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 Update

The JGDS series is still on hiatus until I can figure out what to do with it.


I've been trying to decide whether to keep the same format or revamp the whole thing.  I'm on a teachers' sell site where teachers post lesson plans, worksheets, et cetera, and sell them to other teachers.  I recently hooked up with a member who is a "curriculum coordinator"; I asked Mr. Hughes to make an introduction as she is a friend of his.  We started chatting via email.  I sent her copies of the books I had on hand and the study guides of the six books I have previously published.


She just finished an event in or near Provo, Utah, and read the first book and sent me some great information.  She feels my books would make a great Scholastic addition but they are no longer taking submissions from anyone other than an agent.




What this means is that I need to find an agent who can shop the books around and hopefully have Scholastic pick them up.  The process is long and drawn out to go through an agent and as I've never had an agent before, I'm about to find out that the process is more of a challenge than anything else.  The waiting to see the whole series in print is fine with me but I don't know if I want to keep the same format as I've already started or if I want to start fresh and do one novel or regional state chapter books or go a whole other direction.  I think the biggest problem I'll have in finding an agent is that right now I only have six states completed with the next four started and in various stages of being completed.  This is only 1/5 of the total books to be published (if I stay in this format) and I don't know that anyone will pick up the series not being completed.  If I revamp and do something totally different, that means I have to take time to write whatever I plan on doing and then shop it around to an agent, probably another year or so.




I looked at the Agent Query website last night to start getting an idea of some of the agents I might query and didn't get very far.  I'm only looking at agents who deal with children's books.  The three that I'm leaning toward right now are Faith Hamlin from Greenburger Agency, Ellen Levine from the Trident Media Group, and The Betsy Amster agency.  I think Faith Hamlin would be a great agent, since she represents the illustrator for Ms. Lynne Cheney, author of Our 50 States A Family Adventure Across America.  The other two because they have worked with some of the other publisher's who deal with children's books (McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster).  The ultimate would be to have Scholastic pick up the series and publish them but I'll be happy wherever they land. 




So, I'm in a dilemma right now of what direction to go.  Please comment on any ideas you may have on a direction to go in.  Any help is appreciated. - Ma America & the JGDS (Mrs. E :))

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 :)

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 :)

Really, Call Me Slack

Wow, it's been 2 months since I've posted anything on this blog.  I'm surprised blogger hasn't shut it down for being inactive.

Some updates are definitely warranted by now. 

AUDIO BOOK UPDATE:  I found a narrator for the state series and State of Successes is all but  finalized.  The only thing holding me back right now is the cover.  I got the first cover from Heather (same cover as the printed cover but has to be changed to fit the standards for audible.com's preferences - now has to be squared like it will go on  a CD package) and noticed she didn't have the JGDS logo on it and that is really the key to the covers.  So I'm waiting for her to get that completed so I can upload it and sign off on the audio file to publish it.  Francene did a great job reading the game part and making it sound like the game - I hope that once the audio is released and with some other things going on that I can get back to the series and start putting more books out.  State of Wilderness will probably be contracted in June, with State of Heights in August and then State of Nature in late September/early October.  As soon as State of Quarries and State of Reservations are republished, then they will go up as audio books as well.

Republishing the books is a matter of funds right now.  That brings me to my next item.  Looking for a sponsor for the books.  Who, you ask, would be a  perfect sponsor for the series?  National Geographic Kids, of course.  I tried to call them this morning to get the ball rolling but the office is closed for the holiday (most everyone else is closed just Monday but the folks in DC seem to take the holiday to include the Friday before - lol).  Anyway, if things work out as planned with them as a sponsor, I should be back to getting books in the series published.  My campaign with indiegogo didn't work out at all as no funds were raised and that is sad since the series really does have merit and should be in schools. 

Speaking of schools, I was doing laundry the other day and met a teacher who is teaching 4th and 5th grade science now but just had surgery on his knee so wasn't at work but lucky for me we started chatting.  Next year he is teaching 3rd grade.  We talked about my books and I gave him a copy of State of Heights which he plans on making sure he uses the books in the fall.  I hope he contacts me for more books and possible school visits, et cetera.  Slowly but surely I am making my way to the schools, one teacher at a time, and if I get my sponsorship from Nat Geo Kids or headquarters, that will catapult me to the desired effect I want.   I'm not looking to get rich but to have the books in the schools and being used to supplement the curriculum, means I get my name out there.

TRAVEL AND TOURISM WEEK:  To show how slack I've been, I didn't even post about travel and tourism week which was this month.  I participated this year again and found it interesting that Amos had left and I didn't even know it until I had called near the beginning of the month (perhaps even the end of April) to talk to him and find out about scheduling some time to be at the welcome center.  Ma America was officially released during that visit (new costume and new look for myself).  I didn't get any pictures of her due to my camera battery dying, but I did get a few pictures of the tables of others who were participating that day.  You all will be seeing Ma America from the next event.

HIGH COUNTRY FESTIVAL OF THE BOOK:  June 22 is the High Country Festival of the book in Boone, NC.  This works out  for me as my parents lives in Lenoir and Boone is about 35 miles from them, so I don't have to pay hotel cost or food as my parents will feed me  -  lol.  The festival is being held at Watagua High School, so if you are in the area June 22, stop by and visit with Ma America. 

LOVE TO LEARN HOMESCHOOL CONFERENCE:  I didn't get to participate in this event last year because of lack of funds but this year, it is being held in a new place, Valdes, NC, which I found out  from my dad and  looking at the maps is only about 9 miles from my parents.  August 3 I'll be in Valdes, NC for the Love to Learn conference.  I'm looking forward to a new crowd of folks.  I will have to make sure my father announces to his church folks because I know there are some people who do homeschool in the church family and they could come to the conference if they are looking for new products et cetera. 

I'll post more as soon as I know what direction the sponsorship goes and as we get closer to events coming up.  See you all in the postings - Ma America, aka Mrs. E :)

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 :)

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 :)

Education in America

Recently I've been seeing commercials regarding the new Core Curriculum Standards (used to be National Standards) and a commercial about a World Science event in which students from all over the world participated. The Science event commercial shows that the USA placed 17th; the gist being that we need to help our teachers help our students do better. Here is an infographic highlighting more on the Education in the United States.


Via: OnlineEducation.net

I'll share more of these infographs as I get them - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

July Specials

July 1 - wow, the year is half over. So for my July specials I thought I would just do a giveaway here celebrating the 4th of July and my state books. Not onl do I still have my special deal for the state books going on, but I'm also running specials on several other things.

So let's kick off the holiday with a giveaway - Pop over to my other blog and tell me the color of my newest color for the afghans and you will be entered to win a red, white, blue crocheted kindle/nook or tablet sleeve. All you have to do is leave a comment here with the name of the newest addition to my collection of yarn colors and you are entered. That's it, simple, easy as pie, no purchase necessary.



I'm also doing a special for my red, white and blue afghan drawing, which will take place in December, with all the tickets being $1 each and with the purchase of 25, 50, 75, et cetera (in batches of 25), you will receive 5 extra tickets for the drawing (30/$25, 60/$50, 90/$75). Just paypal me at eeldering@gmail.com and place your order. This deal is only good for this week, so hurry and get your chances.

The last special is my Christmas in July special. During the month of July you can order an afghan/tablet or kindle/nook sleeve/bookworm combo for only $60 plus shipping and tax (total $70). Colors completed are the Bonbon print and Melonberry with the Primary being 5/6ths of the way finished (lacks 1 skein) and Aspen started (1 skein in) with Marrakesh and Woodsy with enough yarn to complete those and Monet and the newest color needing to get yarn and completed. For any of the afghans not completed or started, I do need a 3-week lead time to complete the afghan. This special is good for the whole month of July.

Happy 4th of July, happy specials and hope you all stay cool - Mrs. E :)

Homeschooling VS Public Education

I was recently contacted to view and share an infographic on homeschooling versus public education. It is pretty interesting to see that homeschoolers are excelling in areas as compared to their peers. I think a good bit of this has to do with parents who really care about their child(ren)'s education and who are dedicated to providing quality learning materials to help move their children forward as well as dedication of their time and the ability to personalize the education to the learning style of each child.

Here is the infographic:


Created by: CollegeAtHome.com

If you are looking for some supplemental social studies books exploring United States History and factoids, my JGDS series would make a perfect fit for homeschoolers just starting in a state study. Books can be used as an overall course supplement (all United States) or as individual state studies (as completed). Each book has a supplemental study guide which explores several of the clues in the books a bit further, developing research and thinking skills as well as other curricula, thus tying geography or state studies in with math, ELA, science, arts & crafts, and game skills.



If you are interested in getting started, there is a special deal going on for the next week - buy 2 get 1 for 1/2 off ($25 total for three books); buy all six states available for $50 which is like buying five and getting the sixth one for free. It's never too early to start your series. The series will hopefully pick back up in 2013 but finances right now prohibit from getting more books published. For this special, you will get five chances for the afghan drawing for every three books purchased and if you refer a friend and that friend purchases and they let me now you referred them, I'll give the referer five more chances for the drawing. The referee will also get their five chances per three books purchased. See you all in the postings.

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 :)

End-of-School Year Bookworm Special Deal

Teachers, are you looking for a small gift idea to give your students for the end of the school year? Librarians, would you like to show your appreciation to the teachers at your school?

I have a special deal on my bookworms for the end of the school year. The bookworms are normally priced at $1.50 each and for orders over 20 I've got them priced down to $1.25 each. For one week only, you can place an order and get 25 bookworms for $30. This is like buying 24 and getting the 25th for free plus free shipping. This is a $13.75 savings from regular price including the shipping. Shipping outside the United States is $5 for the completed package.

Colors available include Aspen, Melonberry, Primary, Woodsy, Marrakesh, Old Glory, Christmas, bonbon print and Monet. For pictures of the actual colors, please visit the JGDS website, gifts tab and check them out there. This offer ends at midnight EST May 17, supplies are limited so hurry and place your order. All orders must be paid for via paypal (eeldering@gmail.com) prior to shipping. Please indicate how many of each color you would like. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Travel and Tourism Week

Today is the beginning of Travel & Tourism week. Each year the Welcome Centers across the country have special events for travels. The first year I participated in the Fairplay SC Welcome Center's event, I met the real "Radio" and Coach Jones as well as my husband's aunt, uncle and cousin who were traveling from Florida to North Carolina to get the other cousin who had been staying with my sister-in-law and (who passed away last March, God Rest her Soul) helping her out. The freaky thing about knowing who she was (Aunt Toni) was that I had only met her 15 years prior to that at the memorial service for Bill's grandmother; the year I was pregnant with my youngest child.

I didn't get to participate last year secondary to no funds and a couple of conflicts in my schedule. This year, I do get to participate and will be at the Fairplay Welcome Center Saturday, May 12, from 10 AM to 1 PM.

This year, not only will I be representing the JGDS series but I'll also be promoting the SC Author Connection Group. This is a group of four authors at the moment who are trying to get in with the schools during their book fair weeks. At this time, we would like to limit to South Carolina schools and gradually move out to the other states. If you are a teacher or school librarian or any school or district authority figure, please stop by and pick up a flyer to see what each author has to offer. We are offering something for everyone from elementary through high school. We would love to hear back from you if you happen to be traveling in the great state of South Carolina or if you know teachers or school librarians in the state.

I'll have some travel related handouts for the kids, so make sure you stop by and say hello and receive your goodies. Travel safe. See you all in the postings - Ma America & the JGDS

Curl up with a good book afghans

I liked the quickness of the alternating V and shell stitch for the 2013 red/white/blue afghan, I decided to do that stitch with the colors of the bookworms.

I've made samples of the afghan colors available and will make the full afghans as I get orders for them. Remember it is never too early to start thinking of those hard to buy for folks on your Christmas list or for a reader who has a birthday coming up. The turnaround time on the afghans is 3-4 weeks, so plan accordingly. If you need an afghan in June, now is the time to place your order. See the pictures of individual samples on the JGDS website under the gifts tab. There are also solid colored afghans available but the sample pictures depicted do not reflect the colors you are limited to.

I'm excited about this new program I'm offering and hope it will enhance book sales. See you all in the postings - Ma America :)