What happens to good intentions?

So that box of wonderful books I intended to read?  Didn't happen.  I could give you a gazillion reasons why.  But really, I got caught up in the holidays, and in researching writing (as in writing middle grade or YA lit.)

I have always wanted to be a teacher.  Always.  I played teacher when I was 8 years-old.  I made floor plans of my classroom.  I created classroom schedules.   I "taught" my stuffed animals.  I even made attendance sheets.  But...

I have a secret.

I also wanted to be a writer.  My closet was filled with boxes of spiral-bound notebooks containing all of my stories.  Most of them were fanfic stuff, written before I even knew what fanfic was all about.  As soon as I got into books (about 3rd grade), I got into writing, too.  I was so inspired by the stories I read, that I wanted the stories and characters to continue.  So I continued them.  Now, series books were not exactly abounding when I was young.  There were the Little House on the Praire books, The Boxcar Children, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the "Fudge" books by Judy Blume.  My favorite was Madeleine L'Engle's Time Trilogy.  But those were about it.  Regardless, books were my inspiration, so I wrote and wrote and wrote.

Years later as a young college student, I devised this plan to teach during the school year, and write during the summer.  Great plan, right?  For someone who had NEVER ACTUALLY TAUGHT  in a classroom.  But for someone who was always thinking on the practical side, this was a logical course of action.  I figured my chances of gainful employment were greater with teaching than with writing.  And given the knowledge I had back then, I was probably right.

It's been 21 years since I graduated from college.  I've been teaching since 1998, and have been teaching at my current school since 2001. It's a unique school -- awesome environment, incredible staff -- but a lot of hard work, and not a lot of summer break.   I am happily married, and have two amazing children.  But I still have this dream of writing.

A few things helped my dream re-surface:

1. One of my students mentioned a girl's ability to fight as a quality worthy of marriage.  I blogged about it here.  It made me think about girl characters in books.
2. I was an avid reader in elementary school.  Someone very close to me is not.  This person has amazing reading comprehension skills, but is still developing fluency and reading stamina.  Some books are too long for this person, even though this person is able read it.  Just something that made me go hmmm.
3. I found out that the author of one of my current favorite reads, Divergent, is only 24 years-old.  Her name is Veronica Roth, and when I poked around her blog, I was totally inspired.  She had so many great tips!
4. I started looking up other favorite authors, and was also inspired by Jessica Day George, author of Dragon Slippers.  This inspired me, too.  She is a mom!  Like me!  It also took her nine years and 187 rejections.  (That was totally frightening -- but inspiring nonetheless).

My husband and I talked, and he has always known this dream of mine.  Our first Christmas as a married couple, he gave me a blank journal, "To write your ideas for your book," he told me.  I still have that book, but it never really got filled.  I realized I need to make the time if I want this to happen.  However long it takes.  This Christmas, he gave me a software called Scrivener.  I love it.  I'm actually using it, playing around, hashing out ideas, characters.  Maybe it will become something.  Who knows?

But I'm not giving up my day job. :)