TeachersPayTeachers/Decatur news/GoFundMe Campaign

An update on the gofundme campaign - I've had one donation (and it is much appreciated) but need to raise more funds to pay off my illustrator so I can get started with a new illustrator and get my state series back on track and out there.  If you can contribute or can recommend someone who can contribute, please stop by here and leave a donation.  Every little bit helps get me closer to paying her off. 

I've opened my TeachersPayTeachers store for my state stories to start selling in digital format.  Once the first illustrator is paid off, I will be getting that series back on track with (hopefully) three republished titles this year and at least the four new ones next year and probably two to four more as well (depending on how quickly my illustrator can get things done and how quickly I can format the stories for publication).  So if you have been following the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series, please stop by the store and help me build my followers.  Also, please help spread the word to all teachers (especially social studies teachers) and homeschoolers that you know who would like to supplement their social studies curriculum with a fun state mystery series.  The files include the book specific study guides, all for one low price.  You can find my TpT store here and the more followers I have the better as you will receive updates when new items are added to the store.

The last thing is the Decatur Book Festival - the place I got my start when the first state story was first published under a publisher.  I've wanted to participate several years since then but haven't been able to afford it.  This year I get to participate with two groups so will be represented in two different booths.  The Sisters in Crime Atlanta chapter has asked the Palmetto chapter (SC) and the Upstate chapter (SC) as well as the Low Country chapter (SC/GA) and a chapter in Tennessee to participate with them in a booth.  I've already filled out my survey and hope to be hearing back from them soon about how they are going to do participation and what not. 

I'm also a member of the YA Authors Rendezvous group and one of the members actually lives about 45 minutes from Decatur and we're going to have a YAAR booth as well; of course with the help of the other members so as to keep cost to each of us low.  You can check out the group's website here and see what we have to offer.  A huge variety from paranormal to children's to everything in between geared for the younger readers. 

I know it sounds kind of crazy to be in two booths at the same time but here is the breakdown - The Kelly Watson stories and Imogene will be in the Sisters in Crime booth; the Kelly Watson series, A Moose in the Shower and the state stories published up to that time will be in the YAAR booth.  I will also help in both booths as needed but more than likely more in the YAAR booth than the Sisters in Crime booth as I think it will be a bit crowded with all the folks who will be represented from 5 chapters (as well as the national organization being promoted) to be there.  I've been ecstatic since finding out about being in Decatur again this year.  I've a lot of work ahead of me in the upcoming months so I should sign off now and get some shuteye so that I can start anew tomorrow, working on my crochet projects that need completing as well as some writing projects.  See you all in the postings - E :)

Holiday Wishes

As the holidays are upon us, I want to wish all my readers and followers and their families a wonderfully blessed holiday. 

I know I haven't posted much this year but it's been a whirlwind year as I have gotten back into doing events and writing books.  In case you missed it, The Ties of Time, the second in the Kelly Watson YA Paranormal mystery series, finally published in print.  I'm awaiting my small order that I placed last week.  No fretting though the books will get here when they get here.  If you are still in need of a gift, remember books do make great gifts.  No guarantees as to when they will ship but ebooks are always available and if you purchase The Ties of Time ebook and send me a copy of your receipt, you will receive a free ebook of Finally Home. 

I've also been busy crocheting and creating items for all the events I've been doing including my market bags or library book tote bags or whatever you decide to use them for and have added several new colors to the bookworm colors for a total of 24 colors available now.  I found an angel ornament pattern I like and have been busy with the angels until recently. 

I have started Dark Truths, the third in the Kelly Watson YA paranormal mystery series, but haven't worked on it much of late but that will be one of my first projects in the new year to get that series completed.  I will also be working on Imogene:  Innocence Lost in the upcoming year.  Those are my two goals for next year, writing wise that is.  I'm also making a resolution to post more on my blog and I'm starting a mailchimp campaign so that my followers will get updates as I post them.  A few changes, hopefully in the right direction. 

I've also become a member of the YA Author Rendezvous group and have started following several of those folks (more to come, I'm sure) and have found that the group is such a wonderful supportive group with loads of information available.  There will be more from this group too as I'll share postings and other information as available.  If you haven't read Kimberly Readnour's series, I recommend it even though as of now I've only read the first one - Visions.  There are almost 80 authors in this group and we are all about promoting YA authors.  If you get a chance to check out the website, I highly recommend that you just pop over for a browse.  You never know what new author you will discover. 

My biggest announcement is that I'm going to be a first-time grandmother next year.  My youngest son and his fiancée are expecting in May and they are planning on tying the knot in February.  So I'm gaining a daughter and new grandbaby within the first part of the year. 

Below are the covers and other items I've been working on. 

 

Notice I've added the series to the cover of Finally Home

 

The cover is so fitting for this story.

 

 

 

When I saw this cover, I knew this was the third story as Anita Fricks and I had already brainstormed a bit on where the story is going. 

 

 

This cover also spoke to me, portraying exactly what I want it to.

 

Since taking this picture of the bookworms, I have added several colors and sold out of a couple with one or two being replaced.  I will have to do an updated picture of all the colors on my board (after I do a new display board for my samples to showcase all my new colors).

 

This is one of the market bags - all are 100% cotton and machine washable - all measure about the same size as a plastic grocery bag.  They are very sturdy and several have sold.  If interested in purchasing these bags, please inquire as to other colors or check out my facebook page, photos, albums to see what is available.

 

These were my latest addition to my crochet collection.  Again, this is only one color of about 15, so if interested in these, please inquire or check out my facebook page for all colors available.

 

 

 

Again, I wish you all a happy holiday season and a blessed new year.  See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Special Deal Through the End of December

For my readers, I am offering a free copy of Finally Home ebook with the purchase of The Ties of Time - the second in the Kelly Watson series.

The Ties of Time has been out for 4 weeks now and I have only had one sale across the board.  If you haven't read Finally Home yet, now is your chance to get it for free.  Purchase a copy of The Ties of Time (available on all ereaders), send me an email (eeldering@gmail.com) of the proof of purchase, put - Redeem Coupon - in the subject line and I'll send you a copy of Finally Home for free.  Both are stand alone stories in the series - different mysteries being solved but are tied together by recurring characters, Kelly and Emma. 

I'm awaiting finalization on the full cover to send to createspace for review so I can order my proof copy and hope to have The Ties of Time in print within the next week or so.  Orders are being taken - $14.50 (includes shipping cost); if wanting a print copy, just email me with Ties of Time order in the subject line and include your mailing address and to whom I should make the book out to and I'll send out as soon as I have copies on hand. 

Here is the almost final full cover for Ties of Time -

I think Chasity_Nicole on www.fiverr.com has done a great job - working with a premade front cover (purchased a while back from one site) in order to come up with a full cover.   She will be designing some covers for me (for only $5 for ebook covers and $10 for full covers - you can't beat that price) in the near future. 

See you all in the postings - E :)

The Ties of Time published

I've uploaded The Ties of Time to kindle and Draft2Digital so it should be available for purchase within 24 hours (at least on kindle).  It's been a long time coming and hope all my readers will enjoy it.  I hope to have it in print within the next few weeks (that's another thing I have to work on is formatting my own books and it may take a little longer for me to do so).  Happy reading - see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Book Club Discussion Questions

I was informed today at the brown bag lunch book club that Finally Home would be the April read for the Reluctant YA Readers book club.  I don't have any discussion questions for my book.  So I'm posing this to anyone who has read the book to please send me some possible discussion questions.  I need between 10 and 15 questions.  Any help is much appreciated.  Either leave your questions in the comment boxes or email me at eeldering@gmail.com with suggestions for discussion questions.  Thanks to all in advance for helping me out with this.  E :)

Looking for a New Avenue to Promote Your Books?

Are you looking for a place to promote your books? 

A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Anita Fricks, texted me stating there was a "Reluctant YA Readers'" book club at the local library the next evening and did I want to go with her.  I responded sure.  I took my book Finally Home with me, participated in the group discussion, even though I hadn't read the selected book for the month since I only found out about it the day before, and then talked about my book a little bit.  After the book club dissipated, I stopped at the circulation desk on the floor and chatted more with the librarian who is in charge of the book clubs, and Finally Home will be either the selected read for October or I'll have my own event, maybe on a Saturday, where I will be able to promote and sell my books. 

If you haven't checked out your local library's book clubs, do so.  If you can find one where your book possibly would fit the types of books they are reading, I suggest attending the book clubs, read the selected books and bring your books in to let the person in charge know about them and maybe get some of your books in the monthly selected reads. 

If nothing else, you are learning some new to you authors and reading other books that are on a similar line to yours.  But on the chance the librarian is stoked to have an author in the book club and would like your books or one of your books to be a selected month's read, then you have just gained a new audience. 

Good luck and remember book clubs are our friends because those readers will spread the word about your books.  E :)

Just Catching Up

Since my last posting a month ago, a good bit has transpired in my life and with my writing (okay not so much in the latter). I was terminated from my job of over 7 years, for some unknown reason but they didn't contest my unemployment so I should start receiving unemployment soon (fingers crossed I see a check this weekend). I've been applying for all kinds of jobs including with the state, but with the Federal shutdown, not sure how much that will affect state positions and put a hold on hiring on jobs that have been opened for a while. I have also found some positions available through the South Carolina Work Force site which I have been applying for. Tomorrow I take my skills assessment testing to hopefully get into the program for Medical Billing and Coding (that's not what they are calling it now but same idea) that will hopefully put me on a better road to getting a job. I'll keep filing and searching until I either find another job or my unemployment runs out, which, from all best guesses, is basically 4 months from now. Sadness hit the writing world as the Great Tom Clancy passed away. My baby's b-day was last week and I didn't have any funds to get him a card or anything and to top that off, my printer decided to stop working, so I can't even print anything that I need to print right now. Not sure what's up with that. On the writing front, I have decided to stop editing my friend's manuscript and have decided to get back to writing the second story in Kelly's series. I'm not very far in but I feel I can write it rather quickly once I get back to it. I have now pushed my self-imposed deadline to have it written by the end of this month. I need to knock out about 50,000 words in 27 days (considering that the 3rd is busy full with class time with the 6th graders, testing, Sisters in Crime meeting), but hopefully I can bust out some serious writing Friday. I hope I can write the story that Anita and I brainstormed, although I feel like it's not really my story right now. Guess that is the hazard of outlining or plotting a story from beginning to end when one hasn't ever done that before. I think that catches you all up on what's going on in my life. How about you? What's happening on your end? Anything good you'd like to tell us about? --- See you all in the postings - E :)

The Proposal Free Days/Research Field trip

It's free download days again; this time, my short story "The Proposal" is available.  It will be free through Thursday midnight PST.  I'd forgotten to post this yesterday but I have a reason.

Yesterday, my friend Anita and I took a field trip to Iva (the town setting for my Kelly Watson stories) and explored.  We parked on the square and kind of walked around checking out the store fronts or buildings there and turned the corner to find the Iva Museum.  It was closed as they are only open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  The person who operates the museum was there checking on the air conditioner as he had been on vacation last week and he wanted to make sure that the folks had returned it to its normal settings.  He was coming out of the museum as we were kind of looking in the windows, stating we needed to make another trip when the museum was opened.  Anita asked him about the museum and we explained what I was doing, so he was kind enough to let us in and showed us around and allowed us to take some pictures of some of  their pictures.  We gained a lot of information from that short visit.  Thank you, Mr. David Newby, for spending some time with us and giving us some background history of the town.  He also told us about the "Antique Body Shop" just around the corner, so we naturally had to stop in there.  No, it's not an antique car shop but a senior citizens gym.  We spoke with two folks there and Anita bought herself a T-shirt. 

From there, we made our way to the town hall which houses the police department, municipal court and the place to pay water bills (I've forgotten what it was called).  We talked to the one lady who was standing behind the police department window, who happened to be the victim's advocate.  We asked for some information and she told us that the guy across from them would be able to help us but he had just stepped out of the office, but would return shortly (I missed when he did return or we would have engaged in a conversation with him).  The Chief of Police had to deal with a situation but when he finished with that business, he was very nice to sit with us and give us all kinds of other information.  He even printed out a map and marked places we wanted to explore for us.  That map may show up in the front of The Tie of Time (A Kelly Watson paranormal mystery).

When we left town hall, it was lunch time so we stopped by the cafe we had originally parked in front of and had lunch - buffet style - fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, green beans, beets (which I didn't get any of but I do love beets if they are fixed right), rice and white gravy, some greens (I think they were collard greens), country fired steak, and desserts and a few other veggies.  The buffet table isn't very large so they can only  put up a few items each day.  The waitress was very friendly.

After leaving the cafe, we drove around looking for the different items marked on the map for us including the supposed ghost house (which we didn't really find  but no worries) and the oldest house in Iva which was old but didn't really give me the impression of being the oldest house around, the old drug store (vital to The Ties of Time as this is where the whole mystery will occur), the nursing home, the old high school which is now the Civic Center and houses an indoor basketball court and is used for all kinds of activities.  There is also a very nice park in front of the Civic Center and the only remaining building of the old school which was the cafeteria. 

We got a tour of the nursing home and were invited back during the activities time to observe what one of the worker's daughter does to help out (bless her little heart, she is only 6 years old and was trying her best to do the craft of the day, which was building little bird houses or bird feeders).  Thank you to Diane, Melissa and Tina for helping us give a reason for Kelly and Emma to be in the nursing home.

From the center of town, it is about 1 mile to the outskirts in any direction, so it is not a very large area, so I'm having to change what I started out with for the girls to get around since State Law says that no one can operate a moped or golf cart without a driver's license.  So now my girls will be riding bicycles around town.  I just need to make sure they have somewhere to put their picnic basket and other stuff.  Do they still make front handlebar baskets for bicycles? 

Overall, I think we had a very productive and interesting day of discovery.  We will probably make several more trips to Iva over the ensuing months.  Everyone we spoke to seemed genuinely excited about the fact that I was an author and had set my story in their small town.  I look forward to visiting the town of Iva again and hopefully meeting more people.  I also am excited to really get to writing The Ties of Times and hopefully can get it done fairly quickly.  I will post pictures later as it is now time to get to work as there is a team conference call this afternoon and one of my co-workers is out this week.  See you all in the postings - E :)

The Ties of Time

The Ties of Time A Kelly Watson Mystery  is the newest title in my Kelly Watson series. 

I had a story starter prompt, kind of, had written 6 pages up to basically where the "bookstore" was no longer but got stuck as I didn't really have any direction of where the story was going, what the mystery actually was or even why the bookstore (which after brainstorming with my really good friend, Anita, last night is no longer really a bookstore) was there one minute and not the next. 

Lana has been urging me to get to writing on this story, not for the story itself but to get back into writing.  Yesterday before leaving for the monthly Sisters in Crime meeting, Lana and I were chatting.  She had given me a little insight Wednesday night of what the girls found at the site that was a store but is no longer.  A piece of wood.  So yesterday during our chat, she asked me "What do the girls find under the wood?"  and listed a half dozen or more possibilities, then stating the possibilities were endless.  I wrote down the suggestions she made on the printed pages of the story to take to the SinC meeting for Anita's reading.  I'm glad I did because after the meeting we did some serious brainstorming and came up with The Ties of Time.  I now know exactly what the mystery is, who is involved and where the mystery ends up.

I can tell you this about the story:  It is actually a murder mystery (which came about secondarily); it involves ghosts, twisted relationships, skeletons in the closet, and even a bit of time travel for Kelly or really more use of her "witchy powers".  Solving the murder actually led to two other murders in the past which turn out to be books 3 and 4 in the series.  There are 11 characters involved in this story of which several will show up in the next two books, thus the premise of books 3 and 4 are in motion already with book 3 a better inkling of the "ties" of time and other things.  All I can tell you about book 4 is they are going to solve the last related murder to the other two but they need to solve the first two before getting to third one.  After book 4 is finished, I think I will consider the series complete as I didn't start out writing murder mysteries and after the third murder is solved, there shouldn't be any more skeletons in the closet that need telling.  If there are any more Kelly mysteries after book 4, then it is likely they will be basic mysteries and not involve murders as I really don't have any more characters that have been murdered and in a town as small as Iva, SC, is there aren't enough people around to have them getting killed off.  Besides, we don't really want Kelly involved in too many murders before she reaches the age of 16 anyways. 

The Ties of Time is actually going to tie three mysteries together over the course of time but there are other reasons for the title, which I can't reveal at this moment, but trust me the ties are there.  I look forward to really getting the story written now with publication to follow within a few months.  I've set a deadline of having the story written by the end of August (that is basically a 6-week timeframe), with editing and revising probably for the middle of October as I will probably start on book 3, the second murder, in the series before jumping into the edits immediately, and then we will go from there.

More when I can  - see you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home is Available on audible.com

A week earlier than expected, but Finally Home is now available on audible.com.  The email stated that it would go up on itunes and amazon.com in the next few days. 

If you are a new member to audible.com and make Finally Home one of your first three purchases, I get a little bonus.  If you are not new to audible.com and have the credits and/or would like to purchase your copy of Finally Home, it is retailing for $13.96 or 1 credit. 

It looks like I will have to use my credits to get my own books, which is fine, as I will then have them in my library and can play the sample file which is clearer than the download I did from the ACX site.  Please pass the word that my books are starting to go out as audio books. 

As stated last week, I have started a second Kelly Watson mystery, tentatively calling it The Mysterious Bookshop,  so hopefully by the spring of next year it will be available in all formats - ebook will probably be the first format and then print and audiobook.  When I have a title and cover, I'll share with you all; of course, I have to write the story before I can really think of having a cover made up.  See you all in the postings - E :)

New Kelly Adventure

Monday evening I was chatting with one of my editors, who is busy working on finishing several drafts of projects she has started before she delivers her third child in August, and she was nudging, okay more like nagging me, to write.  I tried the nudging part with her before to get her inspired to complete some projects but she tended to shut down and disappear for a while and not write much.  I guess I'm kind of the same way.  I went to the store Wednesday evening because I had the munchies and ran into a lady whom I met at the laundromat a few months ago and had given her daughter, age 10, a copy of Finally Home and we got to talking and I was told that her daughter really enjoyed it and kept telling her mom that she couldn't put it down until she had finished reading it.  So, that inspired me some and got me thinking more on the new story since I had a base for it from chatting with Lana.

So, since the state books are on hold for now and I tried putting the karma out to the kids for new stories for Kelly and Emma and that didn't work too well, I know I need to write something else, either a short story or another Kelly story.  I was looking over some story lines from previous winners of kids stories (the kids actually wrote the stories) on Mysterynet.com and some other information about writing mysteries that I had printed off. 

One of the pages I had printed off was a "Mystery Story Starter Ideas: DIY Guide for Children and Adults" by Marilisa Sachteleben.  One of the prompts is titled "The Book Seller's Enigma" and the prompt reads as:  "I hadn't remembered seeing the musty old book shop on that street before, but the old peddler bechoned me.  When I returned the next day with my brother, shop and shopkeeper had gone.  We asked an old-timer passing by.  "That shop?" he declared, "why it ain't been around for 50 years."  (Doesn't that just beckon you to write a story about the store, the shopkeeper or the something else mysterious about the contents of the bookstore?)

When I shared that prompt with Lana, before I actually could get the whole prompt typed into the chat window, she said I could write about a mysterious book from the bookstore.  I mulled it over a day or so, and have now come up with a second adventure for Kelly.  I don't know what I will call it yet, but I've written 2 pages so far and I feel I need to write a couple of pages before I even get to Kelly and Emma's conversation about the bookstore.  I feel I almost have to have an istant message between Kelly and Judy, Kelly's long-time, bestest friend who is blind and from whom Kelly had to move when they moved to the small town where she found the house that actually belonged to her father.  I will play around with it a bit and see what is working and hopefully I will have a new story soon.  When I get a bit further in to the story, I may start sharing some excerpts from the story and may even run a contest for the title of the story.  I will keep you all posted as I progress.  See you all in the postings - E :)

AFGHAN DRAWING:  Don't forget to leave a comment with a valid email to be contacted so that you can be entered in the drawing for the red, white and blue afghan drawing, which will be held around December 1 or so. 

Finally Home ACX Update

I was supposed to have my final copy of the audio book of Finally Home last week but Sienna has been having some technical issues.  She assured me today it would be to me soon - within the next day or two.  Once I get the file, I will go through it to approve or make corrections and send to her.  If there are no corrections to be made, then I will approve it and release the audio version as soon as I can.  Waiting on the updated cover from Heather as well since there are some changes to be made for ACX so right now things are in limbo.

For the release of the audio book of Finally Home, I'll be offering the ebook for free on Kindle next week, April 15-16.  If you haven't already read it or purchased a copy, now is the time to get it for free.  Be sure to tell all your friends so they can get their copies.

Also, Anita and I brainstormed a bit after our Sisters in Crime meeting last week about some situations or stories for Kelly and Emma Louise and there are some things brewing, so I may have a few more stories to make them a series.  I'll add a tagline of "A Kelly Watson Mystery" to the new titles, and I guess I'll have to go back and eventually add that to Finally Home  but right now I'll leave it as is.  see you all in thep ostings - E :)