Every year, my experience at Realm Makers is different, which makes sense because I’m in a different place in my writing journey each time. Last year, the main thing I came away from Realm Makers with was encouragement to write. This year, my takeaway was a sense of community and belonging.

It’s kind of funny—people sort of assumed that I was a conference veteran and must have known a bunch of people since I’d attended six Realm Makers. And while I do know the ins and outs of the conference, community has always been a struggle for me. But this year, I felt known.

People tracked me down to say “hi” or have me sign my story in an anthology. Authors I admire and respect recognized me and chatted about writing with me. Whenever I told someone I was pitching, they almost always responded with, “I’ll be praying for you.” I got to connect with friends old and new. Three other ladies and I are now going to write a short story series together as a result of a writing exercise during a session. I got to meet one of my beta readers for Project Gold. As I lay in bed Saturday night, my heart was full. 

I had two pitch appointments for my current WIP, nicknamed Project Gold, during the conference. The appointments themselves went well. And that’s all I wanted of them. Going into the conference, I was trying to keep my expectations as low as possible, with my only goal being to walk out of the pitch appointments and feel like I had done well.

And that’s what happened. While both publishers I pitched to passed on Project Gold, I felt that I represented my story and myself well. Even though I didn’t get a manuscript request, I still walked away from the appointments with feedback on my novel and experience gained. I’ll write a blog post with more of my thoughts and experience with pitching soon.

Now, that’s what happened with my official pitch appointments. I also did a spontaneous pitch with a small publishing house, and the gal who runs it told me that she’d like to see a query letter and sample chapters if I wanted to send them her way. Honestly, I didn’t even know that this publisher was open to queries, and haven’t thought through whether I want to pursue publication through a small publishing house. But it’s still a little exciting. 🙂 I also have a dear author friend who I met with during the conference, and she told me to consider indie publishing for Project Gold. So I’ve got a lot to think about. 😅

That brings me to my other big takeaway from Realm Makers. Carla Hoch, author of FightWrite, was one of the conference keynote speakers. And her keynote was so good. One of the things she said that hit me was, “Some books are meant to be read. And some books are meant to be written.” Some stories are to be shared with readers, to help and shape them. And some books are just for the writer, to grow and shape and stretch the writer, and never to be found on a bookshelf. And both types of books are good and needed for writers. 

Oh, I also dressed up as a hobbit for the awards banquet on Friday night, which was fun. I got to wear my cloak, and it’s always a good day when you can wear a cloak. 😉 It’s always so fun to see everyone’s creativity!And that’s about everything for Realm Makers. It really was a good time, and I’m hoping to attend next year in Grand Rapids.

If we got to chat at Realm Makers, it was wonderful to meet you, and thank you for being part of my conference experience!

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