REALM MAKERS 2025

Hello, friends!

 

Once again, Realm Makers has come and gone. It’s almost worse than saying goodbye to Christmas. It’s funny, because every year it’s like it gets easier to see it end yet at the same time it’s harder.

 

Anyway, I haven’t actually done a RM recap post since 2022. Here, have a cookie to distract you from that fact. *brandishes plate of cookies* But for this, my fifth Realm Makers, I shall present you with a recap. (Seriously, these are so fun to do, so why did I stop??) Also ignore the fact that it’s literally September and I’m just now doing this. (look, another plate of cookies!)

 

Okay, first, if somehow you don’t know what Realm Makers is: it’s a writer’s conference for Christians who write speculative fiction (aka, all the weird stuff). And it’s amazing. I’ve been so incredibly blessed to have been able to attend for the past five years, and every year it feels like coming home.

 

This year, it was actually considerably further from home. XD Three out of the five years I’ve gone, Realm Makers has been held in St. Louis, which is only about an hour’s drive from my house. But this year, for the first time, it was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan—around 9 hours away. Still a lot closer than Atlantic City (*all the Realmies who attended the 2022 conference collectively inhale at the mention of that place*), but, well, further than normal.

 

This year was also different in that it was the first ever Realm Makers Expo—which basically just means that in addition to the conference, there was also some fun convention-type stuff going on over in the exhibition hall. You know the vendor hall/bookstore where we all spend way too much money? Yeah, that place. They not only had all the vendors as usual, but a few fun activities for those only attending the Expo.

 

The scheduling was different this year, too, which I’ll get into a little more later, but to begin with it means that our journey began on Thursday morning. By “our” I mean me, my brother Richard, and my sister Crystal. (We have another sister, too, and she’s also a writer, but she’s never attended RM or shown her face on social media. Over on Instagram she’s affectionately known as “the Hidden One”. XD) We headed out around 6:30 in the morning, and in the afternoon made a stop in Logansport, Indiana, to check out the Batman Museum, where there was a replica of the Batcave from the old Adam West show.

 

One of many Batmobile replicas built by the museum owner!

The Batcave!

The Batpoles!

We got to Grand Rapids sometime that evening, and the weather was SOO nice. We left sweltering Missouri and drove into cool, breezy Michigan, and the change in temperature was so refreshing. The hotel and conference center were literally right next to the Grand River, so although it did warm up over the weekend, it still stayed pretty nice, which I LOVED.

 

Anyway, checking into the hotel and everything was pretty quick and easy (not to keep bringing this up, but again, a vast difference from Atlantic City—our stressful arrival, check-in, and waiting for our lost luggage to make its way to our room has kind of scarred us), and after we were all settled in I went out to dinner with my sister and a small group of her Quill & Flame friends. (Quill & Flame = my sister’s publisher) We picked up food from Panera (would it be Realm Makers without Panera??) and found a spot overlooking the river to eat. WHAT a gorgeous view. This was honestly one of the nicest parts of the weekend—the river, the nice weather, the sun setting, the conversation, and just the general excitement of being in a new city with the whole conference to look forward to. It was a fantastic way to start it all off.

Saw a dragon on the walk to get dinner!

Me and my sister by the river

SOO pretty.

Friday is when the scheduling differences really started to throw us off. Whereas in previous years the pre-conference was on Thursday morning and the official conference opening was that same evening, this year the pre-conference was pushed to Friday morning, the opening was that afternoon, and the Realm Awards banquet was that evening. Like I said, a lot to get used to, and I wasn’t 100% sold on it. But it is what it is, and it was still a great time. It was just super strange going into the first official day and knowing the banquet would already be over with that night.

 

Honestly, that day is kind of a blur, so here are some random pictures from Friday. Enjoy. XD

The hotel was so beautiful! This was just one of the many photo-op-worthy spots inside.

Having breakfast outside while watching the city wake up, feeling like I was in a Hallmark movie or something. 

The skywalk we took to get from the hotel to the conference center!

The Quill & Flame table with my sister's beautiful books!

The conference center looked like it came out of a Marvel movie or something. XD

 

We had a great opening keynote by S.D. Smith, then it was time to start getting ready for the costume banquet! This year I went as…

 Lenore Dove from Sunrise on the Reaping!

 

I haven’t actually talked about it here (because I haven’t talked about anything here in like a year XD), but basically I read SOTR right after it came out and it took over my life and shattered my heart in a billion teeny-tiny pieces. I had another costume idea brewing in my mind for a while, but it just wasn’t working out, so after I read the book this popped into my head and it was pretty easy to put together. I even brought a tunebox and a bag of gumdrops. (Oops. Sorry ‘bout the trauma.)

And here’s a little photo dump from the evening.

 

Me as Lenore Dove, my sister as a pirate, and my brother as... a guy who couldn't be bothered to wear a costume.

With Sarah!

With Helena!

Helena with her Most Honorable Mention certificate for her story Questing Hall!

Finally got to meet Verity Buchanan! (if you haven't read her books, The Ceristen series, you should!)

With Cassie! ("I brought gumdrops." "HOW COULD YOU???")

 

Saturday was the first full day of classes, and again, thinking back it’s all kind of a blur, so mainly I’m just going to share pictures. XD I took a continuing session with Ronie Kendig and Kathy Tyers on science fiction—very good, although I did duck out of one of the sessions to take a nap because I was #tired. I also took Sarah Arthur’s class on getting your writing done—something I definitely needed.

 

Saturday evening, instead of having a book festival like in previous years, there was just a big book signing with all the Realm Awards finalists. It was fine, but not having the actual book festival was one of the biggest bummers of the weekend. It’s always been like the last hurrah of the weekend, the time when everyone’s in the same room together and you can talk to anyone you haven’t gotten a chance to talk to yet, or say your goodbyes to those who are about to leave, and not having it just felt like a big hole. I’m really hoping they bring it back next year!

 

Aaand now for pictures.

 

With Trissina Kear, who is the absolute sweetest!

Finally met Deborah O'Carroll after YEARS of following each other online! :D

It is always such a delight to see Nadine Brandes, and this year it was an extra-special delight to gush with her about the new special-edition Out of Time hardcovers.

 

Don't ask. I don't know.

Sunday morning they held a worship service for the first time ever—and it was one of my very favorite parts of the weekend. Oh, how special it was to be in a room with so many other likeminded creatives, worshipping the God Who allowed this whole conference to be, Who weaved all of our stories together and gave us this passion for writing. It was just wonderful.

Realm Makers, the only place where there's a unicorn on the big screen at a church service. :P

Closing keynote by N.D. Wilson. He's the kind of person you just want to sit and listen to and soak in every word. SO good.

With Anna! (Don't ask me why I took this picture so crooked. I don't know.)

 

My only class that day (technically I had two, but I skipped one to take some time to rest) was a class by Donald Maass, on writing great beginnings. This was one of the most fruitful parts of the conference for me, simply because while I was sitting in that class I thought up a new opening line for my book. Like, a really good one (at least I think so). It’s so cool how even in moments when you’re not necessarily trying to come up with ideas, just talking to someone or being in a class where you’re surrounded by so much creativity and inspiration can be like a magic formula. Anyway, if you ever have the opportunity to attend a Donald Maass class, you should do it at least once. He really gets you thinking about how to strengthen your story.

 

That evening I went to dinner with my sister and another group of her publisher friends, and had some of the best food of my life in a really weird restaurant with skeletons all over the walls. XD Then later we went to an ice cream shop with my brother and his friends and had some of the best ice cream ever. (I ate a LOT of good food over the weekend...)

Because ice cream is ALWAYS worth posting.

 

We left on Monday morning, and stopped on the way to briefly see Lake Michigan. I only got to take a few pictures from the car, but wow, it was so pretty. It was kind of misty and foggy, so the lake looked really eerie. (Wait… wrong Great Lake. XD)

Lake Michigan

One of the biggest blessings of the trip came on this day, when we were able to visit with Nicole for a little while on our way home. Honestly, though I saw lots of awesome people at RM and had a good time, I didn't get much chance to REALLY talk to people a lot or hang out with anybody (other than tagging along with my sister) and for a lot of the conference I ended up feeling kind of lonely. Getting to visit with Nicole even for just a short time was a perfect way to end the weekend, and I’m so glad we got to do it. : )

And that’s my Realm Makers recap! It’s a bit of a mess, but oh well. At least I actually did one this year. XD Although in some ways this Realm Makers felt a bit different, one of the biggest standouts to me was just the beautiful way the Lord has drawn this community together, and allowed us to have this conference. He’s blessed this conference and the connections that have grown out of it so, so abundantly, and it’s just so humbling and beautiful. God cares, guys. He cares about our stories, and our ideas, and our weirdness. And He does things like this to show that.

 

Oh, how special Realm Makers is. And oh, how blessed I have been to be able to attend not just once, but five times now. Next year it’s once again returning to St. Louis (seriously, how did I get so blessed as to live so close to the most frequent RM city?? Seriously so, so thankful), but in a new venue! So, I’m excited to not only be able to return, but also to explore the new location. If there’s a chance I’ll see you there, let me know!!

 

And that’s a wrap! Thank y’all for reading, and as always, thanks for still coming back to my ramblings even when it’s been months or longer since I posted. I was going to say something about how I’m hoping to start posting more again, but, well, I say that every time and never do, so I’m not going to say it this time and if I start posting again it’ll just be a nice surprise. XD

 

All right, I’m gonna shut up for real this time. Love you guys! < 3