Last year the hubs and I drove from Austin to St. Louis for the Realm Makers conference. Now, I went to three awesome conferences last year, but the unashamed geekery of Realm Makers was our tribe: writers of science fiction and fantasy from a Christian perspective.

We absolutely had to return this year’s event in Philadelphia. And this time, we went all-out with costumes of Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars Rebels), Mark Watney (The Martian), Soldier 76 (Overwatch), and a massive arsenal of Nerf guns for the zombie apocalypse.

Boy, was it worth it.

 

togruta-cosplay

That’s me in the center with Aaron and Doreen Demott, the Jedi family who won last year’s best costume prize!

 

We got to reconnect with old friends and meet so many new ones. On staff this year were awesome authors including Kathy Tyers, Tosca Lee, Patrick Carr, and Thomas Locke.

 

kathy-tyers

Kathy Tyers taught a huge session on worldbuilding and craft—easily the most educational and useful course I’ve ever been in!

 

The amount of stuff we learned about the craft was mind-bogglingly huge… but they had just as many hilarious skits and events to keep our spirits afloat.

 

realm-makers-political-debate

We were in Philadelphia at the same time as the 2016 Democratic National Convention, so this mock political debate was perfectly timed and absolutely hilarious. Left: Tosca Lee as Hillary Clinton, right: Avily Jerome as Donald Trump (the hair was spot-on)

 

All of the ideas and passions were so energizing… but even just the Villanova University campus was inspiring to me. I mean, look at this:

 

villanova-university

villanova-castle

philadelphia-train

 

And to top it all off, they had the best bookstore ever, which was full of sci-fi and fantasy goodness!

 

realm-makers-bookstore

 

I’ve got a few signed pre-releases of Sentinel left over…

Sentinel: The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1

Sentinel: The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1

$14.99eBook: $2.99

Blood-bonds with angels. Surreal mental abilities. Elemental gods. Star Wars meets The Mortal Instruments in this adrenaline-laced urban fantasy.

More info →

 

Really, this blog post doesn’t do Realm Makers justice. The relationships forged there are priceless. Who else can you trust to have your back in the Nerf war, after all? (It was so brutal…)

Join me next year at the Atlantis Resort in Reno, NV! It’ll knock your socks off, guaranteed.

 

realm-makers