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Fabulous moments speaking in Seattle:-

The two Marks – President of the PTA and the school librariqn – at Kokanee Elementary School Woodinville in Seattle support

- I Am Jack and NO to bullying at this wonderful school set among evergreens with stunning snowcapped mountatins as a background.

The principal dressed as Where’s Waldo? supported I Am Jack and NO to bullying at the wonderful school Gildo Rey Elementary School Auburn (Seattle)

Teachers and young people were engaged and connected with the JACK books and Butterflies (Kane Miller Books)  offering insights about how we all deserve t live:-

that is to be all that we can be.

Loved the day.

Farewell fabuous Salisbury University.

Thankyou to Professor Patricia Dean – special hugs to her dogs Zoe and Lucy and the best kitten ever – Socrates.

Thankyou to Professor Ernest Bond for everything – also lift o Washington airport & stop off at the best ever diner!

Cool flight with Alaska Airlines to Seattle and collected by Tabatha Roach from Usborne-Kane Miller Books and Lisa -start of my Seattle speaking tour.

Beautiful hotel Deca – in the Washington University area. I’m on the 15th floor overlooking the city.  It has an art deco lounge area with fireplace, huge artworks – very special hotel.

Next morning drove through magnificent conifers over bays and a very long floating road. Seattle is beautiful.

Shared ‘Butterflies’ and my ‘I Am Jack’ books with 100′s and 100′sof kids and teachers and of cousre the wonderful librarians.

Some wonderful moments – reaching kids through story.

New York, New York, New York – hope it’s not too freezing. I’m wearing thongs!.

I was there last time to speak at the World Burn Congress about ‘Butterflies’ & was on the faculty with the amazing Kim Phuc UNESCO Ambassador for Peace.

My itinerary:-

Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Conference with JULIE ANDREWS – Sound of Music

and our very own brilliant Shaun Tan

and meeting my writing and illustrating friends from across the world.

Lecturing at Friends Seminary on Ships in the Field in New York

Then it’s off to Salisbury University Maryland who are studying my books- this great university supports international books and I get to catch up with Professors Ernest Bond and Patricia Dean.

Then 10 days  of speaking in Seattle hosted by Publisher Kane Miller’s Tabitha Roach. Thankyou Tabitha.

What a trip!

Love the community of SCBWI. I’m flying into LA and get to spend a few days with Steve Mooser President and co founder of SCBWI and Sally Crock who’s the IT genius always there for SCBWI. 

Can’t wait to have dinner with Lin Oliver, the Executive Director of SCBWI.

SCBWI connects writers and illustrators across the world.

www.scbwi.org

I’m in the USA to speak at the Kane Miller Sales Conference in Tulsa Oklahoma about my young adult novel ‘Butterflies’. How amazing is that – I never thought I’d get to Tulsa. The song bursts into my mind:-

24 hours from Tulsa by Gene Pitney

I plan to sing it all the way to LA, then Fort Worth Dallas, zooming into Tulsa.

‘Butterflies’ received a starred review from the School Library Journal.

“This hopeful, heartfelt novel will give teens an understanding of what it means to have a reason to be self-conscious. Librarians won’t be able to keep it on the shelf.”

- School Library Journal (Starred Review)

Kudos to Gervay for painting the reader a picture of a self-reliant teen girl who does not depend on a boy to make herself feel valuable. Highly recommended for libraries- school, public and personal- who want to add to their girl power collections.

- Swon Libraries

USA – Here I come!!!!

Butterflies by Susanne Gervay published Kane Miller USA

I graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in illustration in 2010. Shortly after graduation, I got my first freelance job as a children’s book illustrator. The book, “It’s Almost Time”, written by Debbie Bernstein LaCroix and published by Kane Miller, is in stores now. For the past nine months, I have been a storyboard/concept artist at The Studio NYC, a visual communications studio. At the studio, I collaborate with 23 talented illustrators, animators, and directors to create art for the advertising and animation industries. I am learning animation and visual effects software, and hope to work on a feature animation someday.

My favorite medium is watercolors. I have been painting with watercolors since childhood, under the instruction of Joel Popadics at the Ridgewood Art Institute in New Jersey. My paintings have been featured in the American Watercolorists Magazine’s Cover Contest, and the Society of Illustrators’ Student Show. Up until my senior year of college, my portfolio was a mixed bag of watercolor portraits and landscapes, and printmaking work. One of my professors, Roger De Muth, told me I needed to pick a direction and focus on getting a job. I chose to direct my illustrations towards the children’s book market. It suited me well because I love kids and like painting animals, not that every children’s book is an animal book, but it worked. Also, children’s book publishers seem to like watercolor paintings.

Since working at The Studio, I made the transition from watercolors to Photoshop. I still enjoy painting with watercolors in my free time, but Photoshop is more conducive to animation because of the layers.

Is It’s Almost Time, your first published picture book?

It’s Almost Time is my first, and only, published picture book so far.

How did you get your first book contract?

I got the book contract by sending out postcards. I sent 1 postcard each to 50 different publishers. A couple weeks later, I got an email from Kane/Miller Book Publishers asking “Have you done any sort of professional children’s book illustration? (And another question, I suppose: Would you like to?)”. It was extremely lucky.

You shared your thumbnail sketches for It’s Almost Time. How many steps did you go through before you got to the finished thumbnails?

Before I made the thumbnails, before I even got the manuscript or contract, my editor asked me to send sketches of animals interacting with clocks. I sent one page of sketches with sweet scenes like a mother monkey rocking a baby monkey on the pendulum of a clock. The other page was completely chaotic; a horse in race-car patterned pajamas waking up to a room full of alarm clocks going off. She liked the that one. I was fortunate to have a lot of freedom making the illustrations. There are very few words in the book, so the pictures tell a lot of the story. I got to choose which animals would interact with the clocks. I chose the horse because of that first sketch I made (I’ve always like horses too), and the bird because it was small and could fly through the scenes.

Before I made the thumbnails I gathered most of my reference photos. I went to Sutton Clock Shop and Fanelli Anique Timepieces in NYC. The owners were really nice and let me take

I love the USA cover of  Butterlies.

 ’Butterflies’  is being published in the USA by Kane Miller Book Publishers:-

www.kanemiller.com

It’s being showcased at the May Book Expo New York, although only released 1st September 2010.

Love you to log in and see the trailer:-

www.youtube.com/user/sgervay

Love this special comment a ‘fan’ wrote on the trailer:-

 This is truly an amazing book, so moving and inspiring. I read it many years ago and an assignment just came up in English, I knew straight away this book was going to be perfect for it. It is so hard to put down and really made me realise that my life really isn’t that bad. I would have to say this would be one of my all time favourite books.  babestar88

From Publisher's Weekly...

Educational Development Corp. has acquired Kane/Miller Publishers for an undisclosed price. Based in La Jolla, Calif., Kane/Miller publishes translated children’s titles, including picture books, and has a backlist of about 150 titles. EDC president Randall White said he plans to retain the Kane/Miller name as an imprint and will keep its editorial offices in California under the direction of Kira Lynn, the daughter of the company’s founder. All other operations will be moved to EDC’s Tulsa offices, and EDC will assume distribution of Kane/Miller starting at the beginning of the year.