Writers on the Move’s April 2011 Tour Schedule

VBT Writers on the Move ~ Writing, marketing, and book information through author and writer showcasing. This is also the place to learn all about our promotion and marketing driven group.

Writers on the Move’s April 2011 Tour Schedule

1st Karen Cioffi is featuring Elysabeth Eldering

2nd Kathy Stemke is featuring Robert Medak

3rd Stephen Tremp is featuring Karen Cioffi

4th Margaret Fieland is featuring Jennifer Turner

5th Carolyn Howard-Johnson is featuring Martha Swirzinski

6th Nancy Famolari is featuring Jennifer Gladen

7th Debra Eckerling is featuring Virginia Grenier

8th Martha Swirzinski is featuring Mari Taylor

9th Heidi Thomas is featuring Kevin McNamee

10th Dallas Woodburn is featuring Carolyn Howard-Johnson

11th Maggie Ball is featuring Kathy Stemke

12th Virginia Grenier is featuring Stephen Tremp

13th Kevin McNamee is featuring Nancy Famolari

14th Elysabeth Eldering is featuring Donna McDine

15th Marietta Taylor is featuring Shelby Patrick

16th Robert Medak is featuring Margaret Fieland

17th Donna McDine is featuring Heidi Thomas

18th Shelby Patrick is featuring Dallas Woodburn

19th Jennifer Gladen is featuring Jennifer Wylie

20th Jenny Turner is featuring Maggie Ball

21st Jennifer Wylie is featuring Deb Eckerling

When visiting and leaving comments, kindly please leave your blog URL so I can visit you and follow you back.

Thank you for your time and interest.

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Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Interested in a Sweet Deal - Visit Elysabeth Eldering

Children's Author, Elysabeth Eldering is offering a sweet deal at her blog for a limited time. Visit today and see what all the excitement is about.

http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com/2010/05/special-deal-limited-time-only.html

Thank you in advance for your interest.

Summer Reading Blog Talk Radio Show

Summer Reading Blog Talk Radio Show

Tune in every Wednesday, starting June 24, for seven weeks of fun and getting to learn more about children's authors. The Red River Writers will present five authors each week as per the schedule below. This is a facebook event but the link on the title will take you to the blogtalkradio site where you can listen to the shows. All comments will be pulled from the facebook event wall (looking for kids to ask questions of the authors, which will be read on the air).

All references are to the facebook event page. To leave comments on the event's wall, you must have a facebook account. The call-in number and the blogtalkradio site are not part of facebook.

BLOG TALK RADIO SHOW EVENT

Host: Red River Writers - Works of Writers & Artists Worldwide
Type: Music/Arts - Exhibit
Network: Global
Start Time: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 10:00am
End Time: Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 10:00am
Location: Central Time at Online link or by phone number provided in event

Description

The Wall (on the event page on facebook) is reserved for comments from kids ages 2 to 18. All comments left on The Wall will be read over the air at one of the shows. These comments should be either a statement or question. If possible, it needs to be directed to a particular guest. We need only the following information: first name (this can be a nickname), age, and State. Example of a comment: April Robins, is the deer a girl or a boy? (OR) April Robins, I like the picture on your book cover. My name is Austin. I am eight years old. I live in Texas.

Any adult with a question or comment that they would like to ask, can do so at:
Robin Falls Kids Story Time Questions

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WIN 20+ free Children's or Young Adult book! Go find the following book covers in the “Photo” section and leave a comment:

I'LL TUCK YOU IN, DEER by April Robins
THE MOONQUEST by Mark David Gerson
JANOOSE THE GOOSE by J.D. Holiday
REBEL IN BLUE JEANS by Beverly Stowe McClure
BERTHA SPEAKS OUT by Fran Lewis
WHERE IS GOD, GRANDFATHER? by Candy O'Donnell
SILLY KITTY by Irene Brodsky
THE GREAT DOG WASH by Shellie Braeuner
GONE FROM THESE WOODS by Donny Bailey Seagraves
DOGGIE DAY CAMP: Verb and Adverb Adventures by Cynthia Gagnon Reeg
SUMMER LOVIN' by Laurie J. Edwards
THE CURSE OF ADDY MCMAHON by Katie Davis
MYTHIKAS ISLAND by Diana Hurwitz
ROAR OF A SNORE by Marsha Diane Arnold
DAY'S END LULLABY by Karen Cioffi-Ventrice
ACROSS THE POND by Barry Eva
HOORAY FOR THE CIRCUS by Ginger Devine

Margot Finke intends to give all who call in a FREE Audio of her reading one of her stories + illustrations.

April Robins will give away 3 copies of "Keeper of Happy Faces" in a drawing taken from comments on "The Wall."

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GOOD MORNING ROBIN FALLS KIDS!

I want to welcome you into our Summer Reading Program for school age kids. We have a wonderful line up of Children’s and Young Adult Authors who will read from their books to you. Many will even tell you how their story came to life. Some will read a story to you that has not been published. We will call those are “Unread” stories. This means that you are one of the first to hear them. The book covers of their books they are reading from are posted under“Photos.” You can learn more about each author at their website or blog list under “Links.”

Robin Falls Kids Story Time Host are April Robins, Barbara M. Hodges, Dellani Oakes, J.D. Holiday, and Laurie Zieber.

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June 24 - Children's Book Authors, and their books they are reading from, at 10 am Central
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Elysabeth Eldering - "Train of Clues" (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series
Barbara Ehrentreu - "The Trouble with Follow the Leader"
Ginger DeVine - "Hooray for the Circus"
Dawn Stephens - "The Little Pot"
Margot Finke - "Rattlesnake Jam"
Jay A. Miller - "Bingo the Banjo Picking Bear"

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July 8 - Children's Book & Young Adult Authors, and their books they are reading from, at 10 am Central
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Edna Cabcabin Moran - "THE SLEEPING GIANT: A Tale From Kaua'i"
Karen Cioffi-Ventrice - "Day's End Lullaby"
Jan D. Holiday - "Janoose the Goose"
Sue Dent - "Forever Richard"
Mj Gillot - "Zola Yearned for an eXcellent Waffle: A Backwards Alphabet Story"
Laurie J. Edwards - “Summer Lovin”

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July 15 - Children's Books & Young Adult Authors, and their books they are reading from, at 10 am Central
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Linda Bryan - "The Sound Snatcher, How the vacuum got its Noise."
Candy O'Donnell - "Where is God, Grandfather?"
Laurie Zieber - "Do You Know what I Know?"
Cynthia Gagnon Reeg - "Doggie Day Camp: Verb and Adverb Adventures"
Scott Heydt - Mice Don't Taste Like Chicken (Due out Spring 2010)
Judy Cox - "Mrs. Millie Goes to Philly!"

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July 22 - Young Adult Authors, and their books they are reading from at 10 am Central
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Donny Bailey Seagraves - "Gone From These Woods"
Barry Eva - "Across the Pond"
Mark David Gerson - "The MoonQuest"
L. Diane Wolfe - "Circle of Friends, Book III...James"
Dellani Oakes - "Indian Summer"
Vonda Skinner Skelton - "Bitsy & The Mystery" series for kids

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July 29 - Children's Books & Young Adult Authors, and their books they are reading from at 10 am Central
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Shellie Braeuner - "The Great Dog Wash"
Beverly Stowe McClure - "Rebel in Blue Jeans"
Fran Lewis - "Bertha Speaks Out"
Irene Brodsky - "Silly Kitty"
Diana Hurwitz - "Mythikas Island"
Katie Davis - "The Curse of Addy McMahon"
Barbara M. Hodges - Wynd Stallion (Work in Progress)

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Aug 5 - Children's Books & Young Adult Authors, and their books they are reading from at 10 am Central
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Lisa Cottrell-Bentley - "Wright on Time"
Marsha Diane Arnold - “Roar of a Snore” & “Prancing, Dancing Lily”
Crystalee Calderwood - "Angeline Jellybean"
Deb Lund - "Monsters on Machines"
Virginia S Grenier - "Babysitting SugarPaw"
April Robins - "I'll Tuck You in, Deer"
Michelle Buckman - "My Beautiful Disaster"

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To attend and participate in the shows dial the
Call-in Number: (646) 649-1005
To view or hear the shows online, go here

Inspiration for JGDS series by Elysabeth Eldering

I am pleased to have Elysabeth Eldering with me today to share with us all her
inspiration for her Junior Geography Detective Squad. Elysabeth will be joining us throughout the day to answer any questions you may have.

Take it away Elysabeth:

My inspirations came from many places. The inspiration for this series came about originally from a story ("Train of Clues") I entered in a fan contest for Armchair Interviews for an upcoming anthology, "Silence of the Loons". At the time, I was doing book reviews for the site and one of the other ladies who did reviews also saw the contest and kind of dared me to enter the contest. Basically, it was "I'll enter if you enter" kind of thing. I told her I'd think about it.

I hadn't really written much before this, so put it on a back burner and kind of went on my way. While on a mother-daughter trip to Stone Mountain (GA), I was telling the other mothers about the contest and gave them the list of words that we had to incorporate into the story (at least four of the eight - a wig, a headless Barbie, a tattoo, a page from the dictionary, the scent of Obsession, the sound of a train whistle, footprints in the snow and a soiled ballet slipper). One of the girls piped up and said, "Oh, I know. You could make it like a birthday party scavenger hunt on a train or something like that." I thought about it for maybe a minute and then pushed it back out of my mind again. About a week later, I was asked by my friend again if I were going to enter the contest and responded that I didn't really know what to write because I wasn't so good at the writing like she was.

Well, with her encouragement and a couple other friends, I hammered out a story. She and I exchanged stories and edited for each other and gave pointers or suggestions on how to make things better. The contest deadline drew near. I decided to visit my local writing group (I actually have two chapters I could attend, but had already been to one and didn't feel they were helpful at all, so decided the group wasn't for me) and take my story for critique. I was devastated from their comments, mostly because I wasn't sure what to expect as I'd never experienced this kind of group before and I felt they didn't really get the story at all. I came home and cried. Another online friend talked me out of throwing it away; she told me to basically put it aside (I still had a week before the deadline) for a few days and then go back and reread their comments and think about all the things they said to me at the meeting, and then act upon what my gut was telling me. I did. She was right. The comments weren't that bad and the story did need some fixing up. I fixed and entered the contest.

Waiting was hard because we had no way of knowing how many people entered the contest and if what we (my friend the reviewer) had written was even what the judges were looking for.

"Silence of the Loons" was released and the winners were announced. My friend won first place. I placed second runner up, which was third on the listing, but the prize was the exact same thing as first runner up, a copy of "Silence of the Loons", so I say I won a shared second place. I was ecstatic to say the least. My first ever contest entered and I placed. I had talked to my two writer friends about making it a children's series; they were both encouraging to say the least. I looked into SCBWI and thought maybe I should get the opinion of an editor, if not for anything else, a direction. I found an editor, emailed her explaining the story and what I wanted to do - make each state the mystery destination by giving clues that would eventually lead the readers to guess the state. I started my research while she was working on formulating a plan or a direction for me to go.

When she finally sent me the information, I was totally in agreement. It felt right. I played around with it for a bit and then put it on the back burner again, just because I wasn't really ready to jump into a series. I couldn't find the way to make it so it wasn't so boring and nothing really clicked or fell into place for me. All the while the series was sitting on the back burner, I was still gathering my information.

Jump ahead a couple of years to a call for submission on a Yahoo! forum for stories for a new mystery site - the 5-Minute Mystery site - where the stories had to have the potential to be used in schools eventually and had to be short. I contacted the person who did the call for submissions and asked if the stories had to be murder mysteries or if they could be a mystery where it was kind of figuring out a place. I explained to him about my geography mystery series I was wanting to write but wasn't sure how it was going to get done as it would take a lot of time to do every state but my goal was to make sure the state was the mystery and that the clues led to the state. We conversed and he put in contact with his partner, who, I found out, works for an educational publisher. I wrote a couple of stories (two or three states) in different formats, attempting to find the best idea to create such short stories and get enough information in to make this work. They were, after all, offering $50 per story and if I did all fifty, I'd have received $2500. What I pictured and what they were wanting just weren't meshing.

Back to the drawing board. I was in another Yahoo! forum and met Aidana through her portfolio of drawings. I sent her an email about one of her drawings that just really fascinated me. We started chatting. I told her about my idea for the states series and she hooked me up with one publisher. I signed a contract and everything but then things fell through and there were problems abounding left and right and I didn't feel my books would ever get published. Vivian approached me and all but said she was interested in the series in not so many words. I had to get out of my contract with publisher #1 and move quickly to get with Vivian. I did so, and a couple of months later, State of Wilderness was born. It was great going through the whole process from start to finish and watching my small dream of making my very first contest-entered story become a series. Given that first break, I worked on my format more than the stories themselves.

Once I had the right format, I figured the stories would just kind of fall in place. The handheld game idea came and it worked. When I finished the first one, before it was in published stage, I let my 16-year-old daughter read it, because I know she doesn't like to read, just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. She read it in one sitting, which was a miracle in and of itself, and afterwards kind of gushed about wanting more. I know you think she is biased because she's my daughter, but trust me, getting her to read anything is not an easy task. She won't read for school, and when she checks books out from the library, they sit here until they are due and returned, unread. Since book 1 came out, we have had a few obstacles and problems getting book 2 out, but I have faith that the new law that is about to be effective and will affect many small businesses and larger ones including the publishing industry will work out and that we can continue with the series.

My original inspiration came from a mother-daughter trip and went from there. So to those GAs from the church, I owe a lot of thanks. They do get acknowledged in the books as being my original inspiration. For the encouragement and talks and edits from my online friends I also owe a lot. Without them, I would have given up and never entered the first contest. And for my kids, I can't thank them enough for being who they are since my brother-sister characters are based on their personalities a bit.

Inspirations come from many places and if you follow the encouraging people around you, you never know what will come from it. Keep writing, keep following your heart and remember, you never know where the adventure will take you but it's worth the risk.


Contact info:
email: eeldering@gmail.com
blog: http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
website: http://junior-geography-detective-squad.weebly.com/
Publisher's website: http://4rvpublishingllc.com

Book 1, State of Wilderness, available through publisher and author with teacher's guide available through special orders via Vivian at president@4rvpublishingllc.com. (Teacher's guide is available as a downloadable file at the low price of $2 for individuals and homeschoolers who order one copy of the book through Vivian or as a free downloadable file for schools who order 10 copies of a book.)

Guest Author Tour - Elysabeth Eldering to Visit “Write What Inspires You!”

Guest Author Tour - Elysabeth Eldering to Visit “Write What Inspires You!”

Elysabeth Eldering, author of the new series Junior Geography Detective Squad will be stopping by and posting a guest post at Donna McDine's blog - Write What Inspires You! http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com/ on Tuesday, January 20th. State of Wilderness is the first in the series and is now available through all regular markets and State of Quarries should be released in January.

BIOGRAPHY FOR ELYSABETH ELDERING:

With a childhood spent traveling the globe, writer Elysabeth Eldering developed a passion for geography. Growing up in a military family, Elysabeth lived in Japan, Germany, New York, Kentucky, and Texas before her family finally settled in a small town in South Carolina. Elysabeth, who lives in Honea Path, put her globetrotting skills to work in the Junior Geography Detective Squad's 50-state mystery trivia series.

Published by 4RV Publishing, the series made its debut in summer 2008 with State of Wilderness. The Junior Geography Detective Squad will continue to put their mystery-solving talents to work in each state, challenging young readers on their knowledge of the nation's geography and interesting facts about each state. State of Quarries is next in the line-up.

The mother of three - an adult son and a teen-aged son and daughter - juggles a schedule that includes volunteering with her children's school activities, such as marching band and band competitions. An avid pet lover, Elysabeth is caretaker for the family's three dogs and a rabbit named Easter. She's active in the Greenville chapters of Sisters in Crime and the SC Writers Workshop and has judged entries for the Derringers Awards competition.

Elysabeth entered her first writing contest on a dare from a friend. Since then, the prize-winning writer has received awards from Armchair Interviews and Echelon Press. Her most recent story, “Bride and Seek,” was published in the SC Writers Workshop anthology The Petigru Review and is available on http://www.amazon.com/. She has an article on editing and self publishing, also with Armchair Interviews.

To learn more about the Junior Geography Detective Squad, visit http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com/. Contact the author at eeldering@gmail.com.

Elysabeth will be on hand to answer any questions you may have on Tuesday, January 20th at Write What Inspires You! – http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com/.

As an added bonus for those of you who leave comments for Elysabeth are immediately entered to win a USA map puzzle and some state related items in return for your interest in the Junior Geography Detective Squad series (State of Wilderness is the first in the series and all books will be titled State of ... with the word pertinent to the clues and other information about the state itself.

Write What Inspires You! FREE Newsletter

Friendly Reminder:

The debut issue of my new FREE newsletter, Write What Inspires You! will be released December 2008. I already have over 40 subscribers and would like remind you that if you are interested in being an interview subject, have great news to announce, or would like to contribute an article to the Reflections or Dreams column please contact me at: dmcdine@optonline.net.

The line-up for December is:

Author Interview, Mayra Calvani
Illustrator Interview, Dawn Phillips
Book Review of Junior Geography Detective Squad - State of Wilderness by Elysabeth Eldering
Reflections or Dreams, by myself
Proclaim your Successess! - several announcements by fellow writers.

Have an inspirational day!