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 :))

Two and a half days left

Remember the 10% off sale only lasts until Tuesday night. So make sure you order copies of the first five books by then. Receive all five with study guides on CDs for only $62 which includes shipping. All books will be signed to one child, many children or the family as per your directions. Email me with subject line SPECIAL BLOG DEAL to eeldering@gmail.com or paypal me with instructions of who to sign the books to and where to send them at eeldering@gmail.com - Mrs. E :)

Special deal on first five books

The first 15 people who respond to this blog posting will receive a 10% discount on the total retail price of the first five books in the JGDS series with accompanying study guides. This is a total retail price of $65.00 for $58.50 plus shipping ($3.50). Email me at eeldering@gmail.com with subject line of SPECIAL BLOG DEAL or you can paypal the total amount $62.00 to eeldering@gmail with SPECIAL BLOG DEAL (don't forget to indicate to whom to make the books and where to send them in the notes section). This deal is good through 11:59 PM EST 03/15/2011 (The Ides of March) and open to US residents only.

SCBWI Carolinas conference bound

SCBWI = Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. As a member of the local group, the Carolinas, we have a conference in the fall. This year's is in Charlotte, NC (my guess is this is fairly central to both states). The workshops will be held at the Marriott on Tyvola Road. I came up early so I wouldn't have to get up like at 5 in the morning and head up the road. I checked in sometime around 7ish this evening and was heading to the lobby to get my dinner microwaved since there are no microwaves in the room and none available to be brought to my room. Getting off the elevator, I met up with a friend - someone I actually know. I can't wait for the workshops this weekend. What I'm taking are geared for marketing to the educational market and marketing in general and the PAL (SCBWI has a group of members who are published and listed (PAL) and so that intensive will be geared more towards marketing too.

I'm open to new ideas on getting my books out there.

Sunday, two of the books in the series (State of Reservations and State of Sucesses) will be reviewed on J. Aday Kennedy's blog. She will also be running a marketing idea on the 29th, so come see what she has in store for us (even I don't know what she is planning to do on the 29th, other than to say she has an idea for getting something for free having to do with my series). Guess we will find out next week what she has up her sleeve. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E & the JGDS - :)

Highlands, NC bound -

The first annual Celebration of the Book festival will be held this weekend in Highlands, NC. Here is the link to Highlands so you can find the Civic Center once you come into town. We are heading out Friday afternoon and will be back Saturday. The even has been advertised all over the area so hopefully there will be plenty of children there for my workshop. Putting the girl to work for me this weekend too - lol. Anyway - see you all there - Mrs. E :)

(just a side note - State of Successes and the other Train of Clue books I ordered earlier this week won't be here until probably Monday - but that's okay I have proof copies so we should be good) - E :)

Reservations' first review

Cheryl Malandrinos from The Children's and Teens' Book Connection has posted the first review for State of Reservations. Overall, the review was good other than comments about the illustrations (Cheryl stated what I feel about them) and the back cover having Jolene's name misspelled twice and missing the word "Detective" from Junior Geography Squad. For the complete review, go here. Enjoy - Mrs. E :)

"Reservations" is to the printers

If you are following Aidana's blog, then you've read already that Reservations is off to the printers. You've also read that there will not be any more books in the series published by 4RV. It is a bitter sweet time but the series will continue. There will be more books and it's very likely I already have an artist who will complete the project. Look for State of Heights in July or August and future books every other month or so. Titles up to state #8 will include State of Successes, State of Nature, State of Acceleration, and State of Imagination. As soon as I have covers, I'll post them. Mrs. E :) & the JGDS

Special Deal - limited time only (correction) (email and blog campaign)

05/22/2010: It has been brought to my attention that ordering is not clear for the special deal, either from this blog posting or from an email campaign I'm running, so I am clarifying how to receive copies of State of Wilderness, State of Quarries and State of Reservatiosn with accompanying study guides on CDs. (Take advantage of receiving a $45 value for only $30 plus shipping and paypal fees (total $35).)

SPECIAL DEAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR ORDERING BOOKS: If you are ordering for this special deal either directly from this blog posting or through an email to your homeschool group - this is what you should do:

1. Go to paypal
2. Send funds totalling $35 to eeldering@gmail.com
3. Indicate in notes who to make books to (individual child(ren) or to the family - To the Smith Family (ex.) and indicate that this is special deal from blog
4. Make sure address is correct to receive copies of books plus the CDs
5. Send money or complete transaction


If you are ordering from the email campaign sent to homeschool associations or groups, please do not order the books from the website as that price does not include the study guides and does not include State of Reservations. The deal is good for the first three books in the series. Remember that each book is one state and by the fall, hopefully three more books will be available to help you complete your series. It will take upwards of another 11 or so years to get the remaining books published. I can only write so many a year and my publisher can only publish so many a year (right now we are hoping to get 3 or 4 a year out), so please be patient to complete your series.


(Books coming out this year - State of Altitude, State of Secession, and State of Nature with #7, 8 and 9 slated to be published between February and October of 2011. Titles tentatively are State of Acceleration, State of Imagination, and unknown at this point as I haven't put the clues down to see what direction to go with a title). Updates will be posted here as I get them. So please be patient.

05/20/2010 UPDATE: I've decided to expand this out to June 5, 2010, as it looks like State of Reservations will not arrive until after this date - sometime hopefully by the 15th or so of June. With paypal fees and shipping costs, the amount to paypal will be $35 even. Reserve your copies now. This deal is only good until midnight June 5.

In celebration of State of Reservations getting published very soon, I'm going to offer a special on the first three books. Order a copy of State of Wilderness, State of Quarries and State of Reservations by Thursday, May 20, 2010, for only $10 each (this is discounted from the usual price of $11) and receive the accompanying study guide on CD for free (these are normally priced at $3 each for the PDF file to be emailed to you or with the CD PDF version priced at $4).

All orders should be done through Paypal at my email address - eeldering@gmail.com - please make sure to indicate who to sign the books to and if you want any special messages. State of Reservations should be available and ready to be mailed between June 3 and June 15.

Place your order today as this is only good until midnight Thursday, May 20, 2010.

See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

National Council for Geographic Education conference

(originally posted 05/12/2010): I have a goal. I would love nothing more than to see my books used in schools to supplement a social studies curriculum across the nation. I found the NCGE website through a local geographic alliance (South Carolina Geographic Alliance) website which will be a vendor at one of the homeschool conferences where I will also be a vendor in June.

After exploring the NCGE site and finding out the conference is in Savannah this year (a drive of about 5 hours from where I live), I thought that being an exhibitor would be an awesome thing for me. That is until I saw the postings for the exhibitor's fees today. As you can see, having a "premium" booth space at the conference is $1000 and the next level is $850 which is just a table top "booth" - you get a table and two chairs and a wastebasket and little else, no signage but do get listed in the program.

So, what, may you ask, is the goal?

My goal is to sell 200 copies of the first four books between now and the end of July in order to pay for the conference (booth space plus hotel and travel). That sounds like a lot but it really isn't. So won't all of you, my faithful readers help me achieve my goal?

State of Wilderness, now available
State of Quarries, now available
State of Reservations, coming May 2010 - I've been told by the end of this month for sure
State of Altitude, coming June 2010 - I've also been told this should be out almost immediately after State of Reservations is released

If you are interested in signed copies, please email me at eeldering@gmail.com for instructions on where to send funds. Mrs. E & the JGDS :)



Update 05/16/2010: I had an event at the Fairplay Welcome Center yesterday and have made my first sale toward this challenge. Only 799 to go. I have decided that I may just go static table top (not be there physically and save towards next year's conference in Oregon. So, whatever I need to just cover the table top display and have them monitor my info, may work this year since I'll be in Savannah in November and it would be a rather expensive fall for me to make two trips to Savannah that close together. I've also added a freebie for any orders placed between now and the middle of July (all info has to be sent to them by the end of July so allowing myself a couple of weeks to make sure that I have everything together and ready to go). Your choice of a flag pin kit or a basket weaving kit (which is one of the activities that will be in the #5's study guide). For the basket kit, please indicate color - blue, orange (dark or light), yellow, pink, or green. Remember when placing your order to indicate who to make the books out to so I can sign and send them on. Thanks for your support to this endeavor. Mrs. E :)

Are you an inside the four walls markerter?

Come visit me on Dana Donovan's blog today and found out some ideas for thinking outside the box - other places to market your books.

Dana was a guest on my other blog a little over a week ago. He talked about giving away books to help boost sales.

As you can see we have a variety of ideas for marketing. So drop over and leave a comment - looking forward to hearing some of your ideas for thinking outside the box.

Remember I still have a challenge for myself to sell at least 200 copies of each of the first four titles (State of Wilderness, State of Quarries, State of Reservations (which will be going to print hopefully this week), and State of Altitude (which will be going to print in the next couple of weeks or hopefully will be available by the second week of June)) to help me get to the NCGE conference the end of September. I may have to go the static display route (just having stuff on a table being monitored by the NCGE staff this year and hope that next year I can maybe make it to the one in Portland, Oregon, but getting to Oregon is going to take steady sales between now and the next six months of the upcoming four books (State of Successes and State of Nature will be available during those months). So help me get to places that really would be great marketing places. Place your order from my website and receive a free gift - either a make your own flag pin or a weave your own basket kit. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E and the JGDS

National Travel & Tourism week

It's that time of year - travel plans are being made and soon school will be out. This author will be busy for the next six weekends. The travel & tourism departments across the nation are kind enough to offer fun activities and businesses at various Welcome Centers. Elysabeth will be visiting the Fairplay Welcome Center on Saturday, May 15, 2010 from 10 to 12. If you are traveling I-85 from Georgia northward, stop by and speak. Grab a few goodies or try winning a prize.

The Fairplay Welcome Center is located 1 mile inside South Carolina on I-85 Northbound. So come on over and see what local businesses have to offer you. Welcome to South Carolina ya'll.

For a complete list of Elysabeth's whereabouts over the next six weeks, stop by Elysabeth's booktour page and check out her upcoming events.

If you all remember last year's posting, I met up with my husband's Aunt Toni and Uncle Jerry and their daughter Joanna, whom I'd only met once and that was 16 years ago. I don't expect to run into these relatives again this year due to surgery for Aunt Toni, but you never know who will show up. I'll definitely take pictures and post when I can. Looking forward to meeting you all and showing you what I'm about as well as welcome you to South Carolina - safe travels to all - Mrs. E & the JGDS

Book festival bound

If any of you have followed my other blog - http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com over the past few years, you will know that I have been a volunteer at the SC Book Festival for several years. I've also had several wacky experiences with hotels over the years. This year I'm going in the capacity of an author representing 4RV as an exhibitor. All of 4RV books published to date will be available for purchase, including the newly released "Guardian" by Katie Hines (who will be making her first appearance for book signings tomorrow afternoon about 1 p.m.) and State of Wilderness and State of Quarries. I'm anxiously awaiting State of Reservations to be added to the list of books available, but am trying to be patient.

I'll try to post some updates over the weekend (pictures will be taken and hopefully posted at some point). Have a great one and see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

JGDS newsletter January-February 2010

Wow. I just looked at my previous updates for newsletters and have not done any since the first part of August 2009. Updates are definitely needed.

I found a cool site that lists homeschool conferences for Canada, Guam, and every state in the United States. I found four more in the four states closest to me, within a five-hour driving distance of me, in addition to the Love 2 Learn one in Charlotte. I will be an exhibitor at four, maybe a fifth (still awaiting updates as to when it actually will take place, where and an exhibitor application) this summer with a presenting workshop at each one ("Writing Roads" a combination of writing and geography games for the kids). See my Blog Tour page on the sidebar for the listed events.

If anyone is interested in finding homeschool conferences in their area to either attend or exhibit at, here is the link for you to check out. Eventually, I'd like to attend conferences in every state but until I have some funding (either a sponsor or the books are supporting me), then traveling to more than a few states on the east coast is going to have to wait a while. I think these will be a good thing this year. Will definitely keep you posted how things go this summer.

JGDS SERIES NEWS: State of Reservations is slated to be released February or March 2010; since Aidana has had the flu and her son has the piggy flu, I hope by the end of March this will be released. State of Altitude is slated to be released in April or May of this year; again, hopefully by the 1st week of June so I can have four titles to carry with me to the homeschool conferences. And we have a title for #5 - State of Secession which is about halfway completed (struggling to get it done due to work situations that have taken over me but I do promise to have it done soon). It is slated to be released August (if I remember correctly), which would be nice to have that book available for the conference in August. Book #6 is titled State of Nature and my son has picked the items to be on the cover which will be pretty cool looking (I think and if Aidana and Vivian agree). Book #7 is pending approval for a title, so will wait to let you all know what the title will be with that.

In December I wrote to the Jeopardy!(R) folks asking them to sponsor my series. So far I haven't heard anything back yet, so I can only hope that the old adage "No news is good news" is true for this. As soon as I know something on this end, I will update my fans and readers.

4RV PUBLISHING NEWS: Lots of new titles have been published since August. Check out the latest on the website. 4RV will be represented at the SC Book Festival this weekend (February 27-28) with all present titles available. 4RV was invited to participate at a 12-state library conference in Oklahoma in April and we gathered enough funds to participate there; this is very exciting for us as all books published up to this time will be available to the librarians attending. We will also be at the Heartland New Day Bookfest in April and then at the the OWFI conference the last part of April/first of May. Poor Vivian will be worn out by the end of the first week of May.

That is about all I have to cover for now. Looking forward to some new adventures this year.

Remember that the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series is an adventure that you never know where you will end up. Keep reading. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E & the JGDS :)

Book Trailer video on Books in Sync contest

Come check out the video contest for book trailers. Click the title of this posting to be taken directly to the voting page. The JGDS video is #11. Come on over and vote. Voting will go through the end of February. Check out the videos and vote today - E :)

Thank you Mr. Hughes

We now have a book trailer and Mr. Hughes created it instead of working on his homework. Thank you very much. Hope you all like it. Please comment and let me know what you think. Mrs. E :)

Follow the VBT- Writers on the Move tour this month

Today, I am being hosted by Margaret Fieland. Stop by and leave a comment. Remember if you leave a comment, you are eligible for a prize. There will be a drawing every day this month during the tour since it is our one year anniversary and we want you the readers to benefit. So stop by, leave a comment and maybe tomorrow your name will be drawn for a prize - E :)

SIBA in SC

SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) was in South Carolina this weekend. This is an opportunity for independent book sellers to find new books for their stores. They are a wonderful bunch of people as they support new authors a lot. The idea is for authors, publishers, and other groups to get recognized and gain the support of the indies around the south. I volunteered at the Sisters in Crime/Southeastern Mystery Writers of America table (being that I am a member of Sisters in Crime). So, naturally, being that I was in the booth today, I was supposed to have books on hand to "give away" to those coming up to the table.

We had scheduled "signings" at the table, mine was at 11 a.m. I had seven copies of Quarries and 3 copies of Wilderness (my entire stock) and gave everyone of them away. I was trying to reserve a copy of each for another member of SinC who was supposed to be in the booth helping out. It was fun. This is me holding my two books (had I thought it about it, I should have held the covers I printed out of all four books) in the SinC booth. I'd like to see more pictures Ellis took of the trade show and the booth area. We even had one of the members pose for an outline of a dead body in front of our booth. It was pretty cool.

More later - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Altitude anyone?

It's official. The fourth book in the series is now with cover. That doesn't mean it is completed by any means (I've got to write the story around the clues now) but we are getting closer. I've been informed that State of Reservations will hopefully be published by November 1. I hope so since I have an event the middle of November.

So without further ado, here is the cover for State of Altitude:










And for comparison, here are the first four covers side by side:








What do you notice about the covers? Do the cover clue illustrations help you guess the state or do you need to purchase a copy of the book to read more to figure out which state is being described? Which is your favorite so far? Drop me a line and let me know.

See you all in the postings - E :)

Book Masons weblog - check it out

Yvonne Mason, from the ning social group Book Masons, has started a weblog - featuring all the authors who have joined the ning group. Click on the link to check out all my info in one spot. I'm impressed with her doing such a wonderful job of featuring authors. Check out all the wonderful books and authors she has listed on her site - E :)

JGDS newsletter of sorts

This is a busy month for the JGDS and me personally. I've fallen behind on my newsletter but figured I would do an update here and hopefully folks will see what's going on.


August is one of those crazy months and now that we are getting back into the swing of band camp and other activities, things are even crazier.

The JGDS will be making several appearances over the next few weeks so hopefully, we will be recognized soon.

August 8th - Love to Learn Homeschool Info & Resource conference, Charlotte NC, from 8:30 to 5. This will hopefully be my break and allow me to get my foot in the door. I don't feel I have enough books and teacher's guides going but I can't afford more, so I'll have to hope I sell out and am taking orders which would be a good thing. The flip side would be not to sell anything but I have hopes, so we should sell something at least.

August 8th - 4RV will be at the Eastern Oklahoma Author Festival in Tahlequah, OK. So if you are in the area, stop by and visit with Vivian and other 4RV authors who will be present. My books will be there but I won't be able to sign them - sorry guys.

August 14 - Katie Hines (4RV author), Lynda Lippman-Lockhart and I will be at the SC Welcome Center in Fairplay (I-85 northbound coming in from Georgia) from 1:30 to 4:30 promoting all books. The theme this month for the welcome center is "Cool it in South Carolina" and so we are adding a twist to that by saying - "Cool it with a good book in South Carolina". So if you are interested in having some books to browse through, stop by and see what 4RV has to offer.

August 15 - John Jeter (another author) will be at the SC Welcome Center promoting his books, again from 1:30 to 4:30. Stop by to see what he has to offer.

August 15 - I will be attending the AnAuthor World mini conference in Greenville, SC. This is more for fun for me but also hopefully an in to doing some guest speaker spots too. I know one of the coordinators of this program.

September 5-6 - Charlotte Literary Festival, Charlotte, NC - 12 noon to 6 p.m. both days. This is being held at the Charlotte Convention Center. 4RV will have a booth and hopefully Katie Hines (Guardian) and Rich Aaron (Would A Kangaraffe Make you Laffe?) will be able to make appearances and help out in the booth over the weekend. More on this as details are revealed to me.


My August calendar really looks full because of Sisters in Crime meeting, SCWW writers group meetings, school registration, school starting and doctors' appointments, along with eye appointments for new glasses for everyone. Of course with school starting comes band stuff, so my weekends from the middle of September to the end of October will be full, either with competitions or appearances.

4RV News: We have had several titles released in the last couple of months. Check out the website for more details to see what is availble. Vivian has closed submissions for children's books until sometime next year but is still looking for other genres. If interested, check out the website for the submission guidelines.


State of Reservations is supposed to be in the process of being edited but apparently the edits have been lost in the mail and so I don't have the second set yet. As soon as they come to me, I will work on getting them completed and back to the editors for one more edit (I think that is the process). I don't know where Aidana is on the illustrations for that so not sure when State of Reservations will be released. Will keep you all posted on that.

If you haven't had a chance to check out my website, take a gander. I've added all the state activity booklets for you to print to keep the kids occupied. You can print several of the states or just the state you are from. That is up to you. I also have added a buy button on the front page to order State of Wilderness and State of Quarries. Let me know what you think of the website.


And last but not least, we have a title for state #4. I liked my choice of State of Heights (elusive and not really giving anything away), but Vivian didn't like that and neither did Aidana, so they decided it would be titled ------ State of Altitude (I'm afraid too many will know from the title alone and not pick the book up to read it, but that is my opinion). I know what the cover illustrations will be and can't wait to see the cover. I think Aidana has her "models" ready and is ready to do the cover.

That is the update of what is going on with us - see you all in the postings - enjoy - Mrs. E and the JGDS - E :)