Bookworm Colors and Writing Contest Update

So this morning, I made the trip to Laurens to hit up that Walmart searching for more colors for my bookworms.  I couldn't find the Melonberry (1 bookworm available) or Ocean (14 bookworms available), so looks like when those two colors are sold out then there won't be any more, unless I happen to print off the coupons from Hobby Lobby and can find them there or order directly through Red Heart with no discount, which I'd rather not do. 

At the end of this week, I will hold a quick guessing contest for the bookworms plus a signed copy of a book -so stay tuned for that.

Just a reminder that the Writing Contest for synopses for my characters from Finally Home  is still going on and is open to all students in grade 4 and up.  I had thought of just leaving it opened to upper elementary/middle schoolers, but I've decided to let high schoolers enter as well.  I've also extended the contest to the 5th of February, so that I can make my rounds on the 7th in the local area to collect any submissions (yes payday so I can have gas enough to run around and gather all the entries) and be able to mail out prepaid envelopes to everyone else.  Hoping to see lots of new ideas and lots more stories in the Kelly Watson series.  Good luck to everyone - looking forward to seeing what your students come up with. - Keep on writing and see you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Fall Y'all Bloggy Giveaway

We are coming down to the last days of giveaways. Check out the blog that has listings of all the bloggers who are giving things away - who knows - starbucks gift cards, target cards, cash, books, over 600 at last count. This is really a cool idea to have bloggers link back to her site and just post something to give away. Remember to post a comment on my original posting below to be entered for the drawing - My giveaway closes tomorrow night (Saturday) and the drawing will be done Monday evening when the kids get home from school or band practice. I will take a picture of them drawing the lucky winner and post then.

Follow the picture to Shannon's blog for the list of giveaways and you still have time to enter a good many of them - You can't win if you don't enter, so enter away -
See you all in the postings - E :)

Fall Ya'll Bloggy Giveaway - small contest

I'm running a contest per the above link - all you have to do is post a comment on my blog and I pick a winner. Contest ends Saturday, November 3 at midnight. Drawing will be done on Monday, November 5 and the winner notified by email and then posted shortly afterwards.

The contest I'm running is I will pick a commentor from this posting only - in a drawing (will probably put all the names in a hat and let my son pick a name to be fair) and the winner will get a copy of the anthology - The Petigru Review with my story in it - signed however they would like on my story - E :)

Awesome authors contest - I won, I won, I won

If you scroll down Sheri's link http://www.spiderstale.blogspot.com/ and see the Mine! Mine! Mine! packet I won. I can't wait to get it.

It was pretty cool to come home this evening and see a Congratulations, you won email in my inbox. Thanks Sheri for running your Awesome Authors contest and hope everyone that won is as happy as I am - E :)

I entered and got selected

I don't know if I told you but South Carolina Writer's Workshop, SCWW, has a conference in October (for which I'm volunteering) and they put out an anthology to go with the conference. Every year before this year, the word limit had been 1750 for short stories. Well, they revamped this year and upped the ante, so to speak, and gave us 4000 word limits. So I entered my short story, Bride-and-Seek, which I had entered in Karen's contest for February (not selected or even remembered by her, according to her when I met her in February). So today, not more than half an hour ago, I received notice from the editor of the anthology to let me know my story had been selected. I will receive $5 payment and two copies of the anthology. I'm so excited. Doesn't pay a lot but hey - I'm okay with it - it gets me out there.

So be on the look out for Bride-and-Seek in the Petigru Review anthology in October. You can still register for the conference if interested - check out the website - http://www.myscww.org/2007_conference.htm - also see my blog posting called "Best Conference of 2007" and we really are looking to be great - E :)

CONTEST REVERTED

I regret to say that the contest is no longer valid. My stories have been reverted and are no longer "published". I was hoping the contest would be a way to pick up sales numbers but alas, no story to read, no reason to hold a contest - sorry to all you wonderful followers out there. E :)

GOOD NEWS AND SEMI-GOOD NEWS

Butterfly Halves was at the #5 spot last week on http://www.fictionwise.com/, Echelon Press's page (on the left side, scan down towards the bottom, where it says browse and a list of ways to browse, go under publishers), find Echelon Press and then you can see where stories are sitting on that board), and this week with the new additions and updates, it is still at #5. This may mean no sales but the books behind me didn't sell anything either or maybe one sale, enough to keep me in that postion, even with everyone above me selling - hope it means the latter - sales are good. But since this is the last week of the accounting period, I would like to see more sales, especially since I'm running a contest - see previous post.

The Tulip Kiss had been at #18 and today, it's up to #15 - so woohooo - means maybe one copy sold, enough to bring it up six slots.

I'm trying to come up with an idea for a contest for The Tulip Kiss, something I can do as a giveaway but am not coming up with anything right off the top of my head. If anyone has any ideas of what I can do as giveaways for the contest, I'm open to suggestions - Bring it on - E :)

Sample butterflies for Butterfly Halves contest

ENTER BUTTERFLY HALVES CONTEST AND WIN YOUR CHOICE
How to enter the contest:
1. Purchase your copy of "Butterfly Halves" from www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ElysabethElderingeBooks.htm.
2. Read through (shouldn't take more than half an hour of your time to read).
3. Email me at eeldering@gmail.com and tell me the names of the two girls and what their occupational choices were at the end of the story.
4. Indicate your choice of two colors for your butterfly from the below list.
5. Include a mailing address for your butterfly to be sent to you.

It's that easy. So come on girls, read a good short story and win your butterfly today.

The color choices right now are from the Fashion group and include: Sunset Orange, Forest Green, Playful Purple, Rambunctious Red, Deep Sea Blue, Yellow Blaze, Key Lime, Blue Skies Blue. (Two colors are missing but should be found soon - they are Hot Aqua and Fundango Pink)
For the next run of the contest, I will change to the Earthly Expressions colors. The colors in that group are: Prairie Berry, Desert Rose, Harvest Orange, Adobe Orange, Honey Brown, Moonstone Yellow, Meadow Green, For-Ever Green, Misty Blue, Midnight Navy, Plumtastic Purple, and Stone Grey (not necessarily a butterfly color but it might work in combination with some of the other colors).

The third run of the contest will be choice of Paradise Pastels. The colors here are: Petal Pink, Pink Flamingo, Peach Parfait (almost sounds like a dessert), Summer Melon, Lemon Bliss, Tiki Hut Tan, Margarita Green, Lime Sorbet, Tranquil Teal, Oceanview Blue, Polynesian Purple, and Cloud Nine Grey (hum, I never knew Cloud-9 had a color - the place where dreams are made of - lol)

I've colored a few butterflies and scanned them into the computer so you can see what they look like - Let me know what you think.

Enter today and win your own butterfly - hand colored for you - E :)

Butterflies

I was sitting here thinking - I'm running this contest on http://www.myspace.com/elysabetheldering for butterfly halves and I have this metallic tempera paint, why not see if the paint sticks to the rubber butterflies and I did three of them - a gold one, a bronze one and a copper one. I also had some acrylic paint from a small stencil kit I purchased this weekend, you know those little cups of paint for like paint-by-number kits or things like that? Well, I thought wonder if this metallic will work. So i did three of them. Then I did the acrylic paint on a butterfly. I think they look pretty cool here but you be the judge - tell me what you think of my butterflies. I'm probably going to color them with permanent markers as that seems to do the best or the small acrylic paint things, because they look so much better. If anyone enters the contest and wins, they will receive their choice of colors for the butterflies (which I will give to them when I give the winners their notice) or a temporary butterfly tattoo. So purchase your copy of Butterfly Halves from http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ElysabethElderingeBooks.htm and then come over to myspace and answer my contest questions.

FEEL THE POWER OF THE BUTTERFLY - contest

I'm running a contest on myspace for Butterfly Halves. Please see my link to enter the contest. - E :)

http://www.myspace.com/elysabetheldering

Echelon's New Fast Fiction contest is out

Come on all you short story writers - Echelon has posted it's new Fast Fiction contest and we love contests. You may get published within a week of the notification time or you could write something just as awesome as the winner and receive a contract to be published - which is what happened with my Butterfly Halves story. -

So here are the details -

Fast and Foreign Fiction Writing Contest

As writers we have a wonderful array of locations to set our fiction in. This month Echelon Press challenges you to step outside your comfortable neighborhood and take us to someplace foreign. We want you to send us your stories of the unique and exotic, the bold and adventurous, the mystical and romantic. Take us far away. We want to read your stories that take place anywhere outside of the United States. For some this may mean where you live, but not where live!

Every author at every level should be committed to keeping their name in front of readers. Are you looking for your first publishing credit? Are you between books? Looking for a way to revive characters from books that have been out for a while? Want to introduce new characters for upcoming books? Looking for a way to build your readership? Have we got a promotional opportunity for you!

Echelon Press would like to publish your "Fast and Foreign" June story. The fast part means you have until June 11, 2007 to submit your story of 3000-6000 words. The winner will be notified by June 12, 2007 and have 5 days to edit/revise the story. Echelon Press will publish your story in its e-book division on June 18, 2007. Simple!

Send your submissions as a Word (doc) attachment to contest@echelonpress.com. Your cover letter should be in the body of an e-mail. Cover letters that do not adhere to professional standards will disqualify the submission from further consideration.

Our only real request is that the setting, anyplace outside of the United States be the catalyst for your story! You pick the genre. Stories must adhere to the following guidelines.

Standard Manuscript format:
File saved in Word format (.doc) or (.rtf)
8 ½ x 11 page
Times New Roman 12pt font/black
1-inch margin on all sides/ 1.5 line spacing
Align text left, do not justify (aligning text both left and right)
Header containing title, author name, and page number
Capital letters at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns
Indent new paragraphs 0.3. Do not add blank line between paragraphs.
Show scene breaks with * * * * centered in the appropriate line.

All cover letters must include:
Name (and pseudonym if applicable)
Mailing address
Phone number
E-mail address (required)
Web address (required)

*Winners under 18 years of age must show parent's permission prior to contract.
Previous Winners:
June 2007 -- Coming Soon!
May 2007 -- No Contest
April 2007 -- No Contest
March 2007 -- Janelle Dakota -- Hear the Wind Blow (Fanciful)
February 2007 -- Yvonne Walus -- Small Price to Pay (Frisky)
January 2007 -- Elysabeth Eldering -- The Tulip Kiss (Frigid)
December 2006 -- Dan Strohschien -- The Naughty List (Festive)
November 2006 -- Jamie Summers -- A True Friend (Fatal)
October 2006 -- C.A. Verstraete -- The Witch Tree (Freaky)

Fast fiction contest on Echelon

Okay, so today is April Fool's day - and this is not a joke - Echelon Press has posted the next fast fiction contest and the theme - Fast and Foolish - Jane and I had a thought this would be the theme - so write on - it is very fast. You have to submit by April 12, with winner announced on April 14, and story published on April 19; the foolish catalyst has to be a lie or joke (in honor of April Fool's days jokes abounding today).

Short stories are fun and can lead to publication (is how I got my second story submitted to publication - Karen was impressed enough to offer me a contract on the story) - Anyone interested, just check out www.echelonpress.com - scroll down to the bottom of the home page (second block of news) - and you will find all the guidelines needed for the story. Good luck to you all - see you in the postings - E :)