Kindred spirits in Illustration and Writing

Last night I had the joy of being able to get together with a children's illustrator, who not only creates beautiful illustrations, but is a wonderful person and lives in the same town!
I hope you all don't get too jealous, knowing how rare that is, but I'm thrilled. Here is a sample of Margriet's work. She recently had a booksigning for her two newly published books (she did the illos) in our town, and we found out that we shared a few common friends in town. It's a small world.
One of the toughest parts of being a freelance artist/writer is finding others who share the same goals and struggles. I've met hundreds of children's authors and illustrators online in the yahoo children's writers and illustrators groups. I'm eternally grateful for them. I'll put links up to some of those online groups soon, but I'm still figuring the links out here (I'm not html savy)
I would never have persevered to this point, or dared to try breaking into the children's publishing markets without the encouragement, motivation, tips and inspiration from the generous and talented people I've met online.
I even had the chance to meet several of them in person in NYC at the SCBWI conference there this past February! What a joy!
If you're feeling lonely as a children's illustrator or writer, I encourage you to join the online lists available, and find some online critque groups. I also highly recommend the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators. The national group is well run, and overflows with generous, talented writers and illustrators. The local chapters are sometimes even better, since there are opportunites to meet editors, authors, illustrators and agents face to face and have portfolio and manuscript critiques done. Here in the Mid-Atlantic region we always have incredible conferences. I'll write more about that later though.