When our three sons were young we read to them every night. I loved making the appropriate sounds of animals and ogres as I read to them. I love books! I still wander through the children’s section at Barnes & Noble and the library. I am enthralled by watching moms and dads sitting with their children reading together. I would love someday to be able to say that they are reading my books.

Ten years ago I wrote a children’s book. I had been making collectible teddy bears for about seven years at that time, and I loved one bear in particular. He was a very leggy and floppy bear, and seemed like a bear that a child or adult would fall in love with. I wrote a little story about him and his friend Jake. I typed up the story and made a little cardboard cover for it—and that was that! I still have that little book somewhere. Baron, the bear, sold very well, and I promised everyone that they would get the book as well as soon as it was published.

Well, 10 years have gone by. I decided to make Baron again, but this time I would see if I could get his story told. My husband said he would take a stab at the illustrations. He read page by page, thinking through what might tell the story in pictures. I re-wrote until I felt that the reader, both adult and child, would enjoy it.

The finished book “Jake and Baron” turned out to be a much bigger endeavor than I initially expected. It took months to complete water color drawings that my husband thought were “good enough,” and I sweated bullets over my sentence structure and punctuation. Once the drawings and story were complete, we had to find a way to publish the book. We searched site after site and finally made the decision to self-publish it ourselves.

Now that I finally have his story told, I want to continue to sell both Baron and his book. In order to offer just the book for sale I will ultimately have to find a publisher, but that may take another 10 years!

In the meantime I will still be making Notchlok Bears, and while sewing, I will be thinking of another story. This time it is about a little black bear who wants a piece of cake. The story is still “stewing” around in my brain.

Originally published in the Winter 2011 issue.