Whew! Now that was a way to spend a weekend!
Despite my fears, I didn’t miss any connecting flights. I didn’t even get lost in the airports, except for missing a turn to get out of the secure area in the Philadelphia airport. I’m semi-convinced they deliberately make big airports hard to get out of. 😉 I met up with my group and we had a good pre-conference chat before heading over to the Splickety Magazine Thursday night critique party (yes, I know, only a group of real weirdos could call a critique a ‘party’, right?)
Here are some of my highlights for Realm Makers 2014 (none of these are really in order, BTW)
*the steampunk lecture by Lisa Walker England. I had no idea that even a sub-genre like steampunk had so many sub-genres of its own! And her costumes were awesome! It was great meeting her.
*the Saturday night conversation with Ralene, Aaron Schlegel, Zach (if you’re reading this…sorry, man, I’ve completely blanked on your last name), Randy Streu, Grace Bridges, and with Becky & Scott Minor and Ruth Smith Mills popping in and out once or twice. We covered all sorts of things, the best part being our conversation about music. And the quote of the night? “Well why don’t you just buy some skinny jeans and grow a beard, ya hipster!” (Randy to Aaron, since Aaron likes the band Jubal’s Kin.)
*Torry Martin’s excellent and inspiring classes on networking. So much there! My brain keeps chewing on those classes over and over.
*The tunnel under the college’s train tracks. It was drippy, and creepy, and there were monsters…
*Building, then breaking apart, packing, and rebuilding my hat at the conference…not. 😛 But it was totally worth it! 
*The announcement that Marcher Lord Press was now named Enclave…and my subsequent conversation with owner Steve Laube over the future of the company, etc. He really was very gracious to give me that much time, and to answer questions I’m sure he’d heard a thousand times over at that point.
Some more photos: 
The always fun and awesome Grace Bridges and Kat Heckenbach. I love these two ladies!
Loot…
More loot…a beautiful wrapped-wire pendant. Check out the Facebook page!
Fellow Michigander (though he is a troll…) and Jedi Aaron DeMott
These way-too-cool dragon wings!!
Conference director Becky Minor, wearing a gypsy costume based on her charater Veranna (from The Winderider Saga…seriously, go read them now if you haven’t yet.)
The steampunked Queen of Hearts and her Mad Hatter…
MC Avily Jerome, wearing my hat.
This year was even better than the first…and I was certain that was impossible! So, as you can see, yes, we learned a lot, but there were plenty of shenanigans too. 🙂 If you’re a writer or even a fan of Christian specfic, I highly encourage you to check out the Realm Makers website and come to our conference next year. Believe me, it is money well spent just for the opportunity of meeting all these awesome people!
The New Authors Fellowship 
Fascinating stuff – you made me feel as if I were there. What is that bit of “loot”?
Reblogged this on Tales of the Undying Singer and commented:
Proving once again that there’s nothing like conventions like this, no matter what the size… 😉
I need to post about Realm Makers on my blog this week! Great post, Heather! So glad I got to see you! 😀
[…] I’m lazy and don’t want to re-write the post, here’s a link to the New Authors Fellowship post I wrote about the 2014 Realm Makers. It covers the basics. 🙂 Next week I’ll do a run-down of […]