One of my dreams when I became a teacher was to write a book. I remember what my then mentor, Virgie Gayda-Esteves said, writing a book is not far-fecthed when you are teaching at the Ateneo. So I made a mental note of that remark while I busied myself in my academic and non-academic duties at the grade school.
The first opportunity to write and have my work published came thru one of my colleagues, Grace Uy-Yn, who wrote part-time for Mathalino Magazine, a Mathematics supplementary magazine published by Diwa Publishing, distributed to elementary schools in the entire country. I wrote children stories that tried to introduce, explain and teach kids as well. Of course, from the title itself, Mathalino, the magazine was about Maths. I wrote a lot of articles for them, experiencing writer's block every now and then and writer's katamaran as well.
Come 2006, one of my colleagues and sparring partner in Ateneo, Jim Patrick, presented another opportunity for me to write. This time, it was a Math textbook. You just can't imagine the excitement I felt when I received the offer. Okay, so probabaly it was not really the book that I really wanted to write, but hey, a textbook is still a book, right? Since at that time there was an issue on textbooks published in the Philippines (errors in the lessons and facts), we had to follow the guidelines of writing a textbook outside the Ateneo. We had to get the approval of our then Headmaster, Fr. Joey Fermin, S.J. (+) before we can proceed with the project. He didn't want any of his teachers being involved again in the "textbook scandals" and we did as what we were instructed.
I think it was only early 2007 when we finally started with the project. At that time I was also already busy with our migration, I was still teaching, and I was already heavy with Liam. Talk about multi-tasking! I thought I can't finish the project! Aside from the lessons, we had to prepare the teachers' guide. I remember doing the teachers' guide (revisions and all) even if we were already here in Sydney. To make the long story short the book was published by Salesiana Publishing (DOn Bosco Press) and I have been collecting my royalty pay for two years now. hehe
Looking back it was a dream come true for me, especially when I got my hard copy! I mean seeing my name on the book, my outputs and ideas. Wow. It was such a great feeling. My nephews and nieces also got excited when they saw their names on the book! Liam actually saw the book the other day and when he saw my picture at the back cover, he asked if that was me and what the book was. Since the book was a Math textbook for Year 6 students I told him that Mama wrote the book for him and that he can use it when he is in Year 6 already. He was happy. :D
I came across a saying that by the time you reach 40 you should have already written a book, planted a tree and ______... I forgot the last one. Well, I'm done with the two. hehe. I still have 8 more years to research and do the last one.
Now that I am not into teaching full time, I just pour my creative juices and put into writing my ideas thru my blog. Yesterday I came across one forum that presented the dilemma of having no back-up files of the blogs that have been written. Many responded and it pointed to this website that allows you to make a book out of your blogs. I wanted one of course! Seeing everything that I have written in print? Yes! And having a back-up as well of all my written outputs? Better! My blogs after all are very personal. I can just imagine what that person felt when the admin of the blog site she was using suspended her account and she can't retrieve any of her blogs anymore! Que horror!
I tried to do it yesterday and it was really very easy. The site does the lay-out and of course you have a say of what to include or not. You can actually even do the printing of your blogs by year! A couple of months ago I actually asked Alvin if he can have my blogs printed and give it as a thank-you booklet when I die to people who come and mourn and pay their last respect to me. Of course he didn't want the subject (me dying and sounding like nagbibilin already) so he just shrugged it off. But after finding this site yesterday I immediately asked him if I can have my blogs printed. And of course he knew that it is one thing that will make me happy, so he said yes! :D (no bullying promise!) From August 2009, when I took my blogging seriously, up to the present, it will cost me around $60 for the printing of my book (naks!) hehe. But I am considering the other option of just having it in pdf file and just have it printed and bound at Officeworks. It will be a lot cheaper!
I am excited. It may not be like my previous works that have been published and distributed in the Philippines, but hey, I was still the one who wrote it, and more importantly everything in it is personal and a part of me.
So Book number 2, here I come :D
