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 :)

SCWW Conference time is here

It's that time of year again. I will be heading to the beach (Myrtle) for the SCWW Muse Writer's conference. I will be attending as a volunteer again this year (I can't afford the conference plus the hotel and travel, so volunteer status it is). Maybe when my series takes off the group will ask me to be a guest speaker (I can hope, can't I?).

This weekend is also state competition which I will miss again. But I will be there in spirit and hoping that they do well.

Updates from the conference upon my return. See you all in the postings. E :)

Updates on everything

I told you all I was being a bad host for virtual book tours. I am supposed to be hosting Stacy Gooch Anderson on the 20th (tomorrow) with a review of The Santa Letters and an interview. For more on her book tour, you will have to check her blog out for a listing of places to follow. The list is extensive and the tour has been going on for a while apparently.

Next week, I'll be hosting two virtual book tours, one for Chris Verstraete and Search for a Starry Night on Tuesday (I think this will be fun since she has it set up as a scavanger hunt from stop to stop) and one for Vivian Zabel and Midnight Hours. I need to finish reading Midnight Hours so I can post a review for Vivian. Fear not, it won't take too long to read and get that written. Vivian is offering a one prize deal for her tour, so check for details next week.

Band update: We have finished our regular season of competitions. This past Saturday was upper state (online there had been 26 bands listed to compete but when we arrived only 19 in the program). To get to state, a band has to be in the top 6 from upper state and top 6 from lower state - so there are supposed to be 12 bands competing for the title of best in the state. We hosted a competition on the first week, did a competition the next week, and two the following week. Saturday was upper state and we placed 4th out of the 19 bands that competed. This is pretty good considering we only competed in three actual competitions during this season. It seems that they keep cutting our competitions shorter and shorter. Before you know it, we will host a competition and then the next week will be upper state - but hope not - that would be hard on the kids not having the opportunity to go up against schools in regular competitions and see what they need to work on. It's been a crazy season but we survived.

Next weekend, I will miss the state competition but my ears and eyes will let me know what happens. I may post some pictures of the season but just haven't had time of late.

I'll be attending the SCWW Writer's conference in Myrtle Beach again this year (Oct. 24 - 26th) and am so looking forward to this. With one book in the series of 50 published and the second on its way, I'm hoping that soon I can be on panel discussions or do workshops at book festivals and things like the SCWW conference. I can hope for the fame some way some day.

Be on the lookout for more updates as I get them - see you all in the postings - E :)

and yet another thing from the writer's conference

It's funny when I'm telling the kids what went on this weekend and things I forgot to put in the original blog posting - but here is the thing - I just thought this was really cool - we were staying at the Hilton at Myrtle Beach - and I had forgotten my deodarant and some Tylenol (the gift shop wanted 5 bucks for a small tube of deodarant and like 4.50 for 8 small tablets of Tylenol - I thought yikes - too expensive for my blood - so I decided I would try to find my ride and get him to take me to Wal-Mart. Well the lady running the gift shop said, "you know, we have a shuttle and they probably can take you." I was like, "Really? to Wal-Mart?" She said probably and I asked how much it would cost me and she wasn't sure so I inquired at the front desk and I was told it was a free service and they would take me to Wal-Mart. Okay, how classy is this - riding the Hilton Shuttle to Wal-Mart - go figure - so that was my highlight Friday but my overall weekend highlight was being slushed - lol - I love that - so anyway - more on the conference fun stuff - see you all in the postings - E :)

some conference tidbits and - oh yeah, I won again!!!

I knew there was more to the conference than I had posted - here is a funny thing - we were at the beach and it rained all weekend - or it was cloudy and kind of cool but not cold. Sunday morning woke up and it was frigid but sunny. Finally got some heat from the sun on the way home and away from the beach. Apparently all the computers and clocks in the hotel were set to automatically change for daylight savings time this past weekend (my alarm was set for 6:30 and I heard my roommate in the shower thinking she was up pretty early and when I looked at the clock it said 6:10 and so I thought - I've got a bit of time, but then another of the roommate's cell phone was going off - so I went to get my cell phone to check on the time and it was really 7:10 - omg - I had overslept due to the clocks automatically setting back and no one who had an early wake up call received their call like they should have. Someone forgot to tell the Hiltons that daylight savings time didn't go into effect this past weekend. So we were all rushed but the day turned out pretty good for the most part.

We had to pay $10 a day for internet usage and then it wasn't even wireless (I was on the 19th floor of the Royale Palms which is a part of the Hilton but just condo like hotel of the same property) and we couldn't even pick up wireless connection - the only place you could pick up wireless was in the lobby and at best it was sketchy. Okay so no wireless in the rooms and we had to share the connection - which was ethernet and it was in the kitchen of all places - not very comfortable - if they are going to use ethernet connections - why not put in each bedroom and/or in the living area of the condo area - but I should have been able to pick up wireless with my built in wireless and I did but it was only one bar when someone else was connected on the ethernet cable and I was sitting in the dining room and she was right there at the kitchen counter hooked up. I think it was stupid but I never got my wireless to work. So goes life - one of the reasons I didn't really check in much this past weekend.

When I did get to check my emails and sort through the tons of things I found out I won another prize - I won a copy of Linas Alsenas' book Peanut on A Wrung Sponge's blog featuring Linas's snowflake last week. I seem to be on a winning streak lately - first the drawing of the goody basket - the mine, mine, mine one featured on Spider and Fly blog from Sheri Goad, and now the book Peanut just from leaving a comment on a blog. Guess you never know.

Next posting will be a small contest for the Fall Ya'll Blogging contest board and I'm still working on what to offer as a prize. So be on the look out for a small contest to come soon - E :)