I love writing conferences. Like the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference that's happening next week. Like the SCBWI Summer Conference that's coming up in a couple of months. Conferences are where you learn everything you didn't know you needed to learn about writing craft and the publishing world. They're where you get legitimate feedback on your writing and meet the writers you already admire--like Richard Peck and Karen Cushman--and the ones who are just starting out, like you. Conferences are where you find your writing group, your writing friends, your mentors, and even your agent or book deal sometimes. Writing conferences give you something to blog about. But there comes a time when you need to stop conferencing (like how I just made that a verb?) and just get to work and write your wretched books. That's me right now. I have a book that's almost done, but not quite, and never have enough hours in the day to spend on it. So I...