By Catherine Hedge

What a delight!  I have just returned from a regional writer’s conference, The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators of Kansas.  I spent the day learning from wonderful, creative speakers:  Sharon M. Draper, Jennifer Mattson, Karen Grencik, Heather Alexander, Jennifer Brown, Bridget Heos, and Brett Wright.

I was surrounded by enthusiastic people who write because they have something to say and a unique way of saying it. Writing is their art.  My art.

As writers, we sit by ourselves, writing draft after draft.  The stereotype is the pale, hunched, introvert writing until dawn. He’s fueled by whiskey and stale cigarettes.  (Okay, I’m pale, love to write at night, but I need chocolate and Malbec.) But get us all together to share, breathe, and question writing, and we are as excited as middle schoolers!

It makes me realize that to be in close proximity to those…