BC, you might consider befriending a person in your local area using a Nicot or Jenter system. The reason I mention these non-grafting systems, is that the DVD's accompanying the kits give good overviews of the queen rearing process, skipping the grafting part of course. For my learning style, it helps to see the overall picture and then assimilate, step by step, the kernel points of the process before starting out. Make friends with a local queen producer. Once you actually 'see' what it entails, you will know how far you want to go in that direction.
Tec mentioned details. This cannot be overstated. One little slip up in procedure, or timing, will often result in total failure in the queen making process. Be advised too, that there are factors out of your control that affect the process, i.e., weather, viruses, location, etc.. It is indeed a very good feeling when you have assisted the bees to produce good queen cells!