If you told me a few years ago that I'd one day travel to the East Coast to attend a writer's conference, I'd probably think you were crazy.
But in the early morning hours of July 20th, 2022, I got in the car with my brother and sister and started the long drive across the country to Atlantic City, New Jersey, for the amazing Realm Makers conference. After attending last year in St. Louis (basically my backyard), the idea of going this year seemed like a pipe dream. We've never really been get-out-and-do-it people as far as adventures or stepping out of our comfort zones go- not that we don't want to do big things, but we've always just kind of been used to playing it safe. So when plans started coming together and my brother said he was willing to drive to New Jersey, needless to say it was surreal.
Long story short: this Realm Makers was an experience like I've never had before. From the hours of traveling, to the stress of traveling, to the places and things I got to see, to just the general craziness of being there, it was worlds different from last year. I was a little worried that it wouldn't feel the same, being at a different location and with some dear friends missing that were there last year. But... well, I'll let the recap speak for itself. Prepare yourself for a long post. ;) (I'm starting on the first day of Realm Makers, rather than the day we left, since that day was just driving!)
THURSDAY
This was quite possibly one of the craziest days of my life. XD I'll leave out all the travel details, (you can read a bit about that in my July recap post), but long story short, we got lost in New York City and were cutting it pretty close getting to Atlantic City for the conference opening. And once we got there it was... interesting. The hotel was very different from last year's. The St. Louis location was smaller, magical, beautiful, easy to navigate. Harrah's in Atlantic City was not only connected to a casino, but let me tell you, much ritzier and more complicated than we little Missourians were used to. From accidentally pulling into the wrong spot in the parking garage and having to pay $10 JUST TO GET OUT, to trying to figure out if we were in the right place for valet parking, to a bellhop disappearing with all of our luggage (including our laptops and the many valuable things on them) and not knowing where they were for probably half an hour because the desk misunderstood what room we were in... it was not a fun time. This hotel was nice, but absolutely NOT our scene. All that paired with something else that had come up on the trip (which is more or less resolved now, thankfully) made for a very stressful arrival to Realm Makers, to the point where I was thinking "This isn't worth it. This is crazy. We're crazy. What are we doing here?? Why did we do this?? THIS IS CRAZY."
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| The coolest thing about the hotel was the whole light show on the building next to us every night! |
So, we were a couple minutes late to Tosca Lee's opening keynote, which honestly turned out pretty well because we avoided the "go talk to 8 people" thing she does. XD I definitely was not in the mood for that at the time. I'll have to go back and watch that keynote again, actually, because I didn't bring anything to take notes with so I don't really remember anything that was said. I was tired, guys. xD
After the keynote we went and actually registered (because we hadn't gotten the chance to when we got there) and got our badges. Then we didn't have anything to do until that night, which was Sara Ella's launch party for The Wonderland Trials!
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| Sara and her fantastic emcee Ashley! |
Everyone was encouraged to dress up- whether as a Wonderland character, or with a fancy hat, or whatever they wanted to get in the tea-party mood. I wore a Cheshire Cat-inspired outfit, complete with cat ears that I had to run to Wal Mart for the night before leaving for Realm Makers, because I'm forgetful.
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| Kara Swanson and husband David winning the award for best hat! |
This launch party was so fun! There was a Wonderland-themed escape room, and I was on a team with Anna Augustine, Victoria Lynn, and some other girls I hadn't met yet. And when I tell you we were SO CLOSE to winning, guys- I'm talking like seconds. *sigh* But it was fun anyway, even if I didn't actually do any of the solving. xD
After all the festivities, I had Sara sign my copies of The Wonderland Trials and Unblemished. If you've never had the chance to meet Sara, I hope you can one day, because she is such a sweet, lovely person!
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| Matching with Unblemished was accidental. xD |
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| Me and my sister in front of the Wonderland backdrop! |
That was pretty much the end of day 1! QUITE different from day 1 of last year- still fantastic, just with a lot of added stress. But it was a fabulous start to the weekend regardless!
FRIDAY
Heads-up: if you decide to order breakfast at a Starbucks on the East Coast... prepare to pull out your life savings. I bought one latte and a breakfast sandwich, and it cost me 17 DOLLARS. (I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that it cost that much or the fact that I did it again the rest of the weekend. xD)
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| It so loud in Starbucks and the barista thought I said my name was Evelynn. xD She realized my name was Emily when she saw my Realm Makers badge, haha! |
My first class that day was the continuing session I'd chosen: The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. This was probably my favorite class of the conference. There was just so much good stuff, and by the end of the first session I started rethinking my WIP and having ideas for how to make its beginning stronger. I'd definitely love to rewatch these sessions on the conference replay, because it was just so good.
I'm skipping over all the other classes I took because I lost track of which days they were and it's been too long ago so I don't feel like digging through my notes for highlights. xD
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| With Sarah and Helena! |
That afternoon I had a critique appointment with Andrew Winch! If you guys remember, last year I had a critique appointment (also with Andrew), and I was a nervous WRECK before it. Why? Don't know, because it's not like I was pitching my book or anything. Just getting feedback, and I'd already received my critique ahead of time, so I wasn't even waiting to be told face to face how good or bad my story was. But the general idea of talking to somebody in person, along with the fear of running out of things to say and sitting there awkwardly, just made me super nervous.
This time, I'm happy to report that I was pretty relaxed. I knew how it worked, I already knew the person I was meeting, and I was just overall more prepared for it. And it went really well! I had sent in the first ten pages of Look for the Flares, and I'd say if I was anxious about anything this time around, it was the fact that we were discussing this story that's become so close to my heart, so special to me. But I left encouraged and inspired to keep writing.
Of course, we all know what comes on Friday night of Realm Makers... the costume banquet/awards dinner!! Last year I went as Peggy Carter, and in keeping with the Marvel theme, this year I was...
Wanda Maximoff!
This costume was so much fun to put together, and I was super pleased with how it came out. I received multiple compliments and was glad that for the most part, people could tell who I was supposed to be. xD Specifically, I was Age of Ultron Wanda, and I went wayyy out of my comfort zone and even went for her makeup look. (more accurately, my sister did it for me. you don't want to see what it looked like when I tried. xD)
My sister went as Belle, and my brother went as Luke Skywalker. (even though I begged him to be Pietro because it would have been perfect and we would have looked so cool but nooo. >.<)
Going down to where the costume dinner is being held is one of my favorite parts of Realm Makers. I compared it before to stepping into a fantasy world. It's so magical entering the crowd of people dressed as different characters, from so many different books and movies and shows... I just love it.
The awards ceremony was, of course, a delight, and I loved seeing so many beloved authors win awards and celebrate their wins together. I happened to be sitting right behind the table where Kara Swanson, Steve Laube, Morgan Busse, and Gillian Bronte Adams were sitting, so needless to say there I witnessed lots of celebration from there. ;) Kara Swanson won the Readers' Choice Award for Shadow- so deserved- and I got one of my favorite pictures of the weekend:
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| Kara accepting her award while her proud husband records the moment! |
Morgan Busse won 2 awards for Secrets in the Mist- which I read recently and can confirm is a fantasic book! ALSO- this was the anniversary (I can't remember how many years) of the day when she first had the idea for the book! How amazing is that?? And Gillian Bronte Adams won 2 awards for Of Fire and Ash- including Book of the Year!!-, which I haven't read yet but have heard amazing things about, and it's pretty high up on my TBR.
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| Morgan Busse! |
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| Scott Minor dramatically presenting Gillian Bronte Adams with her Realm Makers goblet xD |
And just putting this out there... I can't wait for next year when The Wonderland Trials and Nadine Brandes' Wishtress are in the running. (Speaking of Nadine, she surprised everyone and showed up to the conference after previously saying she wouldn't be able to come!! I SHAMEFULLY didn't take a picture with her, but I got to speak with her briefly and I'm just so glad she got to be there again.)
Oh, I also got to see my dear friend Cassie accept the award for a fellow Havok author for her story A Home for Nova, which won the Flash Fiction award! Such a special moment. (Cassie was also a Realm Awards finalist, which I'm so proud of her for!!)
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| Cassie as Alina Starkov! |
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| Anna as Madi Hatter from The Wonderland Trials! |
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| Scott Minor as Doctor Strange! (because of COURSE the Scarlet Witch had to get a picture with Doctor Strange) |
And apparently that's all the pictures I took with people at the banquet. I got more pictures than I did last year, thankfully, but man, it's just so hard to get photos with everybody!! And then you get home and realize half the pictures you did take with people were on someone else's phone... it's a struggle. xD
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| Moments before the makeup came off. I do not miss it. xD |
SATURDAY
Ah, Saturday- the final official day of Realm Makers. It's amazing how fast you go from "Awesome, I still have the whole weekend ahead of me!" to "Wait, it's the last day and I'm leaving tomorrow??"
The day started off in announcements with a rather unsettling realization that there was an ape running around through the crowd... no worries, it was just Andrew Winch, kicking off the morning skit with S.D. Grimm.
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| Megan at the Lamplighters Literary Creations table! I bought 9 candles. xD |
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| With Ashley (aka my baking buddy)! |
That night was the book festival, where I got to meet a bunch of fantastic authors and get some books signed! My load was muuuch lighter this year. Last year my shoulder was so sore after the conference, because I'd spent the whole weekend lugging around a duffel bag stuffed full of books. I wish I'd weighed it, because let me tell you that thing was HEAVY. xD This year I had fewer books to be signed and also planned a little better, so I didn't carry around a bajillion books everywhere I went.
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| With Kara Swanson! |
I had Morgan Busse sign my copy of Secrets in the Mist, as well as her story in Stories that Sing, which I also have a story in!
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| With Morgan Busse (and our shared anthology!) |
For sure, one of the highlights was meeting Jill Williamson. I, admittedly, have not read any of her books (though I'm now reading By Darkness Hid!), but I'd been looking forward to meeting her because I had a lot to thank her for. If you didn't know, Go Teen Writers was the very first writing blog I ever discovered. From there, I branched out and discovered all the other blogs I follow, which also led me to discover Bookstagram and Realm Makers. And of course, that's how I ended up making so many amazing friends in this community. Would I have discovered all of this without Go Teen Writers? Maybe eventually, but there's no telling. So it was so, so special being able to tell Jill in person thank you for helping bring me into this community. And after I had told her, she said, "Okay, we've got to take a selfie so I can send it to Shan and Stephanie and tell them we got another one!" So that was... a little bit unreal. And that photo ended up on her RM recap on Instagram, too, so there's that. o.o I also had her sign her story in Stories that Sing. It's such an honor to share an anthology with someone who's had such an impact on my writing and my involvement in this community.
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| With Jill Williamson! I'm just now realizing you can't even see most of the anthology in this photo. Oops xD |
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| With Gillian Bronte Adams! |
One thing I absolutely love about Realm Makers is how many fellow Havok authors I get to see! I met Abigail Falanga this year, though we shamefully didn't take a picture together, as well as Andrew Swearingen, Rachel Kimberly Hastings, and I'm sure a bunch of others but my memory fails me. I had the loveliest of chats with Cadi Murphy, who I saw last year but never got a chance to talk to, and she's just the sweetest. It's so amazing to connect with these other awesome authors, and I'm so thankful for Havok for bringing so many people together and being the start of all these lifelong friendships.
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| With Cadi Murphy! |
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| With Hailey Huntington! |
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| With Megan! |
Oh, and by the way, something very exciting happened this year at Realm Makers- my sister signed a contract with Quill & Flame Publishing House! Her epic fantasy, Shadowcast, will be coming out next year, so you should definitely keep an eye out for that!
SUNDAY
We had decided to skip the post-conference session this year, since we had a much further way to travel this time and wanted to leave the morning open for whatever. I didn't want to be rushed, since last year I had missed seeing some people. So, Sunday morning, we had the delight of having breakfast with Megan Gerig, Katie Williamson, Rae Graham, and Andi Gregory. We weren't really sure who would still be there, and though I'd pretty much said my goodbyes, it was a little depressing how empty and lonely it was and how it seemed we'd just be leaving without seeing any other Realmies; so I was glad we got to do this. ♥
Here's the weird thing. For months I'd been dreading leaving Realm Makers, because last year I walked out of the building and was in tears by the time I got to the car, and they didn't stop almost the whole way home. (which was roughly an hour and a half drive) So, I was prepared for the emotions to hit this time... but they never did. I mean, I was sad, of course, and I do seem to remember a moment when I was walking through the hotel lobby and no one was around, and I got a bit emotional. But... the tears never came. To this day, I still haven't cried about RM, and last year it seemed like I cried every time I thought about it or rewatched a recap reel.
And honestly? I think I know why. Last year I came into this beautiful world, met dear friends who I'd only talked to online, and found where I belonged. I felt at home, more at home than I ever had. It was the best weekend of my life thus far, and in a way nothing will ever match it. When I left, I felt so hopelessly separated from my people, from the friends I'd connected with in such a special way over just a few days. I didn't think I'd be coming back next year, so not knowing when I'd see any of them again was really hard. I just couldn't stand the thought of going back to normal life, where the only people who understand me and my writing/fangirling are those in my immediate family.
But this year? Realm Makers was like coming home. There were reunions, and there were new meetings. It was just as wonderful as my first RM was, but this time there was a whole different feeling... like I truly was just home. Rather than feeling that heartbreaking desperation that hit last year as I was leaving, instead I just had a feeling like... this is forever. Realm Makers is a part of me, and so are all my wonderful Realmies, and returning home can't take that away from me.
Last year I used the song "Moments Like This" by the Afters for my RM reel. "Here we are on top of the stars, never thought we'd ever get this far..." "Don't want to close my eyes, I'm feeling so alive..." It was so fitting because I was truly on a high from being with everyone, experiencing Realm Makers for the first time, just being a part of the magic. This year, I used "This Is Home" by Switchfoot, because it really encapsulates how it felt returning to Realm Makers, and how different it felt leaving this year. "I've got my memories always inside of me... and I can't go back, back to how it was." "This is home... now I'm finally where I belong."
Plus, I had found out some very exciting news that kept me from being quite as sad leaing this year- next year, Realm Makers is returning to St. Louis!! I was so incredibly excited about that, because previously we'd thought that it was going to be in Orlando, and after this trip, it would have been a miracle if we'd been able to make it. But in 2023, RM is back in my neck of the woods, at the same magical location it was at last year, and I'm so unbelievably excited.
And that's my Realm Makers recap, a month and a half late. Props to you if you made it through this whole thing, because I feel like I rambled on and on. xD
I'm so endlessly thankful to Realm Makers, and to Scott and Becky Minor for making it happen every year. It's truly changed my life, and I know many other writers feel the same way. I leave Realm Makers more encouraged and inspired in my writing than ever, and with a traumatized TBR and bank account. XD
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| My Realm Makers book haul! Quite an increase from last year, when I only bought one book xD |
ALSO, this is unrelated to Realm Makers buuut- today is my fourth blogiversary!! I published my first blog post on September 1st, 2018, back when my blog looked completely different (I think the background was maroon or something??). Thank you all so much for reading my Internet ramblings, and for coming back even after I've been MIA for months at a time. I do hope to get back to more regular posting on here, so stay tuned for more posts hopefully coming soon! I love you all so much! ♥
Now, I want to know- who will I be seeing in St. Louis next year?? I can't wait to be back in what seems to be everyone's favorite location! I hope I'll see some of you then! ♥
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