I just spent the last few days with a lot of fun people! The Realm Makers conference was held on the Villianova University campus in Philadelphia with nearly 200 in attendance.

I had the honor of teaching nearly six hours in a continuing session on the spiritual life of the writer. It is truly great when many like-minded people gather to explore the Word together.

The costume banquet on Friday night was a sight to behold. I suspect you can find a number of wild photos on Facebook. I got to sit with Commander Riker from Star Trek: the Next Generation. Stood in the serving line with The Last Unicorn. And the Weeping Angel from Dr. Who made threatening gestures at me. Also there was Hagrid (almost the same size!), Mrs. Weasley, an Amish Zombie, Monsters, fairies, warriors, animals, creatures from nightmares…and even a literary agent – the scariest of all.

It was stunning to have two Enclave titles win special awards for Excellence in Editing. Waking Beauty by Sarah E. Morin and A Time to Speak by Nadine Brandes won both awards. Fun to have Nadine sitting next to me when her book was announced as winner!

And then John Otte’s The Hive won the Genre Award for Science Fiction!

In some ways Realm Makers is a mini-ComicCon but where all those in attendance want to write books! That is really exciting.

They announced that next year’s event will be held in Reno, Nevada. July 27-29, 2017 with Ted Dekker as the main speaker. See you there!