Erica’s Comments (group member since Jan 10, 2017)

Erica’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Margaret wrote: "Congratulations!"

Thank you, Margaret!

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Congratulations, Erica!! Huge Hugs!"

Thank you, Sam! Huge hugs back!

Anna wrote: "Oh Erica! On the US Amazon Kindle page for this book you have a banner - #1 New Release (in your genre).

Well done."

Thanks, Anna! I took a screenshot! 😁

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Oh, what a cutie! Wishing you the best of sales and success. Hugs"

Thank you so much, Sam! I hope you have been doing well. **Hugs**

Anna wrote: "Love the cover - brings a smile to my face!"

Thank you, Anna!

EXCITING BOOK NEWS!!!



Talking Tales book 7, "Talking Tales: A Llama Stole My Flashlight," is now available for purchase on Amazon!! https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Tales-Llama.../dp/0997855576/

I would really appreciate help spreading the news! THANK YOU! ❤️☺️

I wrote up a Goodreads blog article for this event and wanted to share it here. :) https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

Here is the event link for the second event page (Facebook only allows events to be 15 days long so I have to create a new event every 15 days). I would really appreciate any help you can give sharing the second event link. Thank you to everyone who has participated and helped share the first event!!! https://www.facebook.com/events/10567...

Wow! Thank you to everyone who is helping host or spread the word about this event! We are getting a lot of positive feedback from kids and their parents and today is only day 1.

I am lining up authors for April so if you or anyone you know is interested, please contact me.

https://www.facebook.com/events/16339...

Thanks, Melissa! How long is your book free for? I will share it on my social media pages. :)

I am really excited for this! I think it is a great opportunity for our books to reach a new audience. And I hope above all else that we will brighten some children's days during this difficult time. :)

I put it up on the IAC and NI pages earlier. I will get the post out to some of the children's author fb group pages this evening. My daughter is using my computer for schoolwork, and my Facebook app on my phone isn't cooperating with me right now. lol Thanks for the tips!

Thank you, Anita!

Here is the event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/16339...

We would love help sharing it on social media! In addition, I am hoping to make this event longer than 1 week. If you know any children's authors who may be interested, feel free to send them my way. :) Thanks!!

Our schools are closed statewide through the end of the month when they will reassess. We only have a handful confirmed cases in the metro St. Louis area, none in my county, but they are taking precautions seriously. Restaurants, bars, and most small stores have closed or switched to call in, pay by phone/online, and curbside pick-up.

Latest from my part time nursing home job, we are asked to avoid ALL crowds outside of work, including going to the store. Pretty much just work and home. They have banned all staff from the buildings that is not needed for direct patient care.

I am sorry to hear everything you business is going through, Carole. :(

Thank you everyone! I am planning to start the event on Monday next week. I will have a Facebook event page set up with links for all the videos. I will manage all of that.

All you need to do it record a video of you reading one of your children's books to our young audience at home. In addition to reading your story, you are welcome to lead an instructional home activity related to your book, share some fun facts, or anything else you think may be fun for kids. If you are an illustrator, you are welcome to do an easy illustration tutorial with our little ones instead. It is completely up to you how much or little you want to do.

Try to keep your video under 20 minutes. I will assign everyone a different day and we will feature a new video and author each day. Once your video is done, upload it to youtube or your author facebook page on your assigned day. You should also be able to schedule your video to go live on either of these platforms on your feature day. I will share the video link to the event page once it is live.

So to sum it up:
1. Make a video (you can mention being home from school, but please do not mention COVID-19. There is enough of that news going around and we want this to be a positive escape). :)

2. Schedule or plan to post your video on Youtube or Facebook on your assigned day.

3. Email or message your video link to me once it is live so I can share it on the event page.

That's it! Pretty simple. I will handle everything else. If you decide you want to do anything that involves audience interaction, be sure to let the viewers know where to comment (youtube, your facebook page, etc) so that you will be sure to see the comments.

If you plan to participate, please email me with your author name, the name of the book you will be reading, and let me know if there are any days you prefer for your feature. They will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis. ericagrahamauthor@gmail.com

Thanks everyone! Looking forward to bringing some extra happiness to kids at home with you! :)

Thanks, Sam! I've been brainstorming ways to help children and parents through this. We can always use some help promoting the event once we get it planned. :) Hope you are doing well. hugs!

Hi, everyone! As many of you may know, schools around the world are closing because of Coronavirus precautions. Many parents, including myself, are finding themselves frantically looking for e-learning opportunities. I would like to organize a free event (preferably on Facebook) where kids can read with authors. I am open to ideas, but would like to get this started by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

Please let me know if you are a children's author who would be interested in participating.

Here is what I am thinking. Each author will be assigned a day. On that day, you will have "storytime." You will be asked to upload a video of you reading one of your books. This can be an audio recording, a video of you reading a physical copy, or even a video of the pages of your book with voice over. Do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

I would love to open this to illustrators too. If anyone would like to take a day to do an illustration tutorial for kids, that would be awesome!

Please let me know what you think and share your ideas! We want to make this fun while keeping it simple. :)

I live near St Louis, but on the Illinois side of the river. They just closed pre-kindergarten through 12th grade schools, private and public, statewide through the end of March. Most colleges have already switched to online instruction. Not quite sure how online instruction will work for Pre-K and kindergarten, but I guess we are about to find out!

Went to buy toilet paper yesterday (because I legitimately needed toilet paper). My 15 minute run turned into a couple hours. The shelves are EMPTY! I am on edge about it, not as much for fear for myself and my family since our symptoms will likely be mild, but more for the residents in the nursing homes that I work in on the weekends. They started limiting and restricting visitors in the nursing homes in the St. Louis area over the last few days. Just hoping we are able to keep it out of the facilities.

Many schools are preparing to switch to online classes and multiple universities have already made the change. Large events are being canceled. In fact, they just announced fans will not be allowed at the upcoming March Madness basketball games, WHICH IS HUGE! They also cancelled our downtown St. Patrick's Day parade.

Like Carole, I feel our local government is taking serious precautions and they have plans ready to set in action should conditions change.

I am making sure I have enough basic necessities in case region wide quarantines are implemented. We have 1 confirmed case in St Louis, but the young lady's father and sister violated quarantine orders and attended a very crowded public dance. They claim that they were never given quarantine orders. I am don't know whether or not that is true, but there is a possibility we could see a large outbreak here in the next couple weeks.