A little over two years ago during a long, cold winter, I decided to check something off my bucket list and decided to write a children’s book.  A teacher friend of mine shared an ABC book that she wrote and this gave me the idea for the format and topic for my book.  It would be about The Amana Colonies and would be a “read together” style.

I did some research and did not find an ABC book about the colonies, so I began my project.  First I started my list to see if I could find something for every letter in the alphabet.  Z was certainly easy!!!  As I settled on an idea for each letter I began to create rough drafts of information for each letter and started to try to collect pictures that would go with each letter.  Along the way I talked to long time residents and historians to try to be as sure as possible that the information I was including was correct.  I set aside the project during our busy season and worked once again the next winter and decided on the title.  The publisher I worked with is in Pella, so I made several trips to consult with them.  Finally it was published!  So exciting to see my name as the author of a ‘real’ book!

Recently my publisher submitted my book to be included in the Des Moines Book Festival.  It was selected! So I am excited to be able to go to that website and find my book and name listed along with other Festival Authors.

I’m hoping to get my book out into some of the Amana stores this season and of course we have it for sale at Zuber’s.  Here is a sample of a couple of pages.