I owned Dance Etc., Boulder City’s only dance studio, for 27 years and I’m also the Executive Director of non-profit Boulder City Ballet Company (BCBC). The stories I write actually happened over those 27 years. I’ve changed a few of the names and embellished some of the stories to make them more of a lesson for the reader. The books are written for little girls, but young mothers will love the stories too because they teach old-fashioned virtues and offer answers to problems that really helped me when I was a young mother. Now I’m 56!

“The Magic Tutu” was originally a ballet I wrote in 2003 for the youngest members of BCBC which my husband, Desi Arnaz Jr., and I founded in 1998. I was encouraged by many parents at Dance Etc. to turn the ballet into a book... and so I did. “The Magic Tutu” teaches the virtue of kindness and the eternal lesson of being aware of yourself. “Keep your mind where your body is” - that’s a main theme in the book.

Why is this important to little girls? Because when they grow up and learn to drive, we certainly hope they keep their minds inside the car rather than drifting into a daydream and leaving the 70 mph vehicle unattended! All of us have “come to” on the freeway and said to ourselves, “I don’t remember driving the last 7 miles.”

Proceeds from sales of “The Magic Tutu” book go to benefit BCBC. The book is available on my website TheMagicTutu.com until Christmas for $8. After that, it goes back onto amazon.com where it’s a little more expensive. There’s also an audio CD of “The Magic Tutu” on TheMagicTutu.com, a Little Haley Doll and much, much more.

When I decided to turn “The Magic Tutu” ballet into a book, I thought a major publisher would snatch it up in a heartbeat. That didn’t happen. Instead, I got a lot of rejections and advice from the major publishing world. I was advised to change it, water it down, take out references to Heaven. But I wanted to keep “The Magic Tutu” on a Higher level. I wanted the message to reach deep into the reader’s heart and inspire them to always do what’s right... to think before they act... to be kind. So I decided to have the book self-published. By doing that, nothing was changed in the book. I found Booksurge, a self-publisher, quite by accident. They published “The Magic Tutu” and placed it directly onto amazon.com where it is being purchased by people all over America.

I used photographs taken by local photographer, Andy Cattoir, to illustrate “The Magic Tutu.” Andy is the company photographer for BCBC and took beautiful photos at the Boulder Theatre when “The Magic Tutu” was presented as a ballet. He generously gave me permission to use his photos in the book. “The Magic Tutu” has been reviewed all over the web and every review mentions the gorgeous photos in the book.

The next book in the series of “Little Haley Stories” is “Juliana Cuddles.” This is a sweet story about the adoption of a little girl kitten with four white paws from the Boulder City Animal Shelter. BCBC presented this story as a ballet in 2004 called “BC Kitty Cats” and we donated $1,000 to the Boulder City Animal Shelter from our ticket sales. If it does well once it’s published as “Juliana Cuddles,” I hope to donate more money to our new Boulder City Animal Shelter.

The next production of BCBC will be “Alice in Wonderland” at the Boulder Theatre this Spring.