Most of the time I’m not Edgar(r) nominated author Jeffrey Marks. 99% of the time, I’m just plain old Jeff, or Mr. Marks to the students I teach. But once in a while, my personalities collide and it makes for some interesting times.

This week, I did a booksigning down by the school where I teach. I hadn’t thought much of it when the library called to schedule it, other than the fact that I would know where I was going for once. It wasn’t until my name went up on the big sign out front that my worlds collided. 5 students came into my class and told me about it. They showed me pictures of me in the local paper and in the library newsletter. I had one student who wanted to argue if I was famous or not. He couldn’t conceive that Mr. Marks might have a life outside of room 261.

The signing was a lot of fun. Many of my students showed up, and it was a side of me that they don’t normally see. What I do when I’m not at school, what I did before I became a teacher. They all wanted copies of my book, and many of them laughed at the photo of me on the bookcover. “Where are your glass?” “Why is your hair shorter now?” We talked about writing and how I had gone from IT guy to writer to writer and teacher. Everything from my 4th grade poetry contest to my 10 books and what I was working on now.

Mostly I like the idea that some of them might think one day about being an author and they know one. When I started in this business, I had a grandmother who worked for the local paper. Other than that, I knew nothing about writing itself, much less if it was even possible.