We were lucky to catch up with David Alan recently and have shared our conversation below.
David, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
There are so many rules in writing children’s books – word count, formatting, age levels, etc. I’ve kind of thrown all of the “rules” out the window and just produce books that feel good to me, and in return, hopefully to the readers.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up in a really small town in Pennsylvania. I was very small and effeminate, so I was bullied quite a bit. Reading was my escape. I spent quite a bit of time at the library. I always thought it would be amazing to have my own book there. Life happened, and I never wrote any books, but I always thought about it. Four years ago, my husband, Eric, jokingly gave me the name “T-Rextra” because of my short arms and extra-ness. The name struck a good nerve. I first started by getting a license plate for my car that says that. Then I had the idea that T-Rextra sounded like a great character for a children’s book. I had in my mind what they would look like, but I can’t draw, so I needed an illustrator. I have an old friend that I hadn’t seen since second grade, but we’re friends on Facebook. Her daughter Hope is an amazing artist. I told her what I was thinking, and she nailed it. The cool thing is that they live in New Zealand, so it’s an international creation. Since I now that had the character, I was able to create books about them. I self-published my first book, “Introducing T-Rextra”, and it was released a little over two years ago, on August 25th, 2020, my late Mother’s birthday. Since then, I have self-published five more T-Rextra books: “What’s a Friend For”, “T-Rextra 2: Serving It!”, “Be Anyone You Want To Be”, “You Are One of The Greatest”,“You Be You, Boo!”, Be Younique!”, “T-Rextra 3”, Velociraptori: Influencaurus”, “Ava: The Dinosaur Princess” and “Where Are My Baby Dolls?” . I used the drawings from the original and used my own skills with art apps to create all-new illustrations for the other books. I also published three picture books of art I created- “Angela & Natalia’s Tale of Tails”, about our two dogs’ imaginary lives at the Olympics, in movies, TV, musicals, and the world of music., and “It’s A Hard Lock(Screen) Life” and “The Game of Wireless Toilet Paper Laptops” , which are photos of paper cutouts taped to my computer lock screen, of me, my husband and our dogs going on lots of adventures. (Sounds odd, but they’re very funny.)
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The process of creating the books has been surprisingly easy. I’ve had so many ideas stored up in my head for so long that they’ve just been flowing out onto the pages. However, getting the books out there and purchased by others has been difficult because I’ve been doing it myself. I’ve self-funded everything and had to act as my own agent, publicist, and advertising agency. It’s a really tough thing to try to do without the backing of a traditional publisher.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I just want to spread the messages of love, compassion, kindness, self-love and all of the other good things that Mr. Rogers taught us. Mr. Rogers is one of the best people to ever walk the Earth, and one of my personal heroes. I want to reach out to kids who feel different or ostracized and let them know that they are not alone, that there are people who see them, and there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, if you don’t give up hope.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I grew up in a very small, close-minded town. I was taught, not born, that you should be good neighbor, but there are limits. Gay people, people of color, different religions and enlightened ways of thinking were all demonized because they did not fit the little mold of the town. The best day of my life was when I moved away and realized that there was a bigger, more inclusive world out there. Everyone should move away from their hometown at least once in their lives so that they can see what else the world has to offer.
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David Alan