Back in April word spread that the Faith and Fiction Alliance under the leadership of author Becky Minor was planning a first ever Christian speculative fiction conference, and Realm Makers was born. Today this first-of-a-kind conference kicks off.

All around the Internet there’s been growing buzz about the event, starting with a local media outlet. Some bloggers have discussed travel plans, others have talked about costumes (in conjunction with tonight’s costume dinner), others have promised pictures and videoblogs, others have shared the course material of their conference workshop, others have noted the impressive line-up of conference faculty. Pretty much, whatever you’re interested in related to Realm Makers, someone is talking about it. And this is BEFORE the conference.

As far as Spec Faith is concerned, the highlight of the conference will be tonight when our own E. Stephen Burnett makes the presentation of the 2013 Clive Staples Award. It’s such an honor to be included in the Realm Makers Conference. I for one will be eagerly waiting to see pictures and hear about all the goings on.

Jeff Gerke, founder and publisher of Marcher Lord Press, will be the keynote speaker. Registration opened at 9:00 a.m., followed by a full day of workshop sessions and panels. If you’d like to see a sample of the classes being offered, check the Realm Makers course offerings page.

The big dinner and awards ceremony is tonight, then tomorrow will be another full day of classes. Topping off the event is a fabulous book signing set up at the JC Penney Conference Center of the University of Missouri.

From top to bottom, this looks like it is a well-thought out event with lots of great material for anyone interested in Christian speculative fiction. I’m hoping I’ll be able to attend sometime in the near future. For now, I’ll be checking in on all those blog reports.