Reading to Tess's preschool May 6

I had the fun experience of reading to Tess's preschool class last week. I also had the pleasure of having her alongside me to talk about how she inspired the idea for the story of "The Sick Bug". She is quite the ham, I must say, and I think all her friends enjoyed the story and how silly she was when she was three! Maybe we should take this show on the road???

LA Times Festival Of Books April 25, 2010

It has been quite some time since my last entry, my bad. But I just had to blog about our experience last weekend. Shawn and I were invited to share "The Sick Bug" at the LA Times Festival of Books on the Target Children's stage in Los Angeles last Sunday. The Festival was amazing. It is held on the UCLA Campus and some 200,000 people attend over the weekend to experience the multiple stages and all sorts of entertainment. We were featured on the Target Children's stage, which was one of 5 stages there and we were in some pretty famous company...Henry Winkler, author of the "Hank Zipzer" series and the Fonz, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, Carl Reiner, Anna Dewdney, author of "Llam Llama Mad at Mama", Robin Preiss Glasser, illustrator of "Fancy Nancy" and many many more. It was such an honor for us to be there and we actually put on a good show despite our pre-stage jitters. The kids loved the story and we were treated like royalty while we were there. What an amazing time! Check out Shawn's blog for some great pictures or the website as well. www.thesickbug.com. I should have those shots up soon.

Also want to announce that the sequel, "The Sick Bug Goes to School" is in the works and we hope to debut it this fall...October or November time. More to come on that as well. In the meantime, enjoy the spring weather and stay bug free!! :)

THE BIG LAUNCH

Hello hello! I survived my first LAUNCH party today at The Bookcase in Wayzata. What an AMAZING time! We sold tons of books and it was so fun to see so many friends and new faces in support of the book. I was lucky to not only have my family - my husband, three kids, and parents there, but tons of friends, friends of friends, colleagues and my awesome illustrator - Shawn - who was gracious enough to sit with me and sign away! We had a great time and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did. :) In fact, we were so busy signing that I never got a chance to READ the book to all the sweet kids who came....but hopefully the cake, tshirt and stickers made up for that!!
Thanks again to everyone who made the trek to see us. Go SICK BUG!!!
-Susie

Finally BLOGGING

Hey everyone! Finally figured out this blog thing (yes, I am 21st century computer-challenged) and hope this will work. It has been a crazy two weeks with school starting, the book coming out, and me flying to Boston to read at the Target Children's Book Festival in the Boston Commons. The book fair was great and after I conquered my nerves of getting on the stage and reading in front of a bunch of people for the first time, I was able to enjoy the moment. People had great things to say about the book and it was such a cool experience sitting at the signing tent after my reading and autographing books for people who had liked it enough to buy it on the spot! Hey, I could get used to this! :)

As for school, my oldest son Sam started 2nd grade which he loves, but he is realizing that being in school leaves him less time to go fishing, so he is trying to figure out how to convince us to take him fishing at the crack of dawn on the weekends. He succeeded this morning and Pete (my hubby) took both boys out. My middle son Jamie started Kindergarten and is so proud of himself. Luckily, he has his brother down the hall so any concerns he had about starting a new school with new friends were diminished because he has Sam around. Tess just turned four and started a new preschool close to the boys, and all she does is ask when she gets to ride the bus with the boys. She is 4 going on 15!

Other than hitting the pavement with the books and trying to get some good exposure in the local stores, I have some fun appearances lined up. I'll be doing a local morning show on Wednesday Sept. 17 (Fox 9 News for those of you in the Twin Cities) talking about the book, and I have my launch party Sept. 27 at the Bookcase in Wayzata, MN. I'm also in the process of scheduling some fall readings/signings at some local Borders and Barnes & Noble stores in MN and WI. I may also be doing some stuff in Chicago and San Francisco to coincide with upcoming trips. Will keep you posted!

All for now. I actually feel like I have a sick bug right now and am hoping it is just my allergies. Let's see if I can have a lazy Sunday.

Hope you are enjoying the website and make sure to pick up a copy of the book - and tell your friends!!!

:) Susie