I am the luckiest author alive.
Why, you ask?
Because I was asked to teach the teen track at this years Realm Makers conference.
It was amazing.
I had three, two-hour sessions with my class, plus a separate two hours in which we all got to play various video games and eat pizza. Here are a few pictures:
And that was just my amazing, fabtabulous class. Realm Makers also had lots of other workshops for people to attend. I spent most my time under David Farland and Ted Dekker’s tutelage. And since I couldn’t go listen to Mary Weber teach, I sent my husband to take notes for me!
Something new this conference, my husband came along. He has always been a writer. About eighteen years ago he wrote his first screenplay. He wrote his first novel back when I started writing. I remember him saying to me that it looked like I was having fun, so he wanted to try it too. He has written dozens of plays and skits. And two or three years back he wrote a stand-alone time travel novel. And right after that he wrote two and a half books in a separate trilogy. He is currently bored out of his mind with his trilogy and has put it aside. But being at the conference inspired him. He came home and picked up that time travel novel, which I had edited for him way back when, and he’s slowly started working through his edits. He’s also working on a few screenplays. Time will tell if the writing bug has infected my husband indefinitely, but it sure was fun to have him with me at the conference, seeing the world in which I live. He writes under the pen name Casey Oswald, so if you see Casey around, that’s him.
Something else cool about Realm Makers, I got to cosplay with my husband. How did we look?
And of course, with every writers’ conference, I get to see old friends and make lots of new friends too.
AAHH LOVE ALL THE PICTURES. I had so much fun in your class also and it was super cool meeting you and Brad! 😀 Maybe we’ll bump into each other again, at some conference or another… xD
YAS! The pictures. ;-D
I’m thrilled you had fun, Jonathan. So enjoyed meeting you too and riding the Jet Buzz 360 with you. I hope we do bump into one another again. So many conferences, so little time. Yet I will make time, because, WRITERS!
EEEP! The picturesss <3
Jill, your class was seriously the highlight of my time at Realm Makers, and I enjoyed getting to know you and Brad!
My mom told me Brad offered to hang out should we ever make it up to Washington. Hopefully we can take him up on that offer :DD
I’m so glad you enjoyed our class, Hann! It was wonderful to meet you. And, absolutely! If you get up this way, drop us a note and we’ll show you the sights! 😀
Great seeing you and everyone else at Realm Makers! I regret not taking your class. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun.
You should have crashed, Jost! We did have fun. 😀 But you probably had fun too.
How cool. I have yet to do a Realm Makers, but all my friends who attended definitely make it look intriguing!
It’s really fun, Rick. You should come one of these years. 🙂
EEEEP, I LOVE ALL THE PICTURES, JILL!
I totally loved being in your class and learning from you!! I had such a fun time meeting you and Brad, too!
<3
Thanks, Olivia. I so enjoyed meeting you too. Hope to see you again sometime. 🙂
I loved RM this year! I also enjoyed getting to talk to you a little. 🙂
My favorite part was meeting with Lisa Mangum and she gave me the COOLEST, out of the box thing to try to pitch an early chapter book (for ages 7-9) that involves talking food. It’s a secret. Heh. When she suggested “sneaking in the back door” I responded, “Well, I *am* the Sneak Fairy!” hahahahaha!
Can’t wait until next year!
Yes, it was fun talking with you, Pam. I missed talking to Lisa. I missed talking to several people on staff, and I kind of regret it. Lisa is a fascinating lady. I’d love to chat with her sometime. Were you pitching her a chapter book?
Yes. It’s so much fun to be with our people! I enjoyed our talks, Keturah. Hope to get you writing a GTW guest post or two this fall. 😀
Great post! My favorite part of Realm Makers is seeing in person people I normally only interact with online and getting to know them better. Thanks for being there and teaching our teens, Jill. I know they benefitted greatly from it.
That was really neat, Kristen. I’ve had that happen before but never met so many in one place. Those teens taught me a bunch too! I loved our time together. <3
Jill, didn’t get to meet you, but your husband harassed *ahem* teased us all weekend. 😀 He’s hilarious!
Thanks for being great new Facebook friends and helping me with my synopsis! <3
Ha ha. Yeah, he’s good at “teasing” people. 😉 I’m sorry we didn’t meet, either, RJ. There were so many people I had planned to meet and just never got around to it. That’s typical of a writers’ conference, though. Next time, perhaps. And by then you will have sold your cool YA book and Brad and I can buy one! 😀
My favorite part was the people and the opportunity to connect in person! I also really enjoyed talking with you and appreciate your heart and your stories:).
So fun to see you again, Tanara, and to read some of your writing. You were the one person from my SoCal class who I didn’t hear much about your story, so I’m glad I got to see you again and find out. It’s fabulous. Keep at it! I believe in you! 😀
I loved meeting you! I’m so glad you had a great time too 😀 Hopefully this isn’t the last conference we see each other at 😉
Fabulous to meet you too, Cassia. I am sure we will meet again. 🙂
GAAAH it looks like it was so fun!! Was so sad I couldn’t make it to see aaaall my writer friends… Maybe next year? Glad you had fun and thanks for the pictures! 🙂
*scrolls through pointing at all the people I know* Ooh, and Jamie Foley’s awesome! And you got to meet Tracey and Mary and Victoria and Lisa and ack I wish I was there. XD Hope to meet you again sometime!
Love your and your husband’s cosplay together. XD
It was a lot of fun, Deborah. I hope you can go next year. 🙂
I’m currently writing my books, how do I get started with finding a publisher?
Hey, Justin. A good place to start is to look on the spine or in the front of books that are similar to yours, then start making a list of those publishers. Then I’d Google “NAME OF PUBLISHER + writing conference” and see if you can find out what conferences some of their editors might be attending. Then try and go to one of those conferences so you can meet the editor and tell them about your story. That’s how I got started.