About a year ago, my oldest grandson who was six at the time, came to me and said, “Nana, I just made up a story in my head.” I congratulated him and then asked him to tell me about his story. He said, “my cow has a mustache and she doesn’t know how she got it. She asks all the other animals on the farm if they know how she got her mustache.”

An Idea Worth Pursuing

After hearing his story, I decided it was worth pursuing. I set out trying to learn everything I could about how to publish a book on Kindle. I ordered an online course that was very helpful in figuring out this monumental task that lay ahead of me.

We decided on a name for our book, “My Cow Has A Mustache!”  I hired an illustrator for the book and although her work was very good, it still took three months of going back and forth on the design to get everything perfect. I think the hardest part was trying to get everything in my head onto paper. Eventually, I started drawing out rough drafts so she would have an idea of the position of the characters and some of the elements I wanted in the picture. This worked out very well and gave us a starting place for each picture.

Not All Play At Nana’s House

I made sure that every time Braxden visited we made time to work on his book. I wanted him to have ownership of it. He helped (as much as a six-year-old boy will!) on the storyline, the colors and the characters for each page.

Next was learning everything I needed to know about formatting a book for Kindle. This was a big learning curve for sure, but I am happy with the overall finished product. However, I did learn a few lessons on “what not to do” the next time around!

The Animals Are Real!

I guess I should mention that all the animals in the story are animals that his family owns, along with their real animal names! The two boys in the story are Braxden and his younger brother Brody. I still laugh when I go over to his mom and dad’s house and see these animals that we have written about. If they only knew!

We Made The News

After the book was published this past June, two of our local newspaper agencies wrote an article on Braxden and his book. It was a lot of fun for him to get to tour the newspaper office and to be interviewed. It also proved to him he had done something that he could be proud of.

My Thoughts

I’ve always believed that you should take the time to teach your children that anything is possible if you work hard enough. We had so much fun writing this book! He may not have a desire to write another book with Nana, but hopefully, it will show him he can do anything he sets his mind to do.

Writing a children’s book has started the wheels in motion for me. I plan to write more children’s books soon. I’m sure they will be about the rest of the animals on the farm and their funny stories.

The book is available on Kindle in either paperback or digital download. The paperback includes a bonus story about how to be a good friend. The book is perfect for preschool children ages 3-5, but I have had a few mommas tell me their older children enjoyed it as well.

We hope that you enjoy reading this book to your children as much as we enjoyed writing it for you!❤