Local schoolmarm pens novel

DeLene Sholes was a teacher, principal and school administrator for 30 years. Throughout her teaching years, Sholes jotted down humorous, poignant and even sad events that took place during the course of her day or week.

Sholes has taken those notes/musings and anecdotes put them down in book form, which all together, tell a story.

Related in the first person, the main character in Sholes' book is a teaching principal, just as Sholes was a teaching principal for many years.

The author said the book is based on true stories, but it is a novel.

"It's not a kid's book, just anecdotes from all that experience and something I have had in progress for many years," she said.  

Sholes moved to Grayton Beach from Birmingham in 1978 after she began vacationing in the community in 1970.

"Our kids were grown and our youngest was a high school senior. It just got harder and harder to return to Birmingham, so we decided to stay," she said.

Sholes had taught school in Birmingham and applied to teach in Walton County. The week before school was to start back, she was hired to teach at Paxton. Amazingly, she was willing to make the 100-mile round-trip journey each day in order to be able to move here. However, at the last minute, she was hired at Freeport when it was still a K-12 school.

She later taught at Bay Elementary for eight years and was assistant principal at Freeport. Sholes retired in 1998 as district curriculum coordinator and the writing program administrator.

"I also did drug prevention and taught English as a second language. I have a wealth of experience to pull from," she said.

In progress for many years, Sholes finished her book last month and has received her proof copy back from the publisher.

Her book, "Real Principals Have No Class," is available at www.buybooksonline.com for $13.95. She anticipates it will also be available at www.amazon.com and at local book stores.