Mystery Writers of America table (being that I am a member of Sisters in Crime). So, naturally, being that I was in the booth today, I was supposed to have books on hand to "give away" to those coming up to the table.

We had scheduled "signings" at the table, mine was at 11 a.m. I had seven copies of Quarries and 3 copies of Wilderness (my entire stock) and gave everyone of them away. I was trying to reserve a copy of each for another member of SinC who was supposed to be in the booth helping out. It was fun. This is me holding my two books (had I thought it about it, I should have held the covers I printed out of all four books) in the SinC booth. I'd like to see more pictures Ellis took of the trade show and the booth area. We even had one of the members pose for an outline of a dead body in front of our booth. It was pretty cool.

More later - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Altitude anyone?

It's official. The fourth book in the series is now with cover. That doesn't mean it is completed by any means (I've got to write the story around the clues now) but we are getting closer. I've been informed that State of Reservations will hopefully be published by November 1. I hope so since I have an event the middle of November.

So without further ado, here is the cover for State of Altitude:










And for comparison, here are the first four covers side by side:








What do you notice about the covers? Do the cover clue illustrations help you guess the state or do you need to purchase a copy of the book to read more to figure out which state is being described? Which is your favorite so far? Drop me a line and let me know.

See you all in the postings - E :)

JGDS newsletter of sorts

This is a busy month for the JGDS and me personally. I've fallen behind on my newsletter but figured I would do an update here and hopefully folks will see what's going on.


August is one of those crazy months and now that we are getting back into the swing of band camp and other activities, things are even crazier.

The JGDS will be making several appearances over the next few weeks so hopefully, we will be recognized soon.

August 8th - Love to Learn Homeschool Info & Resource conference, Charlotte NC, from 8:30 to 5. This will hopefully be my break and allow me to get my foot in the door. I don't feel I have enough books and teacher's guides going but I can't afford more, so I'll have to hope I sell out and am taking orders which would be a good thing. The flip side would be not to sell anything but I have hopes, so we should sell something at least.

August 8th - 4RV will be at the Eastern Oklahoma Author Festival in Tahlequah, OK. So if you are in the area, stop by and visit with Vivian and other 4RV authors who will be present. My books will be there but I won't be able to sign them - sorry guys.

August 14 - Katie Hines (4RV author), Lynda Lippman-Lockhart and I will be at the SC Welcome Center in Fairplay (I-85 northbound coming in from Georgia) from 1:30 to 4:30 promoting all books. The theme this month for the welcome center is "Cool it in South Carolina" and so we are adding a twist to that by saying - "Cool it with a good book in South Carolina". So if you are interested in having some books to browse through, stop by and see what 4RV has to offer.

August 15 - John Jeter (another author) will be at the SC Welcome Center promoting his books, again from 1:30 to 4:30. Stop by to see what he has to offer.

August 15 - I will be attending the AnAuthor World mini conference in Greenville, SC. This is more for fun for me but also hopefully an in to doing some guest speaker spots too. I know one of the coordinators of this program.

September 5-6 - Charlotte Literary Festival, Charlotte, NC - 12 noon to 6 p.m. both days. This is being held at the Charlotte Convention Center. 4RV will have a booth and hopefully Katie Hines (Guardian) and Rich Aaron (Would A Kangaraffe Make you Laffe?) will be able to make appearances and help out in the booth over the weekend. More on this as details are revealed to me.


My August calendar really looks full because of Sisters in Crime meeting, SCWW writers group meetings, school registration, school starting and doctors' appointments, along with eye appointments for new glasses for everyone. Of course with school starting comes band stuff, so my weekends from the middle of September to the end of October will be full, either with competitions or appearances.

4RV News: We have had several titles released in the last couple of months. Check out the website for more details to see what is availble. Vivian has closed submissions for children's books until sometime next year but is still looking for other genres. If interested, check out the website for the submission guidelines.


State of Reservations is supposed to be in the process of being edited but apparently the edits have been lost in the mail and so I don't have the second set yet. As soon as they come to me, I will work on getting them completed and back to the editors for one more edit (I think that is the process). I don't know where Aidana is on the illustrations for that so not sure when State of Reservations will be released. Will keep you all posted on that.

If you haven't had a chance to check out my website, take a gander. I've added all the state activity booklets for you to print to keep the kids occupied. You can print several of the states or just the state you are from. That is up to you. I also have added a buy button on the front page to order State of Wilderness and State of Quarries. Let me know what you think of the website.


And last but not least, we have a title for state #4. I liked my choice of State of Heights (elusive and not really giving anything away), but Vivian didn't like that and neither did Aidana, so they decided it would be titled ------ State of Altitude (I'm afraid too many will know from the title alone and not pick the book up to read it, but that is my opinion). I know what the cover illustrations will be and can't wait to see the cover. I think Aidana has her "models" ready and is ready to do the cover.

That is the update of what is going on with us - see you all in the postings - enjoy - Mrs. E and the JGDS - E :)