When Henry Herz’ two sons were very young, he decided to share his love of fantasy stories — Herz had been introduced to the genre in elementary school with the book “Where the Wild Things Are” and his fascination with it hadn’t waned much as an adult — by crafting his own fantasy story to read to them. About five years ago, Herz started reading the story to sons Josh and Harrison. The boys would give him ideas for how to improve it and even provided the name of the title character, Nimpentoad. Eventually, Herz shared the story with other family members, and after some prodding, he decided it was good enough to warrant publishing. After enduring the process of finding an illustrator that shared their vision, staring down the prospect of submitting the book to a publisher for review among a torrent of other submissions (and in the end opting to self-publish), and wearing out tire treads and shoe soles with endless appearances to get the word out, Herz and his sons finally have a finished product in hand. The process, Herz said, has been invaluable in terms of life lessons learned. “We have always encouraged them to be entrepreneurial,” he said. “Nimpentoad,” Herz said, is a “fun children’s fantasy that promotes positive values like trust, teamwork and determination. The process itself has also been encouraging my boys — and other kids — to read, write, do public speaking and be little entrepreneurs.” Josh and Harrison, now 12 and 10 respectively, have accompanied their father at book signings at the La Jolla Farmer’s Market, La Jolla/Riford Library and the La Jolla YMCA, among many other locations around San Diego. On Jan. 24, they will be at Warwick’s, 7812 Girard Ave., for a book-signing at 4 p.m. and again at Barnes & Noble Del Mar, 12835 El Camino Real, on Jan. 28 at 11 a.m. For more information, visit www.nimpentoad.com.