ROCK FALLS – Gloria Maya wrote a story that she never intended to publish. Like most parents, at the end of a long workday, the dedicated mother of four boys just wanted her 6-year-old son, Javier, to go to sleep.

But he asked her to make up a bedtime story.

Maya gave in to her son’s requests and began to dream up a new narrative. Javier soon fell asleep with the story unfinished.

Maya thought that would be the end of it. But, the next night, Javier asked Maya to continue the tale.

“I honestly couldn’t remember much of it,” Maya laughed. “I thought we’d both go to bed, and that would be the end of it. I was a tired momma who wanted her little boy to sleep.”

With a bit of improvising and help from Javier, Maya was able to piece the plot back together. Finally, after three nights of continuing the adventure, Maya wrote the story down.

That outline became “The Good and the Bad Witch.” It quickly became one of Javier’s favorite stories.

As Javier grew older, the story was stored away with other childhood keepsakes and forgotten about. Twelve years later, though, that story — and the circumstances of its creation — came up in conversation with one of Maya’s friends.

“He asked if I had ever thought of publishing the book, and I said no. That was never the goal,” Maya recalled. “Then he asked if my son loved it so much, why wouldn’t other children his age? It got me thinking, he might be right.”

But publishing a book requires time and money. Working several jobs to help support her boys, Maya found herself often short on both. It would be another 16 years before she published her son’s bedtime story last March.

Currently, Maya is working on three non-fiction projects and has moved on from children’s stories.

“That was from a time in my life when I was surrounded by my children. A story created for my little boy. That time has passed, and those stories aren’t in me now,” Maya said with a bit of sadness.

Parents can order a copy of “The Good Witch and the Bad Witch” on Amazon.