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I stayed home with my children most of the time during their young years. I always kept them close to me. Now that they are older, I'm glad I did that.

My goal was to be a good mother, who taught my kids the proper values and encouraged each one to strive to reach his or her potential. I kept my eyes open to each child's unique interests and abilities. I did what I could to encourage the children to develop those talents.

When my kids were very young, I noticed that they enjoyed acting out fairy tales. I began making them costumes, and allowed them to act the stories out on home video. It was a wonderful family hobby.

My son had an interest in inventions. I enjoyed helping him. We especially liked to make things spin. We made a small fan. I designed an Inspector Gadget costume with a spinning helicopter hat for Halloween. My son later made a small spinning car which he called a Wacky Spinmobile. He entered it in the School Science Fair, and we wound up in the newspaper the next day.

I later made a costume for my daughter which included twirling braids. I invented a character called Twirly Shirley, a girl whose braids spin whenever she gets excited. I wrote a story called, Twirly Shirley In My Sister The Twister . We acted it out in photos and home video. The video turned out so well we decided it would be great to publish it as a book, so that other people could read the story.

I had Twirly Shirley In My Sister The Twister published as a Print On Demand book. I also wrote two other Twirly Shirley Stories. After doing some research, and taking a Self-Publishing class, I decided to publish these other books on my own. I did not go very far with these first versions. They were homemade and I had very little to invest.

It wasn't until years later that I created new versions of my books. I ran into a friend that I hadn't seen for years, Melody Karns Trone. It turned out that she was an artist. A series of events led up to her doing the illustrations for my new books.

I had previously taken some publishing and business courses. I did some additional research, created a business plan, and worked toward starting a new publishing company.

I didn't expect book publishing to be easy, but I did not realize how many obstacles I would be facing. I struggled with the computer work. I struggled financially. I ran into complications with book layout and printing. It was very difficult to find a method of printing quality books affordably. The list goes on, but I'll just say that there were a lot of surprises, and challenges that I had to overcome.

On my way to becoming a publisher, I faced many frustrating times. I did learn patience. I continued to search for knowledge, and kept striving to reach my goal. I conquered each obstacle one at a time.

I now own Artistic Creations Book Publishing. I have successfully published three Twirly Shirley books, and have more coming. In the fall I plan to introduce a new educational series called Creative Creatures. I would like to inspire other children as I have inspired my own kids, to become more creative and to develop their unique abilities.

While I was raising my children, I never expected to be where I am now. My kids are older, and we all have busy lives, but we will cherish those early years and the time we spent together. Twirly Shirley books will always be very special because of how they began.

In my case, I was inspired to turn a family hobby into a publishing company. Each family has their own unique interests and experiences. Perhaps there are other mothers out there who would enjoy developing a company of their own. Any mother who wishes to do something similar to what I have done should realize that it is possible and very rewarding. She should understand what it involves however, and always keep her priorities straight.

What does it take for a Stay-At-Home Mom to become an entrepreneur? It takes courage, determination, perseverance, and a love of what she is doing. It also takes time and work. It took me a while to get where I am now. I have enjoyed the journey, and it was well worth the work and the wait!

 Donna started her own home business and you can too!