{"id":2431,"date":"2019-08-12T13:06:23","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T17:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blinkyabooks.com\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2026-01-02T08:18:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:18:35","slug":"blinkblog-author-spotlight-alison-gervais-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.harpercollinsfocus.hcusweb.com\/blinkyabooks\/blinkblog-author-spotlight-alison-gervais-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"#BlinkBlog Author Spotlight: Alison Gervais (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

To celebrate the release of\u00a0The Silence Between Us<\/em>, we have a special Q&A with Alison Gervais! Stay tuned for Part II later this week\u2026<\/p>\n

Get your copy of The Silence Between Us\u00a0<\/em>HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What was your inspiration behind The Silence Between Us<\/em>, why did you choose to write an #OwnVoices novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up Hard of Hearing, of course I had my own experiences and feelings to draw on when I began creating a character in the Deaf community, but I also had a lot of background knowledge and guidance that came from being a Deaf Services Specialist at an Independent Living Center for two years. My job was to act as an advocate for those D\/deaf\/Hard of Hearing and provide support in different areas, such as arranging interpreters, procuring assistive technology, and educating the public about the Deaf community. I was also a part of a subset of the Colorado Coalition for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf Blind, called the Advocacy Coalition for Equality; I got to see firsthand just what type of obstacles people in this community face in all aspects of life, and particularly with young students.<\/p>\n

This was a very unique experience, and I\u2019m so thankful for the time I was able to spend in this position. So I would say all those pieces of my background, from my personal and professional life, ended up being poured out into The Silence Between Us<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What makes this book special\/unique?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this book is unique in that we don\u2019t often see many Deaf characters portrayed in literature, and I had the thought that it was about time that changed. Oftentimes we may see secondary characters who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, but it\u2019s not frequent that we get to walk along with them throughout the course of a story and see firsthand what they experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also particularly special for me in that I got to incorporate some of my own experiences growing up with hearing loss. I could relate more to Maya as a character in that way, and it made me all the more excited to write her journey.<\/p>\n

This book features American Sign Language. Was that hard to write with the copy of the book\u2019s text?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one was tricky, and it took a while to figure out a way to portray sign language in a way that was comfortable for me. You\u2019ll see some authors depicting sign in italics, or in quotation marks, which is fantastic, but I had the thought that I didn\u2019t want to readers to possibly forget that they were reading a conversation actually taking place in sign language. So I decided to have those conversations written out in all capital letters, like you might see when you\u2019re looking at an ASL textbook. It might come across as strange when you\u2019re first diving into the story, but I\u2019m pretty happy with how it turned out.<\/p>\n

Using both English and ASL was a particularly important piece of the novel for me, not only as Maya struggles with finding her own identity, but because she has roots in both languages – they are equal parts of her character!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To celebrate the release of\u00a0The Silence Between Us, we have a special Q&A with Alison Gervais! Stay tuned for Part II later this week\u2026 Get your copy of The Silence Between Us\u00a0HERE. What was your inspiration behind The Silence Between Us, why did you choose to write an #OwnVoices novel? Growing up Hard of Hearing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-notes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n#BlinkBlog Author Spotlight: Alison Gervais (Part I) - Blink YA Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.harpercollinsfocus.hcusweb.com\/blinkyabooks\/blinkblog-author-spotlight-alison-gervais-part-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#BlinkBlog Author Spotlight: Alison Gervais (Part I) - Blink YA Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To celebrate the release of\u00a0The Silence Between Us, we have a special Q&A with Alison Gervais! 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