Mary Pachek has kept busy in her retirement years.

Pachek, a former Tahoma School District assistant superintendent who now lives in Hobart, retired more than a decade ago from education, but has worked as student teacher and principal intern supervisor for the University of Washington-Tacoma as well as consulted for area school districts.

Her latest project, though, allows her to add another title to her resume — author.

Pachek (pronounced “paycheck”) wrote her first book in late 2008, just in time for the holiday season, called “Isabella and the Merry Mouse House.”

“This is going to sound kind of crazy … but it came to me in a dream,” she said. “Most of the times I have dreams like everybody else, but this book came to me in a dream.”

She had the dream a couple of times and she would think to herself, “I should just get up and write this out.”

It took two years before she sat down at the computer and wrote the book with the intent to print it up before the holidays so it could be a gift for her great nephews — she has five now and they’re all under the age of 6.

“I thought, well, this would be fun and I should probably get this done before they have families of their own,” she said. “That kind of gave me the impetus to get it down and I thought I’d better get it done.”

Once she got it written, Pachek contacted Tahoma High art teacher Suzanne Gardner to find someone to provide artwork for the book.

“She lined me up with one young lady, but she couldn’t do it, so, she connected me with her good friend, Jordan Noad, and she ended up doing the illustrations for me,” Pachek said.

Noad is now a senior at Tahoma High, but she did the illustrations during her junior year.

“Jordan really made it come alive,” Pacek said.

After she got the book printed for her nephews, Pachek decided she probably shouldn’t just let it sit on a shelf, so she began looking into getting it published.

As a result of an e-mail inquiry, she got a phone call from Author House offering to publish her book, which is now available from Amazon.com among other book sellers.

Her first book was made available in October, just in time for the holiday season.

The book is about Isabella and her mouse family, Pachek explained, which is so large they’re in search of a new home.

Under the Christmas tree they see a doll house that is meant for a little girl, she said, but it’s just the right size so Isabella and her family move into it.

You’ll have to read the book to find out how Isabella’s family resolves its problem to everyone’s satisfaction.

“It’s a fun little story,” Pachek said. “It’s not necessarily a book you’ll read in one sitting because it’s a little longer.”

Pachek had more than one book in her because she had another dream, this time about a special duck whom she named Bernice, after her mother.

Bernice is a tomboy who wears a red baseball cap just a bit off center. She has one foot that is a little bigger than the other.

“She has a lot of friends and everyone loves her and they don’t even know that her one foot is a little bit larger,” Pachek said. “They’re out having a great time … and Bernice saves the day. They find out that Bernice did it because of her foot.”

Pachek is waiting for the right time to try and get her second book published.

For now, the Great Falls, Mont., native who earned her teaching degree at Montana State University, is keeping busy during her retirement promoting her book when she’s not consulting.

“It was pretty exciting to see (her book) listed on Amazon.com, it was very cool,” Pacek said. “It’s something that I’m glad I did. It’s a nice legacy to leave my little great nephews.”