When I was a kid in elementary school, I was blessed to have a wonderful art teacher. She also wrote. I remember her smile and the way she wore her graying brown hair back in a ponytail, but I can’t remember a single art piece I did in that portable building. What I do remember is the last week of school when we were all busting at the seams with energy to release on summer vacation—she read us a chapter from her novel in progress. I don’t know if she ever finished it, or ever published it, but the images of that story stuck with me. People with colorful feathers…