I came back to Toastmasters mostly because my husband was rejoining when a new club was formed where he now works in Charlotte, but also becaues I want to be a published author of childrens books and poetry books. Since I was a Toastmaster from years ago, and advanced toastmaster, achieving the advanced status again, wasn't that hard. 
Advanced Toastmasters will tell you that it's the advanced manuals that are the FUN manuals! And such a FUN toastmasters advanced manual is Story Telling! And because one of the projects is to retell a story with a moral, I was able to tell one of my own! It was so much fun and I was kinda surprised at the positive response I recieved from both my verbal storytelling of the tale and the book I created and passed around!
I am trying to figure out how I can do my other books in a similar manner. I have 7 or 8 made into book dummies.... now if I can just figure out how to use them in Toastmaster projects I will have the best of both my creative worlds! ;-)
