Earlier this week on Twitter, I predicted a good week ahead. And a good week it has been. First of all, I received the good news that I was awarded a scholarship to attend the Highlights Foundation's 2011 Chautauqua workshops. A special thanks goes out to my publisher, Charlesbridge, for making this happen. I've heard nothing but wonderful stories from authors and illustrators who have attended the Chautauqua workshops, so I'm looking forward to it.

On Wednesday, I was contacted by an art collector and former minor league baseball team owner. He was interested in purchasing several original pieces of art from the Effa Manley book, SHE LOVED BASEBALL. At first I was reluctant because I almost never sell my art. Crazy, I know, an artist who doesn't sell art. But I use my art for school visits. I loosened up a bit and decided to sell a few pieces from this book.

On Thursday, I traveled to Corpus Christi, where I presented to students at Windsor Park Elementary school. It's an international baccalaureate school for advanced academics. I'm not quite sure what that means, but the kids were very smart.

Funny though, the situation I found myself in. Between presentations, an enthusiastic parent asked me to visit her child's classroom for a photograph. Upon entering the classroom, I hear the words, "Mr. Tate, would you popcorn dance with our class?" And a little voice in my head said, "Heck no! No-no-no, I don't dance." But before I could stop the scene, I was surrounded by kids shaking their butts, squatting way down low, and then popping up to the sky. I had no choice but to join in, and I prayed my knees wouldn't give out squatting that low. For those of you who know me, this is way out of my character, and when I told my son about it, he literally fell on the floor laughing.

Before leaving the school, one of the classrooms gave me a stack of letters. I enjoyed them all, but I got a big kick out of one letter in particular, where a kid drew a picture of me drawing cartoons. Isn't it great?

Next week, I'll return to Corpus Christi to participate in the 11th Annual Children's Book Festival.

Display Comments

Lindsey said, on 4/1/2011 8:37:00 AM

uh-oh...i am so seeing a popcorn dance at your next booksigning...beware.

Cynthia Leitich Smith said, on 4/2/2011 6:36:00 AM

Yes, yes! Don will be the popcorn dance king! Seriously, I'm thrilled you've had such a great week. Here's to many more!

Don Tate II said, on 4/2/2011 7:48:00 AM

Thanks, Lindsey, Cyntnia! My knees survived!

Add a Comment

2 Comments | Previous | Top | Next

By: Don Tate II, on 3/22/2011
Blog: Devas T. Rants and Raves! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Add a tag

Black All Around!, a children's picture book that I illustrated, written by Patricia Hubbell, received a nice review from the February 2011 edition of the Puget Sound Council for Reviewing Children's media. Interesting thing is, the review came 7 years after publication. I ain't complaining though, it's totally cool. Here's what they said:

"Graceful antidote to the still present ‘white is right’ mentality, the color black is celebrated in its fullest from a sleek black limousine to a shiny black beetle. A little girl is daydreaming in the moon glow with simple rhymes. Fun illustrations conjure up every beautiful black thing she can imagine until she drifts off to sleep. This was a Connecticut Book Award Finalist at first publication."

Black All Around! has received some of the best reviews and comments of my career, I'm happy. Great end to a busy week.

Copyright Don Tate/Austin American-Statesman

This year we had one of the merriest Christmases ever. Happened because I entered the season with a plan: Set a budget for Christmas spending; Don’t dip into family living expenses to buy Christmas gifts. Don't go into debt. The plan worked. I learned that Christmas does not have to be stressful. Too bad I almost lost my home learning this lesson.

Several months ago, we received a foreclosure notice. I was shocked. My wife wasn't. I had been too busy with work. I wasn’t paying attention to boring stuff like family finances. I wasn't paying attention to my wife who was flailing in a raging river of endless bills, disconnect utility notices, demands for payment.

I dealt with the problem by hoping it would go away. I was on deadline. I had books to sketch. Manuscripts to rewrite. I had speaking engagements, book signings, literary mix-and-mingles, school visits. I didn't have time to bother myself with a foreclosure. Who are these people messing with my fun anyway? I left the problem to my wife, she’ll fix it. I illustrate children’s books, she puts out family fires. Thing was, I was too busy (or blind) to realize she had resigned from her position as family firefighter long ago. Our family finances were like a tiny boat in a big roaring sea, with no captain steering the thing.

Several more weeks passed, and I continued to work. Occasionally I popped my head out of the studio long enough to ask my wife how things were going with the foreclosure. She'd smile, try to reassure me that everything would be okay. "Stop worrying," she said. "God doesn't want you to worry." She’s a very spiritual woman, so she prayed and didn’t think about finances beyond that.

One day, while I was home alone painting a book, we received another certified letter. It stated that our home would be sold at auction in a few weeks. I stood there holding the letter, my Adams Apple growing a size so large I couldn't breath.

I was scared. Embarrassed. Ashamed. Mostly, I worried about my son. Our house is the only home he’s known since birth. And while families move all the time, a sudden move from our 2,600 square-foot house to a cracker-box-size apartment . . . somewhere . . . would surly wreak havoc on his world. Heck, my grown, adult daughters still give me grief about my move from Des Moines to Austin when they were teenagers. I didn’t want to let my son down, not to mention disappoint my wife.

Over the next few days I got busy—no, not illustrating children's books—making phone calls, sending emails, contacting customers. The thing about being a freelancer is that someone always owes you a little somethin’—somethin’. Thankfully I was able to fix our situation before the house went to auction.

Things happen for a reason, I believe that. Almost losing our home was stressful, but in the end, I'm so thankful it happened. My wife and I, we a

This is an old cartoon, originally posted on my now defunct Brotha Buck blog. I revived this strip, used it my holiday cards, and I sent to a few art directors, editors and licensing clients. Although the blog is now closed down, the cartoons still exist. Looking back, I still think they're funny. When I get some time later next year, I plan to move the cartoons here and continue the saga of Brotha Buck, Tamsy and Kirby.

Because I'm a children's book illustrator, and a loud-mouth social networker, I tend to attract A LOT! of proposals from authors with book ideas. I hate turning people away, and I'd love to assist if I could. But please know, I'm a book creator myself. I illustrate. I write. And I'm knocking doors just like you, trying to figure this crazy business out.

If you're an author who's messaged me with a book idea, and I haven't responded to you, please know I'm not intentionally ignoring you. If you've emailed a manuscript to me, and I haven't responded, please don't take it personally — I'm just not sure what to do with it and all the other requests. If I took the time to respond to every email, Facebook personal message, direct message tweet, I wouldn't have time to do what I do -- write and illustrate children's books (and social network).

In the meantime, I highly advice you to join your local and national SCBWI.

Thanks for your patience, I'm rooting for you.

Author Kyra E. Hicks included my name in her new book 1.6 Million African American Quilters: Survey, Sites, and a Half-Dozen Art Quilt Blocks. The book is about Black quilt makers -- quilt industry figures including numbers of Black quilters nationally, resources of websites, blogs, and YouTube videos featuring African American quilters and guilds. I'm included in a section called Black Quilters in Cyberspace. Although I'm certainly not a quilter -- though I could be if I wanted to, I'm good with my hands -- I was included because of the fabric I designed awhile ago for David's Textiles (example). The fabric is no longer available, but it's still in demand. To this day people email me looking for the product, or for other fabric featuring African American images.

What a fine resource Kyra has created.

In March I finished a nonfiction picture book that I wrote and illustrated. My agent began to shop it around after a few rounds of revisions. You know the routine, rejection, rejection, rejection. Very nice, complimentary, rejections, but rejections none the less. It would have sold quicker in a better book-buying economy.

On the flip-side, several editors have shown interest, and it's currently in the hands of a fantastic editor. I’ve made a round of revisions with her, and it’s under consideration by the publisher. I'm confident an offer will follow soon. Fingers crossed.

In April, a month following shoulder surgery, I began sketching Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite, a picture book written by Anna Harwell Celenza. It’s slated to publish with Charlesbridge late next year. Recovery from surgery went much slower than my doctor predicted. He figured, guy like me — in shape, works out several times per week — would heal quickly. He was wrong. Three months after the surgery, I was still in intense pain, I could not raise my hand above my shoulders, and then my shoulder froze. I began two months of physical therapy.

Because of the time invested in physical therapy, and then the challenges of summer — family reunions, vacations, my grandpa's 90th birthday — I didn't finish the sketches until fall. So I'm a bit behind. But the book has turned out well, and I'm looking forward to painting it soon, this time, in watercolor and ink (I normally paint in oil or acrylic).

In October, She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story, written by Audrey Vernick, published with HarperCollins. Reviews have been favorable, and we even received a star from School Library Journal. Top it off, Audrey commissioned a wonderful book trailer that, to date, has received more than 500 hits -- it's gone viral!

Yesterday on Facebook, I announced my next book project: THE CART, written by the beloved and legendary Eve Bunting. It’s a brilliant story, unexpected, clever, creative, and it ends with a new twist. But that’s all I can say at this time. The book is going to require a bit of research, so I'm looking forward to making a little one-day trip to the east coast in the spring. I’ll visit museums and historic sites, and I’ll meet with a few author/illustrator friends in the area.

Recently I finished a first draft of another nonfiction picture book. The topic is a sports figure. Can you believe, me? writing about sports? Writing a nonfiction picture book about a subject not published before is nerve wrecking. I'm afraid at any day someone else will publish the story, and I'll have wasted my time, money and energy. That has happened to me before. I'd done some preliminary research, ordered and read some books on the subject, began a first draft. And soon afterwards another author cam

Over the past few days, I had the pleasure of participating in two very special book events — a signing at Menchaca Elementary School's Scholastic Book Fair and the Savannah Children's Book festival. I had an absolutely fantastic time at both events, though each one had it's own way of feeding or starving my ego.

Last Thursday evening, I signed books at Menchaca. The librarians there are SO good. They really excited the kids about my book Ron's Big Mission, so much so that it became the hottest seller at the fair. It sold 99 copies and I was honored to be there to sign most of them. Check out the nice display behind the table. I can't thank the librarians enough.


Following that event, I flew to Georgia where I was a featured author-ilustrator in the the 7th annual Savannah Children's Book Festival. This is a top-notch festival, to say the least. More than 30,000 people attended the festival last year, and this year was even bigger. The lineup included included Judy Schachner, “Skippyjon Jones”; Anna Dewdney, “Llama Llama Red Pajama”, in addition to Alan Katz, Brian Jordan, Pat Mora, Vicky Alvear Schecter, Charles R. Smith, others. I was especially excited to meet two very young authors, 9- and 11-year-old Miles and William Rabun, who wrote the book "My Grandma's Backyard." Behind Judy and Anna, they were clearly the most popular authors at the festival.


My book signing (above) was a bit, um, humbling. But that happens sometimes, and I found much humor in the situation.

When I returned, I received this wonderful letter from the mother of an attendee. This made my day and I thank her for sending this along.