State stories suspended until 2012

I will not be publishing any more state stories in 2011. I have been behind and have decided to catch up on some loose end projects (Finally Home, my YA paranormal mystery and fixing "Train of Clues" and republishing it as it has not been available pretty much since April of this year) before moving forward with more state stories. There will still be updates as to where the JGDS will be in the next five months. For now, the next book slated to come out will be State of Acceleration in January of 2012.

Hopefully my readers are following my website as well for updates, and will continue reading this blog for updates on events. Thanks for all your wonderful support - Ma America & the JGDS

State of Wilderness rereleased

As State of Wilderness went out of contract in June, Heather and I worked diligently to get it rereleased in July. After a few bumps, we have finally got it the way it should be, so State of Wilderness is available for purchase as of today. Just got the proof copy from the post office and it looks good. Still working on State of Acceleration so be looking for that in the next few weeks (hopefully by the middle of September) and State of Imagination right behind that.

My next fix has to do with Train of Clues - I haven't reviewed it since the Read Across America progam in March but there are some doubled paragraphs in there so that will be rereleased very soon. Happy reading, ya'll - Ma America & the JGDS :)

Sumter bound for the SCHEA conference

(old cover, awaiting the new one for the rerelease of Wilderness next month)


This weekend, I'm heading to Sumter, SC, for the SCHEA (South Carolina Home Educators Association) conference. Friday will be a fast day since my workshop, Writing Roads, is scheduled for the kids right after lunch at 1:30. I don't know which room I'll be in yet, but am hoping to be in the same building as the exhibitor hall in one of the back classrooms there. My daughter's friend will be going with me again to help out; she's such a good helper.

I have all our maps and information already printed out and have a few surprises for her in the car. We have made plans to eat at a small, hole-in-the-wall restaurant we ate at last year; for a local place the food was very good. I'm looking forward to a new trip. Hoping to be able to show my new cover for State of Wilderness (hurry up Heather and get me the cover so I can show it off - lol) and will have a printed copy of State of Acceleration's cover for display too. I hope we have enough books on hand and hope people are buying. I've checked the vendor/exhibitor list and it doesn't seem there are as many folks this year as there were last year so that could be a disadvantage in that there may not be as many attendees either or it can work to our advantage in that there aren't that many folks to browse from and therefore, we will do very well sales wise. Wish us luck; I'll post after the weekend.

Writing challenge (MOGO7000) weekly update #2

January
01/18/2011: Finished State of Nature adding another 1267 words. I feel good about getting 7000 words in a month. Thanks Vonda for posting this challenge on your blog.

01/29/2011: I particpated in a small writing challenge -only 100 words. So I fell short of my total of 7000 this month, but February should be better for me.

01/31/2011: Here it is the end of January and I didn't meet the goal this month but I did more writing this month than I had in the previous six months.


Total words written in January 2011: 4200 words (hopefully my math is correct - 1563, 1270, and 1267 on State of Nature with 100 words on a new story (that one will be brewing for a bit longer and is not state related) - I still feel proud that I have #6 finished, off to edit it now - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

State of Acceleration cover - #7 in the series

Does it seem weird to be announcing the cover for book #7 now? Not really, some authors get a cover and may not get published up to almost a year from receiving the cover, so State of Acceleration will be published hopefully in April. I am steadily working on State of Nature to have it ready for Heather to do her thing with the layout and all so that hopefully that will show up next month, probably the latter part. Without further ado, the cover for State of Acceleration - Let me know what you think of the cover, no guessing the state right now - lol. I love the way the font looks like it is moving for the title "Acceleration" - Any other feedback would be greatly appreciated - Mrs. E :) & the JGDS

State of Heights proof copy ordered

State of Heights was proof copy ordered today so hopefully that will be released next week for purchase. This is the fifth book in the series. So far this year, State of Reservations, State of Successes and State of Heights have (will be) released along with Train of Clues (the story that started it all) and my Passport Across America (a supplement to keep track of the books in the series or to use for a traveling companion). Next year, we will release State of Nature, State of Acceleration, and State of Imagination between January and June and two others later in the year (as of yet they are untitled, although a tentative title for book #10 is State of Production, but that will be after I finish tweaking the clues and run it by my friend who usually comes up with my titles; this particular title is because Benjamin got to hear the clues and thought some of them were pretty cool and State of Production was descriptive of the state in more ways than one). I do have a cover for State of Nature, which will be released in January. Did I mention that Benjamin actually picked which clues would be on the cover and came up with the title for this one? I think Heather does a great job blending the items so they look like they belong together as can be seen on State of Heights with the tunnel going into the mountain and the bridge looking like it comes off the mountain. Mind you they are totally not in the same region of the state but they look like they could be found together from her cover. You can check out all the information on all books available now on my website. All orders placed from the website will be autographed copies except for the Passport Across America as this is not really a story, just an activity booklet to supplement the series.