Teachers Pay Teachers/State Stories restarting

To all my followers,

I apologize for not posting regularly over the past few years.  I hope I still have folks who are interested in the state mystery series as I'm about to get the series going again. 

I've opened my Teachers Pay Teachers store just to put my state stories up in digital versions including the accompanying study guides.  You can find my store here, so please take a few minutes to explore and/or follow.   There are three states available right now with the first one in the series about to undergo a revamping so it matches the rest of the books story wise with new illustrations and cover coming in early fall (late August or early September).  State of Wilderness has been published by a publisher (the first story I had published by a publisher) and since coming out of contract with the publisher has now been republished by me.  It needs some editing to match the other stories available and then I can work on getting State of Quarries and State of Reservations republished since they never were done after coming out of contract.  State of Successes, State of Heights, and State of Nature need a bit of modification (copyright page has changed slightly) but for the most part are completed and up in my TpT store. 

Once these three stories are republished, then I finally will be able to move on to getting more in the series published.  Hopefully we will have between 6 and 10 new stories come out each year until the series is completed.  Books 7 through 10 are in various stages of completion so it's just a matter of getting the illustrations completed and formatting, et cetera on each of those. 

Please pass the word to all homeschooling parents and teachers alike.  The Teachers Pay Teachers site isn't for teachers only.  Homeschoolers are welcome to purchase various curricula supplements. 

Also, just reminding I'm running a gofundme campaign to pay off my first illustrator so I can get going with the new illustrator to get this series back on track.  If interested in helping out, please drop by here and contribute whatever you can to this campaign.  Minus the fees that the campaign takes, everything will go to pay off the illustrator.  Thank you all for helping me and thank you for believing in my series to stay with me.  I promise as this year unfolds there will be more postings here due to lots of announcements and updates.

See you all in the postings - Ma America (aka, Mrs. E, Elysabeth Eldering)

Exciting News

I know it's been a long time since I've posted on this blog but I have some exciting news about the JGDS series. 

As most of you know I've put the series on hold for a while.  I've not published any new stories in the series and this has been due to mostly a financial reason.  I signed contracts with an illustrator previously for way too much (not affordable to me in the long run) and still owe her some money and I hope to get her paid off this year.  I've missed this series tremendously. 

I've always felt this series needed to be out there.  So exciting news is I've found an illustrator who isn't going to charge me nearly what my prior illustrator was and she is excited about working on the series with me.  Of course, this will be between her own projects and doing work on fiverr.com.  State of Wilderness was the first book in the series and is different than the others so it needs a redo/edit/short rewrite - whatever you want to call it.  So in August of this year, we will start working on State of Wilderness and see how things look time wise for republication.  I'm hoping by late September/early October to republish (second republishing of State of Wilderness) and republish State of Quarries and State of Reservations shortly after as both of these have been missing from the series and need to be republished; within a couple of months after Wilderness is republished. 

Hopefully by the end of 2017/very beginning of 2018 State of Acceleration, State of Imagination, State of Monuments, and State of Production will be published and what is owed has been paid off so that I can put State of Successes, State of Heights, and State of Nature back out. 

I also have a storefront on TeachersPayTeachers (TpT) and will be offering books with study guides over there.  I'm not sure what I'll be selling them for there but it will be in the range that most other teachers sell their stuff for.  I will be conferring with some teacher friends to see where to price my books/study guides.  It will be a slow process to get all the books published but I promise there will be 50 books when it is said and done with a bonus clue booklet and possibly a coloring book, but those are at the end of the overall project. 

I hope all of you are as excited about this project as I am.  For the next few months, there will be a few postings but once we starting working on State of Wilderness be on the look out for more postings as well as some streaming time with the illustrator while she works on the images.  She uses twitch to stream when she is working on her writing or her drawings or other creative projects so I'll be posting when there are streaming episodes. 

Stay tuned for more in the upcoming months as things progress.  See you all in the postings - "Ma America" (fondly known as Mrs. E :))

Revamping the Series

I've had a few ideas on revamping the series and will keep everyone posted when I've come up with the right idea for the series, although it may end up not being a series after all.  I will have to see which route I'm going to take.  Anyway - more when the revamp is completed - E :)

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 :)

This and That

I've been neglecting the JGDS series and blog postings for a while. So, since it has been over a month since I last posted here, I'm going to do a brief "this and that" posting here.  For more details of what has happened this week, please stop by my other blog and check out today's "This and That" posting as well as a special deal I have going on for this week on books and bookworms for the last minute gift on your list.

This past week, I sold four copies of State of Successess to the Belton Museum along with three copies of Finally Home. 

The weekend of November 16-17 I did an event at Cascades Verdae and sold a total of 17 books - 15 of them state books.  My best event to date.  It doesn't come to enough to really pay Heather and get more books published but that day will hopefully come.  I would love to get more states published but right now they will remain on hold until I start seeing orders of at least 1000 per title or larger.  I need some serious print runs in order to get back on track. 

I also am available to do school visits so if you are a teacher or librarian following this blog in the Tri-State area - NC, SC, GA - and would like to book me for your end-of-year fill-in, I'm available.  See you all in  the postings - Ma America

Sugarfoot Festival

It's that time of year again and our small town is gearing up for the Sugarfoot Festival, basically your street fair where folks come from all over to enjoy the entertainment and check out the vendors hocking their wares.  This year is going to be a little different and as I drove into town today to go to the post office I saw them setting up the mini carnival rides and what not.  Tonight is family night so hopefully that will boost the town's economy a bit. 

Once again, I will have my tent set up and will be selling books - everything published to include the republication of a corrected version of "Train of Clues".  If you are in the upstate area of South Carolina and don't mind traveling a bit, stop on over and visit.  I'll be in booth #56, right near the old flower shop (or so I've been told).  See you all in the postings - Ma Amrerican (aka Mrs. E) and the JGDS :)

Georgia COMO update

Last week was the Georgia combined librarian event in Macon, Georgia. The trip down there wasn't too bad except my GPS took me the round about way to get to Anderson to get to the back road to head down to Macon. The traffic was light until I got around Athens but then again, that is the home of Georgia University (or maybe it's the University of Georgia, whatever it is - home of the GA Bulldogs) and I had missed a turn which would have taken me directly through downtown Athens. Coming back, the GPS wouldn't let me go the back way around Athens and on Friday afternoon the weekend of the GA-Carolina football game at 3 or so in the afternoon - not a good time to travel through Athens. The drive was really rough on my knees for some odd reasons and next year, I need to remember to make several stops along the way so as to get out and stretch my legs so I won't be so stiff. My left knee is finally recovering almost a week later. The school librarians weren't really at the event as expected but overall I did make some good contacts. Met Mimi from State Standards Publishing who led me to Follett (a distributor). I was supposed to be in the SELA booth but when I got there Thursday morning (after setting up my table Wednesday evening), I had been reduced to a corner that was totally invisible to anyone. Gordon was nice and said he had a cancellation and he was going to put me in that booth, which just happened to be next to Rainbow Books (another distributor) and about three tables down from Davidson Title (another distributor). When I found the Follett booth and talked with them a few minutes, they directed me to the Mackin table which is yet another distributor. Now why are distributors important to me and those four contacts especially important? These are the folks who can get my books in the schools because the schools tend to get their books from distributors directly rather than from the authors or through Baker & Taylor directly. During the authors' reception, I shared a table with Minnie P. Harmon and have got her working on publishing her books through createspace (she is published with xlibris right now and her books are expensive - $30 for a hardback and $20 for a paperback - with no margin for profit or any real way to cut her prices). We are also considering sharing a booth next year at the event and hopefully that will help. I also talked with a lady from Surpass Software who is a retired librarian or teacher and has written some jingles on how to remember what a dictionary is, a thesaurus, et cetera. She will be publishing her compiled songs into a book through createspace as well. I had two ladies attend my workshop and they were pretty good at shelving my books. One of them said the whole reason she was in my workshop was because apparently my books were being talked about from one of the schools in their district. I contacted the librarian in that particular school but she said they didn't have my books in the library but that wasn't to say that a teacher may have bought them and has them in her class, so there is no telling who has any copies of my books and where they got them from. I'm just glad someone is talking about my books. So as you see the contacts were well worth the trip. I'm looking forward to next year's event and will hopefully have a big foot in the door if the distributors carry my books. (That's the hope and then I can start publishing more states and pay Heather, so keep those distributors in mind and send some prayers up that they start carrying my books.) The next event is next weekend - the Sugarfoot festival and I would love to see my afghans sell (that will get me back on track with my car payments) and some books as well. If the weather stays cool like it has been since last weekend, then my afghans should be a big hit as people will be looking for a way to stay warm. Until next week - Ma America (aka Mrs. E) and the JGDS :)

Gearing up for GA COMO

This is the week. I'm making a trip to Macon, Georgia, for the GA Librarian conference. There will be at least 12 states represented in the SELA booth, which I'll be sitting in to help man the booth. If the SC School Librarian Association conference is any indication of what to expect, I should do well. I'm heading out Wednesday about midday and should return Friday evening some time. I will be away from the computer but will have my tablet, which is mostly for taking credit cards but also will be entertainment for me during down times. Afghans are almost completed. I have 3-1/2 skeins left on the one I'm working on now (Mirage, which is similar to the Aspen colors but with more blue and tan than the tans and browns that the Aspen has in it). I've finished all the other afghans I'll have on display for sale and I need to work up some bookworms in the Mirage color. I'm so looking forward to this event since it promises to be quite a large event and hopefully a way for me to get my foot in the door. Will post pictures and more information next weekend. Hope you all have a great week - see you in Macon - Ma America (aka Mrs. E) :)

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

Last Week

This is the last week of my Christmas in July sales going on. For more details, please see my July 1 This and That posting over on my other blog.

I'm also looking for suggestions for Kelly and Emma to make a series out of their little adventures. You can post a comment on the This and That posting from this past Sunday on my other blog if you've read the book and have any ideas for them.

Hope you all check out the special deals and don't forgeet that the chances for the red, white, blue afghan drawing have been permanently reduced to $1 per chance with bonus chances for every 25 purchased. The more chances you purchase, the better your chance is for winning.

Next month, I should be starting regular postings again. It's summer and hard to concentrate on blogging in the summer - see you all in the postings - E :)

Mid Year Sale

I've not done much on this blog in a while so thought I'd do a little promotion and see how it runs. I have 20 copies of books 1, 4, 5 and 6 each and 4 or 5 copies of books 2 and 3 each.



I'm offering a B2G1-1/2 sale - Buy any two books, get the third one for $5. If you buy all six, that is like buying five and getting the sixth one for free. You can order your signed copies via paypal - $29 (price plus shipping) at eeldering@gmail.com. This special will run through July 7th midnight.



For more on the state series, please visit the JGDS website. While there, why not check out the gifts page and order some bookworms or an afghan or even a kindle/nook sleeve or tablet sleeve. It's never too early to start your Christmas shopping.

Train of Clues

I'm almost ready to re-release "Train of Clues" (a mystery destination story, the predecessor to the JGDS series). We've had a few glitches since its original publication in 2010, but I think Heather has finally fixed everything (removed all the doubled paragraphs/pages) and we have moved things around so the book is longer page-wise but the story is the same length. I hope to re-release it this week or next. I'm even thinking this one may go up as an ebook just to test the waters with it, being that it is also illustrated and I'm not sure how it will work as an ebook. I will keep you all posted on this. Ma America (aka Ms. E)

50?

Ma America, aka Ms. Elysabeth, will be turning 50 in a few days. As a celebratory measure for her half century, she will be giving away goodies for 50 days. Some of the giveaways will occur on her blog and a few will be done on the Writers on the Move blog during those 50 days. The giveaway starts on Tuesday, June 5 (the actual birth date of Ms. Elysabeth) and runs through August 2. There will be no giveaways on Sundays and maybe a special giveaway on July 4th.

All you have to do is leave a comment, answer a question or two along the way and then there will be a random drawing for whatever the goody of the day is. Hope to see you all in the postings - Ma America and the JGDS

Welcome Center Success

Yesterday was pretty successful as far as visitors coming to the Welcome Center and lots of comments on how nice the welcome center is and how friendly everyone is. The highlight was being next to McGee's Pub folks who brought in some homemade corn beef hash and some Irish cream (non alcoholic of course) coffee for the travelers. The hash was delicious; I could've easily eaten a whole plate of it without even blinking. The welcome center folks had put out some watermelon as well and that was very tasty. Sometime around noon, one of the local hotels' (as in Greenville local, since Anderson doesn't really have much going for it but it is growing and some new hotels have been added in the last couple of years or so) representative brought in some Dunkin Donuts donut holes, yum yum.

I had printed up 25 travel activity booklets and handed out about 10. I left five with Amos.

For a full report on sales, please stop over and check out my other blog and read today's This and That posting. Safe travels and Happy Mother's Day from Ma America - E :)