Realm Makers 2021 Report

Wow, guys. It’s been over a week since Realm Makers and I’m still reeling from that fantastic amazing weekend. The briefest way I can describe it is “It was what I needed.” But you’re not here for brief! Here’s a whole post about the trip!

Day 1

Like pretty much any time I travel I didn’t sleep very well that night so I was pretty tired on my journey to Missouri. I drove up with a friend through five states (Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri) while listening to the Undertale soundtrack mostly, and then we finally arrived in St. Louis!

After settling into my hotel room and changing, I went out for pizza with my roommate and a few other ladies. It was so nice to be among friends I hadn’t seen in two years. <3 Following dinner they were gracious enough to help me pack my Neverfound Figure postcards into bags. It would have taken me hours if they hadn’t helped!

Day 2

The next morning my roommate Olivia woke me up at 7:30 am to alert me that the A/C was attempting to cook us by turning itself up to 87F. O_o After we unplugged it, we got it to work, but that definitely cut into my sleep especially since an hour later I woke up to take the pre-conference class. But upon discovering it was about self-publishing and that’s not the path I want to do, I just went back to bed. XD

Later after waking up, eating leftovers, and caffeinating at Panera, I went to the conference bookstore and bought some books before the shelves were picked clean. I’ve left buying books till the end before and regretted it haha. I also got to deliver one of my figures to a fellow Realmie before attending the conference opening. I was so excited! Frank Peretti’s opening keynote was about long-term and short-term thinking and it was amazing. He was funny, intelligent, and such a great role model. <3

My friends and I ate at Fuzzy Taco’s and just hung out and afterward, I played Bring Your Own Book with a bunch of girls in a friend’s hotel room! We also had tea courtesy of Hannah Robinson. 😀

That night again sleep eluded me. I started thinking, “What am I doing here? I haven’t written in months. Am I just wasting my time?” 2020 didn’t treat me well and 2021 has been hard on me too. I’ve lost a lot in the last year and a half and my hope for the conference was to renew my writing spirit, but in that restless night, my anxiety just festered. I prayed to God (in my head so I didn’t wake up Olivia) about everything that was bothering me and ended the prayer with “I’ve been trying to do what you want me to do, God, but why are you silent?” And for the first time in a long time, I heard his voice clearly, “I’m not. Let Me speak to you through My servants.” With those words, a peace washed over me, and sleep soon followed.

Day 3

The next morning I hauled myself out of bed ready to go to classes! My first one was my continuing class with Caleb Breakey. He brought up a really unique way of looking at marketing. I’ve been to a lot of marketing classes and this one was definitely the most unique. He really challenged me to be my authentic self to my readers and I realized that I hadn’t been. There are some parts of my life that I’ve revealed to you guys here on my blog, but I’ve been afraid to talk about them on my other socials. I will be doing a big “coming out” post on my Insta in August to tell you all about that. But basically, it was really something I needed to hear.

Next was Steve Laube’s Crisis of Patience class and wow, that was amazing. It stressed the importance of patience in a writer’s life and it felt like God was speaking to me through Mr. Laube.

After lunch at Panera, I attended Steve Laube’s Crucible of Lament class. That one hit like a ton of bricks. No, this class wasn’t completely about writing, but it was about the spiritual lament of a writer and just being a human. It was amazing. I had to take a minute at the end of the class to absorb it all.

Following finishing my last class of the day with Caleb Breakey I went back to my hotel room and got dressed in my generic mage character costume. Thank God for Olivia to help me with all the strings and Cadi with my hair. XD Then I went down to enjoy hors d’oeuvres with friends and check out all of the amazing costumes! So many great ones this year!

However, after dinner and during the awards ceremony I had to step out because my back started hurting (another thing that I don’t mention to a lot of people is I’ve dealt with back pain for the past five years of my life). So I didn’t want to distract others by my fidgeting in my chair so I sat in the bookstore while waiting for the award ceremony to finish. And honestly, I was also feeling discouraged. I thought, “I wish I had a book up there. Maybe if I did this or that then I would have.”

But later on, Olivia came out into the bookstore and called me over to the front of the bookstore, and there stood Ian, one of my Canadian friends I hadn’t seen in two years. I burst into tears and hugged him. When the border closed last year my thought was, “When I would ever see my Canadian peeps?” Seeing Ian made all of my worries fade away and I could just think of how happy I was to see my good friend again.

After we changed out of our costumes, a bunch of friends and I played Uno and an absolute blast before reluctantly going to bed.

Day 4

After snagging some food, I watched Frank Peretti’s Q&A which was funny and insightful, and then I attended Caleb Breakey’s last class. I have so many conference notes to go through. XD After lunch with friends I attended the two most fun classes of the conference Carla Hoch’s “Who Ya Booboo?”  and “Dealing Damage!” So much amazing information and I had the awesome opportunity to volunteer for Carla’s fight demonstration. <3 It was so FUN!

Then we attended Frank Peretti’s closing keynote which was great because it was partially based on Jurassic Park but sad because the conference was ending. 🙁

My friends and I fueled up at Panera before heading to the Book Fair where I got books signed by Carla Hoch and Frank Peretti!

AND I gave away a custom figure to a lucky winner!

AND AND I won the biggest freaking prize in a raffle I’ve ever won which was the Havok prize! I got Star Trek and Lord of the Rings merch and a ton of books! IT WAS SO COOL!

After all that my friends and I wanted to spend some more time with each other so we played a card game in the lobby.

Then came the least fun part of the conference … A certain individual who seemed to turn up in places I was decided to impose himself on me and my group and after some unscrupulous actions and insults to me my guy friends walked me and my roommate back to our hotel room. I mention this because what came to me tonight too is Satan speaks through his servants too and I think Satan was making a pitiful attempt at trying to ruin the conference for me and my friends but PSYCH! I still had an awesome time, devil!

I ended the night talking to the wee hours with friends so the evening ended on a good note for us all. <3

Day 5

That morning I spent my last few hours talking with friends and we ate one last meal with each other before parting ways since I had a math test due at midnight, but darn it, I WAS NOT GONNA MISS REALM MAKERS CAUSE OF SOME DUMB MATH TEST! #WORTHIT

After a rainy drive partially through Indiana, cause detours, we made it to my aunt’s house which was only 6 hours from St. Louis as opposed to 8 to my house so I could take my test and I passed with a B before shortly later passing out my aunt’s guestroom. XD

Day 6

My friend and I drove the rest of the way home and I arrived to see my precious kitties. I missed Momo and Lessy so much. <3

Conclusion

Big changes are coming. I can feel it. Good changes. My brand is about to change in a good way and though I’m a little nervous I’m excited to see where God leads me. I feel spiritually and creatively reinvigorated and now I just gotta get through finals so I can satisfy this writing itch! XD Wish me luck!

Did you attend Realm Makers? How was your experience? Have you attended any other writers’ conferences? Have you taken any vacations this year? Tell me all about it!