By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Tammi Sauer, children’s author and Victoria native, is home this week for school visits that will culminate in a performance based on her book, “Your Alien,” on Friday at Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
First and second graders will see a live performance of “Your Alien” at 12:45 p.m. Friday. A public performance will be at 7 p.m., also at Beach/Schmidt. Cost is $3 for children 12 and younger and $5 for those 13 and older. All seating is general admission, so tickets will be sold only at the door beginning at 6:20 p.m.
Sauer’s school visits and the performance are being sponsored by the Hays Arts Council.
Sauer said Wednesday she was excited to be home and sharing her stories with local children. Although several of her books have been adapted into live performances, this is the first time she will be able to see one of them on stage. She has invited members of her family from Ellis County to join her in watching “Your Alien” for the first time.
“It is going to be amazing to have something that I had this idea for come to life on stage,” she said.
Sauer also presented the schools with a copy of “Your Alien Returns,” the sequel to “Your Alien.”
Sauer travels all over the country giving presentations to schools, and she has had some of her books translated into foreign languages.
During a visit this week to Wilson school, Sauer introduced the children to one her characters, “Wordy Birdy,” read several books to the children, talked about the inspiration for her books and offered second graders an extended session on developing their ideas into stories.
Sauer said much of her inspiration for her books came from growing up on a farm near Victoria. She told the children her job in the family was pig chaser. When the family’s pigs got out of their pens, she had to chase them back in.
A zoo of of other animals play prominently in her books, including chickens, ducks bears, a moose and a shark among others.
She told the second-graders she finds inspiration for her books in the “weird stuff” in her life.
“I have 27 books,” she said, “and most of those have started with something weird.”
Her first book was “Cowboy Camp,” which was inspired by a young man who knocked on her door one night trying to sell her a newspaper subscription to earn money to go to a cowboy camp. Sauer thought this young man did not look like the type of person that would fit in at a cowboy camp. The struggle of her main character was born.
Another idea for a book came from a plate. It had a picture of a bear in bright red underwear on it with the words, “Cake? What Cake?”
“When I saw this picture of the big hairy bear in the giant red underpants standing in a bunch of cake crumbs, I thought I need to write a book about an animal who likes cake as much as this guy,” Sauer told the children.
The book became “I Love Cake.”
Sauer studied elementary education at Kansas State University and was teacher before she started her writing career. Even before she graduated college, one of her instructors noted her talent with words and encouraged her to consider writing children’s books. In honor of that teacher, she named a chicken in one of her books after her.
Sauer said she placed the thought of writing on the back burner until a children’s author visited her daughter’s school. That reignited that dream of being an author. She squeezed in time to write when her children were napping. Her first book was published in 2005.
Sauer told the children,”I think my job is the best job in the world. I think being a children’s book author is better than being a race car driver and vooming around the curves. I think it is more fun that being an astronaut and blasting into outer space. I think my job is the best, because I love books.
“Books can take people on adventures. You can open up any book in your library and go on a new adventure.”
Sauer has made frequent visits to Victoria to share her love of writing and books.
“I just wanted those kids to see, ‘Hey, you can go to this little school and you can go do big things. You can do whatever you want. You just have to put in the time and the heart.
“It is my favorite,” she said of visiting her former school. “I have those feelings when I was in here. I know where some of my favorite books where on the shelf. It is a nice feeling to be back. When I walk in there, it even has the same kind of smell I remember when I was a little kid.”
Sauer can still remember some of her favorite books when she was a child. She loved the golden egg book when she was in first grade because of its beautiful cover, the Ramona books when she was a little older and “Are You There God? It’s Me Margret.”
“I have always been a big reader and just didn’t ever know I was going to be a writer,” she said. “It is just great to know all that reading I was doing helps me to be a better writer even now.”
Sauer acknowledged the children’s book market is very competitive. Less than 1 percent of the manuscripts that are sent to the major publishing houses make it to print. Sauer has an agent who helps find buyers for her books. Even with a children’s literature, revisions are extensive.
“I feel most of my job is not as a writer, but a reviser,” she said. “That is the truth for every writer out there who is trying to make a good thing better.”
Learn more on Sauer and her books at tammisauer.com.