Southeast Homeschool Convention

After leaving the school, I headed to the part of Greenville where I knew the convention was to grab a bite to eat. Got to the convention center and had to park across the street (thank goodness, not up the road like a lot of folks were having to do). I went to my post, which was the A-C registration area. Met the lady I was kind of relieving who just happens to be from the town right next to me. Met her cousin who lives in the area. Was registering or answering one ladies questions and handed her some bookmarks and she recognized me from the SC Book Festival last year, stating she had purchased a book from me at the book festival and had wondered if I had more books published. She was glad to see that I had and that the series is continuing.

I enjoyed talking to folks and finding out that the convention will be in the same area next year, March 22 - 24 - yay!! I hope to be able to save up enough money to participate next year. I really would have done well if I had had a booth. So after my shift was over, I got to walk around the vendor hall for a bit (huge place and totally couldn't take in everything in the short time I was in there - needed three days to walk through the whole place - lol). I figured I would just kind of start down the middle and make my way one side or other. The first booth I kind of stopped at was a science booth - I just know that the whole system includes all the kits necessary for the experiments - it was pretty cool. I walked down past a couple more booths and there was an artistic guy there - a whole system on teaching art to kids from kindergarten up - pretty cool to talk to him for a few minutes since my oldest son is artistically inclined.

Leaving the artist's booth, I decided to go to the left. At the corner of the next aisle was Janice Campbell. The reason this is important is that someone had come to the registration area where I was working and had asked if we knew which was her booth; they had been in her workshop that morning and were wanting to check out her goods. We struck up a conversation. She asked for my bookmark. She asked if I had a persona for when I do my book signings and events. I told her I did not. We chatted some more and I told her I had this idea to do a unit study or studies for the books and she referred me to Amanda Bennett's booth. I left Janice's booth and headed to find Amanda's booth but she wasn't there so I didn't get to talk to her. As I was turning to figure out where I was going next, almost diagonally across from Amanda's booth was a tie dyed clothing booth & homeschool psych (husband and wife). She was rearranging the booth so that the husband's books would be more prominent Saturday. So I stopped by and chatted. The husband is self-publishing his books as well and she is doing the tie dye as an extra. Anyway, after a bit of conversation and telling them how I ended up over on this side of the vendor hall and that Janice had asked if I had a persona, an idea came out, from Dr. Tim - lol.

I didn't get to spend much time in the vendor hall but the few contacts I made were worth it. I will be unveiling a new persona for me in May, so stay tuned for that.

Overall, this was a very successful day because I made a few great contacts. Looking forward to hopefully being a vendor next year for the convention. E :)

Do you love your librarian?

Last week at our Sisters in Crime (SinC) meeting, we had a librarian from Pickens County Library come give us a little insight on getting books in the library and some other fun stuff. I passed my bookmarks out as I didn't have any in January and everyone else was passing theirs out then. I stayed a little after the meeting and talked with Jennifer about doing some programs at the library, et cetera. I also gave a copy of State of Successes to the librarian to put in her branch. Sunday evening, while I was just sitting here working and minding my own business, an email came across my desk with the subject line - DACUSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL INVITATION - I was thinking it was something from the teachers.net forum so wasn't going to read it right away. I decided to take a break and read a few emails that had come in. The invitation was actually to me to participate in the Read Across America program at Dacusville Middle School. Woohooo, I think librarian Jennifer spread the word for me - lol. Thank you, Ms. Jennifer. I responded and sent a copy of my sell sheet and the order form for teachers and students, so hopefully I'll get some orders from the school. I'll also pass out bookmarks to the students that morning and leave them with the media specialist (from whom the invitation actually came).



I'll be at Dacusville Middle School on March 18, either at 9 or 10 in the morning. I'll leave the school, grab a bite to eat on my way to Greenville for the Southeast Homeschool Convention/Conference where I'll be volunteering for the afternoon (this is an event I wanted to participate in as a vendor so much but just didn't have the funds to do so, but I'm hoping that next year this group will return and I'll be able to be there as a vendor - buy some books, help send the JGDS to conferences - lol). I may not be able to sell my books that day but I'll be passing out my bookmarks with order forms attached so that I'll get some notice - I hope.

I have a busy few months ahead but it's all good. Promotion is key, especially with such a large project. Be on the lookout for updates and pictures of the events. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :) & the JGDS