According to the radio this morning, today is
Teacher's Day! The radio announcer asked the question: "Did you have a teacher who influenced you?" And he proceeded to name a whole list of teachers who had had a great impact on his life. One was a teacher that made him read his story in front of the class and told him he was a good writer. That brought back so many memories for me!!
My Grade 6 teacher, Mr. Guistini, did the same thing for me. Mine was a Halloween story, I believe. He was the first person (only person) to tell me I should write a book. And I did. Started then and continued into Grade 9 when I then learned to type and began to type it all page by page! Daunting compared to today's computers! I even submitted that manuscript (I cringe now) to a publisher and received a very nice rejection letter. That put my writing career on hold for 25 years! Life got in the way, high school, university, marriage, job, kids. Yup -- that's about 25 years worth!
Anyway the writing bug hit again around the time I hit age 40. Not sure why then. Maybe because I started reading again like crazy and got the urge to write my own stories. And one of these days, I
will be a published author. It's just a matter of time.
Moral of the story - you never know how you influence someone's life with a few tiny words of encouragement. To all you teachers out there - THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I had the pleasure of receiving Karen Witemeyer's newest release "Short -Straw Bride" in the mail this week. I started it last night and finished it in less than 24 hours! 
