A mom ... and an aspiring author

I've decided to be a stay-home mom for a while. I was spewing on about some stuff regarding day care and all that the other day to Brian, and he said something that, for some reason, surprised me. He said, "Then don't go back to work for a while. Be a mom, if you want, for six months or for a year. It's okay to be a mom for a while." Understand that I wasn't surprised that he said that, but more surprised by how pleased I was to hear it from him. I thought to myself, "You know what? The kid's going to be growing exponentially over the next several months, and I really want to see every minute of that."
And now it comes to this: not only watch the kid grow, but try to write something too. I've always played with the idea of writing a novel of some kind. Actually, I even got 150 pages into authoring one before trashing it as a poor effort. Of course, there's the fear factor. I'm afraid to put my writing out there and open to criticism (all evidence on this blog to the contrary). But actual creative writing is more of a soul-opening experience, I think.
That's what freaks me out. That, and the fact that I don't really have an idea that's floating my boat right now. Do I go the romance route? Or try to weave some kind of murder mystery? Through all that consideration, I find myself leaning towards the "chick-lit" shelf of the bookstore. I've no shortage of ideas along those lines, actually.
So anyway, that's the that for now. I'll let you know how my new book-writing experiment goes as it progresses.