Realm Makers 2023 Recap

Well, I did it. I flew to Missouri and went to Realm Makers all by myself. It was both amazing and hard, but let's do a full recap of the trip to break things down further.

Day 1: Wednesday

This was my first big travel day. I had 5+ hours of flying, with one layover. This was my first time flying since I was ten or so, which made me super nervous. My dad dropped me off at BWI around 12:30. I only cried a little before getting myself together and getting inside the airport.

In spite of my fears, I actually enjoyed flying. Both flights went smoothly with minimal turbualnce. My second flight was delayed, but managed to get in the air sooner than anticipated.

Then I landed in St. Louis and found out all the luggage was delayed due to a storm that just finished. It took me 30-40 minutes just to get my bag, although some people I heard were there for 2 hours. With all that taken care of, all I had to do was get to the hotel.

They had a complimentary shuttle, which I called. On the shuttle, I met four other Realmies, including Shannon Dittemore, who was the absolute sweetest. All of them were so welcoming to me and we chatted all the way to the hotel.

Since I knew absolutely no one here, I roomed with two people I didn't know, Kat and Brittany. But again, they were amazing and kind and made me feel right at home. Kat was there when I arrived, since she's on the planning committee, but Brittany didn't come in until after midnight.

Around eleven, I crashed, and actually slept well. Which, for me, is unusual.

Day 2: Thursday

While the conference started Thursday, activities didn't begin until 3 o'clock. Which gave me all morning to occupy myself.

I started the day off with a breakdown in my hotel room (thankfully without my roommates around). It finally sunk in I was 14 hours away from my family surrounded by people I didn't know at an event I'd never been too.

But after that, I pulled myself together and ventured to Panera for breakfast. There I found some more Realmies, including Megan from Lamplighter Literary Candles. They helped me feel a lot better, as did the Starbucks I got later.

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel and got registered for the conference. I picked up my badge, but all my stickers on it, and got my welcome packet. By then, it was still only 10 or 10:30, so I had some time to kill. I tucked myself into a window ledge along the main hallway to do some cross stitch. Partially to give myself something to do and partially so I didn't look like a total loser sitting by myself.

For lunch, I went to the famous Fuzzy's Tacos in the shopping area attached to the hotel. There I met Ronnell, who basically adopted me for the rest of the conference. Whenever we met up, she'd check on me and make sure I had a place to sit for meals and such. She's awesome.

And I met Lauren, who I've followed on Instagram for a while! We didn't get any pictures together because I'm awful about remembering to take pictures with people, but we met. She will confirm this story.

Finally at three the bookstore opened, so I went downstairs to wander and see what goodies were there before the conference properly started at four. I quickly realized that there was far too many good looking books and not nearly enough room in my suitcase or money in my budget to buy them all.

The opening keynote was by Steve Laube, the man behind Enclave Publishing and the agent who represents some of my favorite authors. It was a wonderful keynote, even if I did have to step out halfway through due to a coughing fit.

Next was dinner (once again at Panera) followed by a new attendee orientation and then an Agent/Editor Q&A panel. Both were good, but I enjoyed even more making purchases in the bookshop all night (haul at the end of the post).

Look at the tiny dragon I got!

Day 3: Friday

This was the day with all my appointments. I was a bit nervous going into it, but not as badly as I thought I might be. The keynote that started the day was by Steven James, who was hilarious. But even while making us fall off our chairs with laughter, her reminded us of the wonder of life and the power of story.

By the time that was over, it was about thirty minutes until my mentor appointment. Rather than go to the first class of the day for 15 minutes, I hung out outside the appointment rooms until 10:30. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but it was so encouraging to be surrounded by other people who were also excited and nervous for their appointments.

I picked Katie Phillips as my mentor. We had an amazing 15 minute appointment talking about how I can do better at building my brand. I came away with some great new ideas and realizations (some of which were frustrating, but necessary). She was so sweet and encouraging to me.

I booked it right over to catch the second half of my first continuing session- Story, Character, Prose by Daniel Schwabauer. (At least, booked it once I actually figured out where the heck it was.) Those in the homeschool world might recognize him as the man behind One Year Adventure Novel (and the man who gave me my first existential writing crisis, but that's a story for another time). It was a solid talk and I can't wait to rewatch the first half I missed in the RealmSphere.

After lunch, it was time for one of the talks I was most looking forward to- Sara Ella's talk on spiritual themes. It was just as good as I hoped and I took a lot of notes.

Then it was time to pitch my book. My first pitch was to Elk Lake Publishing. I felt wildly unprepared, but I went in and gave it my best. The editor I pitched to was pretty positive, and asked me to send a proposal into the publishing house, but I kind of feel like it was just him being nice. Even if that was the case, having a good first pitch boosted my confidence.

So I decided to sign up for another pitch to Shadow Mountain Press. Sadly, the editor I pitched already had a similar "Alice in Wonderland" project. Rather than pitch another project, I asked her to give me feedback on my current pitch and we spent my fifteen minutes on that. While it didn't lead to an offer, it gave me some great ideas to strengthen my pitch.

But with both of those pitches almost back to back, I missed almost all of my second continuing session. Rather than go finish the class, I decided to take an hour alone in my room before the evening festivities began.

Friday night was the Realm Awards dinner, which included costumes! I dressed up as Spider-Gwen and got a lot of compliments. There were so many good costumes, which of course I didn't take pictures of. I also took part in the costume contest, more for fun than to actually win.

My roommate and her boyfriend as the couple from SpyXFamily

The dinner was quite fancy and loud, but I made it through. Then it was time for the awards, which was lots of fun. The Wonderland Trials won in the YA fantasy category! I think it's the only winner I won, but that's okay.

Once the ceremonies were over, everyone milled around for a while. I got tired, overwhelmed, and went to bed.

Day 4: Saturday

The final day of the conference. I was feeling a bit worn down by now. Meeting over four hundred new people is a lot for this socially anxious introvert.

My first class of the day was my other most anticipated class- a practical fighting class. It was just as good as I hoped. I scribbled so many notes.

Then it was on to the final continuing session on writing strong prose. I loved Daniel's classes, but boy does he go through slides fast. I'll have to rewatch this class too to catch a few points I missed.

After lunch (once again at Panera), I took a class on discovering your voice. It was probably my least favorite class, but I still got some good info from it. It also included an exercise writing a short story in five minutes, which we were given the chance to read afterwards. I was brave and read mine, even though it was crap.

My very last class was on failure and taught by Shannon. It was fantastic and left me with so much food for thought. After all these sessions, I sat at dinner scribbling thought after thought, trying to make sense of everything in my head (more on that at the end).

When they saw me sitting alone, my roommate and her boyfriend came and sat with me. They were both super awesome and also very welcoming to me throughout the conference.

Saturday was the book fair, where all the authors at Realm Makers sign their books. I beelined it to Sara Ella's table, where I had her sign two books and took a picture with her. I also met Nadine Brandes, although I didn't have anything for her to sign. She was great.

I ended the night by talking to Shannon some more. Her books didn't arrive, so I couldn't buy one, but she very kindly gave me some pre-order merch for the sequel, which she signed for me. Again, she was great and remembered my name the whole time, which I find impressive.

A lot of people hung around all night, but I was tired and went to bed. I've never been a stay-up-later person.

Day 5: Sunday

A family from a local church was kind enough to take me to church. It was similar to my regular church, so I didn't have too much trouble following the service.

My flight home wasn't until 8:35, so me and another woman from the conference went downtown to see the Arch. I did not go up it, but we did explore the museum underneath. I also wanted to see the City Museum, but we ran out of time and good weather.

I got back to the hotel in enough time to pick up my luggage and rest for thirty minutes before I had to get on the shuttle to the airport. It was super busy and took me a while to get through checking baggage and security.

I barely had time to grab dinner at Burger King (not my first choice) and get to my gate before it was time to board. The flight back was smooth and on time.

My dad picked me up at the airport, even though it was almost midnight. He's the best. We didn't get home until 1 am and I didn't get to bed until 1:30, which left me miserable the next morning. But overall, it was a great trip.

Realm Makers Haul

At Realm Makers, I got:

• Then Comes a Drifter

• The Dragon Flower

• Unblemished

• Several stickers

• An "Alice in Wonderland" pin

• A mini desk guardian

• A fantasy themed candle

• A ton of merch and bookmarks

Realm Makers Takeaways

1) Storytelling is a beautiful imitation of what God does. Don't forget the wonder and imagination of it.

2) I need to work on my mental state. I have a lot of doubts and mental blocks that are hindering me from getting where God wants me to be. It's something I need to pray about and be more active in confronting.

3) I need to work on my people skills. Something that stood out to me throughout the talks is that authors need to be somewhat charismatic, personable, and be able to go out and sell their book. I'm not good at those things (which this weekend showed me), so I need to work on improving in that area.

In the end, I enjoyed my time at Realm Makers. It gave me a boost of confidence I didn't know I needed, even as it made me wrestle with doubts and insecurities I didn't know I had.

I highly recommend it if you're in the Christian speculative fiction niche. There's nothing like being around so many people that are also writers and know exactly what you're going through.

Have you been to Realm Makers? Would you ever like to go? Tell me in the comments.