Just back from a two-day school visit in Defiance, Ohio. Sponsored by The Friends of the Defiance Public Library, this event allowed me to see every, or almost every third-grade kid in the county. The two days of presentations were held on the campus of The Defiance College, a small liberal arts institution from which, as one friend quipped, I should have received an honorary degree.

The kids from this bluecollar and farm community, very much like the one I grew up in, were fresh-faced and eager, their questions the ones authors are usually asked: How many books have you written? How long does it take to write a book? Where do ideas come from? But in the largest session — one hundred-and-thirty-eight kids — one boy, smaller than many of his peers, was literally sitting on the edge of his seat as he raised his hand. His question was one that I won’t soon forget. His name was Evan. “Do you ever write from the heart?” he asked.

At first, I was sure I had misunderstood him. He was, after all, nine years old. “Do you ever write from the heart?” When I asked him what he meant by this, he explained further. “You know,” he said, and he put his hands on his temples. “Not from the mind, but from the heart.” Clearly, he knew exactly what he was asking.

For a moment, I stalled, struggling to control an unexpected swell of memories from my own childhood. And when I did answer, my response was, in many ways, unsatisfactory. “I hope that all my books are written from the heart,” I said. I think I might have mumbled something about needing the mind, too.

Later, I learned that Evan was often in trouble. Not surprising. A boy who asked such a question –do you write from the heart? – must be a boy who lived from the heart, a courageous, even dangerous path, especially for a boy, in an increasingly heartless world.

I tried to get the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Evan after the session ended, but before I knew it, the kids were being marshalled out and onto their busses. Still, I’ll remember him for a long time, and especially as I begin my next book, which, I hope, will be written from the heart. And if it is, if I can manage to be that brave, I’ll dedicate to Evan, a nine-year-old boy living in Defiance.