Journeying into Writing

My journey into becoming an author has been – we’ll say – put on hold for most of my life. I went to college as an education major with a minor in writing and English. At the time, writing was not something you did, but almost something you fell into. It wasn’t taken seriously as a career unless you wanted to go into journalism. I went into teaching primarily because my boyfriend (now my husband) did not like to read. It didn’t come easy for him. He never found it engaging – hated the books he was assigned. To me that was one of the saddest thing I had ever heard. I wanted to be the teacher who inspired kids to read – to get them excited about books and the journeys you could take inside the pages. I did accomplish that. I loved it. The politics of teaching – that I didn’t like so much.

I traded my teaching degree in for motherhood. My salary would never have covered daycare and it wasn’t what my husband and I wanted. In addition, he traveled a lot and one of us had to be home. I threw everything I had into motherhood and when they reached school age, I was the all-encompassing volunteer that the schools needed. I don’t regret that choice. I developed invaluable skills and met a lot of interesting people in that capacity. I did that for 19 years and now, that I have officially retired from schools, I have the opportunity to write.

It’s exciting. It’s terrifying. It’s a learning experience. My dream is to walk into a book store and find my name on the shelf. I want to create that book that children love to read or the novel that keeps people engaged in reading. I still want to make a difference.

Why did you get into writing?