Showing posts with label JGDS series update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JGDS series update. Show all posts

Friday, January 08, 2016

News, Updates and a little Excitement

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted here and haven't been a regular blogger in a while.  I have some updates for all of you.

First, my youngest son is getting married February 18 with a baby due around the end of May.  My soon to be daughter-in-law is just as sweet as she can be.  I'm excited to get to know her more.

Both my sons now officially live in Greenville which is much closer to me than when they lived in Hickory. 

My daughter lives around the corner and has just recently purchased a car and we are fighting the contract because she got scammed and bullied into taking this vehicle at $450/month payments.  What's being financed is almost 3 vehicles which is totally outrageous.

I had all the kids and significant others together for Christmas dinner the day after Christmas.  I got called grandma by the oldest son's girlfriend's 3yo son, which came as natural as you please.  My heart swelled and I felt accepted at that moment. 

On the writing agenda, there is a lot going on this year with some exciting news for my JGDS series.  For the update on that drop over here to see what's happening. 

 
 (This is my mock up attempt at cover which will be done soon by Chasity Nicole from fiverr.com).
 
The Ties of Time has been print published since the middle of December and ebook published since the first part of November and sales have been very slim on that book but hopefully once the third one in the series is out the sales will take off.  But Dark Truths will be the last in the series and my heart is still and has been with the JGDS series (as you can see from the linked posting above). 

Publications this year will include Dark Truths, the third and final in the Kelly Watson YA paranormal mystery series, Imogene: Innocence Lost, and a children's picture book, A Moose in the Shower, along with republishing several in the JGDS series. 

 
Once these projects are off the table, I'm going to concentrate on the children's state mystery series for a while and see how long before I can have all 50 books published.  Hope you all keep following me through this busy, chaotic, fun time.  See you all in the postings.  Mrs. E :)

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Time flies, yet again

Over a week has passed since the SCWW writer's conference in Myrtle Beach and I have yet to post anything about the conference nor other updates. So I figured I'd take a brief moment and get something posted. So here goes:

1) SCWW conference was a blast. Because of being able to lock the complete building where the silent auction items were held, most of my volunteer duties got taken away from me. I felt bad because I wasn't being used for what they paid for me to do (the SCWW covered the cost of the conference for me in exchange for working half the conference). I felt it was a successful conference and seemed to run pretty smoothly. We didn't have any incidents like last year (someone stalked one of the agents or authors by gaining entrance to their room and leaving a manuscript on their bed or some folks got a bit disorderly from drinking too much). The slushfests were fun and the workshops I attended were pretty cool too. Karen Petit and I shared a room and got to know each other better. In February, I will be staying with her when I attend the SC Book Festival (probably as an exhibitor this year since I've not heard about being a guest speaker or panelists or anything). I found out who is chairing the conference next year and I may have an in as a guest speaker/panelist with Karen. We can do panel discussions or workshops and share a room again - lol - it will be a lot of fun for us both (fingers crossed and will keep you all posted on that as things develop since nothing can really be done until after the first of the year).

2) State of Quarries is completed except for a few minor edits for Vivian. The teacher's guide is finished as well. State of Wilderness's teacher's guide is completed. I am using my NaNo month/goal to get ahead on the state stories. I can't wait to see the illustrations for the book and see it laid out (will keep you updated on that as well).

3) NaNo - November is National Novel Writing Month and the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. I have adjusted my goal to 20,000 words in 30 days (there is a lot of family stuff going on this month, will be in a virtual book tour and have two book signings scheduled) which will basically be (hopefully) three new state stories and the teacher's guides to go with them. I will post my "excerpts" which are my updates on where I am on my goal on my NaNo site. So if you want to see if I am on track with my self-adjusted goals and getting things accomplished, check out www.nanowrimo.org and look for elysabeth42 (you can check out my profile and click on novel info to see everything I've posted).

4) Cybil award nomination: State of Wilderness and Prairie Dog Cowboy are in the running for this award in the middle grade fiction category. Trockle has been nominated for the children's picture book fiction category. Winners will be announced in February. Nominations are made from anyone (but you have to scan through a lot of posts to see if the book you want to nominate has already been nominated as they only want one nomination per title and each person can make one nomination per category - there are 9 total) between October 1 and 15. Then the group of folks decides if all nominations are valid (checking to see when the books were published to make sure they fall into this year's timeframe) and then they have to contact all the publishers and/or authors to request review copies which are not mandatory but do help the panelists. Then after receiving all the books, they have the fun job of reading and picking a winner. So here's to the three 4RV books nominated and hopefully one will take the award or maybe two (one in each category would be nice). (I'd like them to add another category to cover books that present facts with fictional characters like my state stories do but for now, I'll have to take whatever nominations and the categories I can get.) The finalists will be listed in January with the winners announced in February - so stay tuned for more updates.

That about covers all my goings on for now - see you all in the postings - E :)

Thursday, August 07, 2008

So busy (in other words - too much to do and so little time to do it in)

A lot has happened since I last posted. Let's see - a friend of Hailie's family moved; she is also in band with Hailie and so I've been granted temporary guardianship so that she could continue in band and not mess things up for the program; Benjamin had decided at the end of the school year he wanted to play football (against my wishes that he participate in something safer) and then after band camp had started, he decided he wanted to go back into marching band. The first week of band camp was an 8 to 12 week; the girls attended Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday, Trish's throat started bleeding from her tonsillectomy (scab came off and she was bleeding not as much as she thought) I had to run up the road to take Trish to the on-call doctor for the group that had done her tonsillectomy. Cauterized the bleeding spot and sent her on her way (told her to rest, not be active in the colorguard until this week). Thursday took the girls up to practice (they had to be there after lunch for a bit) and when I picked them up, the colorguard director (if you want to call her that) came over to my car and told me to leave Trish at home (she sat and observed, did not participate) because she (the director) had her nieces and nephew and daughter up there and she was worried that Trish might be contagious and didn't want to chance her infant/toddler niece would get something (hello - Trish had her tonsils taken out and is no longer contagious; the whole reason for taking them out was to prevent her from contracting strep throat and other diseases as is. Her bleeding is not contagious; just a part of the healing process. So how stupid of the director to say something like this.)

Friday had to run Hailie to the doctor to have this lump (inflamed lymph node probably) on her neck checked out. Found out sheh as tonsilitis and will need a tonsillectomy and lymph node resection. The doctor also checked Trish's ears (not a patient and not on the schedule) because she was complaining of her throat up to her ears hurting and I was going to have to run her up to the Urgent Care or one of those facilities and I'd forgotten to have the ENT look at her when he cauterized her throat Wednesday; Hailie's ENT doctor was very nice and just checked her out and said it was all part of the healing process from the tonsillectomy, advised her on what she needed to do and that the pain would go away (by Monday night or Tuesday morning the pain had disappeared which was two weeks postoperative for Trish). After the doctor's appointments had to get a bit of shopping done, then meet with Trish's mother to sign the papers and get them notarized and get Hailie back up to practice to play catch up.


Band camp long week started this past Monday. It seems I had something to do Monday but I don't remember at this point. Tuesday I had to take Trish to the doctor in the opposite direction for her followup appointment with the ENT who did her tonsillectomy. Got her back right at lunch time which was good timing on my part, lol. I had to go see my doctor in the afternoon due to a toothache and needing an antibiotic.

This week they have been up at the school from 8 AM to 8 PM, with an hour for lunch and 45 minutes for dinner (band booster club provides them with supper which is usually donated from our local businesses). They are so worn out, it's a miracle they can even take their showers when returning in the evening. I only live 5 minutes from the school but by time they get out (has been after 8 when they are finished so far) and I take the rider home (yes I have a full car every day - three girls and Benjamin in the Focus), and possibly pick up a quick snack type food and get home, it has been about 9 or later.

Yesterday, I did another presentation at the Belton Center for the Arts in their summer camp program (theme this year is storybook time). I read from State of Wilderness and let the kids guess the state, but Stephanie would rather just tell them the state and not let them buy the book and figure it out on their own, so she wants me to read clue #25 (which is my giveaway clue on all my states I hope) and let them guess. This group didn't seem as enthused as the first group I did a couple of weeks ago. Overall, it was good though. I dropped off three press releases to the local newspaper next door to the Center for the Arts and am awaiting a picture from Stephanie to post on the other blog.

Today, the kids decided they didn't want to bring their lunches so they want me to go to Burger King and take their lunches to them. So in a bit, I'm heading out to hit the pavement again to pick up lunches and check mail.

State #2 has some progress made - I've got 5 clues with dialogue and interaction with my characters and the bonus clue in place; I've added 6 more clues that are at the end but not added anything else yet (since each state will have 27 clues and I know what the last two clues for each state are going to be, I will put those in automatically. The 25th clue in each book should be the giveaway clue (something that is common knowledge and just seems so trivial you don't think about it). I'm going to include a silly law (State #1's is - It is illegal to give another citizen in this state a box of candy weighing more than 50 pounds. State #2's is a good one (remember to pronounce your states properly or you could go to jail) but I shall wait to reveal it later.

Okay - that's how busy I've been lately - see you all in the postings - E :)

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patrick's Day and a quick update

Being part Irish, guess me blog wouldn't look right without some well wishes and a good luck clover and maybe a pot of gold.

An update on my geography series - I turned in my last draft to my agent today an so hopefully tomorrow it will be in the hands of the publisher and then on it's way towards being published. Be on the lookout for updates on my JGDS series blog and while you are there, sign up for my newsletter to get even more updates. (you will see the signup place on the page - so come on over and check it out.)

And so I am wishing you all the good luck and fortune I've found and that you all be truly blessed this St. Patrick's day of 2008.

Bidding you all a