Author Susan Stevens Crummel had some firsthand experience before writing Ten-Gallon Bart. As a high school teacher in Texas, one of her extra-curricular duties was sponsoring the rodeo club. Little did she know she'd have to ride a steer in the sponsor's rodeo. "As I clung to the beast's gigantic horns, I decided that the following year, I'd go back to coaching the math team!" she said. Susan also likes to tell stories about her great-great uncle Harvey Doyle, an expert rider and trick roper in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the early 1900s. Besides collaborating with Dorothy Donohue on three other picture books, she has collaborated with her sister, Janet Stevens, on The Great Fuzz Frenzy, The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, Cook-a-Doodle-Doo!, and Jackalope.