Elysabeth's Emerald City

SC Author Connection

2012-01-30T06:00:00.002-05:00

What, you may ask, is the SC Author Connection? The SC Author Connection is a group of three South Carolina authors who will participate in several events throughout the year.

Members include Sybil Nelson, whom you will meet later this month and Sarah Renee, whom you will also meet later this month. The third member is Elysabeth Eldering, whom you already know a bit since you follow this blog. I had had contact with Sybil prior to YALL fest, which I wanted to do this past year but couldn't due to finances. We had talked some about the SCASL conference and perhaps sharing an exhibitor booth. At the time, neither of us really knew if we could afford to have an exhibitor booth this year. Sybil was a participant in YALL fest in Charleston this past November and then because of me letting her know about Savannah turned around the next weekend and participated there. After she did YALL fest, Sybil emailed me stating that we could go ahead and be an exhibitor at the SCASL, she had found another author to go in with us.

A few emails with info were exchanged with both Sybil and Sarah as well as Heather Loy, the now exhibitor coordinator and the SC Author Connection was born.

The plans for the year are to participate in the SCASL conference, the SC Book Festival, and hopefully Decatur Book Festival, and probably a couple of other big events where we can share tables. We will get a banner through vistaprint and have something that highlights all of us and our books. Stay tuned to find out more about the SC Author Connection. - E :)

Afghan drawing is now a raffle

2012-01-29T15:24:00.000-05:00

I've been steadily working on my red, white and blue crocheted afghan and have half the rows sewn together. I had originally planned to make the afghan for a drawing for the JGDS series only but have decided to do a raffle instead of a book purchase related drawing. Raffle tickets will be $1.50 each or 10 for $12. You can find the raffle buy buttons at both the JGDS website and my other writing website. Pictures will be posted by the end of the week. Drawing will be December 1, which is after my final event as this is a year-long raffle. I need the afghan to show at my events so that folks can purchase tickets in-person as well as online. Good luck to everyone - E :)

Rumer ?

2012-01-29T13:33:00.002-05:00

Anyone heard of this young lady? This video was shared on my plurk timeline this morning and I listened to it and responded - interesting, very soulful; then I did a search on her and guess what her first album is called - "Seasons of My Soul" - very appropriate.

Hope you enjoy the video - E :)

This and That - weekly report

2012-01-28T22:08:00.000-05:00

It's the end of the month, well almost. Reporting on this week's goals and activities.

If you missed it, I started my introduction to Sybil Nelson with a book review yesterday.

Followers haven't increased even offering free ebooks of Finally Home, "The Tulip Kiss" and "The Proposal" - your choice of the novel or two short stories.

Sales have been zero across the board - no kindle sales, no createspace sales, no smashword sales and no nook sales.

Since it's pretty close to the end of the month, looking back at my goals and what I've met and not, I've not been successful in most items. The one thing I've accomplished is posting more often than previously, although I have neglected my JGDS series a bit. I've tried giving away ebooks for reviews and I've tried to gain more followers by offering my ebooks to anyone who follows the blog when I reach 150; I'm still at 91.

Imogene: Innocense Lost hasn't progressed although it really has been calling to me to get more written. I've wasted my "free" time playing spider solitaire and watching TV, which seems to be par for the course most every weekend. No desire to work, no desire to write, no desire to do much of everything. I hope this slump I'm in will change once the weather warms up.

I'm almost finished putting the granny square afghan together for the drawing associated with my JGDS series, which will be held in December. For details and some pics of the granny squares, you can check out the JGDS blog. I hope to finish it this week so it will be ready for my first event the middle of February.

Monday I'm introducing the SC Author Connection group. Wednesday's weekly young writers writing question is from a student in Mr. Hughes' class. Thursday I'll post on motivation and inspiration, a followup from a posting by Kim on the YA Authors You've Never Heard of blog. Friday will be a review of the Priscilla the Great series (all three will be reviewed under one review. Happy writing and see you all in the postings - E :)

Book Review Friday - Twin Shorts by Sybil Nelson

2012-01-27T06:00:00.026-05:00

Twin Shorts is a collection of short tales and preceeds the Priscilla the Great series. This is where we meet Priscilla who will become Priscilla the Great the next time we see her.

Shortly after I received my Kindle, I searched for low cost books or freebies. "Twin Shorts" is one such find that I read in bits. This was read before I realized that the same author of the Priscilla the Great series had written this book.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION (FROM AMAZON): Hey I’m Priscilla, a.k.a Priscilla the Great. Usually, I like to talk about how my life got a little crazy after I learned about my special powers. Okay, it got a lot crazy. I mean, you try going through middle school with fire shooting out of your fingers. Awkward. But this time, it’s not about me. Twin Shorts is all about my little brothers, Charlie and Chester, a.k.a The Devil Twins.

I would read a few of the short stories when taking a break or while not at my computer and just needing to get away from the screen. The stories in this book are written from Priscilla's perspective about her 5-year-old twin brothers, who, by her account, are out to ruin her life. Each story is written like a homework assignment or an essay recollecting whatever "adventure" occurred at the time. I tended to feel sorry for Priscilla being the only girl in the household and having twin brothers who seemed to get away with everything. I almost wanted to jump in the stories and be mommy and discipline the boys and set them on the right track. Many funny stories watching the twins, Priscilla and their older brother take on every day life.

If you are looking for a quick read and some humor, "Twin Shorts" is for you. The last time I checked, it was still being offered as a freebie on Kindle, so check it out.

PRODUCT DETAILS:
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 94 KB
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004GNFXWW

AUTHOR'S BIO: Sybil Nelson lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband and two children. She is currently earning her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the Medical University of South Carolina and has completed ten Young Adult novels.

Sybil writes under another name and those books will be reviewed throughout the month of February leading up to her alter ego being a guest on this blog. Next Friday's book review will be on the three Priscilla the Great books available.

Guest Heather Paye

2012-01-25T06:00:00.007-05:00

Today, my guest is Heather Paye, author, illustrator and book designer extraordinaire - I'm a little biased because Heather is my illustrator and she does such a wonderful job. Her covers are really striking and I've heard nothing but great things about her covers when I show them to other writers.

Heather, tell us a little bit about yourself, your likes (and no Taco Bell doesn't count since apparently the whole world knows you love Taco Bell), dislikes - who you are.

HP: Well, I'm the author of A Gift from Above, the soon-to-be-released young-adult, fantasy novel Howl, and Cacti, a children's book due to be released March 1st. Besides my writing career, I'm a freelance graphic designer, editor at Joyfully Reviewed, and student. I think it's safe to say I'm a bit of a workaholic. I like music, humans, puppies, dancing, and good causes. I dislike people who aren't open-minded, coffee, malfunctioning computers, and slow internet.

You are a young writer, only 17 soon to be 18. How old were you when you started writing and what is the first piece you wrote that you would have considered publishable in your early writing days?

HP: I was nine years old when I began writing my first novel. I had it in my mind that I was writing this novel to be published, even though I had no idea what the word "published" meant beyond "other people get to read it". When I started writing for publication, I had only ever written two short stories and a handful of lyrics, but I was determined to write something longer, all I had in my mind was an extremely vague idea of a young woman sitting in a cafe talking to a reporter. As I was writing, that expanded into ideas for a nine-novel-series. Currently, the first novel in this series - The Artifact Series - has just been assigned an editor and is being polished for its release.

EE: Now this sounds like an interesting series. I can't wait to read your first one when it is published. Daughter is reading A Gift From Above but she is a slow reader

What's your favorite genre to read? to write?

HP: I'm actually really picky about the genres I read. I've never actually been a big reader. When I was a kid, my sister used to consume any novel she could get her hands on, and I would read a lot just because she was - *chuckles* - but now that I have less time, I've become even more selective. My favorite genre is paranormal romance, with fantasy being a close competitor. I'm much less picky about what genre I write in, but my favorite is paranormal - stories that are absolutely intertwined with our own reality. It's fun to take the base of reality that you know - that girl in boring high school, or that guy locked in his room playing video games. You can actually get your readers to deeply relate to the character, and have them walk into something entirely fictional. To me, that is one of the most enthralling genres, and I love that I can be the one to pull the reader really indepth like that.

EE: I'm similar to that - I've found that writing short stories allows me to write just about any genre, although I'm not into vampires, werewolves, and other things that have taken over lately, but I don't mind a good ghost story as far as paranormal goes. I don't read much sci-fi or fantasy or romance, although I can write a little bit (depends on what the contest calls for).

What are your writing aspirations? aspirations in general?

HP: This is actually something I haven't really put much thought into. Of course we'd all like to be on the New York Times Bestseller list - isn't that every author's goal? To write a bestselling novel? I have several smaller goals I'm working toward right now: first is to be on the Amazon bestseller list and second is to increase my fanbase. It's really all about the readers reading and enjoying my work. Everytime I receive fan mail, it really motivates me to keep doing what I'm doing because I know someone else is reading my work, and my own thoughts have been acknowledged. The more of that, the better.

As far as my general aspirations go, I'm working toward my Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts, so I really want to get that and graduate with honors. Right now, that is what I'm really focusing on and aiming for so that I can move on to even bigger things.

EE: Do you still aspire to work for Disney/Pixar as you had told me when we first got together and you started working for me?

What's a typical day in your life like - do you have a set schedule or do you just play it by ear?

HP: Yes and no. I keep a prioritized list of the tasks I need to complete. My day consists of waking up, getting ready for my day, checking my text messages, emails - and the social networking sites, I read Twitter every morning like a national newspaper, and Facebook like a local newspaper. *chuckles* After that, I'll take a look at my schedule and decide what is due first and I'll work through my list that way. The only exception to this, is if I have school that day, then I'll complete my school work first and then move on to the to-do list. Normally, I'll finish with my school and work around 10pm.

EE: I think it's great that you have a to-do list and try to stick to it and not let anything get in your way. Gotta have set goals when you wear so many hats.

You wear many hats, what are they and which is your favorite? How do you juggle all the goings on in your life?

HP: Oh, no! I have to pick a favorite! I guess we have the author hat, graphic designer hat, editor hat, and student. All of these things are so different and there are things I deeply enjoy with all of them. At the same time, all aren't without their own frustrations at times. I'm going to say the author hat is my favorite. It's literally whatever I want it to be, it's the most flexible job I've ever had, and you can bring it to whatever legnths you want with how ever much effort you put into it. It's like taking your own continuous thought and casting it into the world to share with a bunch of people. How do I juggle it all? Sometimes it's easier and sometimes it's harder, it depends on what time of year it is. Spring is usually the busiest. 90% of what keeps everything in order is my to-do list and my iPod. If I'm supposed to be doing something - or I forget something - my iPod reminds me via my to-do list. That's all there is to it for me really.

Why Taco Bell?

HP: First, Taco Bell has wifi - any restaurant that has wifi is epic in my book. Second, Mexican food is one of my favorites. Third, their website is well-designed. That is what makes Taco Bell awesome.

EE: Many fast food places have wifi now. I've not checked out TB's website, so that may be something to do later. I like Taco Bell more than other Mexican restaurants really, but I'll reserve the awesomeness to you - lol.

If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

HP: When it comes down to it, I think Arizona will always be my place of residence - at least, primary residence. Everything that I need is here, and there's plenty to expand on with Arizona being one of the newest states. There are only two other locations I would consider: Atlanta, Georgia and California.

EE: Atlanta, really? Scary place to live or at least fly out of. I do live close to Atlanta and don't even like driving too close to it. The traffic is horrendous, even skirting the town on the major highways. I guess there are worse places in the United States to live though.

Thank you for hosting me on your blog, Elysabeth!

Thank you for participating, Heather. I really enjoyed getting to know a little more about you. Looking forward to your new series - and of course more awesome covers from you.

HEATHER'S BIO:
H.C.Paye first picked up a pen and started writing when she was about six-years-old. It started with simple lyrics, but then she moved on to short stories, and finally, when she was 10 began writing full-length novels.
Miss Paye is a part of many groups and organizations. When she is not writing, she is an editor at Joyfully Reviewed and a Graphic Designer. During her spare moments, she enjoys entertaining her Twitter followers with her random quips.

Heather can be found here
or on her blog
or her graphic design site

Desperately selling books; my one year marketing plan: by Vici Howard: 10 call to action words to help sell your book

2012-01-25T01:08:00.000-05:00

Vici howard has posted some "call to action" words that help boost sales. What say you all? Do they work? Have you used any of these and seen an increase in your sales? What are some you have found that are working for you? I'm open to any and all suggestions since I really would love to see a boost in my sales (my pitiful 3 or 4 sales this month is very depressing).

I've tried giving away free downloads in exchange for reviews to no avail (one requested three of the titles; one requested one title and did a review already and I was offering 100 to anyone who would like to post a review on whichever title they choose or all nine titles); I ran a "Christmas special" on Finally Home half price for the week before Christmas and had 2 or 3 sales on that title and 1 of the other two titles on Kindle; I'm trying to post several times a week on a regular basis; doing book reviews every week on Friday; offering answers to young writers' questions, and have guest bloggers appear. I wonder what it is going to take to see a minimal of 10 or 15 of each title selling each and every month. Anyway - stop by and visit Vici and let her know what's worked for you. E :)

Desperately selling books; my one year marketing plan: by Vici Howard: 10 call to action words to help sell your book: I found it funny that it was easier to write a 90,000 word novel than to come up with a 30 word ad.I'm really interested in this topic becau...

Writers On The Move: Do Writers Need Brands?

2012-01-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

As an author, do you brand? Do you have enough work out there to brand? Read Fani's perspective on branding - E :)

Writers On The Move: Do Writers Need Brands?: To brand or not to brand? That is the question. If you are a writer, branding might seem to you like the most disturbing proposition. Afte...

Book Review Friday and Guest schedules

2012-01-23T05:00:00.023-05:00

Today should be my first guest post, but since I started acquiring guests to appear on my blog a little late, I decided today would be a listing of what I have lined up for the next few months, as well as the book review Friday schedule.

BOOK REVIEW FRIDAY SCHEDULE:
January 6 - To Tell The Truth by Faye M. Tollison
January 13 - Haunted Destiny: A Midnight Dragonfly (an exclusive short story) by Ellie James
January 20 - Radium Halos by Shelley Stout
January 27 - "Twin Shorts" by Sybil Nelson
February 3 - all three Priscilla the Great stories by Sybil Nelson
February 10 - Queen Bee of Bridgeton by Leslie Dubois
February 17 - Guardian of Eden by Leslie Dubois
February 23 - Ain't No Sunshine by Leslie Dubois
March 2 - two of the three books in the Saderia series by Sarah Renee
March 9 - Murder Half Baked by Kathleen Delaney
March 16 - Dear Killer by Linda Lovely
March 23 - Delicious and Suspicious by Elizabeth Spann Craig

(I have enough books read on the kindle to fill up 9 months so will add to the schedule as I decide when the reviews will be posted)

This takes me through the first quarter of the year; the list of books to be scheduled for review include Still Life With Murder, Murder in Montbleu, A Touch of Gold, Deadly Daggers, Ghost for Rent, The Strange Case of Finley Jayne, Memories of Roberts Road, Murder Half Baked, Unsigned, Live Free or Die, Lye in Wait, From the Graves of Babes, Dead to Write, Kissing Kelli, Celebrities for Breakfast, Code Blue, Splitsville.com, Southern Fried, For Sale: Old Manor House (free ghosts included), A Haunting at Hensley Hall, the Hobbitville Saga stories, "Famous Last Words", "A Very Holly Christmas", "Christmas at the North Pole Compound", "Birds in Paradise", Murder's Not Cool, "Deadly Detects: A Victorian San Francisco Story", "Tea at the Biltmore", The Witch of Agnesi, Her Wiccan, Wiccan Ways, and books that are currently being read will be added to the schedule later in the year. These reviews should take me through the end of the year or pretty close.

I thank all of you for responded to my guest post opportunity email. I'd been posting for several weeks prior to 6th of this month on plurk asking for teachers, librarians and authors to guest but have had no responses. On the 6th, I sent a bcc email to a good many of my author friends asking them to be a guest on my blog. Here is the line up through May:

January 25th - Interview with author/illustrator/graphic designer Heather Paye, who is my illustrator, layout designer and cover designer. She also writes and publishes her own stories as well as putting together some poetry anthologies.

February 27th - Interview with Leslie Dubois, author of Ain't No Sunshine, Guardian of Eden and the dance dreamer series, as well as a couple of other books. (Leslie's alter ego, Sybil Nelson, is the first member of the SC Author Connection, three authors from SC, who will attend several larger book festivals and other events. Elysabeth Eldering is the second member of the group.)

February 29th - Interview with Sarah Renee, author of the Saderia series. (Sarah is the third member of the SC Author Connection who will be making apparances at several larger events throughout the year.)

March 26th - Guest post by Elizabeth Spann Craige/Riley Adams, author of at least three different series, who blogs over on Mystery Writing is Murder.

March 28th - Shelley Stout, author of Radium Halos

April 23rd - Interview with Deanna Klingel

April 25th - Interview with children's author, Rena Jones

May 21st - Guest posting by Carol Baldwin, author of "Teaching the Story"

May 23rd - Interview with author Faye M. Tollison, author of To Tell the Truth and The Bible Murders (coming soon).

June 25th - Guest posting by Jen Wylie, author of the Ever series

June 27th - Interview with Darcie Helle, author of Cutting Edge and other stories

July

August

September 24 - Interview with Mary Lee, author of "Air Force Mom".

September 26 -

October

November (tentatively have Cheryl Malandrinos during her book tour for her new release)

December

As I fill up the schedule, I will add to this listing.

Writers On The Move: Do You Want to Be a Writer?

2012-01-21T18:49:00.000-05:00

Some good tips in getting started as a writer; some more interesting tips in the comments - Stop by and leave a comment - E :)

Writers On The Move: Do You Want to Be a Writer?: How does one begin a career in writing? I asked myself that same question. I’ve had an idea for a children’s book for several years, but did...

This and That - end of week report

2012-01-21T17:31:00.001-05:00

So here it is the end of the third week of January and sales have been nil across the board, although I do think I had one view this week of one of the books on smashwords. I don't know what else to do to increase sales. You would think with 9 titles available and one almost available (which by the way will only be available for the Kindle when I do get it published) that I would have some sales. I'm trying to put myself out there and advertise my blog postings and my websites. (UPDATE 01/24/2012: When checking through all the kindle sites for the month-to-date reports this afternoon, I found a copy of "The Proposal" sold in the UK on the 21st, which would have been when this posting originally went up. So that makes 1 sale for the week ending 01/21/2012. - nothing to brag about really but a sale is a sale.) -

I went to the food bank Thursday and ended up spending over an hour there talking with one of the ladies whom I've known a long time but have lost contact with and found out she is now homeschooling her daughter and that she belongs to the Homeschooling Association in our county seat. I handed her a pack of bookmarks to pass out the information to the association members and we talked about possibly doing a workshop for the kids or even having me do a 6-week co-op instruction thing. Fingers crossed that something comes of that.

On the state story side, I'm doing my afghan drawing again this year; see my JGDS blog for more info about that. I have completed 54 granny squares for that and will be spending the week putting them together. I'm also working on finishing up daughter's afghan that I started before Christmas so those two projects are going; I'm kind of shifting between them but will probably work more on daughter's now since i still have 8 squares to crochet and then put them together. I may need to get some more yarn to make another row so her lap throw will be 6 squares per row by 5 rows - I'll have to decide when I get the 4th row completed.

When I finish the red/white/blue granny square afghan and I've finished daughter's, then with my left over red/white and blue yarn, I'll finish the round ripple afghan which will be for the drawing next year, and I'll do a varigated red/white/blue Alternating V Shell afghan. I'll be collecting my yarn throughout the year to make that one since it is only available at Hobby Lobby and is rather on the expensive side (at $3.99 per skein, not something I can afford) and I will have to get several skeins every other payday using their 40% off coupon and making several trips to town to get the yarn. I'll also have to pass funds to daughter and every time she goes have her pick up a couple of skeins too. The pattern says roughly 3 pounds of worsted yarn (the skeins are 5 ounces each) so if I've calculated corrected, hopefully I can get by with 8 skeins which is only 40 ounces, which is 1/2 pound shy. I will end it with just 8 skeins.

So that's what's been happening this week. Hopefully I'll start seeing some incline in my sales over the weeks. If anyone has any input as to how to increase my sales, I'm open to suggestions. Leave a comment and tell me something you'd like to see me doing that might help me boost sales - thanks all - E :)

Giveaway - free ebooks

2012-01-21T06:00:00.002-05:00

My followers are slowly climbing and I thank you for that. So, to thank you all for following me, when I reach 150 followers on this blog, I'm going to give each of you a free ebook - your choice of either Finally Home or the two short stories "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss". I'll contact you all through your profile so please make sure you have an email available. No need to sign up or leave a comment or anything. Just recommend folks to follow my blog and when the 150th person is showing as following, I'll send out emails asking which you would like to receive - E :)

Book Review Friday - Radium Halos by Shelley Stout

2012-01-20T06:00:00.013-05:00

This is reposting of my previous review of this book but it is worth mentioning again. Radium Halos is an excellent read. Shelley has added a study guide that is available for free here. Shelley will be my guest on March 28th, so stay tuned for more from Shelley.

Rating: 5 stars

Radium Halos is a very lightly written, full of humor and sadness and other aspects of life novel that has the potential to be a made-for-TV movie. The characters are really brought to life by Ms. Stout's descriptions and often humorous flashbacks of all the people who had passed through her main character's, Helen Waterman, life over the span of fifty years.

Helen worked at the Radium Dial Factory in Illinois one brief summer and only did that through her older sister's urging. The journey takes us from the early 1920s to the mid 1970s (although the latter date is not really known, it is elluded to through a description of Helen's niece's hairdo and that she is out of the times). The flashbacks are woven in quite nicely and don't really take away from the story at all. I felt like I was listening to my grandmother (in a sense) recollecting her time during certain periods of her life. I found myself cheering for Helen, crying with her, crying for her and hoping that just once she would stand up for herself and let it be known.

I really hope this novel does get made into a movie as it would be very eye opening to folks who know nothing of this time period. I had never heard of the radium dial factory info until I met the author at a writer's conference a couple of years ago. I'm sure in its heyday, the factories did get a lot of attention but there are folks who are still around today that possibly have some connection or other to these terrible conditions and should definitely be shown the dangers of radium and how it has affected or impacted the lives of those exposed to the harsh working conditions.

I have already recommended this book to several folks and will continue recommending and will keep my eyes open for the movie to come out - E :)

Product Details
Paperback: 226 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (October 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1448696224
ISBN-13: 978-1448696222
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces

Radium Halos is available for kindle for the low price of only 99 cents.

Writing conferences, book festivals and workshops, oh my!

2012-01-19T06:00:00.001-05:00

After I linked back to the YAAYNHO posting about Young Writers Conferences, I got to thinking about writing conferences in general. Even though it's January, now is the time to start thinking about which conferences you would like to attend or try to do a presentation. I would love to be invited to be a presenter at a conference geared specifically for young writers - just think, an opportunity to shape young writers and play a part in their possible future success. I'm not a big name (yet) but maybe one of these days.

On the other hand, it is nice to think about workshops and conferences to enhance your writing career. If you have the means and opportunity to attend them, then by all means, you definitely should. If you are like me and really tight on your budget and can only think about attending one a year, then you need to find just the right one to attend.

Where does one start looking for such conferences? A really good place to start is your local area - maybe some of the colleges offer 1-day writing workshops through their creative writing program or English department; maybe some of the local writing groups offer them throughout the year. If you don't have any local writing groups, then a search on the web will get closer to finding the conferences that are fairly close to you, but the best guide out there is the Shaw Guides. They list by state and outside the United States and there is usually something for everyone.

Why do you want to start thinking about conferences now? This is prep work, allowing you to make a list of what the conferences have to offer or could offer based on past years' offerings, helps you keep track of dates (when registration opens, ends, early bird specials on lodging, et cetera), and also gives you some comparisons to see which is the best fit for you. There may be several that will fit your needs but based on cost, locale and time (when the conference is held, how much time you would have to take away from your full-time job if you have one, travel time, et cetera), this will help you make a more informed decision.

Book festivals are the same. If you are looking for a place to be an exhibitor or presenter, many book festivals give you that opportunity. Most book festivals are free to the public and also offer things like panel discussions and presentations by the authors who are invited to participate in such a way. The SC Book Festival (where I was an exhibitor in 2010, representing 4RV Publishing and split a booth with Shelley Stout, author of Radium Halos) is one such book festival that has guest authors, presenters, panel discussion and a large exhibit space. Book festivals are everywhere but the list I had a few years apparently doesn't exist any more. Here is a site that will get you to a listing of book festivals by state and even internationally, if that is what you are interested in.

Writing workshops tend to be 1-day events that are offered by either local colleges or authors and seem to be more intense, concentring on one topic. These can occur at writing conferences as well and are usually offered as special courses, master classes, or intense workshops. Usually the cost of these workshops is separate from the cost of the conference. When I attended the SCBWI conference in 2010, I signed up for the intense workshop for PAL members (PAL = published and listed) and it was definitely worth the money.

Non-writing people say that writing is a lonely profession but if you look at all these opportunities, writing is far from a lonely profession. These are opportunities to network with like-minded people or professionals who can help your writing career continue on the right track. Writing groups or critique groups are also another network writers should be involved in. These are the folks who usually do know when and where conferences are as well as who can offer sound advice; after all, their goals are similar to yours as far as writing goes - to get published, but also to publish the best stories you can publish.

Do a little searching now and make a list of places you can see your books doing well (exhibitor/vendor wise) or where you have an opportunity to present your wisdom to the upcoming writers; it's never too early to start. Wishing you all wonderful writing adventures - E :)

Createspace announcement

2012-01-18T19:00:00.002-05:00

No, they are not going belly up. No they are not changing names.

I received an email today regarding the Pro Advantage plan on createspace. For those of you who are published with createspace already, you probably received the same announcement. For those of you considering publishing with createspace, some good news for everyone. The Pro Advantage plan has been discontinued, but not to fret you still have the ability to get your books listed in the expanded distribution.

What this means for authors publishing using createspace is what we were paying for books under the pro advantage plan is now the same for every one, which in turn means higher royalties on our sales. The pro advantage allowed us to list our books with Ingrams (bookstores), Baker & Taylor (schools and libraries) and Createspace direct distribution. It would cost us $39 each for the titles we listed with the pro advantage, with a renewal of $5 per year to keep the title active. Now, the expanded distribution is only $25 and from what I'm reading, this is a 1-time payment on each title to get the same distribution as what the pro advantage gave us.

This makes me a happy camper because I have a short book that I just wasn't too thrilled with ordering too many copies at once because it wasn't cost effective and realistically for the cost to print the book and what I'm retailing it for, I wasn't making very much royalty wise. Now that the pro advantage is gone, the book will cost me the same as my state books to print and I can leave it listed through amazon and my createspace store and not have to worry about paying that $39 to have expanded distribution. I won't feel so bad about ordering copies of that book to have on hand now. Doing a happy dance over here for this new announcement - :)

Keep on writing, see you in the postings - E :)

WWYWWQ

2012-01-18T06:00:00.003-05:00

This question is from R., a student in Ms. Jurkowski's writing club: We need to know what a writer does when you are writing a story and your train of thought just stops.

MY ANSWER: Usually walk away for a few minutes - go for a walk, or write another scene or something unrelated - give him a random word and have him incorporate into what he's writing now or have him just write something totally unrelated to what he is working on - for like 5 minutes - maybe that will spark his thinking back to what he's working on now.

Teacher's reply: Thank you so much for answering R. right away! He was near tears and ready to quit Writer's Club because he was stuck in that story. He had written a page and a half already and I hated the thought of him quitting. Your advice was great and he tried it. He was just wandering around the room but at least he didn't quit. He was so excited that you responded right away and I left him with the phone so that as soon as you answered he would be the one to read it. He thought that was wonderful!

My reply to teacher about quitting: Cool. Glad he is sticking with it. Sometimes we do start stories that we just have to put away for a long time and just move on to something else. Please tell him not to quit (although every author has been there), but to keep plugging away. The stories will come as they need to come, like the story I'm working on right now - it is really speaking to me and causing me not to work on my state stories.

I'm sure every writer at some point in time has come upon that proverbial brick wall and felt like quitting, but if you quit, you leave so many what ifs out there, that you may feel lost for a while. Quitting isn't the answer, but sometimes a story may fizzle and will have served its purpose of only getting you started on something major. Thanks for the great question, R., and I hope you keep up the writing. Mrs. E :)

MLK Day

2012-01-16T06:00:00.002-05:00

Today is Martin Luther King Day and technically a holiday. I don't have much to offer in way of a post for the holiday. Perhaps you all can reflect on MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and journal your reflections of what that speech means to you. If you would like to share any of your thoughts here, that would be great. Keep writing - E :)

JA Konrath's take on success

2012-01-15T13:56:00.000-05:00

I was reading through Kristi Bernard's blog, The Neophyte Writer, (see blog posting from yesterday for direct link to her review), which led me to a posting she did about JA Konrath's posting of $100,000 in 3-weeks, which led me to another posting about that article, which led me to yet another article and finally to JA Konrath's blog. I read his latest posting first and then read his $100,000 posting.

For those of you who think that self-pubbing and overnight success go hand-in-hand, here is JA Konrath's take on his success; this on the heels of showing his $100,000 earnings in a 3-week period.

Remember, he first self-pubbed on Kindle in April of 2009; all of these sales are only on his Kindle published books/stories, not anything else; he also has been working hard for 24 years.

I agree with a lot of what he said about self-oublishing either in print or ebook format not being a get-rich-quick thing or success happens overnight. It does take a lot of hard work and persistence as well as just lucking up on the right combination of everything. According to his blog, he only has 2066 followers, so why is he earning $100,000 in a 3-week period (that is the last week of December and the first two weeks of January)? He is reaching folks he wouldn't have with his traditional publisher and he's continually putting out stories.

That is my objective, to reach folks I normally wouldn't with a traditional publisher, although my state stories really are limited to reaching power because of them being a United States specific topic. My other stories, ebook only I'm publishing everywhere that Amazon (and Barnes & Noble) lets me, worldwide.

I'm thinking "The Tulip Kiss" should do well in Holland due to the fact that my husband's family has roots there and at one time there actually used to be Eldering Tulips. I sent the story to my father-in-law along with "The Proposal" and Finally Home as ebook versions. I'm hoping he will spread the word to other people, especially family in Holland and that I should start seeing sales.

I know this writer will keep plugging away, doing events, publishing new stories as much as possible and hope that my success comes quicker than 24 years. E :)

The Proposal Review

2012-01-14T23:26:00.000-05:00

My second review on this short story. The first was posted on smashwords when it first came out. Check out Kristi's site and you never know what you mind find interesting over there - E :)

This and That - end of week

2012-01-14T13:24:00.001-05:00

So, I've a campaign to give away all my titles as PDF files for free in exchange for reviews. To date, I've had one actual request (have sent three files to the one person) and two who said they were interested in reviewing the books but haven't made the request yet. I've been posting on my plurk which goes to my FB page and twitter page and the one person who has requested my books actually retweeted a post last week. He lives in England so the state books wouldn't do him much good, but if he wanted them, I would've been happy to send to him.

Sales this week have been very minimal - Finally Home - ebook = 0, print = 0; "The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story) = 1 on smashwords; "The Tulip Kiss" = 1 on kindle. No sales on Nook this week. I hope those folks who purchased the copies will write reviews for the stories. I'm getting views on smashwords; unfortunately, I can't gage how many people view my books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Smashwords is the only one that shows how many views and so far "The Proposal" has had 46 views; Finally Home 25 views and "The Tulip Kiss" 15 views. I can only hope I'm getting similar views on the other two places or more but that isn't showing up as sales, so need to do something to help generate sales.

I decided to do something with "Bride-and-Seek" when it is published (hoping within the next couple of days or at least by the end of week next week). I'm going to list it exclusively on kindle for the quarter and put out my five free ads during that time and see if that will boost sales. I've been following the Sisters in Crime yahoo forum and there is one lady there who has been reporting her progress throughout her time with one of her books listed this way (what this exclusive listing does is alows prime members to get the ebook version for free (borrow) and the author has to not put that title up for sale on any other ebook sales place (no Nook, no smashwords, no fictionwise (if they are still in existence), no sales on your website in ebook format) but you can keep the title in print format everywhere, if it is available in print). Anyway, we are pretty close to having a completed cover for "Bride-and-Seek" and once that is approved, I will be putting the story up on Kindle only. The ads hopefully will lead to folks checking out my other titles and hopefully purchasing them.

The other thing I'm considering is FB ads. Another author friend of mine has just started using the FB ads (middle of December) and saw a dramatic increase in her sales - something like 48 books over a 2-week time period - now that's the kind of sales I'd love to have since my goal is only 15 to 25 a month of each title this would be great to see sales like this.

Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day and my posting will be a short one about the holiday. Wednesday's posting will be a question from a 3rd grader Lunchtime Writer's Club member in Indiana. Thursday will be about book festivals and other things, and look for a review on Shelley Stout's book Radium Halos on book review Friday.

So signing off on another dismal sales week - until next week, - E :)

UPDATE: 01/16/2012 - I haven't really been checking my sales on createspace, so I've kind of neglected my state stories a bit but I just checked it today and apparently I had an order for State of Wilderness last Friday through the expanded distribution (could have been to a bookstore, a library or school or through createspace directly). - So sorry for neglecting my state stories - lol.

Challenge Your Reading: Ebook Challenge

2012-01-14T00:47:00.000-05:00

Now this is a reading challenge I think I can participate in since I've been reading ebooks more than print books now that I have a kindle. I could use an ipod touch for next to nothing (if someone knows where I might get one please let me know). Anyway - check out the different reading challenges on the page - E :)

Challenge Your Reading: Ebook Challenge: Host: Workaday Reads Goal: read ebooks Minimum Requirement: 5 ebooks Restrictons: none 2012 sign up

Book Review Friday - Haunted Destiny: A Midnight Dragonfly by Ellie James

2012-01-13T06:00:00.005-05:00

amazon's description: Teenage mystic Rachelle Dugas knows to expect the unexpected when she fills in for a friend leading a Haunted New Orleans tour. But when she decides to check out a haunted house on her own, nothing prepares her for the secrets lurking in the shadows—or the twist of destiny about to unfold.

Anything related to butterflies or dragonflies, I'll give a chance. I also got this as a free download, so even better. Doesn't hurt to get something for $0.00, and something as well-written as "Haunted Destiny". I loved the setting of this story - New Orleans. I've not been to New Orleans but I felt like I was right there exploring with Rachelle or guiding the tour right beside her. Rachelle takes over the tour for one night due to her friend being injured. It also has been raining all day and some of the tourists felt that the tour would be cancelled. Rachelle knows all the places to highlight and does so with the expertise gifted to her. Of course, her mystic powers show her things she's not sure she wants to see or that she doesn't understand the meaning of until she gets caught in a bit of a downpour and all the tourists have left. When she enters the one house, not by the usual means of front door being opened, she finds that her dreams were more foretelling of her destiny than of anyone else's.

This is a very short story but a very delightful read. I recommend "Haunted Destiny" to everyone unless you don't like tales of fate or ghost stories (only kidding). I rate it a 4.5 stars.

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 194 KB
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (November 23, 2011)
Sold by: Macmillan
Language: English
ASIN: B005T54NWC
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Find more on Ellie James here.

Writers On The Move: Self-Publishing: A Three Step Primer

2012-01-12T08:42:00.000-05:00

A simplistic view of self-publishing - E :)

Writers On The Move: Self-Publishing: A Three Step Primer: The world of publishing is changing dramatically. Every day it seems, there are new options on how to publish your book, and many of thes...

Priscilla the Great's book giveaway

2012-01-11T19:30:00.002-05:00

My friend, Sybil Nelson, one-third of the SC Author Connection and author of the Priscilla the Great series, is giving away 100 ebook copies of her book, just for following her blog. Check it out and if you like what you see, how about following her. I told her since I already have copies of the first three books, I would let someone else have my copy, so really that is 101 followers that she needs. She is up to 74 right now, so she is very close. See ya'll over there - E :)

WEDNESDAY WEEKLY YOUNG WRITERS WRITING QUESTION (WWYWWQ)

2012-01-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

From a student in Mr. Hughes' sixth grade class - How do you write onomatopoeia?

While working with Mr. Hughes' sixth grade class during writing time today, one of the students asked how she would write onomatopoeia - like the sound of a doorbell or things like that. Being the resident author for the class, Mr. Hughes threw the question my way. I've seen it written several ways, ALL CAPS or italicized usually with an exclamation mark following. I answered the young lady by saying that italics were frowned upon or using them extensively, so told her to put them in all caps. While they were working on their writing projects, I decided to do a little research. This is what I found, specifically the section about italics, number 5.

I did share this with Mr. Hughes and while I was reading it, I tried to think of an example of when I had used onomatopoeia in my writing. It came to me - in my short story "The Proposal". I start out with frogs ribbitting. Italicized and an exclamation point following. Ribbit! Ribbit!

Now you know the answer to the question. If it is at the beginning of the sentence, it would be capitalized or if it stands alone like I did and italicized. If it is within a sentence structure, you would italicize the "sound". An example they gave was like machine gun firing - you would write it as rat-a-tat-tat.

So how do you write onomatopoeia in your stories? Mrs. E :)

If you teach a writing class or have a writing club and would like your students' questions answered, please forward them to me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com. It's okay to send several questions at a time as I will be doing a "Wednesday Weekly Young Writers Writing Question" posting every week. I will not use students' names, but if you give me their initials, I can do that as well as the teacher's name (example E.E. in Mr. Hughes' class ask: ...) that is how my postings will go.

Keep checking my blog weekly for a new question and response. E :)

Followers = Readers?

2012-01-11T06:00:00.003-05:00

Does this statement ring true for every author's blog you follow?

Do you follow blogs because you actually read them or the author's works? Do you follow blogs just to follow blogs?

Part of the strategy of having blogs is to build a web presence and to gain readers for your books. Authors should have blogs which are constantly changing as well as a website, which doesn't need to be updated as often but still needs to be updated, especially if you have new books, works in progress, and things that aren't going anywhere for the rest of your life.

In my social networks - FB, twitter, plurk and my two blogs/websites (one is for my JGDS series only and the other is for all my other writing plus family and life in general) - I have over 1000 followers combined (may be even closer to 2000 but this was my closest guestimate). By all accounts, I should have some pretty consistent page visits on my blogs. I don't. My book sales are next to nothing for everything I have published, but I'm at a loss. How do you increase sales? How do you get more followers to be readers of your books? This is a dilemma that has me perplexed.

This year I'm making some changes to my blogging schedule and hopefully will pick up more followers, which hopefully will mean more readers of my books/stories. I will do a Book Review Friday, every Friday throughout the year except for the month of July and probably the month of December. The last week of the month on Monday and Wednesday, I will have guest bloggers (and the schedule is still open as I've put a call out to librarians, teachers and authors but have had no responses yet, other than the two for February) and then will post announcements and writing related information on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be open for reposting things of interest to my readers from other blogs, so there may be several postings on one day if I feel there are postings from several other blogs I follow and read consistently that may be of interest to my readers. Hopefully by being a more consistent and almost daily blogger, I will draw in more followers and thereby more readers of my stories.

So I ask you the reader, why are you following my blogs and other blogs that you follow? Do you actually buy or borrow the author's books and read them? What is it that has attracted you to that person's blog? Feedback encouraged and welcomed. - E :)

Tomorrow, find out what book reviews have to do with readers and followers over on the Writers on the Move blog. They are all connected and shouldn't be exclusive of one another since writers need reviews as well as readers. E :)

Heather Paye

2012-01-10T10:44:00.000-05:00

In case some of you aren't following my illustrator, Heather Paye, here is her newest posting and it's chock full of some great things going on. She is offering an e-course on creating in-depth characters for the low price of only $5. What's better than that low price is her "free" advantage. If you are one of the first ten persons to register for the course (using her code as specified in her post), you can get in for free. I hope you all take advantage of this and will support my illustrator, such an ambitious young person. - E :)

Cluster Map/Visits/Comments

2012-01-10T08:42:00.000-05:00

Since putting up my cluster map Saturday and it is still early in the day Tuesday, I've had 42 visitors from varying places. As you can see from the totals below, visitors from the United States marginally win (so far), but I ask you - why are people from Russia, Malaysia, and some other countries I've never heard of visiting my page? If I have so many visitors in just three short days, why do I not have more followers on my blogs? It would seem if people are visiting, the least they could do is leave a comment and let me know they like certain posts or they have something to say about something I've posted (I like to think I have something of interest to offer and that's why I have a few followers).

Current Country Totals From 7 Jan 2012 to 10 Jan 2012.

United States (US) 22
(California (CA) - 6, Minnesota (MN) - 4, Massachusetts (MA) - 2, Illinois (IL) - 1, Michigan (MI) - 1, Washington (WA) - 1, New York (NY) - 1, Colorado (CO) - 1, Texas (TX) - 1, Georgia (GA) - 1, South Carolina (SC) - 1, North Carolina (NC) - 1, Florida (FL) - 1)

Germany (DE) 3
Sachsen 1
Thuringen 1
Baden-Wurttemberg 1
France (FR) 2
Ile-de-France 2
United Kingdom (GB) 2
Cambridgeshire 1
Hampshire 1
Russian Federation (RU) 2
Murmansk 1
Saint Petersburg City 1
Canada (CA) 2
Ontario (ON) 2
Spain (ES) 2
Madrid 2
Denmark (DK) 1
Syddanmark 1
Colombia (CO) 1
Valle del Cauca 1
Cambodia (KH) 1
Phnum Penh 1
Philippines (PH) 1
Manila 1
Brazil (BR) 1
Rio de Janeiro 1
Taiwan (TW) 1
T'ai-pei 1
Malaysia (MY) 1

So how do visitors to my blogs and comments translate into sales? Stop by tomorrow for a posting about "Followers = Readers?" which will segue way to my posting on the Writers on the Move blog Thursday.

As always, I encourage my readers/followers to leave comments and if you come by the blog accidentally, then please follow my blog. I really need followers. Thanks - see you all in the postings - E :)

Book Covers

2012-01-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

I have a new cover! Psych! - lol. I guess that dates me. Back when I was in high school, we would say "Psych" when we faked out someone. I was really hoping to have a new cover for "Bride-and-Seek" by now to share with you all but I don't. I'm patiently waiting, trying not to push Heather too much since I know I'm not her only client and that she is getting ready to start back to school soon. I have a really clear vision of what I want the cover to look like but whether or not I've conveyed that to Heather is another question. I do know that once she gives me a first cover, if it isn't exactly what I had in mind, she will take my suggestions and go back to the drawing board and rework it until my vision comes to fruition.

Finally Home - mock up full cover first version

Finally Home - full cover final version

Case in point, Finally Home was originally the attic scene with the mirror and Kelly sort of looking to the mirror. I loved the mirror, wasn't too crazy about the attic, sent Heaher some pictures and a bit more description of what I pictured in my mind and she sent me back what is now gracing my book.

"The Proposal" - front cover - only and final version

"The Proposal" actually came to me almost perfect. I don't recall making any changes or asking that something be changed because it was just right for the story. I did have to change one little section in the story to fit the cover but it was a minor change; sometimes that does happen too.

"The Tulip Kiss" - front cover final version

"The Tulip Kiss" is another case in that the first one she sent me I loved everything about it save for the way the wording was getting washed out and the tulip was overpowering color wise. On the fourth attempt, she sent me now what is displayed on all the sites where the ebook is available.

So I have no doubt that when Heather sends me "Bride-and-Seek" it will either be almost perfect (there is always room for some improvement in everything) and what I pictured or it may need tweaking, so as soon as I've got a cover, I can then turn around and share with you all as well as get the story published on Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. Having the "just right cover" for your story is very important. I'm very thankful to have a talented young lady like Heather who is willing to work with me and create some very exquisite and eye-catching covers. Keep up the good work, Heather. See you all in the postings - E :)

Writers On The Move: Got Rhythm?

2012-01-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

This is a great article by Heidi Thomas and something I could have used a couple of months ago when I did my writing session for the teachers, but I did touch on this a bit. Hopefully more teachers can use this advice when teaching writing to their students - E :)

Writers On The Move: Got Rhythm?: What does writing have to do with music? When you are in the revision and self-editing mode with your Work In Progress (WIP), it is helpful...

Writers On The Move: Forget Resolutions Go For Real SolutionsH- have ...

2012-01-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

A different way to look at "resolutions" - using acrosting poems to come up with your goals and these are goals for all writers - in every aspect - E :)

Writers On The Move: Forget Resolutions Go For Real Solutions

H- have ...: Forget Resolutions Go For Real Solutions H- have faith in your abilities A- advertise and market P-post positive, handwritten no...

YA Authors You've Never Heard Of: Young Writers Conferences

2012-01-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

I hope some of the young writers will take advantage of this and check out some of the conferences geared specifically for you. I'm going to look into them and see about being a presenter - E :)

YA Authors You've Never Heard Of: Young Writers Conferences: I've mentioned the sessions on writing nonhumans and aliens I present at young writers conferences before ( here ), but, since I'm writing t...

Book Review Friday - To Tell The Truth by Faye M. Tollison

2012-01-06T06:00:00.010-05:00

My first book review of the new year. All books reviewed the first few months will be what I've read since receiving my Kindle last March. I have a list of books that will probably take me through at least nine months, plus all the books I'm reading this year all in my different collections. I'm reading mysteries, YA and thrillers and a little bit of everything in between. Hope you enjoy the Book Review Fridays, and hope it brings you a new list of things to read.

(SNEAK PREVIEW: In February, I will be reviewing Leslie Dubois' books and she will be a guest blogger the last Monday in February. She and one other author will be sharing a vendor booth with me at the SCASL conference in March and so I want to feature many of her books leading up to the event. She is a phenomenal writer and amazes me how diversified she is. Stay tuned for more on her.)

TO TELL THE TRUTH by Faye M. Tollison
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Rating: 4-1/2 stars

SYNOPSIS: Anna Kacey had faced many difficulties in her life and had carried some heavy responsibilities. When she met Senator Kenneth Levall, her world soared. At least until it collapsed. Until that fateful day when the gun she held fired, and the senator fell on the floor at her feet and died. Undercover cop, Detective John Mentz, came into her life and fell deeply in love with Anna. He gave her reason to question her relationship with the senator, whom he was investigating for drug trafficking. But as strong a woman as Anna was, she had to dig deep to find the strength to endure what followed: the murder of her sister, the destruction of her life, and lastly facing a courtroom full of people, a judge, and a jury in an effort to save the man she really loved. He had confessed to the murder of the senator in order to protect Anna from being charged with murder. It was now time for her to stand up and To Tell the Truth.

My Review: I saw this story from beginning to end. I even had a hand in editing it. This story had at one time been submitted to Harlequin Mystery or Suspense line (I've forgotten the exact name of the line) and Faye was told the story needed to be longer or that it wasn't a good fit. I really was hoping someone would pick the story up because it is a good story. The suspense is going through the trials and tribulation with Anna and John and really coming to root for them. Anna is a strong character and I believe this is because Faye really did know her well, like a real person whom she had known all her life.

The romance that starts between John and Anna is distant and is still in the budding stages, but that is okay, the romantic feelings do get rekindled in the next story in the series. If you like hot and steamy romance, this is not the book for you. If you like finding out what's going to happen next and a book that keeps you turning the pages to do just that, then this is the book for you.

To Tell The Truth is available in print and on the Kindle. It is part of the KDP Select program so is available to Prime members for free as part of the lending program.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Faye M. Tollison is a member of Sisters In Crime and has published a short story in Petigru Review, the anthology published by the South Carolina Writers Workshop, as well as numerous critiques in Printed Matters, the newletter published by the Greenville Chapter of the SCWW. She has been writing for many years and has now become serious enough to publish her first book. She has loved writing this book and is now working on her second book, The Bible Murders.

Book Clubs

2012-01-05T06:00:00.002-05:00

Sunday night or Monday morning of this week, I thought about adding some discussion questions to my website for Finally Home. Why, you ask? So hopefully a book club will pick up my book and add to their calendar. My friend and author, Faye Tollison, was recently invited to come speak at a local book club in her neighborhood to discuss her book To Tell The Truth. Coming up with the discussion questions is a bit harder than expected. With my state books, it was easy to come up with the discussion questions and include them at the back of the book because everything is based on clues in the books - the study guide uses this technique to take some of the clues a bit further as deeper discussion questions or research projects. With my generalized fiction and this being my only other print book, discussion questions are really needed if the book is being used for a book club reading.

I'm looking at a new way to make folks aware of my stories and I hope that book clubs will be one of the ways. If you are interested in having Finally Home as a book club read, please let me know and I will offer a discount on books ordered directly from me and they will be signed copies. Drop me an email at eeldering@gmail.com with the subject "Finally Home book club" and how many books you need, when you need them by and if you would like me to visit your book club.

I've started a new story, tentatively titled Imogene - Innocense Lost and this one will have discussion questions because I just feel that there is a place for this story in a book club at some time in the future. I will keep you updated on the progress of that story as it happens. The main goal the first two weeks of January is to get as many of the four state stories to be published this year written. Then I will work on Imogene and keep you updated to her progress. If you would like more information on the state stories, please stop by the JGDS blog or the JGDS website and see what's available and what's coming up.

Workaday Reads: 2012 Self-Published Reading Challenge Sign-up

2012-01-04T11:01:00.000-05:00

Here is another reading challenge and this is a good one - too bad I didn't know about this one last year - I would have read at least 25 and probably more by indie authors; oh well, hindsight is 20/20. This came to by way of Priscilla over at Prissy Fit. Stop by and see what it's about - E :)

Workaday Reads: 2012 Self-Published Reading Challenge Sign-up: I'm jumping right into challenge hosting next year, and adding a second challenge to my blog, that way there is a challenge to match each...

YA Historical Fiction Challenge

2012-01-04T06:00:00.002-05:00

Here's a challenge for all of you out there who read historical fiction, specifically YA historical fiction. This came in my email this morning from Ren over at All By Myshelf.

This is a 3-level challenge of 5, 10 or 15 books. So easy enough since most of us voracious readers are reading at least a book a week - so shouldn't be a problem meeting the low level of books required to meet this challenge. Good luck to all who participate. Make sure you stop by the YA Bliss blog and sign up for the challenge (click the title of this posting to be taken directly to challenge blog).

Karen Cioffi's Writing and Marketing ebook Extravaganza

2012-01-03T06:00:00.003-05:00

If you are a writer, a published author or just starting on your journey and are thinking about writing, here are some ebooks available to help you on your way. Karen Cioffi, the creator of the Writers on the Move blog and group is offering a plethora of information. Please stop by her sites and check out what she has to offer. - E :)

2012 Writing and Marketing eBook Extravaganza
by Karen Cioffi

To start the New Year with a BANG, from January 1st through February 28, 2012, Karen Cioffi is offering all her writing and marketing e-books (purchased directly from her site(s) using the Paypal SHOPPING CART) for $1.19 each. This will also include any new titles added within that time period.

Yes, that’s right, only $1.19 for each of these titles:

How to Write Books for Children: Writing, Publishing, and Marketing Children’s Books (nominated in the 2011 Global eBooks Awards – over 100 pages)

Editing Books Like a Pro: Self-Editing for Books and Articles

How to Create an eBook and Its Many Uses

Writing, Publishing, and Marketing – You Can Do It!

How to Start a Freelance Writing Business

How to Attract Customers With Informational Marketing

Learn How to Create and Sell Information Products From Your Own Site

New titles to be coming some time in 2012 include:
Webinar Marketing: Create and Present Your Own Webinars
Book Marketing: DIY Virtual Book Tours From Start to Finish
Book Marketing: Soup to Nuts
Marketing Information Products

If you’re reading this you’re probably an author or writer, and it’s no doubt you know how important it is to stay on top of your writing and marketing game, and the above e-books will help you do just that.

For only $1.19 each, get all seven titles for under $10.

Click on the links above to review what each book has to offer – each landing page will have a shopping cart on January 1st, for your convenience. Be sure to use the Shopping Cart Paypal Buy Button, otherwise you’ll pay full price.

For a complete ONE page list (with brief descriptions of each ebook) go here.

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About the author: Karen Cioffi:
Learn about writing and marketing with Karen Cioffi at here. Sign up for her free newsletter, A Writer’s World, and get TWO free site-related e-books for subscribing, and ONE more just for stopping by.

Babies, Books, and Signs: A-Z Challenge 2012

2012-01-02T17:44:00.000-05:00

Here's another reading challenge. I'll keep posting them as I get them but that doesn't mean I'm participating in all of them. Pick and choose which ones you would like to participate in. This one seems easy enough but it will be difficult finding books starting with X, Y and Z - good luck if you decide to take this challenge - E :)

Babies, Books, and Signs: A-Z Challenge 2012: Attn: I apologize to all of those who already signed up in the previous linky, but it was deleted. I didn't realize that linkytools is now a...

Writers On The Move: Book Marketing: 20 Strategies to Broaden Your Reac...

2012-01-01T14:20:00.000-05:00

For all you authors out there looking for some new marketing strategies - how about stopping by and see what Karen Cioffi has to offer and stop by Tuesday for a special offer that Karen is running through the end of February. See you in the postings - E :)

Writers On The Move: Book Marketing: 20 Strategies to Broaden Your Reac...: It's here! January 1st, 2012, and along with wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous New Year , I have 20 book marketing tips you can use ...

Writing, Blogging and Sales Goals

2012-01-01T06:00:00.008-05:00

With the new year upon us, I have come up with some goals for writing, blogging and sales. I have decided to forego the usual resolutions this year and set goals. My long-term goal is to be able to only work part-time or not at all on my now full-time job by the year 2015. That goal had originally been set for June of 2013, at the time my youngest would graduate but I don't feel at this time that this is an attainable goal. In other words, I need to have books supporting me instead of me supporting them in order to quit my job or cut back to part-time hours. So I have set the following goals for both my JGDS series (you can check out the JGDS blot here or the JGDS website here for more information) as well as my other writings:

1. Blog at least twice a week. (CORRECTED SCHEDULE)
(Blogging schedule will be something like this:
Mondays and Thursdays - Writing announcements and other info.
Tuesdays - open or repostings or linking back to other's blog postings of interest
Wednesdays - special postings from students (Wednesday Weekly Young Writers Writing Questions (WWYWWQ) - I will try to answer students' questions about the writing process or problems they encounter during their writing class, writing club or just in general to their personal writing.
Fourth Monday and Wednesday of month - Guest posts
Fridays - Book reviews

2. Have guest bloggers at least twice a month as well as appear on other's blogs throughout the year - (I'm scheduled to be on Barbara Ehrentreu's blog on the 26th of this month; will have a promotional post for Karen Cioffi up on the 3rd of January and am trying to have Leslie Dubois author of Ain't No Sunshine guest in February, who will also be an exhibitor with me at the SCASL conference in March. I'm trying to schedule the other who will be at the SCASL with Leslie (aka Sybil Nelson author of the Priscilla the Great series) author, Sarah Renee for February as well. This will be a bit trickier since I'm late on schedulding guests for January but hopefully starting in February I will have at least two guests a month.) Schedule will be guests the last week of the month, Monday and Wednesday, and I'll have librarians, teachers, YA and children's authors (hopefully).

3. Hold more contests to hopefully draw in readers and boost sales.

4. Write the next four state stories in the first three weeks of January (clear the table of what will be coming out for the year)

5. Write something every day - whether it be 15 minutes or an hour, but I will write every day. (I started a new story on Friday, December 30th, that I'm anxious to see where it goes, so that may be something I'll work through and possibly publish later this year).

6. Do whatever it takes to have consistent monthly sales of 15 of each title available. (This number seems low but considering my sales goals last year for the 10 titles available were extremely low, this is jumping point. I'd really like to see 25 of each title sell each month but I don't want to be disappointed too much when I don't meet my sales goal. The biggest problem with my numbers is that I can't accurately gauge my total sales since two of my books are still under 4RV Publishing and won't come out of contract until May of this year and June of next year, so the only sales I can depend on right now with those two titles are actual in-person/email/paypal sales directly through me. I'm hoping by having my QR codes available at live events for instant availability of the stories will help boost the sales some as well as offering a giveaway related to the book if purchase is made from the QR code at the event.)

I was shooting for five goals but ended up with six. This will be a start to the year and in six months, I can always re-evaluate and see where I need to make changes or adjustments.

What are some of your writing goals/challenges this year? Leave a comment and be entered for an ebook version of one of my non-state books - "The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), "The Tulip Kiss", "Bride-and-Seek" (available soon), or "Butterfly Halves" (available soon). Comments made through the middle of January will go in the random drawing. The more individuals who comment, the more drawings I'll do - up to 4 total. See you in the postings - E :)

I Write Like ...

2011-12-30T19:57:00.000-05:00

According to the site, I write like

I write like
Harry Harrison

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

. I've never heard of him. This was analyzed on a story I just started today, but I'm going to throw a couple more pieces in there to analyze and see who I really write like.

The first two chapters of Finally Home gave me this result:

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

and this is funny in that I've never read anything written by the man. I wonder what it will say for my other stories or my state stories - lol.

For "The Proposal", I write like

I write like
Lewis Carroll

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

now that is really interesting; would have never thought this was similar to Alice in Wonderland writing style.

"The Tulip Kiss" is written like

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

- another writer I've not heard of or read so couldn't really say I write like him or not. His most notable work is The Ultimate Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I have heard of but not read.

Okay for a state story: State of Successes has me writing like - Douglas Adams again - guess I should take that as a compliment. Someone I can relate some of my writing to. Guess I should read the Ultimate Hitchiker's Guide ... to see if my writing really is like his. Enough playing around, must return to work. Thanks to one of my plurk buddies for sharing this site. - E :)

January giveaways in exchange for reviews

2011-12-30T15:05:00.001-05:00

I was going to post this on LibraryThing but it wouldn't let me post, so I'm going to post as a blog on both my blogs. I will start taking requests January 2. I hope that all the librarians and teachers out there will take advantage of this. This is the same message on both blogs, sorry but the message needs to be out there so that I can hopefully get some reviews and some sales.

JANUARY GIVEAWAY POST
I have six titles in my state series available for review as well as three other titles available. I will offer 100 copies of each title in exchange for reviews.

The state series is geared for 3rd through 5th grade level, would make a great supplement to a US History social studies curriculum or an individual state social studies. Each book comes with its own study guide which supplements the book and should not be used without first reading the book or it makes no sense. The books are written like a handheld game that gives the kids clues (facts and trivia) about a state and the readers and characters have to guess the state being described. Each book is one state and all the clues will pertain to that specific state. There are bonus clues highlighting one of five US territories (Washington DC, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and US Samoan Islands) as well as discussion questions. The study guide takes some of the clues in the book and turns them into deeper discussion questions or research projects, either a science project or map/math skills project or social studies project or ELA project, and then there are bonus things like secret message puzzles (state motto is the secret message), a craft idea (based on clues but not in every study guide - only as the clues are fitting), and a trivia game that is designed to show that the students or child read the book.

Titles available are State of Wilderness (ID), State of Quarries (AR), State of Reservations (OK), State of Successes (SC), State of Heights (CO), and State of Nature (WY). I will send a PDF file to the 100 persons requesting any of the titles available. You can request more than one.

My other titles include Finally Home (a YA paranormal mystery), The Proposal (an April Fools Day Story, a humorous romance ebook), and The Tulip Kiss (a paranormal romance). Available in January will be Bride-and-Seek (a paranormal romance ebook) and Butterfly Halves (a YA fantasy ebook). Again, I will take 100 requests for the three titles available in exchange for reviews.

Please email me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com and put "free books in exchange for review" in the subject line. In the body of the email please list the titles you would like to review or if you want all of them, just say All books.

This promotion will be valid for the month of January only. Once the 100 requests per title have been met, no other requests will be taken. I may offer this later in the year, but it will depend on the success of the first "free books in exchange for reviews" campaign. - E :)

Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal mystery ebook
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal mystery ebook (coming in Janaury)
"Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy ebook (coming in January)
Elysabeth's other blog
Elysabeth's non-JGDS writing website

Ma America, The Travelin' Maven
Author of the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series and "Train of Clues" (a mystery destination story and predecessor to the JGDS, state series)
Where will the adventure take you next?
JGDS blog
JGDS website

6 Degrees Reading Challenge

2011-12-29T14:23:00.000-05:00

I found out about this challenge from Priscilla the Great's blog who found it on Ren's All By Myshelf blog. The challenge sounds pretty cool. I've signed up but haven't picked out my books yet. Getting books connected is the biggest challenge. For the complete challenge and rules, please drop by Ren's blog and see if this is something you would be interested in. If so, I'd appreciate it if you would link back to my blog as well as Ren's blog (like I did with how I found the challenge - first on Priscilla the Great's blog, taking me to Ren's blog). Happy reading - let the challenge begin - E :)

(Example of connected books from Ren's blog):

Make a list of at least 6 books, connected by similar themes, covers, characters, etc. Just make sure the books have unique connections. In other words, you can't just read 6 books that have similar covers, or all have a character named Amy. Here's an example (part of my 2011 list):

Lockdown
{based in a prison}
Incarceron
{arranged marriage}
Matched
{scheduled deaths}
The Giver
{drowning victim}
Generation Dead
{undead character}
Once Dead, Twice Shy

You get the picture.

PUTTING WORDS DOWN ON PAPER: Upcoming 2012 Education Wants to Be Free Classes

2011-12-28T13:01:00.000-05:00

A few writing courses my fellow authors may be interested - stop on by and check out the deals comings up - E :)

PUTTING WORDS DOWN ON PAPER: Upcoming 2012 Education Wants to Be Free Classes: Four new courses are being offered at Education Wants to Be Free in February 2012. They are: Write Your Novel YOUR Way in 100 Days. ...

Writers On The Move: RESUSCITATING YOUR CHARACTER

2011-12-26T22:16:00.000-05:00

Interesting article about bringing your characters to life by my friend and author, Faye Tollison, author of To Tell The Truth. Stop by and check it out - E :)

Writers On The Move: RESUSCITATING YOUR CHARACTER: To Tell the Truth , my first novel, started with a character, and from that character a story began to develop. I wrote the whole story diss...

Romancing the Genres: FAIR SALES--FOR THE BIRDS?

2011-12-23T23:10:00.000-05:00

A little insight in doing a Holiday Fair where books are not the main component of the fair or festival - posted by our local Sisters in Crime chapter president, Linda Lovely. The other two people mentioned are also members of the local Sisters in Crime chapter - and all the books are great reads, although I haven't read Ellis's yet but I have read a book by her. Come have a peek and see if this rings true for you - E :)

Romancing the Genres: FAIR SALES--FOR THE BIRDS?: Fair Selling—For the Birds? The three-day Holiday Fair in Greenville, SC, attracts substantial crowds, people who buy all manner of Chris...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T19:49:00.000-05:00

Wishing you and your family a blessed, joyous, Merry Christmas and happy holidays whichever you celebrate. As you travel this holiday season, stay safe and return here in the new year for some special deals and possibly some contests. Also, please don't forget to follow the JGDS blog for new releases and contests. See you in the new year - E :)

24 hours left

2011-12-23T12:01:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I hope you all have your Christmas shopping done. There are only 24 hours left in the Finally Home half-price Christmas sale with it ending at noon tomorrow. Get your copy today or buy a copy and gift it to someone you know who would enjoy a story written in the Nancy Drew mysteries style. Here are the QR codes to get your copy today.

Finally Home QR code Kindle edition:

Finally Home QR code Nook edition:

3 Days left!!!

2011-12-21T12:01:00.002-05:00

Only 3 days left in the Finally Home half-price Christmas Sale for Kindle and Nook. Don't forget to pick up your copy today or give a copy as a gift. Both Nook and Kindle now allow you to gift ebooks to someone else. Here are the QR codes to the direct buy links for Finally Home:

Finally Home Kindle edition:

Finally Home Nook edition:

QR codes

2011-12-19T12:26:00.001-05:00

What is a QR code? Defined it is a quick response (QR) 2-D code for instant access to an indefinite amount of information. They can be used for anything from a way to enter contests to direct links to buy merchandise and everything in between. I've created QR codes for my ebooks' direct buying links, which I'll be placing on the back of my printed covers for my display when I'm doing events. I'll also print up some business cards to hand out for each of the covers that are available as ebooks. I'm hoping this will boost my sales. I would love to see more folks requesting kindlegraphs for ebooks they purchase or books they brought from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble or even my createspace pages, but I guess that will come in due time.

To make your own QR codes, there are many places to generate them from but this is the one I used. I also created a business card QR code with this website. You can create a number of different links. Try it out for yourself.

The business card didn't work so I will work on how to get that to work and post at a later date.

Here are the QR codes for the three books available as ebooks:

Finally Home QR for Kindle:

Finally Home QR for Nook:

"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story) QR for Kindle:

"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story) QR for Nook:

"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance QR for Kindle:

"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance QR for Nook:

If they don't work for you all, please let me know. See you all in the postings - E :)

Writers On The Move: Setting Writing Goals for 2012...How are Your Goal...

2011-12-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

Writers On The Move: Setting Writing Goals for 2012...How are Your Goal...: Writing takes planning and implementing, reviewing and revising. In nursing we learn to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate for a patien...

Terri has some very informative information here. I will probably post my 2012 goals on this blog (Elysabeth's Emerald City) next week, once I've had a chance to sit down and really think about what it is I want to or need to accomplish next year. Please stop by and comment if you are a writer and need some guidance on goal setting. - See you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home Kindle and Nook half-price sale is on

2011-12-17T02:26:00.000-05:00

Finally Home is now half price on Kindle and Nook (regular price $3.99; now $1.99). Download your copy soon because this price won't stay up for long. I will return the Kindle and Nook to regular price about noon on December 24. Nook now has egifting so you can purchase a copy and give as a gift to a friend's Nook; Kindle has already had the option of making your purchases gifts. So give a book to someone you know who likes reading something written like a Nancy Drew mystery.

If you do get either a Kindle or Nook copy or you gift a copy to someone and you would like me to send them a personalized message and e-signature, make sure you stop by kindlegraph and request your free kindlegraph or have the person receiving the gift request a kindlegraph.

Also, remember print copies are on sale for $10 with free shipping anywhere in the United States and shipping to be calculated for sales outside the United States at the time of purchase. Print copies can only be ordered via email (eeldering @ gmail . com - no spaces) with the subject of "Finally Home sale". I sign all my print books that I send out, so if you are ordering this as a belated gift, please indicate in the body of the email to whom to make the book and where to send (if outside the United States so shipping can be calculated). I will send you an email directing you on payment. Books will be sent out after Christmas so they should arrive to you or the person you are giving to before Januar 1st but no later than the following week.

Writers On The Move: The Writer’s Block – tips for smashing through you...

2011-12-15T15:12:00.000-05:00

Writers On The Move: The Writer’s Block – tips for smashing through you...: Writers are writers because they write. Sounds simple enough, but the reality is they write because they can’t not write. It begins in ma...

Some interesting points to help writers - E :)

Writers On The Move: Have You Considered Writing Greeting Card or Fille...

2011-12-15T15:06:00.000-05:00

Writers On The Move: Have You Considered Writing Greeting Card or Fille...: As authors, we struggle to balance writing time, marketing time, and family life with paying the bills and bringing in adequate income. Have...

For all you poets out there - this might be an avenue for you to explore - E :)

Following blogs versus Subscribing by email and following comments

2011-12-14T09:48:00.001-05:00

I have both a follow this blog (for blogger users) and a subscribe by email on both my blogs. I have very few folks who have signed up to receive emails of my blog postings. I have even fewer folks who comment on my blogs.

My questions to you are this: Why does one follow a blog? When you do just a follow, how often do you actually read what is posted on that blog? If you subscribe to follow via email, why? When you get the emails, do you make a note and come over and comment occasionally? When you do leave a comment on a blog, even if you are not following the blog at the moment but just got there by way of a forum or other means, do you subscribe to receive the followup comments via email? If not, why not? Are you not interested in learning what other folks have to say on the topic you have commented on? Do you not want to be involved in conversations that may arise from those comments?

What are your reasons for clicking on the "follow this blog" or subscribe via email? What are reasons you leave comments on a blog posting and do you continue to follow the comments? When you leave a comment, do you also include a signature line? If you are a published author and don't include one, why not? Isn't visibility the reason for being on blogs and leaving comments? Don't you want to drive potential new readers to your sites?

Here are some of my thoughts on the topic: When I follow a blog because there is no email subscription, I am less likely to read the blog very often. I try to follow blogs that are of interest to me, my writing/marketing/et cetera or of folks that are in groups or forums I belong to. If I subscribe by email or the RSS feed (which I don't too many of those because that means I still have to go an extra step to find out what's new with that person), I get the notifications and I can see what's new. I check my email first thing every morning and do what I call "slogging" before going to work. This process includes scanning the email notifications, filing them in their respective folders and if warranted, leaving a comment on the blog. Sometimes the topic is of interest but I don't have time to leave a comment that particular day but I mark those emails and will go back to them and go to the blog to comment when I have a few minutes. (My slogging also includes checking out all my sites (websites and book sites) for how many page views or visits I've had or how many sales I may have had (not as many as I would like) and doing my socializing. I belong to plurk and post the TDIH (This Day In History) plurks as well as the daily birthday (most of my friends on that network are teachers or librarians and from there I have participated now in several Skype visits with various grades during a writing time or lunch time for a writers' club). I've set my plurk to go to my FB page and my twitter account so I'm actually posting on three accounts by plurking every day. I like plurk but sometimes get caught spending too much time answering plurks, posting new plurks, et cetera.) When I leave a comment, I try to make sure I click the box that says "be notified of followup comments via email" or click the subscribe by email link or whatever is available; some blogs don't offer this option. My feeling on this is that I've taken time to comment on the blog and am interested in the topic and therefore, am interested in knowing what others feel or have to say on the topic. I also have a signature line I put at the end of all my comments. I use the following signature line, and depending on the blog I'm commenting on, will reverse the order my two different personas are listed.

Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Homea, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook (coming soon)
"Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy ebook (coming soon)
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com

Ma America, The Travelin' Maven
Author of the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series and "Train of Clues" (a mystery destination story, predecessor to the 50-state series)
Where will the adventure take you next?
http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
http://jgdsseries.weebly.com

Of late I've left off the JGDS part of the signature and I've not included the two ebooks that aren't published yet in the first part, but I do try to make sure I put my website and blog so that I can hopefully gain a few more readers. I've found many a new, interesting blogs from following the comments or checking out some of the other persons' profiles from the comments. Obviously when responding to comments on my own blog, I leave the signature line off because the person who commented has already found my blog - lol.

If I'm promoting my state series, I may leave off the generic writing information and just do the JGDS info on my signature, but either way, I leave a signature with the hopes of driving traffic either to my websites or my blogs or both.

Now it's your turn to weigh in. Why do you follow blogs? Do you subscribe to follow via email? Do you get the followup comments via email? If not, why do you even leave a comment? What drives you to check out other people's blogs from comments?

Leave a comment and be entered in the drawing for a free ebook of one of my published short stories. Remember to at least leave your email addy in the comment so that I can contact you if you have won. I will run this until the end of December (December 30th) with the random drawing to be done on December 31st. If more than 25 persons comment, I will do two drawings - your choice of one of the ebook published short stories (by the end of December the other two should be published unless Bride-and-Seek wins the contest it is currently in). See you all in the postings - E :)

The Chick Friends Rules - Freshman Year by Vici Howard

2011-12-14T02:33:00.000-05:00

The Chick Friends Rules - Freshman Year by Vici Howard

Stop by and find out about this new series by another blogger friend of mine, Vici Howard. Enter for a chance to win a copy on the website - See you all in the postings - E :)

A Holiday Gift from Writers on the Move

2011-12-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

As our appreciation gift to our readers and followers and those who are just now finding Writers on the Move, we have put together a holiday gift ebook for you. The contributers to the Writers on the Move blog have collected some writing and marketing tips to present to you in this ebook. We really do appreciate your continued support and we hope you will follow us in the new year. If you would like more on what the group has to offer, you can stop by the Writers on the Move blog and follow the postings via email. Please also check back often for new workshops/webinars that we will be presenting. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. May all your wishes come true.

The Tulip Kiss is up

2011-12-13T06:00:00.002-05:00

I shared the cover with you all last week. I've posted the story on Kindle and Smashwords with the Nook version to come as soon as I have the cover sized for the Nook (apparently has to be different pixels compared to the smashwords and kindle version. It is only 99 cents.

Don't forget to stop by my kindlegraph page and request your free kindlegraph. E :)

CHRISTMAS SALE - one week only!

2011-12-12T06:00:00.003-05:00

My Christmas present to all my faithful followers and readers is that for the week starting December 17 and ending December 24, Finally Home will be half price for Kindle and Nook readers (regularly priced at $3.99, now $1.99). Ebook copies can be e-signed via kindlegraph. Merry Christmas and enjoy.

For print copies of "Finally Home", through email orders (eeldering at gmail dot com) only, copies will be priced at $10 and that will include shipping, this is a $3 savings plus the cost of shipping saved. Print copies will be autographed and sent anywhere in the United States. Merry Christmas and hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday season. - E :)

Writers On The Move: Revision – What Works for Me

2011-12-08T11:40:00.000-05:00

Writers On The Move: Revision – What Works for Me: Whoever said revision is what makes your book is, in my view, correct. I like to write the book quickly. I do plan the plot first, but I ...

I posted a revision posting last month - so come check out the differences between the two writers - E :)

Writers On The Move: To Splice or Not to Splice

2011-12-08T10:53:00.000-05:00

Writers On The Move: To Splice or Not to Splice: I recently edited a manuscript that was rife with sentences combined with the word “then.” Like this one: She pulled the lever, allowing the...

This is great advice, especiallys for teachers teaching writing to students. In Mr. Hughes' class, we basically tell the students not to use the word "then" because their story tends to become a grocery list of events instead of showing the reader what the story is really about - hope you stop by and leave Heidi a comment - E :)

Writers On The Move: Find your passion.

2011-12-07T13:38:00.000-05:00

Writers On The Move: Find your passion.: It seems that, as humans, we can’t help but compare ourselves to others. His plots are so well constructed Her character development i...

Stop by for a few words of encouragement and leave a comment - happy posting - E ;)

Writers On The Move: Is your Novel Attractive to Reading Groups/Clubs?

2011-12-05T01:58:00.000-05:00

Writers On The Move: Is your Novel Attractive to Reading Groups/Clubs?: There are as many types of book clubs as there are people to belong to them. When setting up a book club, one should keep in mind one's tar...

This has me now thinking about book clubs for my newest release, Finally Home. What do you all think about this? Leave a comment - E :)

The Tulip Kiss - new cover

2011-12-04T16:08:00.002-05:00

Some of you may remember when this story was first published as it was the first place winner in Echelon Press's Fast and Frigid contest in January of 2007 as an ebook only. Since the story was unpublished about June of 2007, I've just been letting it sit for a bit, not really thinking of republishing myself. These past few months, I took on revisions/rewrites of Finally Home and decided it was time to put out a few of my old stories as well (hopefully boosting sales for all my stories out there). I've already republished "The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story) as an ebook and now with a new cover for "The Tulip Kiss" will be putting this out in the next few days.

Below are the two covers of "The Tulip Kiss" for comparison (the new cover first, the previously published cover which was done by Karen at Echelon Press) and the cover for "The Proposal". All my covers done from June of 2010 through the present (to include State of Wilderness (the reprint version), State of Successes, State of Heights, State of Nature, "Train of Clues", State of Acceleration (to be published the first part of 2012), Finally Home, "The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), and "The Tulip Kiss") are by Heather C. Paye and her work can be found here. Check her out if you are in need of a cover or any type of graphic design work. She is young and aspires to one day work for Disney/Pixar and with her talents and the portfolio she is building I believe she will end up with them. I can't say enough good things about Heather's work because she is such a wonderful young lady to work with that words can't do everything she does justice. I will let my covers speak for themselves.

The Tulip Kiss - 2011 version

The Tulip Kiss - 2007 version

The Proposal - released 2011 as an ebook - available on kindle, nook and smashwords

For the State of ... covers, please visit the JGDS website and click the "books in the series" tab.

Be on the lookout for a special sale the week before Christmas; details will be posted next week. E :)

Finally Home review

2011-12-04T13:30:00.000-05:00

My first review for Finally Home - check it out here. Thank you Ms. Faye for the great review. Anyone else who has done a review and would like me to share, please let me know. Thanks - E :)

Finally Home - 1 week stats

2011-12-02T14:51:00.000-05:00

Finally Home was officially released last Thursday (Thanksgiving day) morning as both a print and ebook. It is available on smashwords, kindle and nook as well as on amazon.com and createspace in print. As of 12/01/2011 the following stats are what I've seen: Smashwords' views = 24, sales = 0; Nook views = ?, sales = 2; ranking = 247,000 (not exact but I don't remember what the number was); kindle views = ?, sales = 0; no ranking on amazon as I've not had any sales and no sales from any source showing on my createspace account. This is disheartening to say the least since I've been posting for quite a while now that Finally Home would be released soon and I've spent the last two months (maybe a few more than that) talking about this book.

So I'm thinking I need to follow suit with Sybil Nelson (aka Leslie Dubois, author of YA novels with a dark edge to them), Author of the Priscilla the Great series, in her posting from either 11/30 or 12/01 and that is "take the McDonald's approach" to marketing. Sybil states in her posting (you can view the full article here), and I'm paraphrasing here, that everywhere you go you can see McDonald's ads, billboards or even McDonald's themselves. So why not as an author take the same approach? Obviously McDonald's is a billion or trillion dollar company and can afford to place ads everywhere (and those 30-second spots aren't cheap nor are the billboard placements) to make sure their name is out there, so some of the marketing approach for authors wouldn't be cost-effective or even feesible since we are in general poor and need other jobs to supplement our writing, but why not do some marketing that gets your name out there.

It isn't enough to just blog every once in a while or update a website every once in a while but we as authors have to stay in the limelight so to speak; we need to place "ads" everywhere to get known.

Within the next 2 weeks or so, I will be re-releasing three more stories that have been previously published and have placed in various contests, winning small monetary awards and other prizes. I've decided that after the first of the year, once I can get back on track with my state series (for more on the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog or the JGDS website) that I'm going to do a major marketing campaign.

I've done a few Skype visits with classes other than Mr. Hughes' to help with some writing aspects (one in Indiana for the Lunchtime Writers' Club and one in Washington state during NaNoWriMo) but that isn't enough. Hopefully, my marketing campaign will help some other writers as well.

I need to start seeing my books taking a turn because my job is getting frustrating and I would love to start traveling to all the states within the next couple of years or so (before I get too old to really enjoy the travels). I had set a goal to have my state stories supporting me by 2013 but that doesn't look like it is going to happen. I may have to move that goal to 2015 and by then I should have at least half of the states published along with my five other stories, oops - six (forgot about a children's story I will probably ebook publish too).

I'd like to know what some other authors out there are doing marketing wise. I also would like to see half the followings of some of my fellow authors (I still only have less than 100 folks following this blog with only a handful, less than a dozen, actually subscribing to receive the blog notices in their emails. I have half the number of followers on my JGDS site as I do on this site, which means I'm not reaching the audiences like I need to, so any suggestions from my fellow friends and authors on how to reach more people would be greatly appreciated.

I follow over 1000 blogs but don't read all of them on a daily basis and I comment on blogs that I've signed up for the email postings a good bit of time; I leave my links in my signatures on most places (some of them won't accept the comment with hyperlinks so I have to just hope that folks are stopping by my websites on those blogs) and yet I hardly see any traffic on my blogs or websites. I wonder how many of those 1000 blogs I follow actually take time to read their comments and respond back to the commenters or even check out the blogs or websites of the persons who leave comments on their blogs. I wonder how many folks who comment on blogs take the time to actually look at other commenters' blogs and websites. The answer is probably less than a dozen or so.

Vici Howard is running her 1-year marketing plan here. Of course, you can always follow Sybil's postings here. If you know of any other authors who have a marketing campaign going on and would like to share, please leave a comment with the link to that person's blog or website.

I definitely would love to hear from you all and hope you will spread the word to your friends. Let them know about some upcoming authors who are trying to get their name out there. E :)

Finally Home released

2011-11-24T12:28:00.000-05:00

Finally Home is now availsble in all formats. Please visit my website to order a copy or you can get your ebook copy on kindle, nook and smashwords. If you order a copy from any place other than directly from me and would like it "signed" and a personal message added, you can request a kindlegraph here.

Those of you who have preordered a copy, you should have yours by the end of next week - see you in the postings - E :)

Kindlegraph (again)

2011-11-23T16:26:00.001-05:00

For all you published authors out there, I'd like you to consider putting your books on kindlegraph. You do not need to have your books as ebooks nor do you have to have a kindle to use the service. It is free to everyone. It is a great way to connect authors to their readers. What you will need is a twitter account and either your AISN (this is amazon's own number, which is a 10-digit amazon assigned number) or the 10-digit ISBN and a valid email address. If you aren't already listed there, I encourage you all to put your books there and start signing your kindlegraphs to your readers.

Readers don't need a kindle either as they can have their kindlegraphs sent directly to a valid email address. The kindlegraphs are PDFs that come in with the cover of the book requested plus a personalized message and a signature from the author. You can print these files out and place in your print copy or you can have them sent to your kindle and start a collection of your kindlegraphs.

So far, of the 13 copies of "The Proposal" I've sold only one request for a kindlegraph has come in. If anyone purchased a copy (either when it was offered as a freebie through smashwords or on kindle (2 copies sold here) or nook (one copy sold here)) and would like a "signed" file for their purchase, they can still request the kindlegraph as the books won't be taken off unless of course I unpublish them). "The Proposal (an April Fools Day story)" is available for all ereaders for the low price of only 99 cents. All my state books are listed on kindlegraph even though they are not available as ebooks. Check out my personal author site here.

Check out kindlegraph and see what authors you may know on there (over 2500 authors listed right now). Get your books signed without having purchased directly from the author - come join us today - and get personalized and e-signed books today - E :)

---------------
You may find Elysabeth's books at her website.

BOOKS AVAILABLE or COMING SOON:
Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy ebook (coming soon)
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook (coming soon)
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook (coming soon)

For more on the 50-state, mystery series, you can check out the books here.

Skype visit for NaNoWriMo

2011-11-17T14:00:00.000-05:00

Today, I had a Skype visit with some 5th and 6th graders in Washington State. They are all writing stories for NaNo and I got to share my experiences as being a published author and how Finally Home came about from a NaNo writing challenge (although it was started the middle of November and ended the middle of December, it was written in 30 days and accomplished the goal of 56,000 words). As the challenge is to write your stories in November, I didn't get recognized with a "winner's certificate" from NaNo but I got the satisfaction of writing something over 10,000 words story wise. I'm not sure I have any more novels in me but I'm thankful for the one I do have and to get it out.

I was told that after the visit, the students wrote like crazy on their stories and one student actually exceeded his 3000 word goal, so yay!! - I inspired them to write and to meet and exceed their own personal goals.

Thank you, Mrs. N, for allowing me to be a part of your NaNo class time - see you in the postings - E :)

Rewriting completed manuscripts, a good idea or not?

2011-11-12T00:37:00.000-05:00

Check out my posting on the Writers on the Move blog about whether or not rewriting a completed manuscript is a good idea. Did I make the right move? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Don't forget order your copy of Finally Home and receive a free crocheted bookworm bookmark in your choice of autumn, Christmas, primary, spring, summer or winter colors (all are varigated colors representing the seasons except for the primary colored ones - I just happened to like it and so decided to add it to the mix of seasons). Orders can be placed directly on my website and copies are only $15 which includes shipping. If you plan to give a signed copy as a gift, now is the time to order your copy so that you have it in time to put under the tree. See you all in the postings - E :)

It's here!

2011-11-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

Finally Home proof copy is here. If you would like a copy for a Christmas present, now is the time to order. Once I go through the book, I will be releasing it to the public, and since I will be out of town a good bit next week (from Wednesday through Sunday, but not all in the same place - lol), I will be placing an order early Friday morning (from all the orders received between now and Friday morning) to ensure I have copies of books on hand for the Savannah's Children's book festival next weekend and to send out to all who have placed their order early. If you do not place your order with me (send me an email - eeldering@gmail.com with Finally Home order in the subject line) by mid morning Friday, your copy may not get to you in time for Christmas since I will have to place the order for copies after Thanksgiving, but it is possible that your copy could be received in time for Christmas. Usually I need a 2-1/2 to 3-week lead to order books, get them, sign them and place back in the mail. All orders placed between now and Friday will also receive a free bookworm bookmark in your choice of autumn, Christmas, primary, spring, summer or winter (one per book ordered, so if you ordered 6 copies, you could request one of each color - lol). Please indicate which one you would like when placing your order and also remember to tell me to whom to make the book.

Copies are $13 plus $2 for shipping per copy for the first 2 copies; 3 or 4 copies shipping is $5; and over 4 copies shipping will be $10. If you want to order from my website, you can check out the book page here and place an order that way. Email and website orders are direct from me and will be sent from me. If you do not want to email me but order directly through paypal, you just need to use my email addy as my paypal addy. If you want to order from amazon.com, check back the first of next week to place your order. Remember if you order a copy from any place other than a direct order and you want it "signed", you will need to go to kindlegraph and request your personalized note. You do not need a kindle to request a kindlegraph; these can be sent to any valid email addy (they come in as a PDF).

For advanced praises on Finally Home, stop over at Ms. Faye Tollison's site and check out her September postings. See you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home preorders

2011-11-08T08:28:00.000-05:00

Preorders for Finally Home are being taken now. Any order between now and Friday of this week will receive a free bookworm bookmark. Orders may be made from the website or directly through paypal (eeldering@gmail.com). Please indicate to whom to make the books to and which bookworm you would like - autumn, Christmas, primary, spring, summer or winter.

Here are the bookworms for color identification:

See you all in the postings - E :)

Daylight Savings Time explained

2011-11-07T18:05:00.000-05:00

This was a pretty interesting video explaining daylight savings time, why some countries observe it and why others don't - one of my friends on plurk shared it with us - I hope you all enjoy - E :)

Finally Home proof copy ordered

2011-11-07T01:28:00.000-05:00

So money is in the bank right at 1 AM. I jumped on createspace and have ordered the proof copy for Finally Home and the republishing proof of Train of Clues. I also ordered 3 more copies of each of the state stories that are published since I have two events next week, back to back. The hope is that I will have my proof copies by Wednesday or Thursday of this week and will be able to release Finally Home officially Friday and order a few copies to have on hand for the Savannah Children's Book Festival the weekend of the 19th. That will be my official launch date if all goes well.

I am getting my new van today - and I can't wait. After that I have tons of errands to run and then come home to work and be available for the class visit with Mr. Hughes' class. See you all in the postings - E :)

SinC went to the dogs

2011-11-05T16:54:00.000-04:00

Our upstate SC Sisters in Crime meeting went to the dogs on Thursday evening. We had two K-9 officers and their dogs, Nemo and Nero, come visit us and demonstrate how the dogs are trained to attack and seek out drugs. Nero is a German Shepherd and Nemo is a Dutch Shepherd. I'd never seen a Dutch Shepherd before but that is one beautiful dog. Nero did his job and then wanted to play with his toy and wanted someone to play with him but we were all too fascinated to play. Nemo was brought in and found the two hidden bags of drugs - one in the electrical box and one in under a metal container (like an empty propane container). The drug dogs are trained for 600 hours - that is a 6-month training at 10 hours a day - for their respective purposes whether it be drug searching, bomb searching, scents or whatever. Shepherds make the best dog for attack dogs because of the way their snout is made - long and narrow. When they clamp down on a bad guy, they hold strong until the handler commands them to release. The "bites" are not what causes the damage since they are basically immobilizing a person when they clamp down on your arms or legs or whatever body part they do (necks, face and groins are off limits); it's the person trying to pull away from the animal that causes the damage. So, be warned if you are committing a crime and a dog is put on you to attack, don't fight it; you will receive less damage to your physical being than if you fight it.

The information was very good and if I were writing stories for adults (oh wait, I have three stories for adults, one is now available as an ebook - The Proposal; and two more are coming soon - lol) I probably would use some of the information we get from our meetings. I love our local SinC group for the variety of guest speakers brought in to provide the true mystery writers such great information. We have had everyone from lawyers to FBI agents, arson inspectors to forensic psychologists, weapons experts and other mystery authors come to speak since I've been a member (about the last 4 years or so).

I encourage anyone in the upper state of South Carolina or even North Carolina who either writes mysteries or loves reading mysteries to visit our group which meets the first Thursday of the month at the Runway Cafe in Greenville, SC. Meetings start at 6:15 (with dinner being served starting about 6:30) and our guest speakers starting about 7 pm. See you all in the postings and maybe at one of our meetings - E :)

Gifts for the Holidays

2011-11-03T06:00:00.015-04:00

Are you at a loss of what to give that someone special in your life? Do you need some ideas? Here are few from my friend, Batya, and her websites to include soul mates, gifts, sayings, and indoor gardening.

Something everyone uses - Calendars.

Soul mate calendar

Indoor Gardening

BatyaSez calendar

If you would like something a bit out of the ordinary and don't want to give a calendar, how about checking out her store.

For unique and well-chosen gifts for all occasions, her Best Meaningful Gift page is the place to be.

Of course, we all know that books from indie authors also make great gifts for the readers in your life.

If you like a little romantic suspense, my friend Faye Tollison has her first story, To Tell The Truth, available here.

My illustrator, Heather, also has a book available and is working on publishing more books.

The Writers on the Move group has just published a holiday list on the blog of what's available from indie authors. Please check out what is out there.

There are many of my friends who have books available but they are too numerous to list here, so if you have friends who like to read, try finding out who their favorite author(s) is(are) and think about gifting them with a book.

My books are available through Amazon or can be ordered directly from me. Check out both my state series and my other books. I also have some bookworms on my state series website under the Gifts tab. Remember if you order any book, not just ebooks, from any source other than a direct sale from me and would like them personalized and signed, please visit my kindlegraph page and make your request. I love personalizing my books as that is part of the fun of being an author. Hope you enjoy this short list of gift giving ideas for the special people in your life. E :)

Finally Home revisions completed!

2011-10-29T19:27:00.000-04:00

I put the final touches on Finally Home tonight. The manuscript has been sent to Heather for her magic touches and hopefully next weekend I'll be able to upload to Nook, Smashwords, and Kindle so it will be available as a download first. Hopefully the print version will be shortly thereafter. I will order the proof copy on the 7th of November and should have that by the end of the week so that I can sign off and say that Finally Home is published.

Don't forget once it is published, you can request an e-signature/personalized message (kindlegraph) here. You don't have to have a kindle to receive a kindlegraph but you do need a twitter account to log in to kindlegraph and start requesting them. A valid email addy will get the file sent to you as PDF.

For more stories and what's coming, visit my website. See you all in the postings - E :)

kindlegraph and The Proposal

2011-10-27T10:36:00.000-04:00

As of this morning, I've had 12 downloads of the Proposal (that is including the sample downloads too) with 7 copies "sold" with the free coupon and no requests for a kindlegraph. I have also sold one copy on amazon's kindle since posting the story Monday. If you would like a free e-signature and personalized message from me, please don't forget to go here and make a request for your kindlegraph. You do not need a kindle to request a kindlegraph, just a valid email addy where the PDF file will be sent. You do need to have a twitter account to sign in and request your kindlegraphs but other than that, everything is free. Look around at the over 2000 authors already there; who knows? you may find an author you have been reading and have wanted a personalized copy of their book. I would love to sign kindlegraphs for all my followers who have downloaded my story. I also will be posting my other stories as soon as I have covers for them. I hope all of you who have downloaded the story have enjoyed it. Please let me know by leaving a comment here or on smashwords or amazon - thanks - E :)

Finally Home is in the final stages of revisions and should definitely be to Heather this weekend for her magic - stay tuned for more on that - see you all in the postings - E :)

The Proposal on Kindle and Smashwords

2011-10-23T16:57:00.001-04:00

I have posted my short story, The Proposal, on kindle for the low price of only 99 cents. It will be coming to smashwords soon. Hope you all will stop by and download a copy and enjoy an April Fools Day humorous romance story.

UPDATE (10/24/2011): The Proposal is now up on Smashwords and I'm giving away copies for free - all you need is the coupon code here and you can download the story to any reading device you have - Link to book: The Proposal; Your coupon code is EY62X (not case sensitive). Since putting up late yesterday afternoon, I've had two persons get the download and I thank you both. Hope you all enjoy it.

For your free e-signature and personalized message, please visit my kindlegraph page and make a request. You only need a twitter account to sign up for kindlegraphs and you can request from over 2000 authors right now with more being added daily/weekly.

Three other stories will be added in the coming weeks, all for 99 cents, except I'm sure I'll submit one of them as a freebie for 2 weeks and then will revert it back to 99 cents. I'll probably run a few contests in the upcoming weeks for prizes. Stay tuned - E :)

Sugarfoot Festival/signage/book covers

2011-10-22T23:53:00.000-04:00

The Sugarfoot festival, which used to be called the Honey Soppin' Festival, was held this weekend. I decided next year if I do the festival (which I probably will) that I'm going to ask for a spot in the center of the street and I'll set my tent up differently and will hope for more business.

I have a screen tent instead of just a canopy like most vendors/exhibitors do and had closed the back side off which was the sidewalk (I didn't want to have someone come sneaking up behind me when I was in the tent alone). It was cold as Octobers in South Carolina go and windy. I had my tent almost blow over, but thanks to man two spots down from me who happened to have some weights that he connected to my back zipper part which held the tent quite well in place.

Before arriving to my tent this morning, I had to go to the store and pick up a few things, then to the post office and then back to the store because I left my packing tape at home and then to the tent. Hailie had been there almost an hour before I got there. My new banners were at the post office this morning and they look awesome. I did order a stand yesterday so that should be here before my next event. I didn't put the dots/Finally Home banner out because I haven't published the book yet, but did put my new JGDS banner up - albeit without using the foam board I have my other banner on right now. I have a feeling at some point in the future I'm going to have to order another stand so I can have both signs up for all my books and displays.

Here are a few photographs of the table with the two new book covers and Hailie's bows and a few other things. Benjamin is also in one picture as he was arranging some things for me.

These are from Friday's night setup - no sales and very cold, windy evening - I hope that Savannah, which is coming up in about a month, won't be as cold or windy as this weekend.

These are from Saturday's setup and as you can see I added my two new covers I printed out and laminated to put on the table and I shifted things around, actually Hailie shifted things around to put her bows and stuff on the end I had originally put my afghan but it all worked out well and looked good once I finally got to the point of setting up

The Proposal cover

2011-10-21T21:34:00.000-04:00

Heather has done it again. The cover for The proposal is right on target - The Proposal is an April Fool's Day marriage proposal with many of practical jokes proposed as well. This is a 3rd place winning story for a contest Armchair Interviews ran a few years ago. So, what do you think? - The perfect cover for the perfect fun story - E :)

Finally Home revisions

2011-10-18T08:08:00.000-04:00

Revisions are tedious and time consuming, especially when you need to mull over rewriting complete chapters. I've finally figured out what to do with the two chapters I need to rewrite to get the house back in the spotlight. After completing work and before TV time, there will be a couple of hours of revisions and a final read through so that I can get the story to Heather for her magic. Finally Home should be at least epub'd the beginning of next week but no later than the end of the week; the goal being to have it published in some format before Halloween and then hopefully in print format by the first part of November. I will keep you all posted - thanks for sticking by me and anxiously awaiting new stories. - E :)

Bookmark for Finally Home

2011-10-16T00:54:00.000-04:00

After being offline for over 3 days, I got in touch with my wonderful illustrator yesterday (really late last night) and asked her if she could do a bookmark so that I could print out a few for an event next weekend and this is what she came up with - the wording on the back is the back cover blurb for Finally Home. I hope to at least have it epublished this weekend and print published shortly thereafter - at least by the first part of November. Let me know what you think of the bookmark.

Heather does such a wonderful job and she did my bookmark up in under 30 minutes. Then there were a few adjustments to be made (size wise) but when I saw it I knew this was perfect - simple yet says everything it needs to say. As soon as I epub the story, it will be linked on my website so you will know where to find it. Remember if you order any book from online or my website or through amazon, you may go here to request a kindlegraph for an esignature and short, personalized note.

There will be a virtual launch party and of course some prizes and giveaways when the book is print published - so stay tuned for that - E :)

Happenings for October/November

2011-10-09T20:18:00.000-04:00

During the next 4 to 6 weeks, there will be a lot occurring for both the JGDS series (see that blog) as well as for my other stories.

I will be participating in a sort of blog tour several times in October and November, hosting authors from the Honey Bee Authors blog as well as have some postings about my upcoming releases there; Geography Awareness week, the Sugarfoot festival (where I hope to announce that Finally Home is in proof copy order status), the SCISA teachers' conference in Columbia, SC; GIS Day in Charlotte, NC; the Savannah Children's book festival in Savannah, GA; and of course the release of four other short stories that had been previously published as ebooks. This is exciting because it means Heather will have four more covers for my stories in that time and I will be getting my name out there more and more.

I am still participating in the Writers on the Move monthly blog postings and this month's article is on revising/revisions (keeping in theme with my almost completed revisions of Finally Home. Check out that article on Wednesday on the Writers on the Move blog. Hopefully you all will gain some insight into the revision process.

Next month's posting will be tied in to Geography Awareness week which is November 13 through the 19.

Revisions are almost completed on Finally Home and I hope to have to Heather this weekend for formatting for both print and ebook. I hope to at least get the story ebook published by the 21st of October and print published shortly after that (at least proof copy ordered by then so that I can release it right before Halloween, since it is set around that time). I am trying to come up with a contest for the release of Finally Home to tie it in to Halloween, but am at a loss right now. I will continue working on a contest and make that announcement as soon as I can. Please just keep checking back to see what is going on with Finally Home and release contest. Spook you all in the postings - E :)

Upstate SC chapter of Sisters in Crime Celebrates 25 years

2011-10-06T10:42:00.000-04:00

Sisters in Crime (SinC) is 25 years young this year. The Upstate SC chapter is having a celebration on October 16 with panel discussions, refreshments, book signings, and prizes. For more details, please check out the Upstate SC SinC blog. We would love to see you there. E :)

Banners

2011-10-04T10:08:00.000-04:00

Vistaprint is running a freebie ad again (these come in my email about every other day - lol) and I was thinking last night I needed a banner for events now that I have some new/republished stories coming out. This is the design I came up with using their template, but I'm not really sure this is the one I'm going with. I tried keeping it fun and light even though I'm featuring my other stories and not just Finally Home. I'd love to hear from my readers as to what you think of my new banner. I'll be placing the order Friday morning so please comment by Thursday night.

I had originally designed this one but when I went to bed last night, the wheels wouldn't stop turning about adding other stories I'm about to republish so had to come up with the second one. After designing the plain one I'm definitely leaning more towards the dots. Let me know what you think.

(This one is no longer in my portfolio but could easily be added again if you all like this one - but then again, this just has Finally Home and the JGDS series featured on it, so probably not a good idea since I have one specifically for the JGDS series.)

For banners related to the JGDS series, please visit my JGDS blog and vote on your favorite banner. See you all in the postings - E :)

Revisions

2011-10-01T17:46:00.001-04:00

Today I promised myself I would sit at my desk sans distractions and just revise until the end of the day. I started late - waking up after 11 AM, showering and doing the distraction things first (email, plurk, et cetera) and then started revising. Of my friends who sent comments back on Finally Home only one was a fully commented return but those comments are expansive. The other two were Chapters 1 & 2 and Chapters 1-3, respectively.

It looks like I am going to have to push back my publication date to November, about Thanksgiving time. These revisions should have been done months ago for me to have a publication date this month, but alas, I've been putting it off. The writing is okay but it needs punching up (needs to be stronger in places, more action, development of the characters a bit).

So are the revisions going like I planned? No. I need someone to read through Chapters 4 through 16 to comment and markup the ms so that I can finish the revisions. Anyone out there who would like to read an almost 200 page manuscript and make comments to help me revise? Drop me an email at eeldering at gmail dot com and let me know if you have time to read and make comments (not just things like changing a word or adding or deleting but things like intense comments - needs some action here, needs to be reworded, that type of thing) so that I can finish the revisions. Thanks to all of you out there who read my blog and who are willing to help. - E :)

UPDATE (Sunday, 10/02/2011): I found a copy of a friend's comments (from when I first thought I'd submit the story and get it published with a traditionally publisher) that I'm going to use for my revisions. I feel this will at least get me to the point of almost having a final draft. Lana is pretty right on with her comments - so going to revise some tonight and hopefully will finish this tomorrow between work that is left in my pool tonight and work that comes in tomorrow afternoon. Hoping by end of week to be announcing that Finally Home is revision completed - lol - see you in the postings - E :)

amazon's new tablet - the Kindle Fire

2011-09-28T12:05:00.000-04:00

Amazon announced several new releases this morning, including its newestipad competition - the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is priced at an incredible price of only $199; 2/5 the cost of an iPad and about $50 less than the Nook Color. The other three devices announced are revisions of the Kindle ereader to include the basic Kindle ereader, non-touch screen for $79 (this is the version that has the ads, has wi-fi but not 3G capability) and then your two touch screen versions for $99 (wi-fi but not 3G, has ads/special deals) and $149 (3g+wi-fi, ads/special deals version). This is really great news all around for those of you thinking of buying an ereader or a tablet. You now have several options which are in the more reasonable price range.

I will need to upgrade my phone and am leaning toward the new release from Android/Straighttalk (my carrier for phone service) but am going to check out a couple of other phones on the site before making my decision - I need to hopefully find something that will be capable with my Square so that I can start taking credit cards at events, especially since I have a couple of huge events coming up in November. I will keep you all posted on what I do end up going with and when I order my Kindle Fire - E ;)

Republishing short stories

2011-09-28T06:00:00.003-04:00

So the other day while I was emailing Heather some information, I got the idea to republish all my previous stories as ebooks. I'm waiting to hear from Heather to see if she can do up some covers for four of my previously published stories so I can get them out there and have a poster, or several posters really, done up before the end of October using the coupon I have for Walmart for a free poster (I believe they measure 16 x 22). I am totally stoked about getting more stories out there.

Stay tuned for more info about The Tulip Kiss (romantic paranormal), Butterfly Halves (a children's fantasy story), The Proposal (an April Fool's Day humorous romance) and Bride-and-Seek (a past lives romance). Maybe I'll have covers for these four stories in October - E :)

Finally Home cover

2011-09-25T00:36:00.000-04:00

I have a cover for Finally Home - my YA paranormal mystery - let me know what you think - I think it's just right - the back cover will have the mirror with grandma's reflection and it's the perfect mirror - Thank you, Heather, for such a great job -

So without further ado - here is the cover:

What do you think? Leave a comment - E :)

WOTM workshop after package

2011-09-21T10:55:00.000-04:00

For those of you who didn't have a chance to register for the "self-publishing using createspace" workshop that Nancy Famolari and I copresented last Friday, the handout and transcript are now available here. There are several other packages from previous workshops available as well and you never know when something will be a right fit for your needs. See you all in the postings - E :)

Writers On The Move: We're Looking for New Members!

2011-09-21T10:50:00.000-04:00

Writers On The Move: We're Looking for New Members!: Writers on the Move has under-gone a number of changes over the last several months and now we seem to have a very effective marketing grou...

One Day of Peace (Global Truce Day 2012)

2011-09-21T00:01:00.001-04:00

I just watched a fascinating video by actor Jeremy Gilley that had been posted on my Plurk network about an idea for global peace day - one day of no fighting, no violence, living in harmony and I am totally in support of this - the day is September 21 - the goal is to have 2012 the Global Truce Day - so the whole world has a cease fire and experiences peace. What a novel idea - to have peace throughout the world, if even for one day.

I encourage all my readers to check it out and support One Day of Peace and who knows, maybe we can change the world one day at a time but in the long run, we will have made a difference.

Come visit me at WOTM

2011-09-12T10:43:00.000-04:00

I've posted an article about self-publishing on the Writers on the Move blog. Stop by and leave a comment.

Don't forget this Friday is the free workshop that I'm copresenting with Nancy Famolari about self-publishing using createspace. If interested, please register by sending an email to eeldering at gmail dot com with the subject "Createspace Workshop" so that I can put you on the email to receive the instructions and handout. See you all in the postings - E :)

9-11 Remembering

2011-09-11T12:11:00.000-04:00

Since I went to bed at 5 PM yesterday and got up about 1:30 AM this morning, I've had a very somber feeling. I turned on the TV between 4 and 5 AM and nothing was really on any of the channels I have marked in my favorites listing. I turned off the TV. Read emails, plurked, and just kind of didn't do anything on the computer work-related or writing-related. Turned the TV back on about 7:10 and watched the movie - Flight 93 - about the plane that was thwarted from hitting its target, probably the White House or some other place of importance on this tragic day. Right after that was "102 minutes that Changed America". The images captured and put together for that documentary of what occurred between 8:46 AM and 10:28 AM, Tuesday, September 11, 2001, are so tragic, devastating and even more unbelievable now than they were ten years ago.

I was working at home at the time, so had no TV or radio on. I was very oblivious to what was going on outside our house in another part of the country. My mother called me about probably between 10:30 and noon to ask if I had seen what was happening. I got very little information and trned the TV on to see the horrific pictures being shown on almost every channel. Those images weren't as real to me as watching the show today because they were so far away (in my mind, it was surreal and couldn't be happening). The show today was up close and personal taken from personal videos/phones recording the images/and folks who were as close to it as they could get, and they truly were devastating.

We will never forget where we were and what we were doing when the news came about the plane hijackings and the three buildings hit - WTC1 and 2 and the Pentagon, nor will we ever forget those brave folks who stood up to the hijackers of Flight 93.

What were you doing when you heard the news about the planes flying into the towers?

Writers on the Move free workshop

2011-09-02T13:27:00.000-04:00

On Friday, September 16, Nancy and I will be copresenting a workshop on self-publishing through createspace - looking at the different ways to go about using this free service. But is it really free? For info on registering for the workshop, check out the Writers on the Move blog.

Hope to see you all in the workshop. We will be using everywherechat again for the workshop. Registration confirmation email will include instructions on how to access the workshop. E :)

Great Sisters in Crime meeting with a new connection

2011-09-02T00:08:00.000-04:00

Tonight we had a 70-year-old judge come speak to us. The man has stories upon stories upon stories and we probably could have sat there all night listening to him.

One of our member's daughter was there as a guest, who actually is the judge's neighbor and whose husband is an attorney who has spoken to our group before. I've not met her or don't remember meeting her at the meeting her husband was the guest speaker. She is a math teacher at one of the high schools in our area (I don't have the details in my mind clearly). While we were going around introducing ourselves and what we write or read (not all our members are writers but that's okay - we need the readers too), I made the announcement that Finally Home would probably be published in the next month or so (at least by the end part of October so I will be prepared for the three events in November with a new story) and she was like, "I'd like to talk to you after the meeting." Apparently some students under the guidance of the English teacher at her school have started a paranormal club and they are looking for some guidance about paranormal stories, et cetera. The story is that the high school is haunted and so they are going to do some after school activities as well as plan to sleep in the school one night with the lights all off so they can explore whether the school is haunted or not. I'd love to be a part of that since I believe in haunted places and Finally Home is sort of a haunted house story. I gave her my contact information and she is going to pass it on to the English teacher, so who knows, I may be speaking to high schoolers at one of their after school activities - Like I said before - you never know when the right connection is going to come along. Thank you, Barbara, for having your daughter come to the meeting tonight

I'm anxiously awaiting the cover choices from Heather for Finally Home. If nothing else happens this long weekend, I will more than likely be buckling down and revising/editing the ms so to get it fixed up and back to editor for a once over to get to Heather but only after I have a confirmed cover for the book. So come on, Heather, hurry up and show me a cover. Yeah, I know she is busy with school and all but I've been waiting now for several weeks and with this being a long weekend, I'm pretty confident she should have time to finish it up and get to me. See you all in the postings - E :)

Earthquake in eastern part of US

2011-08-23T17:24:00.000-04:00

We've been watching and tracking Hurricane Irene since it is expected to hit either SC or NC coastline this weekend. What we weren't expecting was an earthquake. It looks to have originated just north of Richmond, Virginia, but quakes were felt all the way up and down the eastern seaboard from Norcross, Georgia, to about 2 hours north of Toronto, Canada. Here in my small town, the librarian said she felt it, the post office which is almost right next door to the library did not feel it and several people reported feeling it in different parts of the town. Neither Hailie nor myself felt it on our property. Students at Anderson University felt it while in their rooms. The fault line is widespread as reports from another town in South Carolina (Spartanburg) have reported feeling it and folks all over North Carolina (mostly around the Charlotte area northward) have felt it. From looking at a map showing reported "feels" of the quake - it runs from Georgia to New York, Ohio to New Jersey and every point between upper state South Carolina to Pennsylvania. I understood when it occurred in or around Richmond, Virginia this afternoon that they evacuated the Pentagon and the nuclear plant shut itself down. This is a good thing but we have a plant in South Carolina that isn't too far from where I live and we hadn't heard whether they shut down automatically or if any quakes were even felt in that area.

Pray that Irene doesn't hit land by the weekend and turns to go back out to sea. Cooler weather I'm all for but you see Ma America and the JGDS have an event outside of Charlotte Sunday and if Irene hits between Myrtle Beach and Outer Banks then Charlotte will likely get hit pretty heavy with the rain and all, which means the event possibly could be cancelled. If it hits down in the Charleston area, the Charlotte area should be okay but then again, one never can really tell with Mother Nature.

Keeping an eye out for after shocks from the earthquake as well as Irene - E :)

kindlegraph

2011-08-16T15:52:00.000-04:00

I mentioned earlier about the kindlegraph and anxiously awaiting the publication of my YA paranormal mystery so I can start doing kindlegraphs. Well, I didn't read the whole way through on the author sign up page - kindlegraphs are not just for ebooks but for all paperback and hardback and ebooks - so I've added my books and now anyone can receive an electronic signature for any title available, just pop over to my author page on the kindlegraph site and request your signature. You can have the kindlegraphs sent to your kindle even though the books are not available as ebooks or your email. They come as a PDF file with a personalized message from me and a signature. So anyone who has purchased a copy of any of my titles from other venues (not direct sales) and would like to have a signature, please request your kindlegraph. Thanks - see you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery

2011-08-14T14:33:00.000-04:00

I've not talked much about this story but I think it's time to bring it out of the closet and get it published. This is the story I wrote for NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2008, although I didn't really write it during the month of November (I started late, about the middle of November and wrote through the middle of December, so it was still in that 30-day period that I wrote over 50,000 words on a novel; Finally Home came in at about 56,000 words.). I've already done some behind the scenes things like sending it out to several readers to get some feedback, and supplying Heather with info for cover and layout (although the ms is not in final draft yet). I also sent a copy of the document to my kindle to make notes and do some basic editing as well. So far I've received one person's comments back. Jess, who helps me sometimes during the summer with events, is reading but with her starting school this coming week, I'm afraid she won't have time to finish editing it. She did verbally give me some feedback this weekend, so I hope to at least get a partial back from her so that I can use the info to edit the story. Heather is working on a cover for Finally Home as we speak, but she too will be starting college soon and so I know her time will be limited as far as being able to work on my stories and all. I'm anxiously awaiting the cover so I can share with all of you. For more info on other stories previously published or in the works, please visit my website. I will be self-publishing and the book will be available in print via amazon, createspace and directly from me, as well as an ebook through smashwords, Kindle and Nook. I'm looking for a publication date of about the middle of October so that I will have copies on hand for events in November, namely the Savannah Children's book festival.

Stay tuned for some upcoming contests and giveaways with the release of Finally Home.