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Realm Makers . . .

I’ve been putting off writing this recap because I don’t know where to start! Recently, I told a friend that I feel like a Pevensie returned from Narnia. There’s a wistfulness and a yearning about leaving a place that feels so much like home.

I met so many friends at RM, even more than last time! New friends, old friends, and quite a few of those friends I’ve known online for years but had never met until now. I met authors who are incredibly genuine, humble, and kind. I left with my mind stuffed full of writing/publishing knowledge and the glimmerings of new ideas. I left with my heart full and my soul fed. There’s no other way to say it.

To give you an idea of just what goes on at Realm Makers, I’ll take you through a quick recap of each day of the conference. Then, because I have a couple of special stories, I’ll share those at the end. Warning: This is going to get long, so I won’t blame you if you skim!

Day 1: Wednesday

This was my travel day and my second-ever flying-on-my-own trip! I felt a lot more at ease this time. From home, I flew to Toronto and then down to St. Louis, Missouri. I met my roomies Deborah O’Carroll (finally, yay!), Claire Banschbach, and E. Kaiser Writes for the first time, and we grabbed another friend to go for a late supper.

Day 2: Thursday

Tosca Lee’s pre-conference workshop was amazing. She really made us attendees get up and get to know each other throughout the class–a smart idea, because otherwise that room of mostly introverts would never have started talking–and then she laid a solid foundation for the life of a writer. She also delved deeply into characters. Like the ouch, now I’m digging into my own dark corners kind of deep. I loved every bit of it and scribbled a dozen pages of notes.

Left to right: Audrey, Savannah, Mary, me

Since I’ve enjoyed Tosca’s books for years (and also followed her Instagram for a while), it was also neat to meet her in person and get a book signed. She’s sweet and funny and down-to-earth.

With Tosca Lee

Halfway through the pre-con session, I went out to nab a taco lunch with friends, and we found Wayne Thomas Batson sitting in the corner of the restaurant. Of course we ambushed him introduced ourselves.


After Tosca’s session, I met more people who had recently arrived, including the darling Christine Smith! By this time, my group had fairly doubled in size, and we ate more tacos for supper.

The evening kicked off the actual start of the conference with Mary Weber’s opening keynote (she gets right to the heart, guys), an editor and agent Q&A, and a live flash fiction critique sponsored by Splickety (both informative and helpful). I was elated to hear two of my friends’ flash fics read out loud–Deborah O’Carroll and Savannah Grace!

Left to right: me, Mary, Savannah, Christine

Day 3: Friday

Regarding classes, I attended . . .

• Allen Arnold’s continuing sessions on When Chaos and Creativity Collide. I’ve got a story about that class for later, but for now I’ll say it stirred my heart and breathed life into my soul.
• How to Pitch Your Novel Without Sounding Like a Robot by Nadine Brandes, which was every bit as helpful as it sounds. I finally feel like I can tell you what my WIP is about in one sentence without sounding like a complete dork.
• Everything You Need to Know About YA by Mary Weber and Nadine Brandes. Super information shared by two of my favorite authors!

With Nadine Brandes

In between, I had a short mentoring session with one of the faculty and walked away with some actionable steps to take in honing the focus of this blog. I also pitched to an agent, which went well–a great confidence boost!

But in true RM style, there is much more going on than just learning! I went out for pizza with a big group of friends, including all of the SilmAwards peeps who were in attendance. So much awesomeness in one place.

SilmAwards folks! Left to right: Savannah, Deborah, Jenelle Schmidt, Kyle Robert Shultz, me, Madeline J Rose

With my fairies, Christine and Deborah!

Friday was also the night of the awards banquet, where almost everyone shows up in costume. It’s one of my favorite parts of the conference–seeing the creativity everywhere, striking up conversations with random strangers about our shared fandoms, snapping dozens (hundreds?) of pictures.

I cosplayed as Linh Cinder of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and I was honestly shocked at how many people recognized who I was!

It’s Cinder!

With Mary Liz as Mary Poppins (practically perfect in every way!) (Audrey’s photobombing is amazing too)

Madeline’s got the epic steampunk look down pat

With Ashley Townsend as Eelyn (from Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young)

With Jenelle as Jyn Erso

With newfound friend Cassandra as my Cinder twin!

With Andy Sheehan as Captain America (he does a great Steve impression too)

With Nadine Brandes as Trelawney (whom I haven’t read about yet!)

With a steampunk Mary Weber

With Mollie Reeder as a Jurassic World character and Emily Hayse as Black Widow

With Christine as a steampunk Alice and Deborah as Princess Kamarie (one of Jenelle Schmidt’s characters)

Without meaning to, I ended up sitting at Steve Laube’s table for dinner. Yes. The Steve Laube. I sat next to him and fumbled through my meal with my one free hand, my painted hand hovering over my lap so as not to turn everything silver. ‘Twas rather amusing.

Steve Laube (wearing a sign that reads “The Dream Crusher) with Carla Hoch as a rather bloody editor

Later, I was having such fun that I stayed up past midnight chatting with a circle of friends.

Day 4: Saturday

Bryan Davis was in town and stopped at the conference for breakfast! I missed the beginning of his talk, thanks to the aforementioned decision to stay up late, but it was so great to say hello in person (and get one of his latest books signed)!

With Bryan Davis!

With a sweet blog follower named Jessi Rae! *waves* Thanks for stopping to say hi!

I attended the last session of Chaos and Creativity and Part 2 of Mary and Nadine’s YA class (which focused on marketing to YA). In between, I pitched to a second agent–that also went well, thankfully. I later went to a paid faculty lunch, which meant eating the catered hotel food and chatting over dessert with Mary Weber (I love her, guys). Then it was off to several short spotlights and panels, on topics such as editing and writing believable futuristic technology.

Mary gave her closing keynote, full of sisterly advice to writers. Every time she speaks, it seems that she re-centers my focus on what matters.

One of my favorite memories of the conference is Saturday supper. Mary W. and Nadine B. gathered a massive gaggle of fans (mostly from their street teams, but I must’ve snuck in) for tacos! Yes indeed, I ate tacos three times in two days, and didn’t even care.

tacos with the gang

With Instagram and Goodreads friend Heidi

With Katie Grace, who’s every bit as sweet in person as she is online

With Instagram friend Rebekah

With Hann, a sweet friend from last year

[Note: I’m very sad to mention that I somehow neglected to get a picture with Blue, a faithful blog follower and lovely friend! Blue, please forgive me!]

That evening, the Realm Makers bookstore was teeming. Authors signed books, readers bought more books than they could carry and stood in line, the raffle prize winners were announced (my pal Audrey won the free conference registration for next year, and I’m so stinkin’ happy for her!), and it was basically a bookdragon’s heaven. I got books signed by Lindsay Franklin, Nadine Brandes, Mary Weber, Wayne Thomas Batson, Allen Arnold, Jamie Foley, and Kyle Robert Schultz.*

*Thank goodness I had twenty pounds to spare in my suitcase for the flight home.

With Lindsay Franklin

With Wayne Thomas Batson

By the time the book festival wrapped up, I was exhausted. Sadly, I didn’t have the energy to join the Nerf war this year, so I watched the first round from the sidelines, than bade a teary goodbye to a couple of friends and retired to my room to pack.

The Nerf war is underway…

Day 5: Sunday

A very sleepy Tracey woke up early to catch her flight home. That’s it.

Well, I had to miss Carla Hoch’s fight workshop, sadly. But I had a lovely conversation in the St. Louis airport with a gentleman and his wife who were flying to Canada to play golf. And the only other highlight of the day was returning to home soil and reuniting with my family.

Who I Want to Be When I Grow Up

You know how I mentioned that all the authors I met were super nice people? Yeah. That had a bigger impact on me than I expected. I’ve interacted with plenty of nice authors before–online, in person, at Realm Makers last year–but something about meeting so many of them at once was inspiring. Just a few vignettes . . .

Wayne Thomas Batson // My friends and I interrupted his lunch, and he was totally cool with it. Later, when I got one of his books signed, I confessed that my first novel included a character who was basically a carbon copy of his Captain Valithor, except in dragon form. He seemed to think that was the coolest thing. He told me Valithor’s famous jibes were straight from a book of Shakespearean insults.

Nadine Brandes // She is my top favorite Instagrammer ever. I love her color theme, I love her posts, I love how she interacts in the comments. Every time I see a new Nadine picture scrolling by, I smile. (Her YouTube channel is also the best!) And you know what? She is just as kind and encouraging and dorky in real life as she is online. I want to be that genuine too, the kind of person who is the same no matter where you meet her.

Mary Weber // Maybe it’s because she’s a youth pastor and counsellor as well as author, but this woman has an insane memory. She remembered my name, she remembered meeting me last year, she remembered I have a year left of college. I was blown away, especially after seeing her signing line stretching out the door. She took the time to talk to each and every reader in that three-hour lineup–she made them feel like they mattered.

So many other authors were also wonderful! Not one of them put on airs. I want to be as authentic as they are.

The Story of With

This is actually the title of Allen Arnold’s book, but it’s also become the title of my own personal encounter with God during Realm Makers.

I’d noticed fear creeping into my writing recently. Feeling the pressure of summer winding down and classes starting soon, I knew my writing time was limited. I found myself projecting this book months into the future and worrying about getting an agent, building my platform, deciding between the general market and the Christian market, etc. When I sat down to edit, I felt like I was spinning my wheels.

This is the mental debris I took with me into Realm Makers.

Then I attended Allen’s class and I was reminded of who I am. Who my Father is. I reawakened to the truth that God invites me to co-create with Him joyfully and with abandon. He wants to create with me, not just have me write for Him or about Him. (I wish I could share all my notes with you, but instead I’ll just recommend you buy the conference audio!)

I sat there through all three sessions and soaked it all in. This is what I was missing. This joy, this freedom. It dovetailed so beautifully with the little nudges God had been giving me all summer. “Slow down. Pace yourself. There’s no rush.” But it was about more than just adjusting my pace, it was about the whole act of writing, the entire life of a creative person.

See, when we are faced with chaos in life–which is pretty much most of the time–we react with fear, anger, confusion, and doubt. We try to control it, suppress it, or ignore it. But what did God do in the face of the chaos that was the void, before creation? He stepped into the void and called forth beauty and order. He created. He created in the chaos, and He calls us to do the same.

But not on our own. With Him.

So by the time I sat down in Allen’s last class, I was already telling God, “I get it now. I’m surrendering this to You–all the to-do lists and stress and burdens I’m not meant to carry–they’re Yours.”

Halfway through that final class, I slipped out to a pitch appointment. And it went really well, like I mentioned . . . except that it kind of came with a suggested deadline. A deadline I realistically couldn’t meet unless I worked my tail off in the next month before the semester kicks off.

“I just told You I wasn’t going to do it this way, God,” I told Him. “And now there’s this opportunity, and I don’t want to miss it.”

I hurried back to Allen’s class to catch the last half, my mind spinning. At the end, he opened it up for questions. I’m going to ask him about my dilemma afterward, I thought to myself. One on one. No way am I going to open up about it in front of this whole room of people. Yet I found my hand slipping up in the silence, and then I was blurting out my situation and fighting off tears.

Two things you need to know: one, sleep is a low priority at a conference. Two, I’m an easy crier. Mix that with a dream that matters deeply to me, and the waterworks start.

I felt a little embarrassed, wiping my eyes as Allen responded with the encouragement to pray, to tackle this question with God, and to surround myself with prayer warriors. If this was an opportunity God wanted me to take, He would provide everything I needed to make it happen. If not, maybe this door would stand open until next summer (when I’d have more time to walk through it) . . . or a better opportunity would come up. Ultimately, what would give me more life? My old way or God’s way?

Turned out that I didn’t have to seek out prayer warriors–they found me. The minute the session ended, I was fiercely hugged by two dear friends who shed tears with me and prayed for me right then and there.

As the day wore on, I slipped often into snippets of conversation with God, turning this dilemma over and over. I realized that I felt peace about waiting. About giving myself and my manuscript the time we both needed. It’s what I had been getting little nudges about all summer, and here it was: the chance to choose a path of peace rather than one of striving.

Later that evening, I had the chance to chat with Allen again. He asked me if God had given me any direction so far, and I shared the decision I’d come to. We then had a very encouraging discussion, and now I know.

If there was one reason I had to attend Realm Makers this year, this was the reason. This reawakening of my heart, this peace. I’m walking into my story with my Father.

Realm Makers was a power-packed experience, brimming with the laughter of fellow dreamers and the buoyancy that comes only from bumping into God and realizing He was right beside me this whole time. I’m planning to attend again. Next year, same time, same place! Maybe I’ll see you there.