Congratulations to Jordan H.

This weekend at Decatur, I had this puzzle up for grabs. Well the contest was simple enough, guess the state based on one clue from the book on a bookmark. I had five entries and of those five, three had the correct state guessed. So upon returning home last evening, I let Hailie draw from the three correct guesses and she pulled Jordan H.'s paper. Congratulations to you, Jordan. The puzzle will be put in the mail today.

(this picture is the inside part of the puzzle because my scanner won't scan the whole thing in one piece; but it does give you an idea of what the puzzle looks like)

See you all in the postings - E :)

Decatur and Back

Ms. Elysabeth has been so busy she has kind of left us hanging. We knew she would be right up until leaving for the book festival. So a bit of a rundown of what went on from your favorite kids.

Funny how you plan things in your head and want to do some fun stuff and then you never get around to it.

Ms. Elysabeth had some plans to do some matching games and fun things with the bookmarks and perhaps some state related giveaways but she was so out of her element that she didn't get to do what she wanted. Hopefully next weekend she'll be better prepared for the book signing at The Open Book.

This is Ms. Elysabeth and Ms. Jacque and Ms. Vivian right after Ms. Elysabeth had been unloaded and got to the booth. She had called Ms. Vivian to tell her she was going to get some ice and that she would be back to help fix the booth up. So she gets there and these two women had already done all the work.

Sunday night packing up was the same way. She had a good time and if nothing else she did get the bookmarks in the hands of the kids. Started a guess the state based on the clue the child had to give away one of the puzzles.

She wore us out but all in all it was a very good trip - For more information you can hop on over to Ms. Vivian's site and check out some pictures and other things about Decatur.

Next up we are going to be doing a book signing at the Open Book on Saturday so come see us from 3 pm to 5 pm and have fun, learn some geography factoids and who knows, you may even win a puzzle - see you then - the JGDS

Decatur bound, here we come

We are going to Decatur. The anticipation and excitement continue to build. Ms. Elysabeth and her kids volunteered last year and this year, she is going to be in her publisher's booth. We have so much to do to get ready for the upcoming events. Ms. Elysabeth has some geography games and fun things related to the series. We hope she sells out again. The first order is almost gone - less than 15 left but we've lost count.

If you happen to come by the booth, make sure you tell Ms. Elysabeth, Ms. Vivian and Ms. Jacque that you heard about it online. We might be able to talk Ms. Elysabeth into having some special gifts available just for mentioning finding out about the book festival somewhere online. There are lots of places the event is being posted, so come on and say you heard about them online.

For more information about the festival, click here. Click the book and street fair link and you will see a list of all exhibitors and booth numbers. 4RV is booth 114. See you all there. Hopefully the weather will stay like it has been the past couple of days. the JGDS

Sales and other good news!!!!

I'm so excited about how the book is doing. I can't wait to get caught up on my regular work to get the second one finished.

Since the books arrived, 50 in the first order which was supposed to be put aside basically for Decatur Book Festival, 35 have actually been requested or sold. I sent Vivian monies last week for about a dozen books and at the same time, she ordered another 50, because in talking to several friends of mine online or via email, I realized I had maybe 7 books left in the box from the original order. In total that makes 120 books in less than a month having been ordered (she forgot to order some to keep with her so she could send out for anyone who orders from the website, so had to place an order for 20). My second 50 arrived Thursday and I promised not to sell from that box and put it aside for Decatur. So, hopefully this trend will continue through the end of the year and we sell like crazy.

Yesterday, while out running around, we ran into one of Hailie's friends who bought a copy of the book. She's such a sweetheart too. She was my 34th copy sold. And then while talking to one of the band members at the grocery store, Hailie sold another one to a friend's mother out in the parking lot (she was getting a copy of the book to show the friend in the store and ran into her other friend who said to hold a copy a copy out since she did not have the cash at the moment - that was the 35th one). I am down to 5 in the box and 10 on consignment at the Belton Center for the Arts and if those don't sell by the end of the month, I'll pick them up to take with me to Decatur.

Vivian is on a mini vacation visiting her son in Colorado. Her daughter-in-law is an administrator in one of the elementary schools and read the book and absolutely loved it, so my series may make it into the schools, one school district at a time but I have a feeling that they will eventually make it into the right hands in each of the states to get distributed in the schools massively (that would be great to see my books used to supplement the geography teaching and having the kids learn things about the states they normally wouldn't pick up in their normal day-to-day routine schooling).

Now for the guesses - most everyone who has read the book gets to about Clue #25 (out of 27 clues) before they really know the state. I did two presentations last week at the Belton Center for the Arts summer camp (the theme this year is story time) and had a blast. Stephanie wanted me to read clue #25 so the kids could guess the state but I didn't want to, really wanted to entice them to buy the book, or get their parents to buy the book, so that they could read the book for themselves and make their guesses like my characters do.

I will be doing one more presentation next Wednesday to the last of the summer camp sessions at the Belton Center for the Arts. I will probably read the first part and the first two clues and let them get the books to read the rest themselves. Definitely Clue #25 is a dead giveaway clue (26 and 27 are basically the common, known facts of the state so everyone should know by the last clue or the next to the last clue for sure).

One of the band member's mother bought two copies and informed me last night while at the store that she guessed the state from the cover. I don't know how she did but she did. The cover depicts Clue #2 (Sacajawea), Clue #14 (the Appaloosa horse) and Clue #20 (the Birds of Prey Wildlife area in this state being the home to world's most dense population of nesting eagles, hawks and falcons). Way to go Faith from knowing from the cover what state it is. You get a gold star.

Everyone come over to the 4RV website and place your order today. If you know me, you can get an autographed copy from me directly (remembering I only have about 15 left I can actually sell before Decatur Book Festival). If you are in the Atlanta area over the Labor Day weekend, stop by the Decatur Book Festival and come visit the 4RV booth. You can pick up your copy of 10 of the books that 4RV has published this year, some actually signed by the authors who will be available (Viv, Jacque Graham and myself). So see you all in the postings or at the book festivals - E :)