Other Communities


Me, writing in the Loft


















Of course, I'd love to write with you at the Loft! But for so many reasons, (mostly geographical) that might not come to pass. I still don't want you to write alone! Here are some other communities I recommend:

New England area
  • New England Kid-lit Meet Ups:
Kris, me, Martha, Nandini
Kris Asselin posts about awesome IRL meet-ups
in various New England locations. All kid-lit writers, illustrators, and industry people (agents, publishers, librarians, P.R. people) welcome!!

Check the Facebook page.





  • NESCBWI Spring Conference: 

Laura, Jen, me, Erinn, Natasha, Alicia
One of my favorite weekends of the year, the NESCBWI Spring Conference is held in Springfield, MA each year. Registration opens in February and the popular workshops fill up fast.

While I'm done with my directing duties for the conference, I guarantee that I've passed the baton to some amazing directors.





  • The Blueboards: 

Verla Kay's amazing kid-lit forum community. Threads on any writing topic you could think of! Come find me over there, my handle, creatively enough, Heather Kelly. :)






  • The Practice Room:


The Practice Room was created by the brilliant Tina Laurel Lee, and is a meeting place for writers. Stop by, sign in, then unplug and write for an hour. When you come back, there is a magic chat room, with real writers talking about real writing in real time. I'll see you there!!






  • WriteOnCon:


In August, I'm always lurking at WriteOnCon, the awesome, all FREE online conference. Agents and editors and authors, oh, my!



  • Row 80:

A fabulous writing community dedicated to pledging toward a certain goal each 80 days. There are cheerleaders and support, and you can set your goal at whatever makes sense for you. This community strives to help people balance writing into their everyday life. Awesome!!

Did I miss any great communities? Let me know in the comments!!