Creative minds need the nourishment of a community that understands the challenge to create, critique, revise and risk rejection of what we create.
Writers create in solitude. Conferences invite us to converge as community to learn from other authors and each other, share what we’ve written, refresh and sharpen our craft for readers to enjoy.

I sit back and review handouts and notes taken in C. Hope Clark’s class on writing the great mystery at the David R. Collins Writers’ Conference. I ponder the constructive session and suggested changes Felicia Schneiderhan shared in her critique of my work. I reflect on the positive audience reaction to my reading of a scene in “Belonging.”

I smile. I’m recharged.  I’m ready to go back into the seclusion of the world I create and risk that my readers will go there with me.