My Story

I always had this dream, this burning, insistent passion for writing. Even as a boy, a piece of paper and the glide of a pen held magic for me. Early on in my adulthood, in those heady days of possibility, I saw myself as a published author, crafting worlds and characters that would leap off the page and into the hearts of readers. But life, with its inevitable detours and unexpected turns, had other plans. I graduated from college, bright-eyed and idealistic, and right away, I found myself stepping into the world of education. 

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For the past twenty-five years, I've been an elementary grade school teacher, a role I fell into almost as if predestined. My primary focus has always been language arts, the very thing that had fueled my youthful aspirations. I spent years guiding young minds through the intricacies of sentence structure, the beauty of figurative language, and the joy of storytelling. It was just in the last five years that I shifted slightly across the teaching scale, becoming an English Language Arts Interventionist. Instead of a single class, I found myself working with struggling readers and writers in small groups across three grade levels - 3rd, 4th, and 5th. These were the kids who needed an extra nudge, a more tailored approach, and I found a strange, profound satisfaction in helping them unlock their potential. It wasn't until much later in my career, perhaps around the time I started working with those small intervention groups, that I had an epiphany. Most days, I realized, I was doing the work of an author; it was just coming out differently. Instead of pouring my own stories onto the page, I was modeling and teaching reading and writing strategies to young, eager minds. I was helping them develop their narratives, fostering a love and a path for them to find their love of reading and writing. I was, in essence, guiding their authorial voices, one grammar lesson and brainstorming session at a time. The irony wasn't lost on me. Here I was, a closet author, helping others find their voices while my own remained largely silent. Yet, there was a deep fulfillment in watching their faces light up as they crafted their first poems, their first short stories. It was a kind of vicarious creativity, a shared joy in the magic of words.

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I began writing my first book as a hobby in the evenings or on the weekends. It started slowly, a few sentences here, a paragraph there, born out of stolen moments of quiet after a long day of lesson plans and student conferencing. It was an escape for me, a stress relief. A way to dive into a fantasy world! A realm of characters and chaos, of magic and mystery, that had been swirling around in my mind for years. In this realm, I was no longer Mr. Stahl, the structured, patient teacher. I was the architect, the creator, the master of my narrative. For the first time, I was not acting as a guide and teacher. I was letting the story flow, putting to use the skills and strategies I’d been teaching for so many years – character development, plot structure, pacing, voice – without the filter of instruction. I found a strange, liberating freedom in not having to explain or model. I simply wrote. So, while this may be my first official project of this nature and magnitude, it didn’t come out of the blue. It came from a place in my heart and mind that is deeply rooted in the very essence of storytelling. This book, in a way, is the culmination of all those years spent immersed in the world of language, both mine and the countless stories I've helped others uncover. It's a testament to the enduring power of words, the magic they hold, and the journey they can take us on - whether we're crafting them ourselves or simply turning the page. It is, in essence, a teacher's late-blooming love letter to the written word.