Blue Eagle and me

Quote of the day!

2008-11-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

Just thought the following quote from Maureen Palacios, was very appropriate and I wanted to share it with our readers here. SEJ, www.blueeaglebooks.com

From Shelf Awareness 11/18/08

Quotation of the Day

The 'Real, Urgent Need to Connect' with Young Readers

"Books and reading were integral parts of my life growing up and it's that same love of books I've been able to share with my children. The real, urgent need to connect with children by age nine and turn them onto reading with a good book is underestimated. That's why it's so crucial to support independent booksellers who are able to host author events, donate prizes for silent auctions, and support the community around us."--Maureen Palacios, owner of Once Upon a Time Book Store, Montrose, Calif., in the American Chronicle.

SOME REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ARE SPECIAL

2008-07-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

We just received a review from a young friend in New York. The Principal at the Bronxville School instigated a program where each child described a remarkable book. Roy chose Blue Eagle Meets Double Trouble. The above review was posted on the wall of the elementary school along with the other children’s choices.

Blue Eagle finds a new home

2008-06-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today both Blue Eagle Meets Double Trouble and The Ballad of Blue Eagle are available at the gift shops of the fabulous Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas. This is a wonderful family oriented resort destination with activities for everyone. When I was there yesterday, I could not count the number of young people, parents, youth groups, and grandparents going and coming. We are thrilled to have Blue Eagle books sold in such a prestigious location. If you are in the area, please look for us!

What an endorsement!

2008-05-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, I received a letter from the former Reagan Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush. It will be posted on our web site, http://www.blueeaglebooks.com, in the review section, but first I wanted to share it with the readers here. We are very proud of it.

Dear Steve:

It is a great pleasure to know that another one of the creative yarns your father told me, my sons, and countless others so many years ago along the Guadalupe River is now in publication. Blue Eagle meets Double Trouble continues what you and your son started with The Ballad of Blue Eagle. It is an endearing tale about animals who accept challenges with bravery, dignity, ingenuity, and sometimes a little humor, too.

This cleverly written and wonderfully illustrated book is one that the whole family – from toddler to teen-ager to adult – can enjoy and appreciate time and time again. In its unique and subtle way, the book describes an enduring quality of the American spirit – we are a people who accept a challenge, who are unafraid to do what we think is right during a crisis, no matter how daunting it may be. I can think of no better message to pass along to our children.

Your father was truly a great man for many reasons, not least his ability to simplify a complex world with words and thoughts that children can understand. Everyone in my family who had the good fortune to have heard your father tell his stories is thankful that you and your son continue that tradition so that future generations can enjoy and learn from the tales of Blue Eagle and his friends in Peaceful Valley.

With very best wishes,

Sincerely,

James A. Baker, III

A Seasonal Poem

2008-04-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Some eight or nine years ago, I was walking with my old dog Szusza, when we came upon a neighbor's martin house. The martins had begun to arrive and the sparrows that had been using the house appeared to be getting pushed out. We watched this spectacle for a while and when I got back home I wrote the following poem. It was later published in a book of poems.

The Martins

By: Steven E. Jones

This morning, while taking my usual walk,

My serenity was jolted by flutter and squawk.

I looked up to see what the ruckus was about:

The martins had arrived – sparrows move out!

Each year at this time this scene is repeated,

Seems like the sparrows should claim they were cheated!

Maybe a protest, march on the town,

Hire a great lawyer of bombastic renown.

Their cause is timely, their cause is just,

Those martins are transients, not deserving of trust.

I think it’s an outrage, a travesty, a sham.

What we should have is a government program!

As the cause gains momentum, we’ll have a decree:

The sparrows deserve their own subsidy.

You martins, are selfish, it just isn’t fair,

You can’t have this house, unless you will share!

Now that should make an interesting mess

And maybe lose the martins due to the stress!

And what of the people? What of their woes?

They’re itching and scratching with all those mosquitoes!

Ouisie's Table signing party

2008-04-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

On Sunday March 30, we kicked off Blue Eagle Meets Double Trouble with a signing party given by Elouise and Harry Jones at Ouisie’s Table, a well known restaurant in Houston, Texas. It was a great success, signing well over 100 books and having many children there for the reading. The restaurant served soft drinks, wine and hors d'oeuvres for everyone, which went over very well. When it came time for the reading, they had arranged seating in a sort of an amphitheater and had me sit in a rocking chair to do the reading. This was fun because I love to see the kid’s expressions as I am reading the story. It lets me know they are with me. Afterward, we had dinner with our hosts and it could not have been more delightful. Our heartfelt thanks go out to both of them and to all the personnel at the restaurant.

READING AT ST. FRANCIS DAY SCHOOL

2008-03-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, March 6, we introduced Blue Eagle Meets Double Trouble with a visitation and three readings of our new book. We presented it to the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grades and I think all of them really enjoyed it. Melanie Wallace, the librarian at St. Francis, could not have been nicer or more helpful. We used a power point presentation projected on a large screen and it worked very well. Steven, Jr., the book’s illustrator, ran the projector and computer without a hitch. We had some excellent questions from the students and teachers on writing, illustrating, and publishing. Hope our answers were satisfactory! Several new books were sold and even a few of the original, The Ballad of Blue Eagle, were requested and sold. I want to thank Melanie and the teachers and staff of St. Francis for being such great hosts.

A Birthday Poem

2008-02-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

This poem was included as part of my father-in-law's 100th birthday invitation.

A Century of Service

By Steven E. Jones

The ripple effect; I wish we could know.

How can we tell how far might it go?

How many lives has he touched in his Quest?

Not just his family, but all of the rest!

He’s lived his life as the Lord would dictate

And has shown one and all how we can relate.

One hundred years of preaching…

All those couples he has married.

A century of teaching…

And oh, those friends he has buried.

Building churches to last through the ages,

To count the effects would take pages and pages!

So come help us celebrate this monumental event

And appreciate one hundred years - Heaven Sent!

100 Years Old!

2008-02-07T20:21:00.000-08:00

This past week-end my wife, son, and I celebrated my father-in-law’s 100^th birthday! It was a glorious event with friends and relatives (5 generations) attending in great numbers. My father-in-law is hard of hearing and almost blind, but I would hate to compete with him on mental sharpness or memory! He is a retired pastor, having started half a dozen churches, including physically building them from the purchase of the lot to the last nail in the roof. Accomplished in all areas of construction, as an avocation he would often hire out as a contractor or carpenter. Therefore, many people came who’s lives had been touched in some way by this wonderful man. As he explained to us all on Saturday, February 2^nd, he was celebrating his first century! On Sunday he would start working on the 2^nd century!

As a display for the party, my wife made several posters covering historic events of 1908. Many of the events were hard to believe, did you know that a patent for the first flying machine was applied for in 1908? The majority of us never knew a world without airplanes. Dad saw his first automobile as a young boy. How many remember life without a car? Ford produced their Tin Lizzy in 1908, it sold millions. All the technology advanced through the years to the superb machines of today. But ponder this, about 10% of the people attending the party will never know of a world without the internet! My father in law had to travel by horse drawn wagon to visit a neighbor or to go to town. To inform local people took days, not to mention the state or the nation. Today these young people phone, text message, or email information and instantly it can reach around the world. This can be a blessing and/or a concern; it may turn out to be one of the next generation’s greatest challenges!

The Publishing Game

2007-11-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

November 30, 2007

After 25 years of waiting and working on “The Ballad of Blue Eagle”, we were able to get Synergy Books to publish it. They were to provide the expertise and we supplied the money! We did keep control of the book and the right to terminate for any reason with written notice. It seemed like a reasonable deal because they were providing a national distributor, a printer, a publicist, an artist, and consulting in all areas of the production. Of course Steven, Jr. had done the illustrations and layout and their artist said he would not touch Steven’s work. However, he did consult on the cover design. We dealt with certain individuals, who provided copy to the distributor and through the distributor to the retail book buyers. We were not allowed to have any direct communication with the distributor.

My first concern came up when we had a meeting with the project manager and the publicist. It became apparent that neither of them knew the title of the book, which made me wonder if either of them had bothered to read it. It’s a children’s picture book, it takes ten minutes to read for a slow reader! Then, I flinched when the publicist revealed that he was using “political correctness” to promote the book; “Celebrating diversity through the animal kingdom!” When I questioned them, I was assured that some of this was needed to appeal to the buyers of children’s books. Sometime our first reaction is our best guide.

Next came circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the books were being printed in Columbia, SA and at the time of shipping, they had a trucker’s strike! We had our publicity set for late September and October. Unfortunately, no books were available to any retail outlets for quite some time. All of our efforts were pretty much wasted. We had an announcement party for friends and family at a well know restaurant and sold well over 200 books. Friends asked a freelance writer they knew to do a story on us, and she did an excellent job. It appeared in the Thursday supplement of the Houston Chronicle and gave us some help and support. This article came in November. Our publicist quit at this time, our project manager next, then, shortly thereafter, the project coordinator also left. Maintaining any momentum or continuity was a farce. In the mean time we were lining up churches and schools to do readings and participate in their book fairs. This spread by word of mouth and we did about 20 schools and churches in about a year and a half. We sold between 20 and 210 books at these schools, depending on the amount of promotion and if it coincided with their book fair. We continued our efforts selling a good number of books as author and illustrator, but wondering why no books were selling through our distributor.

In the summer of 2005 Steven, Jr. and I went to New York to attend Book Expo America. This is a great experience for anyone interested in writing, illustrating, or publishing. While there, we received the “Mom’s Choice Award” for excellence in children’s literature, made some good connections, and learned a great deal. We were able for the first time to go to our distributor’s booth, see our book on display, and look at their sales catalog. Bear in mind that the great majority of buyers for book retailers only exposure to new books is through the distributor's catalogs. Our book, The Ballad of Blue Eagle, a children’s picture book, was listed as ADULT FICTION! Not only that, but it also had the title wrong. Any children’s book buyer could not even know our book existed. Ouch!

The next several months were spent trying to get the publisher and the distributor to send out a flyer to the book buyers saying that an error had occurred in the listing of our book and here are the details about it and a picture of the cover. The publisher said the distributor would never do that. We then offered to pay the postage; they said they would try to get them to do it. Needless to say, nothing was ever done. The two entities continued to claim no fault and point the finger at the other. There were other issues that I will not go into at this time, but I point this out to explain why we have terminated our agreement with the publisher and distributor and are taking over the marketing and distribution of “The Ballad of Blue Eagle” through our publishing company, Blue Eagle Books, Inc. We currently have a few hundred remaining and they will be available through our website: www.blueeaglebooks.com. Soon we plan special promotions to help us move these. We want to reorder additional inventory under the Blue Eagle Books, Inc. label and a slightly different format. We have other products we are working on and should be announcing soon, stay tuned!

How we got started

2007-11-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

November 7, 2007

Often I am asked why I decided to write children’s books. These questions usually come from someone who has known me for a long time and thinks I may have lost my mind! Sometimes I think they’re right. With a background of nearly 40 years in the real estate business, I must admit it is a bit of a stretch. Here is the story.

When I was a child, we didn’t have home entertainment like we do today. In the evenings it was not uncommon for families to play games or tell stories after dinner for entertainment. My father took great pleasure in these times and loved to tell stories to the younger children. He came up with a character named Blue Eagle, who lived in Peaceful Valley and took care of all the animals living there. He had such a fertile mind that he could make up these stories as he was telling them. In later years, when grandchildren came, he developed the ability to use these stories to teach and provide behavior lessons. I can still see him sitting up in bed with several small children all around hanging on his every word. The children’s parents would be lined up in the hall outside the bedroom straining to hear and trying not to laugh out loud and be discovered. You see, the adults enjoyed the stories as much as the children, but Dad wouldn’t tell them to adults. That was his special time with the kids, a bonding time, and every child who heard him was a little better because of it.

When my father died in 1980, the family felt a great loss. Many times I had asked him to write some of his stories down so we would have them for future generations. He wasn’t interested in doing that and after one of my pleadings for this he responded with “Why don’t you do it?” Well, I never asked again, and I don’t know if it was a sense of guilt or part of the mourning I was going through, but I started having a strong urge to write about Blue Eagle and Peaceful Valley. That summer and early fall I wrote The Ballad of Blue Eagle; trying to give it as much appeal and flavor of Dad and his style as I could. I guess you could say this was the beginning of my writing for children.

So what happened between 1980 and 2004? There was a lot of talk in my family about having the story published, but everyone agreed it needed to be illustrated. We knew no one capable of that kind of work and I couldn’t afford to pay them anyway. One day my son took the story to school, he was in the third grade, and they let him read it to the kindergarten class. That is about as far as it went. Shortly thereafter, I put it in a desk drawer and it stayed there for 21 years. Finally, Thanksgiving of 2002, my daughter said to my son, “You need to illustrate the Blue Eagle story and see if you can get it published.” He replied that he had been thinking about that a lot recently! I might add that Steven, Jr. has been able to draw from the time he first picked up a crayon. He was now a professional graphic designer and artist. So this was a second beginning for The Ballad of Blue Eagle. The book was published in 2004 and has won the “Mom’s Choice Award” for excellence in children’s literature. That prompted us to do it again and this coming spring (2008) Blue Eagle Meets Double Trouble will be released.

If you would like more information on these books go to www.blueeaglebooks.com.