A couple of days ago, one of my college roommates called after she received my Christmas card. The years melted away as we caught up. The day before that, I talked to another one of my best college friends, trying to track down her snail mail address. In both of these conversations, I admitted something I haven’t talked about here at all.

I want to teach English again … someday.

There. I’ve said it!

It seems to be a trend among my friends that as our kids get older and start school, we are either becoming homeschool moms or we’re heading back to the work force. Both are full-time jobs that require enormous amounts of creativity.

My true passions are literature and writing. With a good book to read and a notebook to jot down one’s thoughts, life is more than bearable; it becomes joyful! I haven’t taught formally since the 1995-96 school year, when I taught sophomore and senior English in a public high school. It was exhausting, but richly rewarding.

Since our kids have entered the Christian school system, I’m now partial to the wonderful Christ-centered education they’re receiving. Yet I know tuition only increases as children get older. So I’m dreaming that one day, maybe my reading/writing/blogging decade can help land me a teaching job that would help pay private school tuition for my kids to go to a really great school. The grandparents have been so generous this year … but how in the world will we manage when we have all five kids in school?

With that said, I’m starting to collect books on teaching writing, and I’ve just found another wonderful book on the subject. The Train-of-Thought Writing Method by Kathi Macias offers the perfect analogy that demystifies the process of writing an article, short story, or longer work of fiction or non-fiction.

I can relate to trains. My two sons are both crazy about trains, and I’ve read them books about trains hundreds of times. Macias instructs writers to first begin “laying the track,” which means to write out one sentence that describes the heart of the work. Then you must have a “cow catcher,” something that will grab the reader’s attention and invite them along for the train ride.

Other aspects of the writing process include the locomotive (purpose, pulling the story along), the boxcars, the couplers, the observation car, and the caboose. Macias includes plenty of examples from her own writing, as well as other well-known authors, such as C.S. Lewis.

I’m really excited about owning this book, which can be used by a teacher like a workbook. Each chapter would make a nice weekly lesson, in which students can be instructed to work on a piece in process. Throughout the book, Kathi Macias’ can-do tone makes anyone feel like tackling a long writing project is not insurmountable.

I especially enjoyed the author’s example of being invited to speak at her old high school on the topic of writing. She was a nervous wreck about her first public speaking assignment! Yet it was a springboard for her lifetime career of helping others become better writers.

The author is an award-winning writer who has authored or coauthored fifteen books, including the popular Matthews and Matthews detective series from B&H (Obsession, The Price, and The Ransom) and the bestselling women’s devotional, A Moment a Day from Regal Books. She has also edited, rewritten, or ghostwritten more than 100 other books and published a wide variety of articles, short stories, and poems. She also serves as a staff member of a major manuscript critique service.

With these credentials, Kathi Macias has a great background for writing a book using the train-of-thought method to help new and established writers accomplish their goals of publishing.

I highly recommend this book and am glad to have it on my bookshelf. Not only will it help me to work on my personal writing projects, I also dream that someday … if God opens the door … I’ll be able to incorporate it in my classroom.

Wherever that may be.