Finally Home released

Finally Home is now availsble in all formats. Please visit my website to order a copy or you can get your ebook copy on kindle, nook and smashwords. If you order a copy from any place other than directly from me and would like it "signed" and a personal message added, you can request a kindlegraph here.

Those of you who have preordered a copy, you should have yours by the end of next week - see you in the postings - E :)

Kindlegraph (again)

For all you published authors out there, I'd like you to consider putting your books on kindlegraph. You do not need to have your books as ebooks nor do you have to have a kindle to use the service. It is free to everyone. It is a great way to connect authors to their readers. What you will need is a twitter account and either your AISN (this is amazon's own number, which is a 10-digit amazon assigned number) or the 10-digit ISBN and a valid email address. If you aren't already listed there, I encourage you all to put your books there and start signing your kindlegraphs to your readers.

Readers don't need a kindle either as they can have their kindlegraphs sent directly to a valid email address. The kindlegraphs are PDFs that come in with the cover of the book requested plus a personalized message and a signature from the author. You can print these files out and place in your print copy or you can have them sent to your kindle and start a collection of your kindlegraphs.

So far, of the 13 copies of "The Proposal" I've sold only one request for a kindlegraph has come in. If anyone purchased a copy (either when it was offered as a freebie through smashwords or on kindle (2 copies sold here) or nook (one copy sold here)) and would like a "signed" file for their purchase, they can still request the kindlegraph as the books won't be taken off unless of course I unpublish them). "The Proposal (an April Fools Day story)" is available for all ereaders for the low price of only 99 cents. All my state books are listed on kindlegraph even though they are not available as ebooks. Check out my personal author site here.

Check out kindlegraph and see what authors you may know on there (over 2500 authors listed right now). Get your books signed without having purchased directly from the author - come join us today - and get personalized and e-signed books today - E :)


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You may find Elysabeth's books at her website.

BOOKS AVAILABLE or COMING SOON:
Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy ebook (coming soon)
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook (coming soon)
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook (coming soon)

For more on the 50-state, mystery series, you can check out the books here.

Skype visit for NaNoWriMo

Today, I had a Skype visit with some 5th and 6th graders in Washington State. They are all writing stories for NaNo and I got to share my experiences as being a published author and how Finally Home came about from a NaNo writing challenge (although it was started the middle of November and ended the middle of December, it was written in 30 days and accomplished the goal of 56,000 words). As the challenge is to write your stories in November, I didn't get recognized with a "winner's certificate" from NaNo but I got the satisfaction of writing something over 10,000 words story wise. I'm not sure I have any more novels in me but I'm thankful for the one I do have and to get it out.

I was told that after the visit, the students wrote like crazy on their stories and one student actually exceeded his 3000 word goal, so yay!! - I inspired them to write and to meet and exceed their own personal goals.

Thank you, Mrs. N, for allowing me to be a part of your NaNo class time - see you in the postings - E :)

Rewriting completed manuscripts, a good idea or not?

Check out my posting on the Writers on the Move blog about whether or not rewriting a completed manuscript is a good idea. Did I make the right move? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Don't forget order your copy of Finally Home and receive a free crocheted bookworm bookmark in your choice of autumn, Christmas, primary, spring, summer or winter colors (all are varigated colors representing the seasons except for the primary colored ones - I just happened to like it and so decided to add it to the mix of seasons). Orders can be placed directly on my website and copies are only $15 which includes shipping. If you plan to give a signed copy as a gift, now is the time to order your copy so that you have it in time to put under the tree. See you all in the postings - E :)

It's here!

Finally Home proof copy is here. If you would like a copy for a Christmas present, now is the time to order. Once I go through the book, I will be releasing it to the public, and since I will be out of town a good bit next week (from Wednesday through Sunday, but not all in the same place - lol), I will be placing an order early Friday morning (from all the orders received between now and Friday morning) to ensure I have copies of books on hand for the Savannah's Children's book festival next weekend and to send out to all who have placed their order early. If you do not place your order with me (send me an email - eeldering@gmail.com with Finally Home order in the subject line) by mid morning Friday, your copy may not get to you in time for Christmas since I will have to place the order for copies after Thanksgiving, but it is possible that your copy could be received in time for Christmas. Usually I need a 2-1/2 to 3-week lead to order books, get them, sign them and place back in the mail. All orders placed between now and Friday will also receive a free bookworm bookmark in your choice of autumn, Christmas, primary, spring, summer or winter (one per book ordered, so if you ordered 6 copies, you could request one of each color - lol). Please indicate which one you would like when placing your order and also remember to tell me to whom to make the book.

Copies are $13 plus $2 for shipping per copy for the first 2 copies; 3 or 4 copies shipping is $5; and over 4 copies shipping will be $10. If you want to order from my website, you can check out the book page here and place an order that way. Email and website orders are direct from me and will be sent from me. If you do not want to email me but order directly through paypal, you just need to use my email addy as my paypal addy. If you want to order from amazon.com, check back the first of next week to place your order. Remember if you order a copy from any place other than a direct order and you want it "signed", you will need to go to kindlegraph and request your personalized note. You do not need a kindle to request a kindlegraph; these can be sent to any valid email addy (they come in as a PDF).

For advanced praises on Finally Home, stop over at Ms. Faye Tollison's site and check out her September postings. See you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home preorders

Preorders for Finally Home are being taken now. Any order between now and Friday of this week will receive a free bookworm bookmark. Orders may be made from the website or directly through paypal (eeldering@gmail.com). Please indicate to whom to make the books to and which bookworm you would like - autumn, Christmas, primary, spring, summer or winter.

Here are the bookworms for color identification:

See you all in the postings - E :)

Daylight Savings Time explained

This was a pretty interesting video explaining daylight savings time, why some countries observe it and why others don't - one of my friends on plurk shared it with us - I hope you all enjoy - E :)

Finally Home proof copy ordered

So money is in the bank right at 1 AM. I jumped on createspace and have ordered the proof copy for Finally Home and the republishing proof of Train of Clues. I also ordered 3 more copies of each of the state stories that are published since I have two events next week, back to back. The hope is that I will have my proof copies by Wednesday or Thursday of this week and will be able to release Finally Home officially Friday and order a few copies to have on hand for the Savannah Children's Book Festival the weekend of the 19th. That will be my official launch date if all goes well.

I am getting my new van today - and I can't wait. After that I have tons of errands to run and then come home to work and be available for the class visit with Mr. Hughes' class. See you all in the postings - E :)

SinC went to the dogs

Our upstate SC Sisters in Crime meeting went to the dogs on Thursday evening. We had two K-9 officers and their dogs, Nemo and Nero, come visit us and demonstrate how the dogs are trained to attack and seek out drugs. Nero is a German Shepherd and Nemo is a Dutch Shepherd. I'd never seen a Dutch Shepherd before but that is one beautiful dog. Nero did his job and then wanted to play with his toy and wanted someone to play with him but we were all too fascinated to play. Nemo was brought in and found the two hidden bags of drugs - one in the electrical box and one in under a metal container (like an empty propane container). The drug dogs are trained for 600 hours - that is a 6-month training at 10 hours a day - for their respective purposes whether it be drug searching, bomb searching, scents or whatever. Shepherds make the best dog for attack dogs because of the way their snout is made - long and narrow. When they clamp down on a bad guy, they hold strong until the handler commands them to release. The "bites" are not what causes the damage since they are basically immobilizing a person when they clamp down on your arms or legs or whatever body part they do (necks, face and groins are off limits); it's the person trying to pull away from the animal that causes the damage. So, be warned if you are committing a crime and a dog is put on you to attack, don't fight it; you will receive less damage to your physical being than if you fight it.

The information was very good and if I were writing stories for adults (oh wait, I have three stories for adults, one is now available as an ebook - The Proposal; and two more are coming soon - lol) I probably would use some of the information we get from our meetings. I love our local SinC group for the variety of guest speakers brought in to provide the true mystery writers such great information. We have had everyone from lawyers to FBI agents, arson inspectors to forensic psychologists, weapons experts and other mystery authors come to speak since I've been a member (about the last 4 years or so).

I encourage anyone in the upper state of South Carolina or even North Carolina who either writes mysteries or loves reading mysteries to visit our group which meets the first Thursday of the month at the Runway Cafe in Greenville, SC. Meetings start at 6:15 (with dinner being served starting about 6:30) and our guest speakers starting about 7 pm. See you all in the postings and maybe at one of our meetings - E :)

Gifts for the Holidays

Are you at a loss of what to give that someone special in your life? Do you need some ideas? Here are few from my friend, Batya, and her websites to include soul mates, gifts, sayings, and indoor gardening.

Something everyone uses - Calendars.

Soul mate calendar

Indoor Gardening

BatyaSez calendar

If you would like something a bit out of the ordinary and don't want to give a calendar, how about checking out her store.

For unique and well-chosen gifts for all occasions, her Best Meaningful Gift page is the place to be.



Of course, we all know that books from indie authors also make great gifts for the readers in your life.

If you like a little romantic suspense, my friend Faye Tollison has her first story, To Tell The Truth, available here.

My illustrator, Heather, also has a book available and is working on publishing more books.

The Writers on the Move group has just published a holiday list on the blog of what's available from indie authors. Please check out what is out there.

There are many of my friends who have books available but they are too numerous to list here, so if you have friends who like to read, try finding out who their favorite author(s) is(are) and think about gifting them with a book.

My books are available through Amazon or can be ordered directly from me. Check out both my state series and my other books. I also have some bookworms on my state series website under the Gifts tab. Remember if you order any book, not just ebooks, from any source other than a direct sale from me and would like them personalized and signed, please visit my kindlegraph page and make your request. I love personalizing my books as that is part of the fun of being an author. Hope you enjoy this short list of gift giving ideas for the special people in your life. E :)

Finally Home revisions completed!

I put the final touches on Finally Home tonight. The manuscript has been sent to Heather for her magic touches and hopefully next weekend I'll be able to upload to Nook, Smashwords, and Kindle so it will be available as a download first. Hopefully the print version will be shortly thereafter. I will order the proof copy on the 7th of November and should have that by the end of the week so that I can sign off and say that Finally Home is published.

Don't forget once it is published, you can request an e-signature/personalized message (kindlegraph) here. You don't have to have a kindle to receive a kindlegraph but you do need a twitter account to log in to kindlegraph and start requesting them. A valid email addy will get the file sent to you as PDF.

For more stories and what's coming, visit my website. See you all in the postings - E :)

kindlegraph and The Proposal

As of this morning, I've had 12 downloads of the Proposal (that is including the sample downloads too) with 7 copies "sold" with the free coupon and no requests for a kindlegraph. I have also sold one copy on amazon's kindle since posting the story Monday. If you would like a free e-signature and personalized message from me, please don't forget to go here and make a request for your kindlegraph. You do not need a kindle to request a kindlegraph, just a valid email addy where the PDF file will be sent. You do need to have a twitter account to sign in and request your kindlegraphs but other than that, everything is free. Look around at the over 2000 authors already there; who knows? you may find an author you have been reading and have wanted a personalized copy of their book. I would love to sign kindlegraphs for all my followers who have downloaded my story. I also will be posting my other stories as soon as I have covers for them. I hope all of you who have downloaded the story have enjoyed it. Please let me know by leaving a comment here or on smashwords or amazon - thanks - E :)

Finally Home is in the final stages of revisions and should definitely be to Heather this weekend for her magic - stay tuned for more on that - see you all in the postings - E :)

The Proposal on Kindle and Smashwords

I have posted my short story, The Proposal, on kindle for the low price of only 99 cents. It will be coming to smashwords soon. Hope you all will stop by and download a copy and enjoy an April Fools Day humorous romance story.

UPDATE (10/24/2011): The Proposal is now up on Smashwords and I'm giving away copies for free - all you need is the coupon code here and you can download the story to any reading device you have - Link to book: The Proposal; Your coupon code is EY62X (not case sensitive). Since putting up late yesterday afternoon, I've had two persons get the download and I thank you both. Hope you all enjoy it.

For your free e-signature and personalized message, please visit my kindlegraph page and make a request. You only need a twitter account to sign up for kindlegraphs and you can request from over 2000 authors right now with more being added daily/weekly.

Three other stories will be added in the coming weeks, all for 99 cents, except I'm sure I'll submit one of them as a freebie for 2 weeks and then will revert it back to 99 cents. I'll probably run a few contests in the upcoming weeks for prizes. Stay tuned - E :)

Sugarfoot Festival/signage/book covers

The Sugarfoot festival, which used to be called the Honey Soppin' Festival, was held this weekend. I decided next year if I do the festival (which I probably will) that I'm going to ask for a spot in the center of the street and I'll set my tent up differently and will hope for more business.

I have a screen tent instead of just a canopy like most vendors/exhibitors do and had closed the back side off which was the sidewalk (I didn't want to have someone come sneaking up behind me when I was in the tent alone). It was cold as Octobers in South Carolina go and windy. I had my tent almost blow over, but thanks to man two spots down from me who happened to have some weights that he connected to my back zipper part which held the tent quite well in place.

Before arriving to my tent this morning, I had to go to the store and pick up a few things, then to the post office and then back to the store because I left my packing tape at home and then to the tent. Hailie had been there almost an hour before I got there. My new banners were at the post office this morning and they look awesome. I did order a stand yesterday so that should be here before my next event. I didn't put the dots/Finally Home banner out because I haven't published the book yet, but did put my new JGDS banner up - albeit without using the foam board I have my other banner on right now. I have a feeling at some point in the future I'm going to have to order another stand so I can have both signs up for all my books and displays.

Here are a few photographs of the table with the two new book covers and Hailie's bows and a few other things. Benjamin is also in one picture as he was arranging some things for me.


These are from Friday's night setup - no sales and very cold, windy evening - I hope that Savannah, which is coming up in about a month, won't be as cold or windy as this weekend.

These are from Saturday's setup and as you can see I added my two new covers I printed out and laminated to put on the table and I shifted things around, actually Hailie shifted things around to put her bows and stuff on the end I had originally put my afghan but it all worked out well and looked good once I finally got to the point of setting up

The Proposal cover

Heather has done it again. The cover for The proposal is right on target - The Proposal is an April Fool's Day marriage proposal with many of practical jokes proposed as well. This is a 3rd place winning story for a contest Armchair Interviews ran a few years ago. So, what do you think? - The perfect cover for the perfect fun story - E :)

Finally Home revisions

Revisions are tedious and time consuming, especially when you need to mull over rewriting complete chapters. I've finally figured out what to do with the two chapters I need to rewrite to get the house back in the spotlight. After completing work and before TV time, there will be a couple of hours of revisions and a final read through so that I can get the story to Heather for her magic. Finally Home should be at least epub'd the beginning of next week but no later than the end of the week; the goal being to have it published in some format before Halloween and then hopefully in print format by the first part of November. I will keep you all posted - thanks for sticking by me and anxiously awaiting new stories. - E :)

Bookmark for Finally Home

After being offline for over 3 days, I got in touch with my wonderful illustrator yesterday (really late last night) and asked her if she could do a bookmark so that I could print out a few for an event next weekend and this is what she came up with - the wording on the back is the back cover blurb for Finally Home. I hope to at least have it epublished this weekend and print published shortly thereafter - at least by the first part of November. Let me know what you think of the bookmark.

Heather does such a wonderful job and she did my bookmark up in under 30 minutes. Then there were a few adjustments to be made (size wise) but when I saw it I knew this was perfect - simple yet says everything it needs to say. As soon as I epub the story, it will be linked on my website so you will know where to find it. Remember if you order any book from online or my website or through amazon, you may go here to request a kindlegraph for an esignature and short, personalized note.

There will be a virtual launch party and of course some prizes and giveaways when the book is print published - so stay tuned for that - E :)

Happenings for October/November

During the next 4 to 6 weeks, there will be a lot occurring for both the JGDS series (see that blog) as well as for my other stories.

I will be participating in a sort of blog tour several times in October and November, hosting authors from the Honey Bee Authors blog as well as have some postings about my upcoming releases there; Geography Awareness week, the Sugarfoot festival (where I hope to announce that Finally Home is in proof copy order status), the SCISA teachers' conference in Columbia, SC; GIS Day in Charlotte, NC; the Savannah Children's book festival in Savannah, GA; and of course the release of four other short stories that had been previously published as ebooks. This is exciting because it means Heather will have four more covers for my stories in that time and I will be getting my name out there more and more.

I am still participating in the Writers on the Move monthly blog postings and this month's article is on revising/revisions (keeping in theme with my almost completed revisions of Finally Home. Check out that article on Wednesday on the Writers on the Move blog. Hopefully you all will gain some insight into the revision process.

Next month's posting will be tied in to Geography Awareness week which is November 13 through the 19.

Revisions are almost completed on Finally Home and I hope to have to Heather this weekend for formatting for both print and ebook. I hope to at least get the story ebook published by the 21st of October and print published shortly after that (at least proof copy ordered by then so that I can release it right before Halloween, since it is set around that time). I am trying to come up with a contest for the release of Finally Home to tie it in to Halloween, but am at a loss right now. I will continue working on a contest and make that announcement as soon as I can. Please just keep checking back to see what is going on with Finally Home and release contest. Spook you all in the postings - E :)

Upstate SC chapter of Sisters in Crime Celebrates 25 years

Sisters in Crime (SinC) is 25 years young this year. The Upstate SC chapter is having a celebration on October 16 with panel discussions, refreshments, book signings, and prizes. For more details, please check out the Upstate SC SinC blog. We would love to see you there. E :)

Banners

Vistaprint is running a freebie ad again (these come in my email about every other day - lol) and I was thinking last night I needed a banner for events now that I have some new/republished stories coming out. This is the design I came up with using their template, but I'm not really sure this is the one I'm going with. I tried keeping it fun and light even though I'm featuring my other stories and not just Finally Home. I'd love to hear from my readers as to what you think of my new banner. I'll be placing the order Friday morning so please comment by Thursday night.

I had originally designed this one but when I went to bed last night, the wheels wouldn't stop turning about adding other stories I'm about to republish so had to come up with the second one. After designing the plain one I'm definitely leaning more towards the dots. Let me know what you think.

(This one is no longer in my portfolio but could easily be added again if you all like this one - but then again, this just has Finally Home and the JGDS series featured on it, so probably not a good idea since I have one specifically for the JGDS series.)

For banners related to the JGDS series, please visit my JGDS blog and vote on your favorite banner. See you all in the postings - E :)