Two Fundraising Campaigns

Hey All,

I started two gofundme fundraising campaigns Sunday morning.  One is more in need of being funded immediately; the second one has roughly a 6 month time period. 

First the immediate one - my youngest son is getting married in February; the soon to be daughter-in-law wants a bridal shower and my daughter, Hailie, and I are planning the bridal shower.  The shower is to be held 5 days before the wedding (wedding date is February 18 with shower date February 13 - I know the Saturday before Valentine's day).  With a little help from my friends and readers out there, we should be able to raise enough to host the bridal shower.  I just found out last week the other Hallie's (my soon to be daughter-in-law) brother is running a gofundme campaign to pay for the wedding.  So please help out.  Click here to help with the bridal shower and click here to help the wedding campaign. 

The other campaign I'm running is to help pay off my prior illustrator as I have gotten in arrears and need to clear her up before moving on to the new illustrator (at a much better cost to me and probably one I'll campaign to fund later as the need arises once this first one is cleared up).  I'm running it through June and hopefully will be able to start around August with the new illustrator so I can get the 50-state mystery series back on track.  If you have a little extra and would like to help fund that, please click here and help.  Any donation will be much appreciated. 

Lots of good things coming up as previously noted.  I formatted the Moose story today in publisher and will probably need to do a little tweaking once I get the illustrations but I'm excited to take on this adventure with Anita Fricks. 

I have one other story I'm in the processing of editing to submit to an anthology.  This story was written in 2014 five days short of our supposed to be 25th anniversary and I had a meltdown and sat and wrote about 4500 words over a 2-hour period.  I felt relief once I wrote the story and hadn't intended to really share it with anyone but a few special people and then I gave it to Anita and she edited it and has given me a second run through now so I have a few changes or tweaks to make to it before considering submitting it for the one anthology.  This story may show up in two anthologies depending on how I feel once I've edited it.  I needed to get this out of my system to move on with my life and I have.  My mental health has improved since writing the story.  Now to just get my physical health and finances back on track I'll be good as gold or right as rain. 

Thank you all for continuing to follow me even though I haven't been a regular poster.  You all are truly angels in my life just for believing in my books.  If you haven't already picked up a copy of The Ties of Time, the second in the Kelly Watson YA Paranormal Mystery series, it is available in all formats except audible, which is the next thing on my list once I have cleared a few other projects out. 

Please pass the word about my fundraising campaigns and thank you all in advance for helping out anyway you can.  See you all in the postings.  Mrs. E :)

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 :)

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 :)

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

Now is the time to start your holiday shopping.  How about a nice warm afghan on those cold nights?  Check out my "Curl Up With A Good Book" afghans in my Square store.  Perhaps you need a scarf to go out for the evening, check out the "out on the town" scarves in my store.

If you are wanting a new book to read, pick up your copy of Finally Home, the first in the Kelly Watson, YA paranormal mystery series.  And while there, select the perfect little bookworm bookmark to keep track of your place. 

Don't forget the tote bags to carry your books or groceries.  Seven colors available.  All market bags are 100% cotton and are machine washable. 

When purchasing books, please indicate to whom to sign it to.  Also, there is a free bookworm for each book purchase.  Use the promo code FREEBOOKWORM on checkout.  From October 11 through October 31, I will have a 10% discount promotion going on (use promo code TENPERCENT).  Supplies are limited, so place your order soon. 

To check out all the items available, click Order Online and peruse my Square store. 

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

Special September Sale -

I've been working on getting The Ties of Time revised and hope to have it ready by the end of this month and be able to publish it by the middle of October at least as an ebook.  I've also been busy making market bags/book tote bags/beach bags or whatever you desire to carry in them to have enough inventory for my upcoming events - the Due West Fall Festival (September 26 from 8 to 1) and the Pendleton Fall Festival (October 24 from 10 to 4).

If anyone would like to order a signed copy of Finally Home, the first in the Kelly Watson YA paranormal mystery series, and/or bags and/or bookworms, I'm running a 10% off entire order for one week only.  This special will run from Tuesday, September 1, 2015, through midnight Monday, September 7, 2015.  

Large bags are $20 each; small bags are $12 each; books are $10; bookworms are $2 each.  There are 21 colors available of bookworms with a good number of each available so please inquire about colors.  I also offer bookworms at $1.50 for orders of 25 or more and will still offer the 10% off total this week only.  

For colors of bookworms and market bags, please visit my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/elysabeth.eldering and check out my albums.  Below are two samples of the market bags - the large sized and the small sized. 

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 :)

Author Showcase - December 13, 2014

I will be at the Richland County main library on December 13, 2014, from 11 to 1.  Check out the list of over 100 authors who will be there. 

If you follow me on facebook, you know I not only sell books but am selling bookworms and "market bags" (sold as a book carrying bag for all your goodies or to carry your library books).  It's the time of year to place your order for bookworms or other crocheted gift items.  Bookworms are $2 each and there are (at the writing of this posting) 23 colors available but some of them are in very limited supply as they are colors that can't be picked up at any store nor can they be ordered from Red Heart or other places.  Market bags/book carrying bags (or purses if you would like to line one yourself) are two sizes, small and medium, and they are $12 and $20; I'm doing these in the cotton more so than the acrylic yarn and like them better.

If interested in obtaining class gifts, stocking stuffers or other gifts, please email me at eeldering @ gmail (dot) com (eeldering@gmail.com) and let me know what you are interested in and I'll discuss payments and shipping with you. 

Hope to see many of my South Carolina friends at the event in December; have a blessed holiday everyone - see you in the postings - E :)

Book Club Discussions, Screenplay Writing, and a General Update

Greetings to my One Hundred Plus follows out there.  I know it's been a while since I've posted but I've been going through a very rough patch in my life right now.  I'm trying to stay positive and take it one day at a time, but some days are harder to do just that. 

Last month, I had to go out of town due to my father being in the hospital.  He ended up being in the hospital for about two weeks (had back surgery a week and a half after being admitted) before being transferred to the rehab facility.  He has been there for a little over 3 weeks and I just found out Monday afternoon, via his church email/blog/google+ group that he developed pneumonia over the weekend.  They do have him on antibiotics and hopefully he will recover as quickly as possible to not be set back too much from his therapy.  He may be at the rehab facility through the middle of August or maybe the end of August; it's all dependent on how well he progresses.  He admits his muscle strength is very weak and that is one of the things they are working on - strengthening. 

In March, I started another transcription position with Nuance Transcription Services after having been unemployed for six months.  My primary accounts are rehab facilities across the United States in the Select group of facilities.  Every day I'm typing reports on patients who are in rehab for various illnesses or injuries.  Some back injuries or surgeries, some fractures of the hips/knees/wrists/shoulders, and some from strokes or other neurological/brain problems - subarachnoid hemorrhages or closed head injuries, et cetera.  Every day I type one of these reports I think of my father and how he's doing and I think I need to call him but then forget.  My feeling on that is that I don't want to be a pest checking on him every day and I need to be working rather than making phone calls during work hours.

My friend, Anita Fricks, asked me a few months ago to join her in the Reluctant YA readers book club and then I started going to the Wednesday Brown Bag Lunch book club after that.  The problem with the book club reads are that the choices, of late, are books I wouldn't normal read and probably still don't read them.  I hate going to a discussion having not read a book but if I can't get past a few pages, I really find it difficult to read the whole book.  Today's reading was "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury.  Now, I understand it was written in the 1940s; it's not really sci-fi but is futuristic, and all that and I know this has been touted as a great book but I didn't see it that way.  I guess because now that I'm a writer and knowing our mantra in this day and age is to "show, don't tell" and I felt that these stories were just telling us everything, no leaving us to imagine anything really.  I found the first few pages rather boring.  Last month's selection was "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café" and I didn't even get to attend the book club due to being out of town for my family.  I did try to read as much as I could before turning it in but after seeing the movie before reading the book, I couldn't follow along with the book.  The movie and book are two different things.  In the movie, I got the impression that Mrs. Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy's character) was Idgie telling the story.  In the book, Mrs. Threadgoode is telling the story, but she introduces herself as being the wife of one of Idgie's brothers.  The only brother mentioned in the movie was Buddy who got hit by a train.  I understand that things have to be done differently for the movie to work and there were some elements that were kept from the book in the movie (the lake freezing with the ducks and the ducks flying off with the frozen lake so there was no more water in the lake - just an empty space where the lake used to be; giving the drunk a drink to steady his nerves). 

So that leads up to my next point.  Making a movie out of a novel.  Screenplay writing.  I've not done it but when I wrote Finally Home several years ago, I could picture it as a made-for-TV movie - but have yet to actually write the screenplay for it.  I'm thinking of it. 

For those who have read the book, have you been able to picture the story as a made-for-TV movie?  Do you think it is worth trying to write the screenplay?  Do you think I could get someone to produce a movie from the story?  I look forward to hearing your opinions on this matter.  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 :)

Texting, Audiobooks and Writers

What do texting and audiobooks have to do with writers? I learned over the past week that texting and writers don't mix. I've also learned that if I am sitting up listening to an audiobook, I tend to stay awake but if I recline and turn the book on and just let it sit on my nightstand that I tend to fall asleep. Texting in general is a terrible form of communication for anyone. With all the abbreviations and "text speak" out there, it is very difficult to keep track of what you are saying. This writer doesn't abbreviate when texting and even so, she tends to misspell words that there is no reason to misspell. I was texting a friend the other day who was about to leave for a month-long trip to Serbia and was telling about my free download for kindle of Finally Home and also that I had some "short" stories available for 99 cents. Well, I meant short stories, but what came out was "slopt" and how that came about was a simple error of hitting the incorrect number key associated with the letters. I thought I was keying in the 4 for the H and the rest of the numbers were okay but when I hit the 5 instead of the 4, it put in the word "slopt", not that I believe that is a word. But it was funny when she texted me back saying she loved "slopt" stories. As a writer, we are told to use our words and when we get sidetracked with text messaging and other short forms of communicating like this, we tend to get sloppy and everything comes out incorrectly. My advice to writers who insist on texting (my preferred form of communication is email or actually talking on the phone) don't abbreviate your words. Use your words and use them correctly. As far as audiobooks, I suggest trying them - listen in the car when traveling and if too much of a distraction, then it's not for you; try them when getting ready for bed or just listen to them when you are working out. They are a great form of getting your reading time in every day. I have listened to 2 full books (although I do believe I fell asleep during one of them and may have missed some of the book or perhaps if I did, I went back and relistened to what I had missed) and have 3 more in my library to listen to. I am in the process of listening to The Story of Dr. Doolittle and know I fell asleep the other night. No worries, since I know I can rewind to a place I remember actually hearing. I wonder if reading a different book than you are listening to counts as reading several books at a time? My guess is yes since you are getting the reading in by either actually seeing the words on the page or hearing them as read by someone else. I used to think I wouldn't be one of these people who could read several books at a time but I guess I just proved myself wrong as I am currently visually reading a book and listening to a book. If you are looking for a way to lull yourself to sleep, I suggest opening an audiobook and unless its an intense thriller or suspense novel, that should work in putting to you sleep. No wonder babies fall asleep when mothers read to them. It's that soothing sound of the voice that lulls them into slumber. See you all in the postings - E :)

Quick Audible/ACX Update

As most of you know, Finally Home went up as an audio book the end of June.  The first week it went up, 5 copies were downloaded (Yay!!!).  This evening I went to do laundry and having not checked my mail all week, I went to the post office first.  Upon opening there was a large, oversized but thin envelope from Audible.com and I was thinking it was more paperwork that I might not have filled out, but no my first royalty check from audible for 5 downloads of Finally Home and 1 download of State of Successes.  Royalties are paid monthly as long as you have earned at least $10.  Since the first of July, I have had 2 more downloads of Finally Home and 2 of State of Successes, one of which I believe occurred today or yesterday as I haven't checked my ACX dashboard in a couple of days and the last time I looked there were only 3 total for State of Successes. 

For those of you who have downloaded the audio books, I thank you very much.  I hope you all enjoy listening to Sienna narrate the story.  Just a reminder too that there will be a second in Kelly Watson mysteries.  I'm workig on The Ties of Time and hope it meets your expectations.  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 :)

Bride-and-Seek Free Days

The Bride-and-Seek free days are here.  For the next three days, you can pick  up your copy of my romantic ghost story based on a legend in England for free.  Hope you all enjoy it.  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 :)

Upcoming Free Download Days All Books

Since I've moved all my books off Smashwords and Nook and I haven't done any free days in a while, it's time to do some more free download days.  I tried to space everything out so that nothing is really running the same day but there ended up being two back-to-back (see below), which may or may not work to my advantage - lol.

Here is the lineup:

"Bride-and-Seek" - July 18-20 (3 days); September 24-25 (2 days)
"The Proposal" - July 23-25 (3 days), September 27-28 (2 days)
"The Tulip Kiss" - August 13-17 (5 days)
Finally Home - August 29-September 2 (5 days - this will run the Thursday before Labor Day through Labor Day)

Remember the free promotional days run midnight PST through midnight PST (3 AM to 3 AM EST).  If you are eastern time and look for the books at midnight the day it starts,  you won't see them listed as free. 

Also posted on the JGDS blog that "Train of Clues" would go free next week and then again in August.  The schedule will be July 11-12 and August 27-29 (which will overlap one day with Finally Home, but it will be okay since they are not related and shouldn't have any bearing on the other).  Check out my posting and let me know if you have any thoughts on gaining sponsors for the state series.  Thanks all - see you in the postings - Mrs. E :)

One Week ACX Report

Finally Home has been live for 1 week now and there have been 4 downloads not including my own from using my credits.  Remember this is available on amazon.com as well as audible.com and itunes.  Hope those of you who have downloaded the audio book have enjoyed hearing Sienna reading.  Drop me a line if you have gotten an audio copy and let me know what you think. 

Just to let you know that when there is a second book, hopefully Sienna will be available to do the reading again.  Right now, I'm leaning towards The Mysterious Bookshoppe: A Kelly Watson Mystery and go from there.  This, of course, is a work in progress and may end up changing as I  progress, but I do know that the bookstore holds many mysteries, not of the book type though, perhaps of the ghostly type or some otherly world type.  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. 

Price Reduction

I just decided to lower the price on all the print books available.  State books are now $8.50 across the board (Wilderness, Successes, Heights and Nature) as this is the price I sell them when I do in-person events.  Finally Home is now $9.99 and "Train of Clues" has been reduced to $5.99.  Hopefully sales will pick up with these price reductions across the board.

I've been thinking about this for a while now because I do generally well at in-person events with these prices and should be able to do well through Amazon with the same prices.  See you all in the postings - E :)