Book Giveaway: SPOOKY COLORING BOOK by Sara Szewcyk

Author Sara Szewcyk has a new activity coloring book titled, SPOOKY COLORING BOOK: Creepy But Cute Illustrations for Your Inner Witch,  published by Page Street Kids on July 11th. PSK’s has agreed to share a book with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Sara!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Ghosts, Spells and Creatures, Oh My! Make potions, tend to botanicals, follow a witch cat for a day Bring the quirkiness to life, in these pages tucked away And watch as the relaxing hour whizzes by.

SARA INERTERVIEW:

How and when did you come up with the idea?

My adventure with Spooky Coloring Book began at the end of 2021, when Aïcha Martine Thiam from Page Street Publishing contacted me. It was my first contact
with this publishing house as well as the first foreign publisher. They were interested in me creating a book featuring a witch’s black cat. This is the character that appears most often in my illustrations on social media, based on my own beloved cat.

How many black cats can you count?

How many illustrations did you do for the book?

I made 46 illustrations for the book, as well as the front and back covers.

How did you decide on what to include inside the book?

The book was supposed to have a magical, spooky-cute theme. I was delighted with this idea, because it is what gives me great fun in creating. The next step was to
create a coherent story for the book, so I focused on showing the reader one long and eventful day in the life of a cute witch kitty. For this purpose, I had to build a
fairy-tale world for my main character, full of magical creatures, potions, imaginary plants and spells. Since I was a child, I have a very vivid imagination and I have
always been interested in the world of witchcraft and magic, so it was a very cool challenge!

Is there a story to go with the coloring pages?

The story in the book is a day in the life of a cat witch. We accompany her in everyday activities from the morning, her habits and routines, even what is her favorite breakfast. Following looking after the greenhouse with magical plants, we go with her on a trip to the enchanted forest, where she gets rare ingredients for concoctions. On her way she meets many unusual creatures. Back home, our witch brews potions and prepares a cameral dinner party for her friends. The culmination of the evening is a bonfire in a forest glade with scary stories told. The book ends in a calm and cozy atmosphere, and our cat goes to sleep after an eventful day.

Is it one witch or more?

In the book we meet a cat witch and her three friends, also witches: Salamander, Owl and Fox. The Raven Mage also appears as well as other magical creatures endowed with intelligence and speech.

How long did it take you to create the artwork for the book?

Illustrations for the book took me about 2-7 hours, depending on the amount of details and complexity. The front and back cover took about 30 hours.

How did you get the book contract?

The Page Street Publishing team found me on instagram where I run my art account as @Ilustratorium.sara. After exchanging emails, a few video calls, presenting the
idea for the book and preliminary illustrations, we signed the contract.

Did the publisher suggest changes?

To be honest, there weren’t many changes suggested by the publishers. I was given a lot of creative freedom. Together, we decided to separate the larger, two-page
illustrations into separate pages. Initially, I wrote the text only for some of the illustrations, but at a later stage I was asked to add a story and commentary to all the drawings.

SARA’S BIO:

Sara Szewczyk is an artist and creator of the Etsy and Instagram accounts IlustratoriumSara. Her witchy illustrations have been featured in prints, stickers, postcards and more. Sara lives in Krakow, Poland.

Sara, thank you for sharing your new activity coloring book with us. I have a copy and I am sure children will love this coloring in the book and they will be so proud when Mom hangs them on the wall or refrigerator. I feel this book might be the spark that starts a child down the road to a life of loving art and making it part of their life’s journey. Good luck with the book.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy